Madeleine McCann a three-year-old girl from Rothley

Madeleine McCann, a three-year-old girl from Rothley, Leicestershire, went missing on May 3 2007, from the Portuguese tourist resort of Praia da Luz in the Algarve. This case remains unresolved and piques the public’s and press’s curiosity.

What happened to her?

Kate and Gerry McCann, her parents, made a statement on the Find Madeleine website in May 2021, celebrating their daughter’s then-upcoming 18th birthday, repeating their hopes of one day being reunited with her.

“Every May is difficult – a reminder of years gone by, of years spent together lost or stolen,” they said. “We hold out a sliver of hope to see Madeleine again.

“We need to know what happened to our precious daughter, no matter what,” we’ve stated repeatedly. We appreciate the police department’s ongoing efforts.”

They think seeking the truth is still “important” after another bleak anniversary earlier this year.

Here’s a recap of the case’s history, with the recent emergence of a new suspect in Germany boosting hopes of ultimately solving the mystery.

What we know so far

On April 28 2007, the McCanns – wealthy physicians Kate and Gerry, their three-year-old daughter Madeleine, and her two-year-old twin siblings – joined a group of seven family friends and their five children on vacation at the Ocean Club in the hamlet of Praia da Luz on Portugal’s southwestern corner.

Following a relaxing spring vacation by the sea, the adults in the group met for supper on May 3 at the resort’s open-air tapas bar at 8.30 pm. The youngsters were left sleeping in their flats with the doors unlocked and a rota system in place among the parents to guarantee that someone checked on them every half-hour.

When Kate McCann’s turn came, and she went to her apartment at 10 pm, she dashed back to the restaurant yelling, “Madeleine’s gone! Someone has kidnapped her!” The police were promptly contacted, and 60 employees and other guests scoured the complex until daylight the following day, shouting out the girl’s name in vain.

Border police and airport personnel were put on high alert. Hundreds of volunteers volunteered to help discover the missing girl in the coming days, as the story quickly became a phenomenon.

The Portuguese authorities would later face criticism for their conduct during the critical early hours of the investigation, when the trail may still have been warm, accused of making rudimentary mistakes such as failing to conduct a house-by-house search of every local residence or interviewing all other guests at the resort, acting slowly to erect roadblocks, and potentially compromising forensic evidence at the crime scene through carelessness and incaution.

While the parents voiced their “anguish and sorrow” at her disappearance, the police first said they believed Madeleine was still alive and had been stolen from the room by a stranger.

On May 26, police released a description of a suspicious individual observed the night the girl went missing. When she checked on her children, Jane Tanner, one of the McCanns’ dinner friends, reported seeing a Mediterranean guy with dark hair and beige pants holding a toddler near the apartment. Scotland Yard later dismissed the report as a red herring.

The search continued throughout the summer amid a wild media circus and massive fundraising activities, with the McCanns establishing Madeleine’s Fund on May 15 to raise funds to support further investigation and keep the case high in the public eye, attracting generous donations from celebrities such as Richard Branson, Simon Cowell, JK Rowling, and Coleen Rooney. By May 30, the case had become so famous that they were being flown out in Sir Phillip Green’s Learjet to visit the Pope at the Vatican.

Once a local man, Robert Murat, was named the initial suspect, his home and car were searched, his swimming pool was emptied, and his electronic gadgets were collected. Still, no evidence linking him to Madeleine was discovered, and the case was quickly abandoned.

By June, the Portuguese police had conceded that they had neglected to safeguard potentially substantial evidence at the site, as dissatisfaction with the lack of progress rose, and the media began to speculate whether the McCanns were involved in the situation.

According to raunchy tabloid reports, the couple and their associates were swingers, and the McCanns, as physicians, were in the habit of sedating their children. In contrast, others cited contradictions in their account of events.