When did Madeleine McCann go missing and how old would she be now?
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 manhunt to find her that continues to this day.
Today (May 23) police began a new search in a remote resevoir in Barragem do Arade, near Silves in the Algarve.
The resevoir was visited regularly by convicted sex offender Christian Brueckner, 45, who German police suspect to have killed Madeleine.
But just when did Madeleine McCann go missing – and how old would she be today?
When did Madeleine McCann go 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 8.30 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 Mrs McCann took a turn checking on Madeleine and the twins at roughly 10pm. This time, Madeleine was nowhere to be found.
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.
Mr and Mrs McCann, of Rothley, Leicestershire, have vowed never to give up hope of finding their daughter.
How old would Madeleine be now?
Madeleine McCann turned 20 on May 12, 2023.
She has been missing for over 16 years.
Earlier this month, Mr and Mrs Mccann shared a post on social media to mark her 20th birthday.
It read: ‘Happy birthday Madeleine! We love you and we are waiting for you.
‘We are never going to give up.
‘Still missing. Still very much missed. Still looking. For as long as it takes…’
The message was accompanied by various pictures of Madeleine, and of Kate and Gerry at various stages in their search.
Today’s resevoir search was requested and authorised after German police obtained videos and photos of Brueckner close to the planned dig site.
They are thought to have been found buried in the paedophile’s ‘secret lair’ in a dilapidated factory site in the German village of Neuwegersleben, 65 miles south-east of Hanover.
Respected Portuguese broadcaster SIC has said the searches, due to last for at least two days and longer if anything of relevance is found, will be 80 per cent land-based and 20 per cent water-based.
In a lunchtime broadcast yesterday it said: ‘Investigators know suspect Cristian Brueckner used to come to this dam regularly.
‘He would call it his little paradise and would often spend the night here. He was seen here often.
‘The German authorities considered this reservoir to be an area of interest and ended up sending an International letter of request or letter rogatory.’
MORE : Portuguese police break silence over reservoir search for Madeleine McCann
MORE : Madeleine McCann’s parents mark her 20th birthday with vow to ‘never give up’
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