On May 3, 2007, Kate and Gerry McCann found their 3-year-old daughter, Maddie, missing while on vacation in Praia da Luz in Portugal.
In fifteen years, a myriad of tracks have been considered without ever managing to find the child of the couple of British doctors.
This Thursday, the German police announced the indictment of a man, probably a repeat pedophile who lived in the seaside resort at the time of the disappearance of the child.
After fifteen years of false leads and dead ends, is the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, 3, in Portugal, about to be resolved?
The investigation, in any case, experienced a boost on Thursday, with the indictment in Germany of a suspect.
If his identity has not been confirmed, nor even the nature of the charges against him, Berlin has claimed since 2020 to have evidence of the girl's murder, identifying a German repeat pedophile, "Christian B.", as the main suspicious.
A look back at this emblematic affair in five key dates.
May 3, 2007: Little Maddie disappears in the middle of the night
On May 3, 2007, Kate McCann and Gerry McCann are enjoying their vacation in Praia da Luz, southern Portugal.
The parents have set up a watchtower: while they are having dinner with friends a hundred meters from their hotel, an adult goes every thirty minutes to the room where their 2-year-old twins, Sean and Amélie, are sleeping. , as well as Madeleine, 3 years old, nicknamed “Maddie”.
But at 10 p.m., Kate McCann realizes that her daughter is no longer in her bed.
The shutters and bedroom window are open.
The couple of doctors warn the local police who will arrive on the spot about thirty minutes later.
Despite extensive searches, the girl remains untraceable.
An investigation for a disturbing disappearance is opened but the case quickly takes on an international dimension.
The British media then from all over the world flocked.
On May 9, 2007, Interpol issued an alert.
May 15, 2007: A Briton indicted
Testimonies are pouring in from all over the world.
The little girl would have been seen in Malta, Morocco or Belgium.
But none of these leads come to fruition.
At the same time, the investigation is continuing in Portugal.
A 32-year-old Briton, Robert Murat, was indicted on May 15, 2007. The man, a real estate consultant, lived next to the hotel and participated in the search.
But a few weeks later, he will finally be cleared.
He received 600,000 pounds (750,000 euros) in reparations from several media which had peeled his past and, for some, suggested that he had pedophile tendencies.
September 7, 2007: Parents in turn suspected
Four months after the disappearance of the little girl, a thunderclap: Kate McCann is indicted by the Portuguese police, suspected of having accidentally killed Maddie.
A few days later, it was her husband's turn to experience the same fate.
Investigators say traces of blood and "biological remains" were found in the hotel room.
They then consider that the child died on the spot and that the parents hid the body in panic.
Several hypotheses of domestic accidents are formulated, such as the administration of too powerful a dose of sleeping pills or a fall down the stairs.
Maddie's parents, who have never ceased to cry out their innocence and to multiply the calls to find their daughter, will finally be released in June 2008. The poison of suspicion will not fade for all that.
A Portuguese inspector will continue, for example, to publicly accuse the couple of doctors, will even release a bestselling book.
And this, while he was sidelined from the investigation.
July 21, 2008: Case closed… then reopened five years later
On July 21, 2008, the Portuguese public prosecutor closes the case.
However, a monitoring unit has been set up to collect testimonies.
In October 2013, the Portuguese police finally decided to reopen the case, a few months after the official reopening across the Channel.
"The file had been reopened after the appearance of new elements", explained to AFP a spokesman for the public prosecutor's office, specifying that since the investigation was continuing "with the cooperation of the English and German authorities".
In reality, this reopening hid a name, that of "Christian B.", a repeat pedophile in the sights of the investigators.
June 3, 2020: “Christian B.”, suspect n°1
On June 3, 2020, many years after their initial suspicions, German authorities shared their findings.
They claim to have become certain that Madeleine McCann was dead and designate a German suspect: Christian B., 43, detained in Kiel, in northern Germany, for raping a 72-year-old American.
Facts committed in 2005, already in Praia de Luz.
At the time, Christian B., also known for drug trafficking, lived in the Portuguese seaside resort.
On the day of Maddy's abduction, her phone was dead near the hotel where the McCann family was staying.
What rekindle the hope of the parents of Madeleine McCann who are desperately looking for answers to her disappearance.
Company
Maddie case: A suspect indicted in Germany at the request of Portugal
World
Maddie case: Judicial setback for the main suspect, who remains in prison
Company
Maddie case
Miscellaneous facts
Justice
Disappearance
Portugal
Germany