HOW MYSTERY UNFOLDED
AS police prepare to search in and near a reservoir in Portugal, here is a breakdown of the main events after Madeleine McCann vanished.
2007
May 3: Kate and Gerry McCann, from Rothley, Leicestershire, leave their children asleep in their holiday apartment, right, in Praia da Luz in southern Portugal while they dine with friends at a nearby restaurant.
Gerry checks on the youngsters just after 9pm, but when his wife goes back at about 10pm she finds Madeleine missing.
Jane Tanner, one of the friends dining with the McCanns, reports having seen a man carrying a child earlier that night.
May 14: Detectives take AngloPortuguese property developer Robert Murat in for questioning and make him an “arguido”, or formal suspect, but this is later withdrawn. August 11: Exactly 100 days after Madeleine disappeared, investigating officers publicly acknowledge for the first time that she could be dead. September 7: Detectives make Kate and Gerry “arguidos” in their daughter’s disappearance. September 9: The McCanns fly back to England with their two-year-old twins,
Sean and Amelie.
2008
July 21: Portuguese authorities shelve their investigation and lift the “arguido” status of the McCanns and Mr Murat.
2011
May 12: Kate publishes a book about her daughter’s disappearance, on Madeleine’s eighth birthday.
Scotland Yard launches a review of the case after a request from Home Secretary Theresa May, supported by then-prime minister David Cameron.
2012
April 25: Scotland Yard detectives say they believe Madeleine could still be alive, release an ageprogression picture of how she might look as a nine-year-old, below, and call on the Portuguese to reopen the case. But police say they have no new material.
2013
July 4: Scotland Yard confirms it has launched its own investigation, Operation Grange, into Madeleine’s disappearance two years into a review of the case. It has “genuinely new” lines of inquiry and has identified
38 people of interest, including 12 Britons. October 24: Portuguese police reopen the case.
2014
January 29: British detectives fly to Portugal amid claims they are planning to make arrests. June 3: Sniffer dogs are used to search an area of scrubland close to where Madeleine went missing. December 12: Detectives question 11 people who it is thought may have information.
2015
September 16: The Government discloses that the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine has cost more than £10million. October 28: Scotland Yard cuts the number of officers working on the inquiry from 29 to four.
2017
April 30: Ten years since their daughter’s disappearance, the McCanns vow to do “whatever it takes for as long as it takes”.
2019
May 3: Reports say Portuguese detectives are investigating a foreign paedophile as a suspect in the abduction of Madeleine.
2020
June 3: Police reveal that a 43-yearold German prisoner, later named as Christian Brueckner, has been identified as a suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance. June 4: Scotland Yard’s Operation Grange still a missing person inquiry as detectives have no “definitive evidence whether Madeleine is alive or dead”.
2021
May 4: Kate and Gerry post a statement on the official Find Madeleine campaign website saying they still cling to the hope of seeing their daughter again as they prepare to mark her 18th birthday on May 12.
2022
April 21: Christian Brueckner is made an “arguido”, a formal suspect, by Portuguese authorities. May 3: The McCann family say it is “essential” they learn the truth of what happened to their daughter on the 15th anniversary of her disappearance.
October 11: Brueckner, now 45, is charged with three counts of rape and two charges of child sex abuse, unrelated to the disappearance of Madeleine.
2023
May 3: Kate and Gerry mark the 16th anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance by saying she is “still very much missed” and that they “await a breakthrough”.
May 22: Portuguese news website SIC reports that an area near the Barragem do Arade reservoir, about 30 miles from Praia da Luz, is being sealed off as German police prepare to start searching on May 23.