Disappearance of Madeleine McCann
Has Madeleine McCann been found?
What most likely happened to Madeleine McCann?
Who were the suspects in Madeleine McCann’s disappearance?
On the night of May 3, 2007, three-year-old Madeleine McCann disappeared from her family’s vacation apartment at the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz, Portugal. The disappearance sparked a media frenzy, and the investigation eventually involved authorities from three countries: Portugal, the United Kingdom, and Germany. Despite extensive searches, McCann has never been located, and the case remains ongoing. While British and Portuguese officials treat McCann as a missing person, German authorities believe that she was killed.
Disappearance
Madeleine McCann lived in Rothley, Leicestershire, England, with her parents, Gerry and Kate McCann—both of whom are doctors—and her younger twin siblings, Sean and Amelie McCann. On April 28, 2007, the family arrived in Praia da Luz for a seven-day vacation. They stayed in a ground-floor apartment at the Ocean Club resort. Several of the McCanns’ friends were also guests at the complex. The trip was uneventful until Madeleine’s disappearance. Below are key events of that night (the times are approximate).
- 7:00–8:30 pm: The McCann children are put to bed in the family’s vacation apartment. They are in the front bedroom, which overlooks the parking lot. Madeleine sleeps in a single bed, and the twins are in two cots. Madeleine’s bed is closest to the door. Gerry and Kate then prepare to meet friends at the resort’s tapas restaurant, about 55 yards (50 meters) away. With plans to check on them throughout the night, they leave the patio doors unlocked so as not to wake the children by unlocking the front door. They also leave the door to the children’s room slightly open.
- 8:35 pm: The McCanns arrive at the restaurant before their group of friends, who are later dubbed “the Tapas Seven.”
- 9:05 pm: Gerry checks on the children and sees that all three are asleep. He notices that the door is open wider than he had left it and closes it slightly.
- 9:10–9:15 pm: While checking on her daughter, the McCanns’ friend Jane Tanner sees a man carrying a girl away from the apartments.
- 9:30 pm: Friend Matthew Oldfield leaves to check on both his and the McCanns’ children. He notices that the children’s bedroom door is open wide at the McCanns’ apartment. While he can see the twins, he does not look at Madeleine’s bed.
- 10:00 pm: When Kate goes to check on her children, she discovers that a window in the room is open and that Madeleine is missing. Shortly thereafter Russell O’Brien (Tanner’s husband) and Rachael Oldfield (Matthew’s wife) see a man near the McCanns’ apartment.
- 10:15 pm: Authorities are notified, and the police arrive shortly thereafter.
Investigation, suspects, and theories
A massive search failed to turn up Madeleine or produce any firm leads. Authorities later concluded that the man seen by Tanner was a vacationer carrying his own daughter. O’Brien and Rachael Oldfield identified Robert Murat, who lived nearby, as the man they had seen that night. Murat was named a formal suspect (arguido), but he was eventually cleared. Murat’s business associate, Sergey Malinka, was investigated but not considered a suspect.
In June 2007 the Portuguese police chief reported that forensic clues were potentially destroyed because the crime scene was not properly secured. Three months later the McCanns were named suspects after Madeleine’s DNA was reportedly found in a car the couple had rented a few weeks after her disappearance. Cadaver dogs also alerted to the scent of a corpse in the vehicle. One proposed theory was that Gerry and Kate had given Madeleine a sedative to sleep, that she had accidentally died, and that the parents then staged a cover-up and later returned to move their daughter’s hidden body. However, the DNA in the car was eventually determined to be “inconclusive,” and no evidence was found to indicate that the parents were involved. Portugal’s attorney general ended the investigation in July 2008, and the McCanns were cleared as suspects.
Other theories about Madeleine’s disappearance include a botched robbery that resulted in her murder or an abduction by human traffickers. Some have also speculated that Madeleine left the apartment looking for her parents and was killed in an accident, possibly struck by a car. One of the more widely cited scenarios is that Madeleine was taken by a sexual predator.
In 2013 British law enforcement opened an investigation, known as Operation Grange. Dozens of persons of interest and numerous alleged sightings were investigated. In addition, areas in Portugal were searched. However, no one was charged, and the operation was significantly scaled back in 2015.
In 2020 German authorities announced that they were investigating Christian Brückner. His criminal history includes convictions for rape and child sexual abuse, and he had been living by the resort when Madeleine disappeared. Phone records also placed him in Praia da Luz that night. Portuguese officials designated him as an official suspect in 2022. However, no formal charges were filed, and Brückner refused to speak with British investigators, though he denied being involved. He was released from prison in 2025, after serving time for the rape of a 72-year-old woman in Praia da Luz. The following year he said that he was selling drugs close to the resort on the night of May 3, 2007.
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Media
Madeleine McCann’s disappearance became a global sensation, and it was covered extensively by tabloids and other media outlets. The McCanns sought to keep public attention on the case, especially as it grew cold. In May 2007 they met Pope Benedict XVI, and two years later they appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show. The media’s coverage of the couple was at times critical, and in 2008 the McCanns reached settlements in libel cases brought against British tabloids that alleged they were involved in Madeleine’s disappearance. Murat also won libel damages from several newspapers. Several books were written about the case, and in 2011 Kate McCann published Madeleine: Our Daughter’s Disappearance and the Continuing Search for Her. In 2019 Netflix released the docuseries The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann.