One salient point is that at the time of MM's disappearance CB had access to a variety of vehicles.
Another is that none of these were forensically checked.
Snip
British detectives believe the 43-year-old was living out of a battered VW T3 Westerfalia campervan in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz at the time of MM’s disappearance.
According to the witness, MM was seen at 11am on May 28, 2007 – three weeks after she vanished – coming out of popular local restaurant Tunnels in Alcossebre, some 600 miles from Praia da Luz.
At the time, Leicestershire Police Detective Constable John Hughes issued an international Interpol alert with a ‘risk to life missing person’ warning demanding that Spanish and German police investigate.
He urged Spanish police to check the location for CCTV and witnesses and asked for the German vehicle keeper details. It is unclear what checks were made.
The police report, issued as part of Operation Task, says: ‘A caller has reported a possible sighting of MM, 11am, 28th May 2007.
‘Location given as a restaurant called Tunnels, in an old castle at an area called Cap Y Corp, Alcossebre, Spain. She was seen to leave with a man in a Volkswagen van.
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As part of the appeal for information, the Met Police said in a statement that the suspect had ‘access to this van from at least April 2007 until sometime after May 2007’.
It added: ‘We believe he was living in this van for days, possibly weeks, and may have been using it on 3 May 2007.
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Last night, The Mail on Sunday asked Scotland Yard whether the van’s registration was the same as the one identified in the 2007 sighting, but
the force said it was not revealing those details.
A witness claimed to have spotted Madeleine McCann getting into a German-owned VW van with a man just weeks after her disappearance, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
www.dailymail.co.uk
Interesting though that so many years after the event information about the vehicle is not being released.