KATE McCann faces more heartache today as she spends her 12th Mother’s Day without daughter Madeleine and has “no idea yet” if the police hunt to find her will continue.
The anguished mum, due to be attending a special church service with husband Gerry and their twins, has been left on tenterhooks yet again over the future of Operation Grange which could be shelved.
Today is another “D Day” for the couple – the end of the financial year when current funding for the high profile Scotland Yard investigation, which has cost nearly £12million over eight years, officially runs out.
Whilst the Met Police have applied to the Home Office for more cash, the overstretched Government department has still not made any decision about future funding.
A Home office spokesperson told The Sun Online: “We have received and are considering a request from the Metropolitan Police Service to extend funding for Operation Grange until the end of March 2020.
“The Home Office maintains an ongoing dialogue with the MPS regarding funding for Operation Grange.”
He added: “The cost of Operation Grange – which to date is £11.75million – has been met through Special Grant funding.
“That funding is usually available to police forces when they face significant or exceptional costs.”
He declined to say when a public decision about funding would be made.
A Scotland Yard spokesperson told The Sun Online said: “The work on Operation Grange in ongoing. It is a very high profile investigation and closing it would be a massive decision.
“It is being kept open for a reason because there is still important work to do and focused lines of inquiry to pursue. It has not reached a conclusion.”
But he refused to say if their application for more cash for their controversial inquiry – which has been slammed in the past by former police chiefs as a waste of taxpayers’ money – had been granted for another year’s work.
The Maddie Op Grange squad – scaled down from 31 officers to just five – is run from a Met Police branch station in Putney, South West London.
It is headed by Detective Chief Inspector Nicola Wall working with one detective sergeant and three detective constables.
He said: “They all work from an office in Putney.”
He wasn’t aware how often they travelled to Portugal & Europe for inquiries.
The police spokesperson added: “There are no immediate plans to reduce officer numbers further at this time.”
When asked if they were still chasing a vital “line of inquiry” which first surfaced four years or if they had ruled this out and were now following up a new lead, he declined to comment, saying: “We cannot provide a running commentary on our investigation.”
A McCann family spokesperson said: “If and when the Met Police investigation comes to an end, Kate and Gerry remain incredibly grateful for all the work that has been carried out over the past years.
“They know it can’t go on forever. They appreciate everything the authorities have done to try and get a resolution after all this time.”
He said that Kate and Gerry, from Rothley, Leics, would consider using money from the Find Maddie Fund, standing at £1million, to re-employ private investigators to continue their own search in the eventuality Op Grange ends.
Like millions of families the country, the McCann’s are trying to put worries behind them by enjoying Mothering Sunday. But for Kate and Gerry it is tinged with huge sadness.
Kate, previously speaking about the tough day on the calendar, said: “I am still Madeleine’s mum and always will be. I just want to bring her back into the warmth and love of our family.”
Kate is understood to have attended a special church service with husband Gerry and their 14-year-old twins Sean and Amelie where prayers were said for Maddie and other missing children.
A pal said: “It’s even more poignant this year because she doesn’t yet know if the investigation into her daughter’s disappearance will carry on or be shelved.”
Worshippers at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church will remember Maddie as traditionally the children hand their mothers a symbolic spring flower after the final hymn is sung.
One local said: “It is a beautiful service and at the end it is custom for the children to file up to the doors and pick a daffodil from the basket to give to their mums.”
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Three-year-old Maddie vanished from a holiday apartment in Portugal’s Praia da Luz in May 2007 while her parents were dining in a nearby tapas restaurant.
Former GP turned medical worker Kate, 51, and heart doctor Gerry, 50, cling onto a glimmer of hope that their daughter – who would now be aged 15 – could still be alive.
Cops believe she was taken by a child trafficker, sex predator or during a bungled burglary at her family’s holiday flat in the Algarve.
A source close to the couple said: “Kate and Gerry continue to believe that Madeleine is still out there waiting to be found and they desperately hope and pray the police inquiry is given the green light to continue.
“But they have no idea yet what will be happening during this new financial year.”
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News Photo Kate McCann’s agony on 12th Mother’s Day without missing Madeleine – amid fears £12m probe will be shelved
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