This week, the case of Madeleine McCann, a British who disappeared 16 years ago at the age of 3 from a vacation apartment in Portugal, returned once again to saturate media coverage as the Portuguese police resumed searching for the girl.
The police said in a statement that the new searches would be carried out in the Algarve region, where the girl vanished in 2007 while on vacation with her parents and siblings. They were requested by the German authorities and will be conducted in the presence of the British authorities, the police said.
The Portuguese television network SIC reported that the police were going to search an area at the Arade Dam, about 30 miles from the seaside village of Praia da Luz, where the family had stayed on vacation. According to the news channel, the area used to be frequented by a German man who has been named as a suspect in the case. A German prosecutor said that they were investigating in Algarve “on the basis of certain tips,” according to Sky News.
The searches have revived a case that has gripped Europe for years, prompted an international search effort, become the subject of books, front pages and a Netflix documentary series, while generating infinite speculation, empty hopes and tips.
Here is what we know about the case:
Madeleine’s disappearance
Kate and Gerry McCann, Madeleine’s parents, said that they left Madeleine and her siblings, 2-year-old twins, in their vacation apartment while they dined at a nearby restaurant.
Madeleine’s father checked on the children at about 9 p.m., and all of them were there, but when his wife checked on them about an hour later, Madeleine was gone. A search started soon after, but it produced few significant leads.
The disappearance of the girl triggered an outpouring of public interest and grief that was compared to the British national mourning following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, with Madeleine’s face printed on “Missing” posters and T-shirts.
An initial investigation by the Portuguese police did not produce concrete results but drew widespread criticism after Madeleine’s parents were named as suspects. They were formally cleared 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 a homicide.
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 under investigation on suspicion of murder. They did not name him, but the German media has identified him as a man named Christian B.
The suspect lived on and off in the Algarve region of Portugal between 1995 to 2007. He has a criminal record for sexual abuse of children, and at the time of his identification, he was already in a German prison because of an unrelated sexual crime and drug offenses. A German prosecutor said that the suspect had made a living through drug dealing but also working in restaurants, selling used cars and stealing from hotel rooms and vacation homes.
British detectives said they received their first tip about the suspect after making a public appeal in 2017 on the 10th anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance. He has not been charged with crimes related to the her disappearance, and he has always denied involvement. In 2022, the Portuguese police made him a formal suspect.
British newspapers have in the past years been filled with interviews with people who have known the suspect in the attempt to piece together useful information.
Has the area been searched before?
Overall, hundreds of volunteers have helped the family look for Madeleine around the world.
The coordinated operation by German and Portuguese authorities is the first formal search in the dam area, but in 2008, Marcos Aragão Correia, a Portuguese lawyer not connected to the case, hired specialist divers to check the area following some tips he said he had received.
In 2014 the British police, who also opened an investigation, known as Operation Grange, examined scrubland 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 the her disappearance. “Still missing ……. still very much missed,” her family wrote in a statement. “We await a breakthrough,” it added.
What do we know about the search?
The British news media, galvanized by the announcement from the Portuguese police, have thoroughly followed the search, which could possibly lead to a long-awaited answer to a mystery of international interest.
They reported that the 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 pickaxes, chain saws and rakes to search the peninsula and the surrounding woods.
The BBC said the police had deployed sniffer dogs along the bank of the reservoir and that they were expecting the operation to last a few more days.