Almost 20 Years of Uncertainty and False Accusations: The Criminal Case of Madeleine McCann’s Disappearance Is Still Being Investigated in the UK
Nearly 20 years of uncertainty and fabricated accusations against her parents — in the United Kingdom, the criminal case surrounding the disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine McCann is still under investigation. Although detectives identified a suspect four years ago, the case remains unresolved. RIA Novosti reports on this high-profile story.
An Open Window
In early May 2007, Harry and Kate McCann went on vacation to Portugal with their daughter Madeleine and twins Sean and Amelie. On the evening of May 3, the parents put the children to bed and went to a nearby restaurant with friends. Every half hour, someone would check on the children.
When Kate checked the room again, the twins were sleeping peacefully, but Madeleine’s bed was empty. The window above it was wide open. Kate quickly searched the room and hotel grounds, then informed her husband. The entire staff was alerted, but the search for the child yielded no results.
Soon, police arrived at the hotel. Service dogs initially picked up a trail, but it ended abruptly near a playground close to the hotel. Detectives interviewed the parents and hotel staff. Kate immediately stated that her daughter could not have left on her own and reasonably assumed that she had been abducted. Especially since the hotel was on the first floor and located, according to locals, in a rather criminal area of the city.
Police, however, did not rush to conclusions and considered several scenarios. One theory was that the girl had wandered off and gotten lost. Another suggested she had indeed been kidnapped for ransom or sale. They also considered a potential predator. Another hypothesis shocked the parents: detectives did not rule out the possibility that the mother and father accidentally caused Madeleine’s death and then disposed of the body. This version would later become the primary theory.
A False Lead
Since the victims were British citizens, the investigation was taken over not only by local police but also by the globally renowned Scotland Yard.
A witness remembered seeing an unknown man at the hotel carrying a child but initially did not think much of it. Experts created a composite sketch and circulated it to nearby police stations. Checks in databases and attempts to locate the potential abductor produced no results.
Time passed, but no one contacted the parents for ransom. The missing child was not found in the Portuguese town, so detectives increasingly leaned toward the kidnapping-for-sexual-purposes theory. They also did not rule out the involvement of a gang of pedophiles operating across Europe.
The parents did not lose hope of finding her alive and hired private detectives. They also regularly contacted journalists, distributing photos of their daughter at the time of the abduction and age-progressed computer-generated images of Madeleine. Yet all efforts were fruitless.
Soon, the mother and father themselves became primary suspects. Police suggested that the parents might have accidentally given Madeleine a lethal dose of sleeping pills, causing her death. Then, out of fear, they placed her body in a car trunk, took it to a remote location, and buried it. DNA testing of the car interior and trunk partially supported this theory. However, it later turned out that the geneticists’ conclusions were false, and the accusations were almost fabricated.
All suspicions against Harry and Kate were eventually dropped, and many journalists paid them damages for defamation.
A New Turn
A major breakthrough in the case occurred 13 years after the abduction. Unexpectedly, British and Portuguese detectives received information from their German colleagues.
The Germans thoroughly analyzed the circumstances of the crime and suggested that Christian Brückner — a 43-year-old serial pedophile already imprisoned for the rape of an elderly woman and a child — could be involved.
In May 2007, he was living in Portugal, having moved there in the mid-1990s at the age of 18. He worked as a waiter in various hotels, while simultaneously selling drugs, raping and torturing tourists, and committing thefts in hotels. German detectives believe Brückner broke into the McCann’s hotel room intending to rob it but changed plans when he saw the sleeping girl.
Soon, German police suspected Brückner of another kidnapping. In their view, in the summer of 1996, the then 19-year-old pedophile abducted six-year-old Andreas Hasse from a beach in Portugal while he was on vacation with his mother and stepfather. The child has never been seen since. Detectives are now re-interviewing his relatives and other witnesses.
As for Madeleine, the renewed criminal investigation is ongoing, and the suspect denies any involvement. Detectives believe the man broke into the room through the window, kidnapped the sleeping girl, sexually assaulted her, then killed her and disposed of the body in a reservoir. Divers continue to search the site whenever weather permits.
Despite everything, Madeleine’s parents believe their daughter may still be alive but are prepared for any outcome. The McCanns hope that eventually investigators will shed light on the mystery of her disappearance.
