Police rule out Maddie McCann link to Australia suitcase child victim

Madeleine McCann has been ruled out as a possible murder victim, after a child’s bones were found inside a suitcase beside a South Australian highway. Investigators have ruled out the possibility the remains belonged to the missing British girl after they were contacted by UK investigators. The officer in charge of the South Australian Police Major Crime Investigation Branch, Detective Superintendent Des Bray said that 43 children had been eliminated as potential victims.

I can confirm that Madeleine McCann has been totally excluded as a potential victim and UK Police have been advised.

Detective Superintendent Des Bray

While the remains are believed to belong to a girl aged between two and four, police have now dismissed the possibility they could belong to the high-profile missing child. South Australian Police Commissioner Grant Stevens told reporters yesterday investigators were “prepared to consider any possibility but to suggest something like that at this point in time would purely be speculation for the benefit of getting attention”. To date there have been 511 reports made to Crime Stoppers since the child’s remains were found - along with a faded suitcase, items of clothing and a degraded quilt - near the Karoonda Highway about 2km west of the Wynarka township in the Murray Mallee region on 15 July.