after fifteen years of mystery, a suspect indicted

The enigma still haunts the UK today. Maddie McCann, then 3 years old, disappeared in 2007. The hope of finding a culprit, fifteen years later, is still alive. On May 3, 2007, the McCann family is on vacation in southern Portugal. The children sleep while the parents, Kate and Gerry, eat dinner a hundred yards away. When they return to the apartment, their daughter, Maddie, is no longer in her bed. His name and his face then go around the world.

According to the British Matin Brunt, police-justice journalist for Skynews, in the very first days, the Portuguese police made mistakes from which the investigation still suffers today. “They didn’t seal the apartment and it was even rented out to two other families. The chance to recover real clues was wasted. Now investigators know there should have been more investigation At the beginning”, explains the reporter. The false leads follow one another, and Maddie’s parents are even suspected for a time, then cleared. The investigation stalls, and the case is closed on the Portuguese side.

The British police therefore start from scratch and explore nearly 200 new leads. Thanks to this work, in June 2020, a suspect was identified in Germany and indicted. Christian B., a repeat sex offender who lived in the Algarve (Portugal) in 2007, reportedly discussed the girl’s fate with a friend in a bar. This friend would have denounced him. The day after Maddie disappeared, Christian B. changed the license plate of one of his vehicles, and children’s swimsuits and child pornography images were found during a search.