Times On Line Headline 'Detectives hunting for Madeline on alert for series of new searches'; says:Detectives hunting for Madeleine McCann have been ordered to prepare for an operation over the next four days that they hope will lead to a breakthrough, The Times has learnt. The Public Prosecutor’s Office signed a series of warrants yesterday authorising searches at locations that may be linked to the disappearance of Madeleine 107 days ago. Officers have been told that the operation will be carried out by Tuesday. The Portuguese Polícia Judiciária believes that it has uncovered evidence that could be significant in discovering what happened to Madeleine after she was taken from her bed in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz.
The searches follow the arrival in Portugal of the result of tests on samples recovered from the McCann family’s apartment, their car and other locations in Praia da Luz. The Times revealed on Thursday that the preliminary notes from the headquarters of the Forensic Science Service in Birmingham showed that traces of blood in the apartment had come from a man.
However, the findings received by the Laboratório de Polícia Científica in Lisbon on Wednesday indicated that the blood samples were too damaged to be checked against the DNA database of British sex offenders. Scientists have been attempting to recover a better profile.
The Portuguese magistrate in charge of the investigation has now been sent the full report on all the samples recovered as part of a review of the investigation completed with the help of British experts.
It is not known if the possible breakthrough in the investigation is connected with scientific evidence, although detectives are believed to have been monitoring the movements of at least one suspect for some time.
