11 Years Later, What’s Happening In The Madeleine McCann Investigation?

At around 10 P.M. on Thursday, May 3, 2007, three-year-old Madeleine McCann vanished without a trace while on vacation with her family in Portugal.

Madeleine went missing from her bed at the now-infamous address of apartment 5A on Rua Dr Agostinho da Silva as her parents, Gerry and Kate, dined with friends at a restaurant nearby.

Related: What Really Happened To Madeleine McCann?

Eleven years later, her disappearance is still unsolved.

Some believe that she was murdered by accident; others accused her distraught parents of involvement.

Last month, a father claimed that a man matching the e-fit released in 2013 of Madeleine’s suspected kidnapper tried to kidnap his daughters from a Portuguese hotel room. The man, identified only as Andrés, says the stranger entered the room where his five-year-old and 13-year-old daughters slept in 2001 — six years before the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

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“I don’t know if that man kidnapped Madeleine, but for me, he is the man who tried to take my daughter,” he told Le Voz de Galacia.

According to the Daily Mail, Andrés said that the incident occurred at a hotel in Abrantes. He said the stranger, who he described as dressed like an English gentleman with “perfect hair” and a gin and tonic in his hand, complimented him on his daughters’ beauty.

He said his eldest daughter called him to say that the stranger had come into the kids’ room — and when Andrés confronted him, the suspect told him that he had gone in to “check on the children.”

Andrés said that police had questioned him about the incident, but that he had yet to hear back from them.

Related: Internet Troll Who Was Allegedly Harassing Madeleine McCann’s Parents Found Dead In Hotel

This was only one of countless leads that police have pursued over the years related to Madeleine’s disappearance.

Police investigated theories that Madeleine could have been abducted and killed by a local pedophile, or kidnapped by a European sex-trafficking gang — or perhaps even a childless couple.

British-Portuguese property consultant Robert Murat was named as the first “arguido,” or person of interest, 12 days after Madeline was reported missing. But after an investigation, detectives determined that he was not involved.

Related: Toddler Miraculously Survives Alone For A Week After Grandmother Dies

Gerry and Kate continue to and have always denied any role in their daughter’s disappearance, and two Portuguese investigations and a Scotland Yard inquiry have found no evidence to suggest otherwise.

Scotland Yard formed a task force, Operation Grange, to investigate in 2011. But in 2015, Operation Grange was scaled down.

Last year, the Tory government injected additional funding into the operation as cops investigated a new theory that Madeleine had been taken by a human-trafficking ring. So far, reports estimate that the search for the missing girl has cost around £12 million.

Related: Family Friend Arrested After Missing Toddler & Her Dad Found Murdered

In October 2017, police announced that they were looking for a “person of significance” in the case. The next month, it emerged that cops had traveled to Bulgaria to try and track down a pedophile’s widow — a woman “dressed in purple” who had worked with her late husband as domestic helpers at the resort from where Madeleine vanished.

In March 2018, Scotland Yard won Home Office funding to continue chasing a vital “final line of enquiry” for just six more months. Detectives have refused to discuss details of the inquiry they are pursuing.

Related: Disappeared: Was Tiffany Daniels A Victim Of Human Trafficking?

In April 2018, The Sun reported that Kate and Gerry were asked to appear on a British talk show, but detectives told them it “would not be helpful” if they spoke out, due to the continuing police investigation. Kate and Gerry have stated that they would prefer not to appear in public to discuss the case unless it will actively help locate their daughter.

But the McCann’s spokesperson, Clarence Mitchell, has been making headlines recently: He has now been retained by controversial U.K. data firm, Cambridge Analytica, following accusations that the company misused personal information from up to 87 million Facebook accounts. According to media reports, Mitchell has been engaged to help fight back against the public backlash.

Anyone with any information about Madeleine McCann can contact Gerry and Kate via:

• • Email: investigation@findmadeleine.com
  • Investigation Line: +44 845 838 4699

If you are in search of a missing person, make sure to enter their information into the database of the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.

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Read more:
The Sun 

FindMadeline.com

9News.com.au

Metro.co.uk

Main photo: Madeleine McCann [Wikimedia Commons]

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