Madeleine McCann was three-years-old when she disappeared from her bed in a holiday apartment in Portugal in May 2007.
Since then, Kate and Gerry McCann have campaigned tirelessly for information as to their child’s whereabouts.
But, tragically, they are still no closer to finding out where Madeleine is - or what happened that fateful night in Praia Da Luz.
It was recently revealed that Scotland Yard had been given more money to help with the Find Maddy investigation - but the funds came with a time frame.
They now look set to close the investigation in six months, whether or not they manage to track down the little girl.
However some have complained that Maddy’s case has been given a lot more time and attention from both the police and the press than many other missing children.
And a lot of that is down to Clarence Mitchell, the McCann Family’s PR advisor.
Speaking at the CommsCon Conference in Sydney, he explained that Maddy’s was “the first big missing child case of the internet age”.
Comparing her case to that of a “daily soap opera”, he said: “I had to look at it as a journalist would – pose the questions a journalist would ask. If you’re half-way to answering those questions you are half-way to getting good coverage.”
Asked how he had kept the story, which has had thousands of front page articles around the world, in the public attention, he explained: “We were aware early on there could be a boredom threshold with members of the public – as awful as that sounds.
“News desks did start to say they need something different, and that’s where the age-progressed images were important and gave us new hooks to create more interest in it.”
He also explained that he found it hard to keep the media’s attention on the facts, as opposed to rumour and speculation surrounding her family.
Clarence said: “There’s no such thing as ‘off the record’ any more. If you don’t want to see it in print and on the air, don’t say it.
“I would ask understanding as to why we couldn’t get into that today, but it will become clear. Or I’d say ‘if you don’t print that today, I’m promising you you will have something better on Friday’.
“That worked with media I knew. With the Portuguese media I didn’t know from Adam I had to be more careful.”
Operation Grange will now continue until early October, until the extra £94,592 runs out.
Once the money is gone, Scotland Yard will have to end the five-year inquiry, which has cost £12 million already.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “Following a request from the Metropolitan Police Service, we have agreed to provide nearly £95,000 of further funding for Operation Grange.”
A Scotland Yard spokesperson said: “The inquiry has not reached a conclusion. There are still focused lines of investigation to be pursued.
“There are no immediate plans to reduce office numbers further at this time.”