Enough already?

The Belfast Telegraph reports on the investigation of the disappearance, in Portugal, in 2007, of a little British girl;

The cost of the continuing British police investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann could soon hit £10 million.

Which is about $16 million USD, at current exchange rates. For one investigation, that has yielded no clues whatsoever to what happened to little Madeleine. Nor has whatever was spent by Portuguese police turned up anything.

The three-year-old and her two younger siblings had been left asleep in a bedroom of the apartment while her parents dined with seven other friends at a Tapas restaurant 50 metres away.

She was discovered missing by her mother, Kate McCann, later that night but initial searches turned up no clues and a Portugese police chief, Olegario Sousa, later admitted that vital forensic clues may have been destroyed.

Obviously this is a tragedy for the family, but there are other crimes that have been committed in the meantime. The still continuing--with continual costs--investigation into what happened to young Madeleine is an opportunity cost. Resources not available to investigate those other crimes.