Last week, Portuguese police raided the Arade dam in Silves, about 50 kilometers from the site where three-year-old British girl Madeleine McCann went missing in 2007.
According to Reuters, this action was the latest development in the search for Maddie, whose disappearance 16 years ago attracted worldwide attention.
When did Madeleine McCann disappear?
On May 3, 2007, three-year-old Madeleine McCann disappeared from the bedroom of the family’s apartment in Praia da Luz, Lagos, while her parents, Kate and Jerry, were having lunch with friends at a nearby restaurant.
The apartment was broken into while Madeleine and the twins were sleeping. The local police concluded that it was a kidnapping. The family expressed concern over what they described as the slowness of the police’s initial response and the lack of security at the crime scene.
Why is this case so famous?
The disappearance of the girl caused a media frenzy in the UK and Portugal, and the case was also covered by media around the world.
Initially, the parents turned to the media to help find their daughter, and the case attracted the attention of the whole world. Maddie’s parents also met with Pope Benedict XVI.
Football stars David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo also joined the appeals.
Until the body is found. The official girlfriend search site is still active, as is the Facebook page, which has over half a million followers.
Who is the German suspect Christian Brückner?
In June 2020, British and German police said they had identified a new suspect, a 43-year-old German. A German prosecutor later stated that Maddie was presumed dead.
The suspect, Christian Brückner, lived in the Algarve from 1995 to 2007, robbing hotels and holiday apartments, and dealing drugs. In 2019, he was sentenced to seven years in prison for raping and robbing a 72-year-old American woman in her home in the Algarve.
Last April, he was formally identified by the Portuguese police as an official suspect in Maddie’s disappearance, but he has not been charged with any girl-related crime.
Last month, a court in the German city of Braunschweig dismissed rape and sex crime charges against Brückner. Attorney Friedrich Fülscher told Reuters the decision meant the city’s law enforcement agencies had no jurisdiction over McCann’s case.
On May 23, 2023, police began searching the Arade Dam at the beach resort where Maddie disappeared.
How much did the search cost?
Operation Grange received over £12 million (about €14 million) in support of the British government. The German and Portuguese authorities did not provide any cost estimates for the investigation.
What is the time frame for an investigation?
Media attention has led to reports of sightings of Maddy around the world. However, the initial investigation by the Portuguese police turned up no major leads, and detectives began to focus on the parents themselves.
In September 2007, Gerry and Kate McCann were questioned by the police as official suspects. The following July, the Portuguese police dropped the investigation for lack of evidence and cleared the parents of any involvement.
In 2011, then British Prime Minister David Cameron ordered the London police to conduct an investigation after he was contacted by the McCanns.
The following year, detectives claimed to have identified 195 “opportunities to investigate” and in 2013 the British police launched their own investigation called “Operation Grange”, claiming to have identified 38 potential suspects.
They later released images of several of the men. The Portuguese State Ministry ordered the local police to reopen the case.
The new investigation resulted in the Portuguese police questioning four suspects, but there was no involvement from them. Also, British detectives conducted a search in a vacant lot near Praia da Luz, which was also unsuccessful.
British detectives later suggested that Maddie may have been one of the victims of a series of sexual assaults on British children in Portugal between 2004 and 2010.
In 2017, ten years after the disappearance of the girl, the detectives admitted that they may never be able to solve the case, despite the fact that they continue to follow the critical lines of the investigation.
Author: morning Post
Source: CM Jornal
I’m Tifany Hawkins, a professional journalist with years of experience in news reporting. I currently work for a prominent news website and write articles for 24NewsReporters as an author. My primary focus is on economy-related stories, though I am also experienced in several other areas of journalism.