THE HUNT GOES ON
When did Madeleine McCann go missing and what happened to her?
Plus, the key dates and theories regarding Maddie's disappearance
MADELEINE McCann vanished from her family's Portuguese holiday home 17 years ago.
Her whereabouts remains unknown despite a police investigation costing more than £13million.
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When did Madeleine McCann disappear?
Madeleine vanished on May 3, 2007, when her family were holidaying in Praia da Luz, in the Algarve, Portugal.
Parents Gerry and Kate left their three children – including toddler twins Sean and Amelie – sleeping in their apartment while they dined at a tapas bar - 120 metres away.
She's still missing, still missed and we are never going to give up trying to find her."
Maddie's parents Kate and Gerry
When Kate returned to check on the kids at around 10pm that evening, she discovered that Madeleine was not in her bed and was missing.
In September of that year, Gerry and Kate, both doctors, were sensationally named as "arguidos" by Portuguese police.
The following summer the McCanns were cleared by investigators in Portugal who declared they had exhausted all avenues in the case.
What theories are there about Madeleine's disappearance?
- In June 2020, it was revealed that a German prisoner was the prime suspect in the case, with evidence showing he was in and around the Praia da Luz area at the time.
- Investigative journalist and ex-police officer Mark Williams-Thomas believes Madeleine left the apartment in search of her parents.
- Ex-police chief Goncalo Amaral has claimed MI5 helped cover-up Madeleine McCann’s body after her parents accidentally killed her.
- Veteran investigative journalist Danny Collins believes the toddler could not have been snatched from the room. He is convinced she left the apartment in Praia da Luz looking for her parents before being abducted and possibly sold to gypsies.
- Former Scotland Yard detective Colin Sutton says the “most likely and credible scenario” for Madeleine’s disappearance is a targeted kidnap by child traffickers - possibly to replace some grieving parents’ own dead child.
- In the 2019 Netflix documentary The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann, investigators point out that the coastal resort of Praia da Luz would make it easier for traffickers to escape on a boat and travel to North Africa. The resort is also only 90 minutes drive from the border with Spain.
- A local resident in the Netflix film pointed out that the Algarve has many wells, some of which are 100ft deep. They suggested Madeleine could have wandered out of the apartment and fallen to her death.
- Parents Gerry and Kate have been forced to confront rumours around their daughter's disappearance, with the couple vowing to fight "tooth and nail" if they are ever prosecuted over leaving their children alone.
- In July, 2017, Madeleine parents failed in their bid to silence ex Portuguese cop Goncalo Amaral's over his claims they faked their daughter's kidnapping to cover up her death.
- Another theory is that Madeleine was taken as part of a bungled burglary in which an intruder panicked and snatched her after she woke up. While Scotland Yard looked into this theory it has always been dismissed by cops in Portugal since nothing else was taken from the apartment.
- US think tank The Rutherford Institute said Madeleine could have been taken by a sex trafficking gang after studying how kids are abducted and abuse in the sex industry. The institute's John Whitehead also believes these gangs could be aided by "predator cops" - although there is no evidence suggesting Portuguese police were involved in assisting with Madeleine's kidnapping.
- In 2019 Portuguese police were said to think Madeleine was kidnapped by a surgical-mask wearing man who is known to the cops, after a tip off from Scotland Yard.
How old would Madeleine McCann be now?
As of April 2024, Maddie would be 20 years old.
Her parents regularly give updates on the website about the latest in the search for their daughter.
They gave an update on Madeleine's 20th birthday on May 12, 2023.
The message read: "Happy birthday Madeleine! We love you and we're waiting for you.
"We're never going to give up."
What are the key dates in Madeleine's disappearance?
- May 3, 2007 - Kate and Gerry McCann leave their children asleep in their holiday apartments while they eat eat a nearby Tapas restaurant. At 10pm Kate finds Madeleine missing.
- May 14, 2007 - Property developer Robert Murat is quizzed by cops and named an "arguido" or formal suspect.
- August 31, 2007 - The McCanns launch libel action against Tal e Qual - a newspaper that claimed the couple killed Madeleine.
- September 7, 2007 - Kate and Gerry McCann are made "arguidos".
- September 9, 2007- Madeleine's parents return to England with their two-year-old twins, Sean and Amelie.
- October 2, 2007- Lead detective Goncalo Amaral is taken off the case after criticising British police in a newspaper interview.
- July 21, 2009 - Portuguese police lift the "arguido" status of both Robert Murat and the McCanns, and shelve the investigation.
- July 24, 2009 - Detective Goncalo Amaral alleges that Madeleine died in her family's holiday flat the day she went missing in a book called The Truth Of The Lie. In a documentary for Portuguese television he claims there was no abduction and the McCanns had hidden her body.
- May 12, 2011 - On Madeleine's eighth birthday, Mrs McCann publishes a book about her disappearance. Scotland Yard launches a review into the case after a request from Home Secretary Theresa May, supported by Prime Minister David Cameron.
- April 25, 2012 - Scotland Yard officers say they believe Madeleine McCann is still alive. A new picture is released, showing what she might look like as a 9-year-old, and they call on the Portuguese authorities to reopen the case, but Portuguese police say they have found no new material.
- July 4, 2013 - Two years into a review of the case, Scotland Yard launch its own investigation into Madeleine's disappearance. They claim to have "genuinely new" lines of inquiry and identify 38 people of interest including 12 Britons.
- October 24, 2013- Portuguese police reopen their case after new lines of inquiry are found.
- November 27, 2013 - Met Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe called for British and Portuguese police to work together.
- April 28, 2015 - Detective Goncalo Amaral is ordered to pay Kate and Gerry McCann £209,000 each in damages by a court in Lisbon over claims made in The Truth Of The Lie and bans further sales of the book.
- October 28, 2015 - Scotland Yard reduces the number of officers working on Madeleine's disappearance from 29 to four.
- January 31, 2017 - Portugal's Supreme Court rules against Kate and Gerry McCann's £418,000 libel claim. The court claims freedom of expression laws protect Detective Goncalo Amaral's claims in the book.
- March 11, 2017 - The Home Office grants Operation Grange an extra £85,000 to continue from April until September.
- September 28, 2017 - British police are granted £154,000 to keep the probe alive until March 2018.
- November 2017 - Cops moved the search to Bulgaria as they tried to find a "woman in purple" they wanted to speak to.
- May 2018 - Another round of funding, thought to be in the region of £150,000 is granted.
- September 2018 - An extra six months of funding is requested from the Home Office amid fears the cash will run out by the end of the month.
- November 2018 - More funding, thought to be in the region of £150,000 is granted
- November 2018 - Former detective David Edgar, who once helped search for Madeleine, says she could still be alive and imprisoned, with "no idea who she is". He believes she is being kept against her identity in a "lair" and could even still be in Portugal.
- November 2018 - UK police are re-examining a theory Madeleine left the apartment to look for her parents. They are also looking at whether her disappearance was the result of a kidnapping or burglary gone wrong.
- June 2019 - Another round of funding, believed to be £300,000 of government cash is granted
- June 2019 - Portuguese police are probing a “new clue and suspect” after talks with British officers, according to a bombshell local media report.
- August 2019 - A DNA expert in the US offers to analyse samples to provide an investigative lead.
- June 2020 - New prime suspect revealed as a German paedo, in a huge breakthrough in the 13-year investigation.
- April 2022 - Christian Brueckner, aged 45 at the time, is officially declared a suspect by Portuguese prosecutors.
- February 8, 2024 - Prime suspect Christian Brueckner is seen for the first time in public since 2020 being led into an ambulance to receive treatment after being attacked in prison.
- February 26, 2024 - Christian Brueckner appeared before the court facing charges of three rapes and two sex assaults but no charges involving Maddie.
Major update in Madeleine McCann search as cops find a ‘number of items’ at Algarve dam that may be connected to case
What are the latest developments in the hunt for Madeleine?
The prime suspect in this case is 46-year-old German national Christian Brueckner who is a convicted sex offender.
He is currently serving a sentence for raping a woman in Praia da Luz in 2005 and is suspected of further rapes and child sexual abuse committed in the area between 2000 and 2017.
Police in Germany are actively looking for former romantic partners of Brueckner as they believe they may be able to reconstruct the "confused timeline" told by the paedophile.
Metropolitan Police's Detective Mark Draycott, who spent 13 years trying to bring Maddie's abductor to justice, will be called to give evidence in defence of Brueckner, a German court confirmed on April 24, 2024.
DC Draycott will be brought to Germany as part of a defence bid to pick holes in Helge Busching's witness testimony.
The move is designed to help clear rapist Brueckner of current charges — but also to discredit Busching, 52, ahead of a Maddie trial next year.
Busching maintains he saw two rape videos after taking them from Brueckner's Praia da Luz lair - offences currently being tried.
In June 2020, Scotland Yard's Operation Grange made a public appeal linked to a significant new line of enquiry.
Met detectives working with German authorities identified a man currently imprisoned in Germany as a suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance.
Detective Chief Inspector Mark Cranwell, who leads Operation Grange, said: “While this male is a suspect we retain an open mind as to his involvement and this remains a missing person inquiry.
“Our job as detectives is to follow the evidence, maintain an open mind and establish what happened on that day in May 2007."
The suspect emerged after May 2019 findings that Portuguese police were said to be hunting a sex fiend who speaks English and wears a surgical mask.
In one of his previous cases, he broke into a British family's home and loomed over a seven-year-old girl who woke up and asked "Is that you Daddy?" and he replied "Yes" in a foreign accent, author Anthony Summers said in Netflix docuseries The Disappearance Of Madeleine McCann.
There have been more than 8,500 potential sightings of the Brit three-year-old since her disappearance, but police have so far failed to locate her.
Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said there are "significant investigative avenues" that are of "great interest" to both the UK and Portuguese teams pursuing the case.
Met cops believe she was stolen by child traffickers or sex fiends, or during a burglary gone wrong.
How much longer will the police investigation last?
In June 2019 it was confirmed that the Metropolitan Police were asking the Home Office for more funding to continue the work of Operation Grange.
Scotland Yard's investigation has been ongoing since 2011.
During that time the number of detectives working on the case was cut from 29 to four in 2015.
Funding for the search was due to expire in October 2017.
But on September 28, 2017, it was confirmed investigators received £154,000 to keep the probe alive until March 2018.
Then more funding - said to be around £150,000 — was granted in March 2018.
The Home Office said in June 2019 that the previous year saw it provide £300,000 of funding to the MPS.
In March 2024, it was confirmed that British detectives looking for Maddie would receive a further £100,000 funding to help their investigation — on top of the £13million already provided by the government since 2011.
Those still involved with the investigation are now said to spend a lot of their time eliminating known sex offenders and chasing down potential witnesses.
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