This week, the case of Madeleine McCann, a British girl who disappeared 16 years ago at the age of 3 from a vacation apartment in Portugal, returned to the headlines. Portuguese police have resumed searching for the girl in the Algarve region, where she vanished in 2007 while on vacation with her family. A German man has been named as a suspect in the case.
The disappearance of the girl triggered an outpouring of public interest and grief, with her face printed on “Missing” posters and T-shirts. The Portuguese police did not produce concrete results but drew widespread criticism after Madeleine’s parents were named as suspects. In 2020, German authorities said a German sex offender was under investigation on suspicion of murder.
This week, the police focused on a peninsula near a reservoir, and a police motorboat was sent into the water basin. Officers used pickaxes, chain saws and rakes to search the peninsula and the surrounding woods. The BBC said the police had deployed sniffer dogs along the bank of the reservoir and that they were expecting the operation to last a few more days.
The search has revived a case that has gripped Europe for years, prompted an international search effort, become the subject of books, front pages and a Netflix documentary series, while generating infinite speculation, empty hopes and tips. The family of Madeleine McCann still awaits a breakthrough.