The story of Maddie McCann, the English girl who disappeared while on holiday in Portugal on May 3, 2007, when she was less than four years old, is shrouded in new mystery. The Portuguese police apologized to the parents for the way the investigation was conducted and how it was handled. The news was broken by the BBC, which reported that earlier this year a delegation of senior officials traveled from Lisbon to London to meet Gerry McCann, Madeleine’s father, and apologize for the way investigators handled the case examined and treated the family. The McCann family has not commented on the apology and their daughter’s disappearance remains unsolved.
The allegations against the parents
In September 2007, four months after Maddie’s disappearance, Kate and Gerry McCann were named “arguidos” (suspects) in the Portuguese investigation. Both were questioned by investigators who believed they had staged a kidnapping and hidden their daughter’s body. More than 15 years later, Portuguese police admitted that the initial investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance was not carried out correctly, stating that at the time “insufficient importance was given to the missing children” and that “the status of their parents as foreigners in one …” The environment they didn’t understand wasn’t appreciated.
Doubts about possible death
According to German and Portuguese police, the German Christian Brückner is currently held responsible for the kidnapping and death of Madeleine McCann. The 46-year-old was living in Praia da Luz in the Algarve when the little girl disappeared. The man who protests his innocence is in prison in Germany for other crimes. Portuguese agents are now supporting the German authorities in the investigation against Brückner. “That’s a good sign. It shows that there are developments in Portugal in the McCann case,” said Hans Christian Wolters, one of the German prosecutors involved in the case.
