A 13-year hunt that has so far drawn a blank at every turn
MADELEINE McCann vanished from a holiday apartment on the Algarve on May 3 2007, sparking global interest and a worldwide manhunt.
But despite more than 8,000 potential sightings and a multimillion pound operation to locate her, no one has yet been able to find the missing British girl.
Maddie disappeared from her family’s flat at the Ocean Club Complex in Praia da Luz, Portugal, just days before her fourth birthday
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Her parents Gerry and Kate had joined other couples for dinner at a tapas bar just 150 metres away, but left Maddie and her twin siblings Sean and Amelie sleeping inside.
When Kate returned to check on the children around 10pm, she found Maddie was missing.
The apparent kidnap triggered a police investigation that remains unsolved to this day.
GP Kate and heart surgeon Gerry, from Rothley, Leics, were left only with Maddie’s treasured “Cuddle Cat” as a reminder of their daughter as the world’s media descended on the holiday resort.
The photographs of Maddie in a pink hat clutching tennis balls and one with her dressed in an Everton football shirt became iconic images of the search.
Just months after her disappearance, Portuguese police named Kate and Gerry suspects, in the case, but a year later they were cleared by investigators.
The couple have since dedicated their lives to finding their daughter, who would now be 17.
Madeleine’s Fund – Leaving No Stone Unturned was set up to finance the search, support her family and bring her abductors to justice. Alongside that, Operation Grange, the Scotland Yard probe into Maddie’s disappearance, has continued but despite £12million being spent on the probe it has failed to unearth any culprits.
Dozens of conspiracy theories have circulated as to how and why Maddie was able to be so easily snatched from a busy holiday resort and under the noses of her parents.
The most likely according to experts is that she was stolen by child sex traffickers or a paedophile gang, or taken during a bungled burglary.