US forensic expert asks to reexamine DNA in hunt for Madeleine McCann  

US forensic expert asks to reexamine DNA in hunt for Madeleine McCann and claims he could find matches that did not show up 2007

  • Madeleine McCann was three when she vanished from an apartment in Portugal
  • Dr Mark Perlin has requested to analyse DNA samples relating to disappearance
  • The UK’s Forensic Science Service (FSS) previously struggled to analyse them
  • But Dr Perlin claims his team’s programme can analyse far more complex data 

A US forensic expert has asked police if he can reexamine DNA samples relating to Madeleine McCann’s disappearance in a bid to find out what happened to her.

Madeleine was three when she vanished from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in the Algarve in 2007 as her parents, Gerry and Kate, dined with friends at a nearby restaurant. 

 Dr Mark Perlin has lodged a request to London’s Metropolitan Police to analyse the 18 samples at his Pittsburgh lab Cybernetics.

Madeleine McCann was three when she vanished from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in the Algarve in 2007 as her parents, Gerry and Kate, dined with friends at a nearby restaurant

The samples were previously put under the microscope by the UK’s Forensic Science Service (FSS) in Birmingham after Maddie’s disappearance in 2007.

At the time  FSS scientist Dr John Lowe said the samples were ‘too complex’ for his team.

But Dr Perlin claims that his team’s TrueAllele computer programme can analyse far more complex data and could provide answers in just a week.

Speaking to the  Daily Star Online, he said: ‘I think the FSS did generate reliable DNA data and their methods were proven laboratory methods, some of which they even innovated.

‘But they didn’t know how to properly interpret the data that they had generated.

‘If you use a computer programme that can use all of the data and consider millions of different possibilities, that would give you more information than other methods that usually give no answer at all.’

Dr Mark Perlin has lodged a request to London's Metropolitan Police to analyse the 18 samples at his Pittsburgh lab Cybernetics

Dr Mark Perlin has lodged a request to London’s Metropolitan Police to analyse the 18 samples at his Pittsburgh lab Cybernetics

Dr Perlin said it would take one to two weeks to take the tests depending on the data to provide some initial preliminary report.

He added what he needed was ‘the electronic data which comes out of the laboratory off instruments’.  

It isn’t the first time the Dr has helped in a criminal investigation.

In 2016 his lab successfully analysed a complex piece and small piece of evidence in the high-profile mass murder trial of Robert Xie in Australia 

The Dr’s work was a vital in securing a conviction against Xie who killed five of his relatives and was not convicted at three previous trials.

Kate McCann and Gerry McCann are seen posing with a computer generated image of how their missing daughter Madeleine

Kate McCann and Gerry McCann are seen posing with a computer generated image of how their missing daughter Madeleine

The Dr made a pro-bono offer to police to test the samples –  but has yet to receive a response. 

Euclides Monteiro, 40, who died in a freak tractor accident in 2009, worked at the Ocean Club Resort in Praia da Luz, which Maddie disappeared from.

 It emerged in 2013  that Mr Monteiro, who was sacked from his job, was a suspect in the abduction was never questioned by police.

He died before an interview could take place. 

In March this year a controversial new Netflix documentary claims Madeleine McCann might still be alive and could be being held by people traffickers – 12 years after she disappeared. 

Shortly before Madeleine disappeared, Mr Monteiro was sacked from The Ocean Club for stealing from guests.  

A Met Police spokeswoman said: ‘The investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann remains ongoing. We are not providing a running commentary.’

The McCann family have been approached by MailOnline for comment. 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk