Madeleine McCann Update: UK Has Spent $16 Million In Search, Will Continue To Look For Missing Girl

Madeleine McCann disappeared nearly a decade ago, and the ongoing investigation into her disappearance has cost the U.K. nearly $16 million thus far.

Madeleine McCann Disappearance

The U.K. has spent $15.7 million searching for McCann, and expects to spend more. For next year alone, the U.K. has budgeted $3.1 million to use in the investigation, the Home Office told CNN.

Back in 2013, a Scotland Yard team unearthed new evidence that they thought could finally provide some answers into McCann’s disappearance. At the time, British investigators were presented with over 40,000 pages of documents that delivered new leads.

“There is new information not previously presented,” authorities had said in a statement. “Fresh, substantive material upon which to make an appeal. It’s substantially different. It’s not just a bland ‘can you help us’ appeal, there is some different material and a different understanding.”

Included in the documents were cell phone records of all calls made in the area during the span of time in which McCann disappeared. The phone records, in addition to other information, were reportedly not thoroughly evaluated by the Portugese authorities who had discontinued their efforts to locate the young girl.

Last year, authorities were led to believe that McCann could have been buried in a wasteland near where she had gone missing. The search yielded no results.

Without any evidence that McCann is deceased, British and Portuguese authorities continue to investigate her disappearance.