Madeleine McCann was just three years old when she went missing from the apartment she had been sleeping in during a family holiday to Portugal.
The little girl’s disappearance sent shock waves around the world and sparked a massive investigation that continues to this day.
Christian Brueckner, a 48-year-old German, is the main suspect in the case, and he is currently behind bars for raping an American woman in the Algarve area where Maddie went missing.
Prosecutors fear time is running out as Brueckner is nearing the end of his seven-year sentence for the 2005 rape.
But just when did Madeleine McCann go missing – and how old would she be today?
How long has Madeleine McCann been missing?
Madeleine McCann was on a spring break from the UK at the child-friendly resort of Praia da Luz in the Algarve region of Portugal with her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, and her two-year-old twin siblings.
She and the twins had been left asleep at 8.30pm in the evening of May 3, 2007, in their ground floor apartment while her parents and a group of family friends dined in a restaurant 55 metres away.
Mr McCann checked on the children just after 9pm and found everything to be in order.
Another parent eating out with the McCanns, Jane Tanner, walked past the flat where the McCanns were staying on her way back to look in on her own children and saw a man carrying a small child.
Another of their friends checked on the McCann children as well as his own at 9:30pm, and Kate McCann took a turn checking on Madeleine and the twins at roughly 10pm. This time, Madeleine was nowhere to be found.
Timeline of events since Madeleine’s disappearance
- May 3, 2007: Kate and Gerry McCann leave their children asleep in their holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, while they dine with friends. They check on their children three times throughout the night, and, at 10pm, they find her missing
- May 14, 2007: Police take property developer Robert Murat in for questioning and make him a formal suspect – this is later withdrawn.
- August 11, 2007: 100 days after her disappearance, detectives acknowledge that she could be dead.
- September 7, 2007: Maddie’s parents become formal suspects in their daughter’s disappearance.
- September 9, 2007: The McCanns return to England with their two-year-old twins.
- July 21, 2008: Portuguese authorities shelve the investigation and remove the McCanns and Murat as suspects.
- May 12, 2011: Kate McCann publishes a book about her daughter’s disappearance on her eighth birthday
- April 25, 2012: Scotland Yard detectives say they believe Madeleine could still be alive and release a picture of how she may look as a nine-year-old. They ask Portuguese police to reopen the case, but they say they have found no new information.
- July 4, 2013: Scotland Yard confirms it has launched its own investigation and says it has identified 38 people of interest, including 12 Britons.
- October 24, 2013: Portuguese police decide to reopen the case
- January 29, 2014: British detectives fly out to Portugal
- June 3, 2024: Sniffer dogs and specialist teams are used to search an area of scrubland close to where Madeleine went missing.
- December 12, 2024: Detectives begin questioning 11 people who it is thought may have information on the case.
- September 16, 2014: The Government states that the investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance has so far cost £10 million
- October 28, 2014: Scotland Yard cuts the number of officers working on the inquiry from 29 to four.
- April 30, 2017: The McCanns mark 10 years since her disappearance with a BBC interview.
- May 3, 2019: Local media reports say Portuguese detectives are investigating a foreign paedophile as a suspect in the abduction of Madeleine.
- June 3, 2020: Police reveal that a 43-year-old German prisoner, later named as Christian Brueckner, has been identified as a suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance.
- April 21, 2022: Christian Brueckner is made a formal suspect by Portuguese authorities.
- October 11, 2022: Brueckner is charged with three counts of rape and two charges of child sex abuse, unrelated to Madeleine’s disappearance.
- May 3, 2023: Kate and Gerry McCann mark the 16th anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance by saying she is “still very much missed” and that they ‘await a breakthrough’.
- May 22, 2023: An area near the Barragem do Arade reservoir, about 30 miles from Praia da Luz, is sealed off as police prepare to start searching on May 23.
- May 23, 2023: Searches begin with police divers in the water and officers with sniffer dogs and rakes seen on the banks.
- June 23, 2023: A man named Helge B claimed to the German newspaper Bild that Brueckner almost confessed to killing Maddie, allegedly telling him ‘she didn’t scream’ when the pair talked about the case at a music festival
- July 11, 2023: The German prosecutor involved with the case warns not to ‘expect too much’ from the search.
- February 16, 2024: Brueckner’s trial starts over three counts of alleged rape and sexual abuse of two children not connected to the Madeleine investigation
- October 8, 2024: He is acquitted of all the allegations due to ‘insufficient’ evidence. An appeal over the acquittal is launched, which is still ongoing
- March 27, 2025: A 60-year-old woman is charged with stalking the McCann family
- May 3, 2025: Maddie’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann mark the 18th anniversary of her disappearance with a heartbreaking message
- September 17, 2025: This is the date Brueckner could be released from prison if no further charges are brought
The police were called, and even though 60 hotel staff and guests searched the grounds that night, the child wasn’t found.
The man Jane saw became a primary suspect in the investigation into the three-year-old’s disappearance. However, the Metropolitan Police discovered six years later that the man had nothing to do with the case and was just carrying his sleeping daughter home from a creche.
Maddie’s parents, from Rothley, Leicestershire, have vowed never to give up hope of finding their daughter.
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How old would she be now?
Madeleine McCann would turn 22 on May 12, 2025.
She has been missing for over 18 years now.
Last year, parents Kate and Gerry shared a message on Maddie’s 21st birthday saying they are ‘still looking’ and ‘still missing’ their daughter.
The message, accompanied by a picture of the toddler, read: ‘Happy 21st birthday Madeleine. Still missing. Still missed. Still looking.’
How to watch Madeleine McCann: The Unseen Evidence documentary
A new documentary following the Madeleine investigation by The Sun will air on Channel 4 tonight.
It claims to provide evidence to show that Madeleine is dead, including the disturbing findings made at the abandoned factory used by Brueckner.
The investigative documentary will be first shown tonight at 9pm on Channel 4 and on 4 on Demand streaming platform.
What links Christian Brueckner to her disappearance?
Brueckner has denied all the charges against him and any involvement in Maddie’s disappearance.
Brueckner is known to have frequented various areas in the Algarve region surrounding Praia de Luz.
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He allegedly exposed himself to a German girl on a beach in Salema in April 2007 and is said to have sold cannabis to teenagers near the holiday apartment where the McCanns stayed, according to MailOnline.
Multiple searches have been carried out in Portugal and Germany over the years, including a remote reservoir in Algarve.
In May 2023, authorities searched the Arade dam reservoir northeast of Praia da Luz, where Brueckner is thought to have stayed often in his Volkswagen T3 camper van, but didn’t find anything of note.
He may have visited the spot around the time of Maddie’s disappearance.
When searching an abandoned factory owned by Brueckner, detectives made disturbing findings they have revealed now, including children’s clothes, toys and a suitcase full of images of young girls.
They also found more than 75 children’s swimming costumes, a handgun and chemicals, which were never tested before police destroyed them. They are thought to have been chloroform or ether.
This article was first published on July 11, 2023.
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