Eleven years ago a UK forensics laboratory hit a frustrating dead end in the Madeleine McCann case when a team of its best scientists were unable to unravel potentially critical DNA evidence.

It was evidence which could have worked out if the missing British girl’s DNA was in the boot of a rental car hired by her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, 25 days after she was reported missing, on May 3, 2007.

At the time, those DNA samples were judged “inconclusive” by a UK lab, the Forensic Science Service (FSS).

But now one of the leading DNA scientists in the world, Dr Mark Perlin, has claimed he needs just one week to crack those once indecipherable samples, including the swabs taken from the boot compartment of that hire car.

Dr Perlin said it was “possible” Madeleine’s DNA was present in the McCann hire car, potentially opening up a line of the police inquiry that was seemingly shut down by the 2007 “inconclusive” DNA results.

“What was interesting about the report from the FSS 10 years ago is they’re trying to interpret [the McCann DNA] data,” Dr Perlin said.

Official police photographs documenting where dogs searched in the McCann rental car, and where DNA samples were taken from. (Supplied / Policia Judiciaria)

“The approach [the FSS would] like to take for a match statistic makes sense, but the way they are going about it is just very old fashioned and it doesn’t work – certainly compared with modern methods.

Dr Perlin’s powerful DNA testing software, widely regarded as the most sophisticated on the planet, is a quantum leap ahead of the forensic science used in 2007, when the McCann samples were tested.

The chief scientist of US-based Cybergenetics, Dr Perlin, said the UK lab that conducted the DNA tests “failed” when it returned a series of inconclusive results to Portuguese police.

Cybergenetics chief scientist Dr Mark Perlin has pioneered tremendously powerful software to solve extremely complex DNA evidence. (Supplied / Credit: Andrew Rush)

“What this [FSS] report says is there is a possibility that Madeleine McCann’s DNA is present in this mixture,” said Dr Perlin – who Nine.com.au sent a copy of the FSS DNA report which was handed to Portuguese police in September 2007.

Interviewed exclusively in the fifth episode of Maddie, Nine.com.au‘s podcast investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance, Dr Perlin explained how the limited testing methods used by the FSS in the McCann case were doomed to fail.

He stated the raft of DNA samples deemed “inconclusive” by the FSS may hold significant case-changing information. Dr Perlin also said the older FSS testing methods in 2007 were subjective and open to human bias.

“[If] a lab can produce informative data, even if it is complex and mixed, but they can’t interpret it then you can have tremendous injustice; of guilty people not being convicted, of innocent people staying in prison.

“What is needed is an objective and accurate interpretation that can scientifically resolve the DNA,” he said.

Dr Perlin said the modern computational DNA testing methods he has pioneered, known as TrueAllele can now unlock that evidence, and assist the London Metropolitan Police investigation.

Considering the testing methods available in 2007, “it was no surprise” the FSS had failed, Dr Perlin said.

Nine.com.au has contacted Operation Grange – the UK’s investigation into disappearance of Madeleine McCann – with this information.

“TrueAllele has been used successfully in the UK and elsewhere around the world to solve problems just like this, and if [the London Metropolitan Police] want to know the answer it won’t cost them anything. Just send us the data and we will give them the answer.”

Dr Perlin said forensic organisations around the world, such as the FSS and other official UK bodies, routinely hold and archive the data his lab needs to make the analysis.

“It would be a great way to resolve the case using modern technology and get a definitive answer to at least this one question that had perplexed the FSS ten years ago,” he said.

Madeleine McCann vanished from a Portuguese holiday resort in May 2007. (AAP)

FSS METHODS ‘DON’T WORK

In 2016, Dr Perlin’s lab successfully analysed a remarkably small and complex piece of DNA evidence in a high-profile mass murder trial in Sydney, Australia.

The top prosecutor in NSW described the sample cracked by Cybergenetics as the most challenging DNA evidence that had ever been presented in an Australian courtroom. That DNA evidence was believed pivotal in securing a guilty verdict against Robert Xie, after three of his earlier murder trials had been plagued by hung juries and aborted for various reasons.

Dr Perlin has testified about DNA samples which have been analysed by Cybergenetics hundreds of times in US state, federal, military and foreign courts.

He said Cybergenetics had been used in cases just like Madeleine McCann’s “where there are complex mixtures, a small amount of DNA [and] many contributors.”

“[Cybergenetics] was able to separate those mixtures make a comparison and reach sound scientific conclusions,” Dr Perlin claimed.

Some of the McCann DNA samples which stumped the FSS scientists were very small and had multiple contributors.

Diagram showing where cadaver and blood dog alerted inside apartment 5A, where Madeleine McCann’s family stayed. (Nine)

Portuguese forensics teams had focused on the McCann hire car and certain areas of interest inside the family’s holiday apartment after intensive search work by two specialist cadaver dogs, three months after Madeleine went missing.

Trained to detect the scent of death and human blood, the two British dogs had alerted inside the apartment, car and on several personal family possessions. Any alerts by cadaver dogs need to be corroborated by additional evidence, such as DNA.

The inconclusive DNA results delivered by the FSS scientists appeared to cast serious doubt over the 13 alerts made by the dogs in potential crime scenes.

Police photographs of McCann rental car where forensic and DNA samples were taken from. (Supplied)

POWER TO IDENTIFY 9/11 VICTIMS

Cybergenetics has forged a global reputation through solving previously unsolvable DNA samples. Its TrueAllele technology harnesses tremendously powerful computer algorithms to analyse microscopic and highly complex DNA samples.

Dr John Lowe, the senior scientist at the FSS responsible for solving the McCann DNA samples, stated in his final report that his team could not resolve the evidence because it was too challenging.

Establishing accurate results was also complicated by the fact Madeleine had a younger twin brother and sister, Sean and Amelie, Dr Lowe of the FSS said.

READ: Important email Dr Lowe sent to police

TrueAllele has played a pivotal role in a number of high-profile US criminal trials involving wrongful convictions and controversial prosecutions. Dr Perlin helped identify victims of the 9/11 terror attack, where New York’s twin towers collapsed catastrophically, with TrueAllele.

Police photographs show where floor tiles were lifted behind a blue sofa in the McCann holiday apartment and DNA samples were swabbed. (Supplied)

HEAT UP A COLD CASE

In the Maddie podcast, Dr Perlin explained exactly how modern DNA software can reboot the McCann cold case. Madeleine would be 16 years old in May this year.

Portuguese police sent dozens of DNA samples to the FSS in 2007.

Forensics teams lifted floor tiles and took DNA swabs from behind a blue two-seat sofa in the lounge area of the McCann holiday apartment. Sections of the boot compartment in the Renault Scenic hire car were also cut out and expressed to the FSS.

Since 2007, the McCanns have strenuously denied they were involved in the disappearance of their daughter. Nine.com.au does not suggest any involvement on their part.

Madeleine went missing while on holiday with her family in Portugal.

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