Madeleine McCann turns 18 without news of her whereabouts

It's been 14 years since Madeleine McCann disappeared. On May 12 of 2021, that once little girl would turn 18 and be a young woman at the beginning of her adult life. There's little hope, however, that Maddie will be found alive. After a new lead in the case in 2020, the investigation reached yet another dead end. These are the events that made up one of the greatest mysteries in criminal history.

On May 3, 2007, Madeleine McCann disappeared from the hotel room where she was spending the summer with her family. She was about to turn four years. It happened in the Algarve, in the south of Portugal, and no trace of the girl has ever been found since that fateful day. In 2020, however, German authorities found a new lead in the case and the search for Madeleine resumed.

Thirteen years after Madeleine McCann disappeared, a new line of investigation opened. The German police identified a man who is currently in prison but lived in southern Portugal between 1995 and 2007. He's a known a sex offender with a long history of child abuse, and most damningly, he owned a caravan in Portugal that resembled the one seen near the place where the girl disappeared in 2007.

On the suspicion that Christian Brueckner, a German wanderer with a history of sex offenses, abducted the girl from Praia da Luz in Southern Portugal and buried her in that area or near his hometown in Germany, the police began searching intensively in both places. They did not find the girl, but the German police indicated they were near-certain that she was no longer alive.

It all started on a holiday in the Algarve, a tourist area in the south of Portugal. The McCann family spent their vacation in this place of beautiful beaches and fabulous cliffs. Kate and Gerry McCann had twins of two years old and Madeleine of three. Their holiday would become a nightmare: a moment that would mark their existence forever.

Gerry and Kate McCann left their twins and Madeleine asleep in their hotel room while they went to have dinner with friends in a restaurant about 50 metres away. According to their statement, they checked in with the children every 20 to 30 minutes. Everything seemed fine, but when they returned to the room for the night, young Madeleine was gone.

The Portuguese police immediately opened an extensive investigation. The area was searched with dogs, sex offenders residing in the Algarve got a visit from the police, and even Kate and Gerry McCann were considered as possible suspects. There were rumours that Madeleine had died by accident (the press reported an alleged overdose of sleeping pills administered by her mother, a professional nurse) and that her parents then disposed of her body by throwing it into the sea.

A number of tabloids turned the mother, Kate McCann, into the villain of the story. She was accused of suspiciously cool behaviour, not crying enough in public, and of having abandoned her daughter to go to a dinner party. In a somewhat lazy journalistic fashion, she was presented as guilty - not on the basis of facts but by judging her mere appearance.

In any case, the Portuguese police (as well as Scotland Yard, which did an investigation on its own) soon ruled out the guilt of the parents and began following other leads. They checked upon known sex offenders who had passed through the Algarve at that time. They also made sketches based on witness testimonies that said they had seen suspicious people accompanied by a blonde girl who looked like Madeleine.

Throughout the investigation people called from various countries to say they had seen Madeleine McCann in the company of a suspicious man. The calls placed her in Portugal, Spain, Malta, Chile, Venezuela, Paraguay and, most often, Morocco.

In the end, however, none of the leads in the investigation brought a solution to the riddle of Madeleine's disappearance.

The Portuguese detectives closed their investigation of the McCann couple in 2008 due to lack of evidence and considered it practically impossible to find Madeleine. Scotland Yard continued to investigate and followed the trail of a man who had been seen with a child on the beach in the night of Madeleine's disappearance. Meanwhile, Kate and Gerry McCann went everywhere to keep their daughter's case from being closed. They even saw Pope Benedict XVI (in the picture).

From Britain, there was harsh criticism of the Portuguese police and it even led to diplomatic complaints. They were criticized for focusing their suspicions on Maddie's parents and not paying attention to other aspects of the disappearance. However, the truth is that the Portuguese police are following the case of Madeleine McCann to this day, paying attention to every emerging clue. In the picture we see the police looking for evidence after a new lead in 2017.

Like anyone who has a missing child, Kate and Gerry McCann are still hopeful that their daughter remains alive. And that's why they periodically publish a reconstruction of what Madeleine would look like if she were around today.

Kate and Gerry McCann have been close all these years and are constantly fighting to find some trace of their daughter. In an interview with the BBC, they confessed to feeling "guilty" about what happened to Madeleine.

And then, suddenly, after so many years, a new suspect came to light. The man is a German sex offender currently in prison. Investigators say that he lived near the McCanns' resort in Praia da Luz in the time that Madeleine disappeared.

Police in three countries (Germany, Portugal and Great Britain) worked together to find more information about this lead. They especially want to know if anyone saw a Jaguar or a Volkswagen van in the Praia da Luz area on the day Madeleine disappeared. Both vehicles belong to the suspect and he might have transported the girl in one of them.

The police also investigated a call to the suspect from another location in Praia da Luz in the night of Madeleine's disappearance. The call lasted for 30 minutes. Who called the suspect, and what was the long conversation about?

The German network ZDF added to this story that the new suspect (a 43-year-old man) had reportedly made several calls in the surroundings of the McCanns' hotel in the days before the girl disappeared.

Madeleine McCann would be eighteen in 2021. Relatives like her Aunt Phil continue to remember her as a four year old.

Madeleine McCann's disappearance has been a difficult riddle. Although the discovery of the new German suspect in 2020 seemed hopeful, there is still no answer to the question of where Maddie McCann could be.

Where is the girl today? Is she alive or dead? Any answer will help Madeleine's parents process the absolute tragedy of missing a child.