The Madeleine McCann Case: Here’s What We Know
This week, the case of Madeleine McCann, a British woman who disappeared 16 years ago at the age of 3 from a holiday apartment in Portugal, returned once again to saturate media coverage as Portuguese police resumed the search for the girl.
Police said in a statement that the new searches would be carried out in the Algarve, where the girl disappeared in 2007 while on holiday with her parents and siblings. They were requested by German authorities and will be carried out in the presence of British authorities, police said.
Portuguese television network SIC reported that police were going to search an area near the Arade Dam, about 50 kilometers from the beach resort of Praia da Luz, where the family had stayed on vacation. According to the news channel, the area was previously visited by a German man who has been named as a suspect in the case. A German prosecutor said they were investigating in the Algarve “based on certain tips,” according to Sky News.
The searches have revived a case that has gripped Europe for years, spawned an international search, become the subject of books, front pages and a Netflix documentary series, while generating unending speculation, empty hopes and tips.
Here’s what we know about the case:
Madeleine’s disappearance
Kate and Gerry McCann, Madeleine’s parents, said they left Madeleine and her siblings, the 2-year-old twins, in their holiday apartment while they dined at a nearby restaurant.
Madeleine’s father went to check on the kids around 9:00 PM and they were all there, but when his wife went to check on them about an hour later, Madeleine was gone. A search began soon after, but turned up few significant leads.
The girl’s disappearance caused a outburst of public interest and grief compared to British national mourning after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, with Madeleine’s face printed on ‘missing’ posters and T-shirts.
An initial investigation by Portuguese police yielded no concrete results, but was widely criticized after Madeleine’s parents were named as suspects. They were formally deleted in 2008.
In 2020 German prosecutors made clear that they did not expect to find Madeleine alive and that new evidence led them to conclude that the girl was probably the victim of murder.
Who is the suspect?
It was not clear why the new searches were launched, but in 2020, German authorities said a German sex offender was being investigated on suspicion of murder. They did not name him, but the German media identified him as a man named Christian B.
The suspect occasionally lived in the Portuguese Algarve between 1995 and 2007. He has a criminal record for child sexual abuse and was already serving time in a German prison for an unrelated sexual and drug offense at the time of his identification. A German prosecutor said the suspect had made a living through drug trafficking, as well as working in restaurants, selling used cars and stealing from hotel rooms and vacation homes.
British detectives said they got their first tip on the suspect after making a public appeal in 2017 on the 10th anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance. He has not been charged with any crimes related to her disappearance, and has always denied involvement. In 2022, the Portuguese police made him a formal suspect.
British newspapers in recent years have been full of interviews with people who knew the suspect in an effort to glean useful information.
Has the area been searched before?
In all, hundreds of volunteers helped the family search for Madeleine around the world.
The coordinated operation by the German and Portuguese authorities is the first formal search in the dam area, but in 2008 Marcos Aragão Correia, a Portuguese lawyer not involved in the case, hired specialized divers to investigate the area after some tips he claimed to have received.
In 2014, British police, who also launched an investigation known as Operation Grange, searched undergrowth near the resort where she disappeared for several days, but found no evidence.
On May 3, Madeleine’s family gathered to commemorate the 16th anniversary of her disappearance. “Still missing …… still very missed,” her family wrote in a statement. “We are waiting for a breakthrough,” he added.
What do we know about the search?
UK news media, spurred on by the Portuguese police’s announcement, have been closely following the search, which could potentially lead to a long-awaited answer to a mystery of international concern.
They reported that police on Tuesday focused on a peninsula near a reservoir and that a police motorboat was sent into the water basin. According to The Guardian, officers used picks, chainsaws and rakes to search the peninsula and surrounding forests.
The BBC said police had deployed sniffer dogs along the shore of the reservoir and they expected the operation to continue for a few more days.