Investigator in Madeleine McCann's case claims she might still be alive and held in a dungeon

A private investigator that worked for the missing girl’s parents for three years before the Met Police took over the case, shared his theories and encouraging possible outcomes.

Former policeman David Edgar turned the investigation over to the Met Police in May 2011 after then UK Prime Minister David Cameron ordered an official inquiry, and he is a firm believer that Madeleine McCann might be alive.

After Home Office announced the approval of extra funds for the search for Madeleine to continue until Spring 2019, Edgar talked to Daily Mail about the recent developments on the case.

The retired detective thinks that there is a great chance that Madeleine, who vanished from a holiday residence in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2007 is alive and not far from where she was kidnapped.

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Edgar, who has more than 30 years of experience as an investigator, believes that even though almost 12 years have passed, Madeleine is probably being hidden by her captors and unaware of who she is.

He sees similarities between Madeleine’s case and that of Jayce Lee Dugard, who was found alive in 2009 just miles away from her home 18 years after being kidnapped.

“There is someone in Portugal with an open knowledge of where she is and what happened. Someone knows what happened and it's time they came forward - maybe they already have.”

“This rural, sprawling terrain makes it extremely difficult to search. You could quite easily keep a child there for years and no one else would know,” Edgar said.

“She could be hidden away in a cellar or dungeon in the lawless villages around the resort she went missing from. The key thing is no body has been found,” he added.

Following the news of Operation Grange members telling Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry that they are following two important leads and could finally be closing in on the kidnapper, Edgar gave his impressions.

While Scotland Yard won’t give any details about this ongoing investigation, Edgar said they might be supporting his theory that a pedophile ring captured Madeleine and that someone will eventually point out in their direction, if they had not done it already.

“She could literally be anywhere in the world but my hunch is that she is in Portugal. The chance that she may have been smuggled out of the country without being detected is highly unlikely,” said the former detective.

“There is someone in Portugal with an open knowledge of where she is and what happened. Someone knows what happened and it's time they came forward - maybe they already have,” Edgar added.

Madeleine McCann was three years old when she disappeared from a holiday home in the Algarve, Portugal back on May 3, 2007. She had been left sleeping with her brothers while the parents went out to have dinner.

The investigation has determined that she probably was not taken from the residence and that she must have left the apartment to look for her parents before being abducted.