text: LONDON — Police investigating the 2007 disappearance of Madeleine McCann have contacted Australian authorities after the body of a fair-haired child was found in a suitcase. 
   
   The British girl was aged three when she disappeared from her family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal. Police have spent the equivalent of millions of dollars trying to find her, but no one has been charged and there have been no confirmed sightings. 
   
   Earlier this month, South Australia Police found what they believed were the remains of a girl, aged between 2 ½ and 4 years old, dumped in a case on the side of a highway near the city of Adelaide. ||||| UK police make inquiries about remains found in suitcase but Australian authorities say there is currently ‘no evidence’ it relates to McCann case 
   
   Police officers investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann have contacted Australian authorities over the discovery of a young girl’s remains in a suitcase, Scotland Yard has said. 
   
   The remains of a fair-haired girl likely to have been aged between two and four were found dumped on the side of a rural highway in the South Australian wild earlier this month. 
   
   
   
   The girl is believed to have been killed at a different location at some time since the start of 2007, according to South Australian police. The remains were found in a suitcase along with items of clothing and a degraded quilt next to a motorway in Wynarka, near Adelaide. 
   
   The discovery has led to speculation that the remains could be those of McCann, who had blond hair and was three years old when she went missing from her family’s holiday apartment in the Algarve, Portugal, on 3 May 2007. 
   
   A spokesman for the Metropolitan police said: “We are aware of reports of the remains of a child having been found in South Australia and we have made contact with the Australian authorities.” 
   
   
   
   Australian authorities have so far been unable to identify the body, but Det Supt Des Bray, the officer in charge of the major crime investigation branch of South Australia police, said it was “highly unlikely” that the victim is Madeleine. 
   
   “At this time our inquiries will focus on where the evidence leads us in this investigation and at this point that primary focus remains within Australia,” Bray said. 
   
   
   
   Australian police commissioner Grant Stevens told a parliamentary committee hearing: “There is absolutely no evidence at this point in time that the child is Madeleine McCann … to suggest something like that at this point in time would purely be speculating to get attention. 
   
   “We are focusing our inquiries on South Australia but we would be considering any potential missing child. Until we ascertain the identity of the child we need to be open to all possibilities.” ||||| Skeletal remains found in scrub near a highway in South Australia are believed to be those of a child aged between two and seven, police have said. 
   
   It is thought the child was killed some time before being placed in a suitcase that was left in scrub alongside the Karoonda highway, east of Adelaide. 
   
   
   
   Detective Superintendent Des Bray said the suitcase was left in the area between four to six weeks ago. Police said earlier there was no doubt the child whose remains were found on the side of a freeway met with foul play. 
   
   “We have the skeletal remains of a young child, someone who I would suggest has clearly been murdered,” Bray said. A passing motorist discovered the child’s bones in bushes besides the Karoonda highway about 11am on Wednesday. 
   
   The bones have been taken to Adelaide for forensic testing. 
   
   Bray said police hoped to know more about how the child died soon. 
   
   “Young children don’t disappear without people noticing,” Bray said. “We’d encourage people to think about friends, acquaintances, people who live near them ... and perhaps on reflection might be concerned that a child might not be around who was there previously.” 
   
   Police combed missing persons records and canvassed people living near the scene, which is about 2km west of Wynarka in the Murray Mallee region. ||||| POLICE Commissioner Grant Stevens has dismissed speculation that a murdered child found by the side of an SA highway could be the world’s most high-profile missing girl, Madeleine McCann. 
   
   Mr Stevens today told a parliamentary estimates committee hearing that “clearly we’re looking at tragic circumstances here”. 
   
   “There is absolutely no evidence at this point in time that the child is Madeleine McCann … to suggest something like that at this point in time would purely be speculating to get attention,” he said. 
   
   Missing since 2007 — English girl Madeleine McCann was snatched from a Portuguese holiday resort. The picture at right is an age-advanced estimation of how she could have looked several years after her disappearance. 
   
   Detective Superintendent Des Bray updates media on Wynarka bones investigation 11:55 Officer in Charge of Major Crime Investigation Branch, Detective Superintendent Des Bray, gives an update regarding the discovery of human bones at Wynarka in early July 2015. Courtesy: SA Police Detective Superintendent Des Bray updates media on Wynarka bones investigation 
   
   Officer in Charge of Major Crime Investigation Branch, Detective Superintendent Des Bray, gives an update regarding the discovery of human bones at Wynarka in early July 2015. Courtesy: SA Police 
   
   The quilt, left, found in the suitcase, with the digital image, left, released by the police today that shows seven patches identified. 
   
   A close-up of one of the patches from the quilt. 
   
   Detective Superintendent Des Bray with a photo of the musical note fabric used to make a quilt found with child’s remains. Picture: Campbell Brodie. 
   
   The quilt that was handmade specifically for a young child. Picture: SA Police 
   
   A mannequin with hair of a similar colour and length, dressed in new versions of items of clothing found with the body, along with suitcase found at the scene. 1 of n 
   
   “We are focusing our inquiries on South Australia but we would be considering any potential missing child. Until we ascertain the identity of the child we need to be open to all possibilities.” 
   
   Earlier, police said fabric used to make a distinctive homemade quilt found with the remains was manufactured in New York about seven years ago. 
   
   Major Crime officer in charge Detective Superintendent Des Bray said police wanted to trace the origins of the quilt in a bid to find out how it came to be on the side of the Karoonda Hwy, near Wynarka, in the Murray Mallee. 
   
   They have released digital images that identify seven of the quilt’s 25 octagonal patches, which were sown into the quilt. Police hope someone will recognise the quilt. 
   
   It was found alongside the remains of what police say was a little girl, aged between two and four when she was violently killed. 
   
   It was found alongside the remains of what police say was a little girl, aged between two and four when she was violently killed. 
   
   Her skeletal remains had been dumped in a suitcase next to the highway up to four months ago. 
   
   But her bones had been tipped out of the suitcase when discovered by a passing motorist on July 15. 
   
   Det-Supt Bray said it was “more likely than not” that the little girl was never reported missing to authorities. 
   
   “It would be impossible to believe that someone didn’t love this little girl,” he said. 
   
   “It’s hard to believe someone hasn’t missed her. 
   
   “I thought when we started this job that we would quickly identify who this little girl was. “Somewhere out there is a mother, a father, at the very least an extended family that obviously lived near someone and I’m at a loss as to why someone hasn’t reported this little girl." 
   
   Det-Supt Bray said the distinctiveness of some of the items, including the quilt and a black tutu, found with the remains would help solve the mystery. 
   
   He said police believed some of the quilt fabric — coloured musical notes — was manufactured in New York in about 2008. 
   
   “The quilt is really important to the investigation,” he said. 
   
   “If we can find out who that quilt was given to or whether it ended up in an op-shop that will take us back to a geographical area.” 
   
   He said the quilt was homemade using a sewing machine and a polyester material was used to line its inside, which indicated it was made for a child. 
   
   Previously, police said the labels, decomposition of fabric and staining of clothes found with the remains indicated she was killed some time after 2007. 
   
   It was also likely she had fair hair and was 90-95cm tall when she was killed, police said. 
   
   Det-Supt Bray said the little girl was killed in a violent manner. 
   
   “We’re certain of how the little girl met her death — why, who and what circumstances, it’s just impossible to tell,” he said. 
   
   “It could fit any scenario.” 
   
   He said 55 calls had been made to Crime Stoppers about the quilt since police released its image to the Sunday Mail. 
   
   “We’ve had about 280 Crime Stopper calls being received in South Australia and across the country,” he said. 
   
   “I guess in terms of recent cases that’s unprecedented the number of calls we’re getting.” 
   
   Anyone with information about the murder is urged to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. 
   
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   Clues in the Wynarka suitcase murder 
   
  
target: – First, the words of caution: "There is absolutely no evidence at this point in time that the child is Madeleine McCann," says an Australian police commissioner. But the body of a child, found near the South Australia town of Wynarka and thus far unidentified, has led the detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine to reach out to their Australian counterparts. Here's why: The remains, contained in a suitcase that also held a quilt and some clothing, are thought to be those of a fair-haired girl, between the ages of 2 and 4, who was killed some time after the beginning of 2007. Madeleine vanished at age 3 on May 3, 2007. NBC News reports police said the child was likely white, with hair about 7 inches long. The Australian Associated Press reported the skeletal remains were found on July 15; it's thought the suitcase had been left along the rural highway four to six weeks prior, with the child having been killed before that. British law enforcement officials confirm they have made contact, but neither side sounds overly optimistic. It's "highly unlikely" the remains are those of Madeleine, says Detective Superintendent Des Bray, per the Guardian. Adds the commissioner, to suggest the child is Madeleine "at this point in time would purely be speculating to get attention." What they are zeroing in on, per the Advertiser: that homemade quilt. "The quilt is really important to the investigation," says Bray. Investigators believe a portion of the quilt fabric, which shows colored musical notes against a black background, was made in New York around 2008.