After fifteen years of false tracks and dead ends, the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, 3 years old, in Portugal, will it be solved? In any case, the investigation was given a boost on Thursday with the indictment of a suspect in Germany. As his identity has not been confirmed, and not even the nature of the charges against him, Berlin claims to have evidence of the girl’s murder since 2020, in which he German Repeat Pedophile, “Christian B.”, as the prime suspect. A look back at this emblematic affair in five key dates.
May 3, 2007: Little Maddie disappears in the middle of the night
On May 3, 2007 Kate McCann and Gerry McCann enjoy their vacation in Praia da Luz, south of Portugal. The parents have erected a watchtower: While they are dining with friends a hundred meters from their hotel, an adult goes to the room where their 2-year-old twins, Sean and Amélie, sleep every half hour. as Madeleine, 3 years old, nicknamed “Maddie”.
But at 10 p.m. Kate McCann realizes that her daughter is no longer in her bed. The shutters and bedroom window are open. The pair of doctors warns the Police local who will be on site about half an hour later. Despite extensive searches, the girl remains untraceable. An investigation into a disturbing disappearance is opened, but the case quickly takes on an international dimension. The British media then flocked from all over the world. On May 9, 2007, Interpol send out a warning.
May 15, 2007: A Briton indicted
Testimonials are pouring in from all over the world. The little girl is said to have been seen in Malta, Morocco or Belgium. But none of these leads come to fruition. At the same time, the investigation is continuing in Portugal. A 32-year-old Briton, Robert Murat, was charged on 15 May 2007. The man, a real estate consultant, lived next door to the hotel and joined the search. But a few weeks later, he is finally acquitted. He received £600,000 (750,000 euros) in repairsvarious media outlets who had shelled out his past and, to some, suggested that he had pedophile tendencies.
September 7, 2007: Parents in turn suspicious
Four months after the disappearance of the little girl, thunderclap: Kate McCann is being charged by the Portuguese police, who are suspected of accidentally murdering Maddie. A few days later, it was her husband’s turn to suffer the same fate. Investigators say traces of blood and “biological remains” were found in the hotel room. They then assume that the child died on the spot and that the parents hid the body in panic. Different hypotheses accident at home are framed as taking too much of a sleeping pill or falling down a flight of stairs.
Maddie’s parents, who have never stopped shouting their innocence and multiplying the calls to find their daughter, will finally be released in June 2008. The poison of suspicion will not fade for all that. A Portuguese inspector for example, will continue to publicly accuse the couple of doctors, will even release a bestseller. And this while he was kept out of the investigation.
July 21, 2008: Case closed… and reopened five years later
On July 21, 2008, the Portuguese Public Prosecutor closes the case. However, a monitoring unit has been set up to collect testimonials. In October 2013, Portuguese police finally decided to reopen the case, a few months after the official reopening across the Channel. “The file was reopened after the appearance of new elements,” a spokesperson for the public prosecutor’s office explained to AFP, who indicated that the investigation is continuing “with the cooperation of the English and German authorities”. In reality, this reopening hid a name, that of “Christian B.”a repeat pedophile in the crosshairs of investigators.
June 3, 2020: “Christian B.”, suspect n°1
On June 3, 2020, many years after their initial suspicions, the German authorities shared their findings. They claim to have acquired the certainty that Madeleine McCann was dead and designates a German suspect: Christian B., 43, detained in Kiel, in northern Germany, for raping a 72-year-old American. Acts committed in 2005, already in Praia de Luz.
At the time, Christian B., also known for drug trafficking, lived in the Portuguese seaside resort. On the day of Maddy’s kidnapping, her phone was dead near the hotel where the McCanns were staying. What revives the hopes of Madeleine McCann’s parents, who are desperate for answers to her disappearance.
