The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann

Missing Child

  

Madeleine McCann is a young British girl born on 12th of May 2003. Madeleine's parents are Kate and Gerry McCann and she also has younger twin siblings Sean and Amelie. They live in Leicester, England and both of Madeleines parents are doctors

In 2007 when Madeleine was just 3 years old she disappeared from a holiday apartment in Portugal. Her family and her parents friends took a half term break to Portugal on the 28th of April 2007 for a week long holiday in the Algarve area of Portugal. The large party which is named in the media as the Tapas 9 were staying in the Praia Da Luz resort

Timeline of events

May 3rd 2007

10.00 am  -  Kate and Gerry put Madeleine and the twins into the kids club.

12.30 pm  -  Kate and Gerry picked the kids up and took them to the apartment for lunch.

 1.30 pm  - The McCann's spent the afternoon at the ocean clubs swimming pool.

Missing Child UK

Last ever picture of Madeleine taken.

3.30 pm - The kids returned to the kids club.

5.30 pm -  The kids ate dinner at the kids club.

6.00 pm -  Kate took the children back to the apartment, while Gerry went on a tennis lesson.

8.30 pm The children were put to bed and Gerry and Kate then went to the tapas bar to have dinner with their friends.

From the image above you can see where the McCanns and their friends apartments where and how far they were away from the tapas bar. Every night the adults would go for dinner at 8.30 pm while all their children were left in the apartments. Each family would take turns to check up on all the children. The above image also tells us what time the children were checked on by who. At 9.15 Tanner, one of the McCanns friends walked to check on her child and sees a man carrying a child, who is wearing pink and white pyjamas, similar to what madeleine was wearing that night. However Gerry or Wilkines who were standing talking a few yards away apparently did not see Tanner or the man carrying the child.

The McCann's left the patio doors unlocked so they could go in and check on the children without waking them up. The last time Gerry checked on the children, he noticed the bedroom door was open wide, when they claim they left it only open slightly.

9.30 PM

Matthew Oldfield and Russel O'brian, two of the McCann's friends checked on the children. Oldfield noticed again the bedroom door was open wide but did not think too much of it. He cannot confirm if he saw Madeleine, due to the angle of her bed but he saw the twins.

10.00 PM

Kate goes to check on the children, when she enters the room the children's door is wide open as well as the shutters and the window. The twins are sleeping however Madeleine is nowhere to be found.

A huge search began throughout Portugal to try and find Madeleine. The case was a huge operation, the biggest media frenzy since the death of Diana. There were many flaws in the police work for this case, one of the main ones being the search for DNA in the apartment. As they initially believed it to be an abduction, the crime scene was tampered with.

Theories

Kate and Gerry

Madeleines parents were the first suspects in the investigation. There are many theories which involve Kate and Gerry, one of the main ones being that Madeleine died in the apartment accidentally, her parents gave her a sleeping pill to ensure she stayed sleeping while they were out at dinner, as she was known to wake up and cry. The sleeping pill somehow caused complications resulting in her death. The McCann's then covered up the death as a missing persons case.

The police brought in sniffer dogs, who detected the smell of blood and death in the apartment and in the McCann's hire car. Kate and Gerry's suspect title was lifted in July 2008 due to lack of evidence.

Abductor

Another theory is that someone was aware of the movements of the family throughout the holiday. It was reported that there were a few men lurking around the complex days prior to the disappearance. Due to the fact the McCann's left the patio door open this would then allow an intruder to enter. This theory would then corroborate Tanners story of seeing a man carrying a sleeping child. The McCanns and friends had the same routine every night so it would not have been hard for someone to notice there were sleeping children in each of their rooms. No DNA was found inside the apartment which linked to someone not in the holiday party. If Madeleine was abducted it would have either been a burglary gone wrong, she was sold to a couple who could not have children or she was smuggled over the Spanish border and sold as a child slave.

Killed by one of the tapas 9 

Each member of the tapas 9 took turns to check on each of the children. We know that Tanner only checked on her own child and thats when she saw the man carrying the chid, apparently. Oldfield was checking on the McCann children but somehow did not see Madeleine, when if he walked in the room he would have clearly seen her there. None of tapas 9 would cooperate with the Spanish police and refused interviews, until they were questioned.

Tapas 9

Madeleine left the apartment 

Another theory which may be possible is that Madeleine woke up and got scared, so she left the appartment to try find her mum and dad. She may have possibly went the wrong way as the back exit of the hotel led to a road. She may have got hit by a car or wondered into the near by contruction site and got injured, and someone covered it up.

Due to the huge media frenzy which followed Madeleines disappearance there are many theories out there and many different documentaries which give a more in-depth look into all the evidence and leads which the case encountered. Due to this blog being created for assessment purposes I was not able to included as much information as I would have liked. Please feel free to comment any theories you may have.
Below is a documentary , which I found very insightful.

Missing girl

Missing people