UK police enquire into body found in suitcase and possible links to Madeline McCann

Police officers investigating the disappearance of Madeline McCann in 2007, have contacted Australian authorities over the discovery of a young girl’s remains in a suitcase, the Guardian reports Scotland Yard saying.

According to the paper, the remains of a fair-haired girl likely to have been aged between two and four were found dumped on the side of a rural highway in the South Australian wild earlier this month.

The girl, believed to have been killed at a different location at some time since the start of 2007, has not yet been identified, but South Australian police point at the distant date and they report that the remains were found in a suitcase along with items of clothing and a degraded quilt next to a motorway in Wynarka, near Adelaide.

The discovery, made by a passing motorist, has led to speculation that the remains could be those of McCann, who had blond hair and was three years old when she went missing from her family’s holiday apartment in the Algarve, Portugal, on 3 May 2007, the Guardian adds.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan police said: “We are aware of reports of the remains of a child having been found in South Australia and we have made contact with the Australian authorities.”

Australian authorities have so far been unable to identify the body, but Det Supt Des Bray, the officer in charge of the major crime investigation branch of South Australia police, said it was “highly unlikely” that the victim is Madeleine.

“At this time our inquiries will focus on where the evidence leads us in this investigation and at this point that primary focus remains within Australia,” Bray said.