I have said it several times before , but I'll say it one last time.
The Portuguese police were so incompetent that any possibility of finding her was lost in the first hour. Firstly they failed to secure the crime scene, even allowing reporters and members of the public to wander around inside the flat,some of them even took away items as 'souvenirs'. They failed to act on several viable reports of a suspicious man who was seen near the crime scene with a child that looked like Maddie. There have been reports that the Portuguese police were not just incompetent ,they were under orders to cover up for a high ranking Portugues government minister who was involved in or ordered the kidnaping.