Forensic Scientists

The police and detectives will then work with assigned forensic scientists and investigators on the case. This would be to analyse and follow through on the evidence that the police and detectives have collected from the scene.
It is important of the police and detectives to handle these pieces of evidence correctly when giving them to the other parties of the case.
 The forensic scientists have the role in analysing the different types and pieces of evidence. Especially in the Madeleine McCann case, this passing on of the different types of evidence is very important because these types of evidence were sent to forensic labs in Birmingham, United Kingdom and were collect in Portugal. So it was important that this evidence was not mishandled, mistreated or contaminated in this process.
This would be analysing the blood and fingerprints looking for potential matches. The witness statements would also be analysed for any leads or information involving the case.

After this evidence has been analysed, the forensic scientist would report back to the police and the detectives on what they have found and gained from analysing that evidence. This is if the forensic team have found anything from those pieces of evidence, the police and detectives would follow out further enquiries involving that evidence. This could be the forensic team having matched an individual to the crime scene, the police and detectives may go and interview that suspect.

In the Madeleine McCann case, the evidence came back as Madeleine's but this does not point to a suspect because the blood doesn't belong to anyone else. The witness statements also did not lead to the sighting of an individual except for one. The Tanner Sighting was a famous witness report from the case of a man carrying a child in his arms wearing pink nightwear. Although this was stated and informed to the police via a witness statement, the police could not identify that suspect and therefore the sighting was not a lead in the investigation.