Madeleine Beth McCann (born May 12, 2003) is a British missing person who disappeared from her bed in a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Lagos, Portugal, on the evening of May 3, 2007, when she was 3 years old. The Daily Telegraph called her disappearance "the most heavily reported missing-person case in modern history." To this day, Madeleine's location is unknown, though German prosecutors believe she may have died.
Madeleine was on vacation in Portugal with her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, her two-year-old twin siblings, and a group of family friends and their children. The McCann children were left asleep in the ground-floor apartment at 8:30 p.m. while their parents dined with friends in a restaurant 55 meters (180 feet) away. The parents checked on the children every 30 to 40 minutes throughout the evening. Kate discovered Madeleine was missing at 10:00 p.m. Over the following weeks, Portuguese police believed Madeleine had died in an accident in the apartment and that her parents had hidden the truth, based on a British DNA analysis. The McCanns were labeled as suspects in September 2007, but this status was removed in July 2008 when Portugal’s attorney general closed the case due to lack of evidence.
Madeleine’s parents continued searching for answers with private detectives until the Metropolitan Police began its own investigation, called Operation Grange, in 2011. The lead investigator described the disappearance as "a criminal act by a stranger," possibly a planned kidnapping or a burglary gone wrong. In 2013, the Met released sketches of men they wanted to identify, including one seen carrying a child toward the beach on the night Madeleine vanished. Shortly after, Portuguese police reopened their investigation. Operation Grange was reduced in scope in 2015, but some detectives continued working on a few important leads. In 2020, German authorities named Christian Brückner as their main suspect in Madeleine’s abduction and murder, though no formal charges have been filed.
Madeleine’s disappearance received widespread media attention in the UK and globally, similar to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997. Her parents faced public criticism and accusations of involvement in her disappearance, especially in tabloid newspapers and on social media. In 2008, the McCanns and their travel companions received financial compensation and public apologies from Express Newspapers after false claims about their involvement in Madeleine’s death. In 2011, the McCanns gave testimony during the Leveson Inquiry, which looked into misconduct by British newspapers, supporting calls for stricter rules on media behavior.
Background
Madeleine Beth McCann was born in Leicester and lived with her family in Rothley, Leicestershire. After her disappearance, her parents asked a court to become her legal guardian in England. This allowed the court to have legal authority to act on her behalf. Police described Madeleine as having blonde hair, blue-green eyes, a small brown mark on her left calf, and a dark line on the iris of her right eye. In 2009, the McCanns shared images showing how Madeleine might look at age six. In 2012, the Metropolitan Police created another image of her at age nine.
Madeleine’s parents are both doctors and practice Roman Catholic faith. Kate Marie McCann, born in 1968 in Huyton near Liverpool, attended All Saints School in Anfield and Notre Dame High School in Everton Valley. She graduated in 1992 with a medical degree from the University of Dundee. She worked briefly in obstetrics and gynaecology, then in anaesthetics, and later in general practice.
Gerald Patrick McCann, born in 1968 in Glasgow, attended Holyrood R.C. Secondary School and graduated from the University of Glasgow with a BSc in physiology and sports science in 1989. He earned his medical degree in 1992 and his MD in 2002, both from Glasgow. Since 2005, he has worked as a consultant cardiologist at Glenfield Hospital in Leicester. The McCanns met in 1993 in Glasgow and married in 1998. Madeleine was born in 2003, and the twins, a boy and a girl, were born in 2005.
The McCanns traveled with seven friends and eight children, including their own three. Nine adults often ate together at 20:30 each evening at a tapas restaurant in the resort. This led the media to call the group the "Tapas Seven." A report from Jane Tanner, one of the group, said she saw a man carrying a child away from the resort 45 minutes before Madeleine was reported missing. This detail became a major focus of the case.
The McCanns arrived on 28 April 2007 for a seven-night spring break in Praia da Luz, a village in Portugal’s Algarve region with a population of 1,000. The village is known as "Little Britain" because many British people live or visit there. They booked their stay through Mark Warner Ltd and stayed in apartment 5A, located at Rua Dr Agostinho da Silva. The apartment was owned by a retired teacher from Liverpool and was one of several privately owned units rented by Mark Warner.
Apartment 5A was a two-bedroom ground-floor unit in the fifth block of a group of apartments called Waterside Village. It was on the edge of Mark Warner’s Ocean Club resort. Neighboring units included 5B (Matthew and Rachel Oldfield), 5D (Jane Tanner and Russell O'Brien), and the first floor (the Paynes and Dianne Webster). The apartment was on the corner of Rua Dr Agostinho da Silva and Rua Dr Francisco Gentil Martins. It had public access from two sides. Sliding glass patio doors in the living room faced the Ocean Club’s pool, tennis courts, tapas restaurant, and bar. These doors could be reached via a public street, Rua Dr Francisco Gentil Martins, through a small gate and steps leading to the balcony and living room. The front door of 5A was on the opposite side of the block, on Rua Dr Agostinho da Silva.
The McCanns’ children slept in a bedroom next to the front door, which they kept locked. The bedroom had one small window at waist height with curtains and a metal shutter controlled by a cord inside the window. The curtains and shutter were closed throughout the trip. The window looked over a narrow walkway and car park separated from the street by a low wall. Madeleine slept in a single bed near the bedroom door, opposite the window. The twins were in travel cots in the center of the room. Another single bed was placed under the window.
Disappearance
Thursday, May 3, 2007, was the second-to-last day of the family's holiday. At breakfast, Madeleine asked, "Why didn't you come when [my brother] and I cried last night?" After Madeleine disappeared, her parents wondered if someone had entered the children's bedroom. Her mother also noticed a large brown stain on Madeleine's pajama top.
The children spent the morning at the resort's Kids' Club, then the family had lunch at their apartment before going to the pool. Kate took the last known photo of Madeleine at 2:29 p.m. that afternoon, showing her sitting by the pool next to her father and two-year-old sister. The children returned to the Kids' Club, and at 6:00 p.m., their mother took them back to apartment 5A, while their father went for a tennis lesson. The McCanns put the children to bed around 7:00 p.m. Madeleine was asleep in short-sleeved, pink-and-white Marks and Spencer Eeyore pajamas, next to her comfort blanket and a soft toy named Cuddle Cat.
At 8:30 p.m., the parents left 5A to eat dinner with friends at the Ocean Club's open-air tapas restaurant, which was on the other side of the pool. Apartment 5A was about 55 meters (180 feet) away from the restaurant as the shortest distance, but to reach the restaurant, one had to walk along a public street to the Ocean Club resort and then cross to the other side of the pool, a total of about 82 meters (269 feet). The top of the apartment was visible from the restaurant, but not the doors. The patio doors could only be locked from the inside, so the McCanns left them closed but unlocked, with the curtains drawn, so they could re-enter easily. There was a child-safety gate at the top of the steps from the patio and a low gate at the bottom, which led to the street.
The resort's staff had left a note in a message book at the pool reception, asking that the same table, which overlooked the apartments, be reserved for the McCanns and friends every evening for the last four nights of the holiday. The message said the group's children were asleep in the apartments. Kate believes the abductor may have seen the note. The McCanns and their friends left the restaurant roughly every half-hour to check on their children. Gerry checked on 5A around 9:05 p.m. The children were asleep, and everything seemed fine, except that he remembered leaving the children's bedroom door slightly open, and now it was almost fully open. He pulled it nearly closed before returning to the restaurant.
A sighting by Jane Tanner, one of the Tapas Seven, of a man carrying a child that night became an important part of the early investigation. Tanner had left the restaurant just after 9:00 p.m. to check on her own daughter, passing Gerry on Rua Dr Francisco Gentil Martins on his way back to the restaurant from his 9:05 p.m. check. Gerry had stopped to chat with a British holidaymaker, but neither man remembered seeing Tanner. This puzzled the Portuguese police, as the street was narrow, and they accused Tanner of inventing the sighting.
Tanner told the police that around 9:15 p.m., she saw a man carrying a young child walking across the intersection of Rua Dr Francisco Gentil Martins and Rua Dr Agostinho da Silva just ahead of her. The man was near Madeleine's bedroom, heading east, away from the front of apartment 5A. Early in the investigation, the direction the man was walking was considered important because he was moving toward the home of Robert Murat, a 33-year-old British-Portuguese man who lived near 5A and became the case's first suspect.
The child in the man's arms was wearing light-colored pink pajamas with a floral pattern and cuffs on the legs, similar to Madeleine's. Tanner described the man as white, dark-haired, 5 feet 7 inches (1.70 meters) tall, with a southern European or Mediterranean appearance, aged 35–40, wearing gold or beige trousers and a dark jacket. She said he did not look like a tourist. According to Kate, Tanner shared this information with Portuguese police as soon as Madeleine was reported missing, but they did not share the description with the media until May 25. Madeleine's Fund hired a forensic artist to create an image of the man, which was released in October 2007.
The sighting became important because it gave investigators a time frame for the abduction, but Scotland Yard later viewed it as misleading. In October 2013, they identified a British holidaymaker as the man Tanner had seen, who was returning to his apartment after picking up his daughter from the Ocean Club night creche. Scotland Yard took photos of the man wearing the same or similar clothes and in a pose matching Tanner's report. The pajamas his daughter was wearing also matched Tanner's description. Operation Grange's lead detective, Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood, said they were "almost certain" the Tanner sighting was not related to the abduction.
Rejecting the Tanner sighting as crucial to the timeline allowed investigators to focus on another sighting of a man carrying a child on the night of Madeleine's disappearance, reported by Martin and Mary Smith, who were on holiday from Ireland in Praia da Luz. Scotland Yard concluded in 2013 that the Smith sighting provided an approximate time for Madeleine's kidnapping.
The Smiths saw the man around 10:00 p.m. on Rua da Escola Primária, 500 yards (460 meters) from the McCanns' apartment, walking away from the Ocean Club and toward Rua 25 de Abril and the beach. He was carrying a girl aged 3–4 years. She had blonde hair, pale skin, and was wearing light-colored pajamas and was barefoot. The man was in his mid-30s, 5 feet 7 inches to 5 feet 9 inches (1.70 meters to 1.75 meters) tall, with a slim-to-normal build, short brown hair, and was wearing cream or beige trousers. The Smiths said he did not look like a tourist and seemed uncomfortable carrying the child. E-fits based on the Smiths' testimony were created in 2008 by Oakley International, private investigators hired by the McCanns, and were shared by Scotland Yard in 2013 on the BBC program Crimewatch.
Kate had planned to check on the children at 9:30 p.m., but Matthew Oldfield, one of the Tapas Seven, offered to do it when he checked on his own children in the apartment next to 5A. He noticed the McCanns' children's bedroom door was wide open but left without looking far enough into the bedroom to see if Madeleine was there. He could not recall whether the bedroom window and its exterior shutter were open at that time. Early in the investigation, Portuguese police accused Oldfield of involvement because he volunteered to check, suggesting he might have handed Madeleine to someone through the bedroom window.
Kate checked on 5A around 10:00 p.m. Scotland Yard
Early response
Two officers from the gendarmerie, the Guarda Nacional Republicana (GNR), arrived at the resort at 11:10 PM from Lagos, 5 miles (8.0 km) away. At midnight, after a short search, they contacted the criminal police, the Polícia Judiciária (PJ), in nearby Portimão. Kate said the PJ arrived just after 1:00 AM. According to the PJ, they reached the resort within 10 minutes of being called. At 2:00 AM, two patrol dogs were brought to the resort, and at 8:00 AM, four search and rescue dogs joined. Police officers had their vacation time canceled and began searching waterways, wells, caves, sewers, and ruins around Praia da Luz. Inspector Gonçalo Amaral, head of the PJ in Portimão, became the leader of the investigation.
It was widely understood that errors occurred during the first hours after Madeleine disappeared. Neither border nor marine police received descriptions of Madeleine for many hours, and officers did not conduct house-to-house searches. Kate said roadblocks were first set up at 10:00 AM the next day. Police did not ask for surveillance images of vehicles leaving Praia da Luz the night of the disappearance or of the road between Lagos and Vila Real de Santo António near the Spanish border. Euroscut, the company that monitors the road, said no one asked for their help. It took Interpol five days to issue a global missing-person alert. Not everyone at the resort was interviewed; some holidaymakers later told British police that no one spoke to them.
The crime scene was not properly protected. Portuguese police collected samples from Madeleine’s bedroom and sent them to three forensic labs. On 1 June 2007, it was reported that DNA from a "stranger" was found, but around 20 people had entered apartment 5A before it was closed off, according to Chief Inspector Olegário de Sousa of the PJ. Kate said an officer placed tape across the doorway of the children’s bedroom but left at 3:00 AM without securing the apartment. The PJ case file, released in 2008, showed that apartment 5A remained empty for a month after the disappearance, then was rented to tourists before being sealed off in August 2007 for more forensic tests. A similar problem occurred outside the apartment when a crowd gathered near the front door of 5A, including near the children’s bedroom window—through which an abductor may have entered or left—damaging evidence. An officer dusted the bedroom window’s exterior shutter for fingerprints without wearing gloves or protective clothing.
In the United Kingdom, it was decided that Madeleine’s home force, Leicestershire Police—led by Chief Constable Matt Baggott—would coordinate the British response, though the investigation remained a Portuguese inquiry. A strategic group, called the "gold" group, was formed, including representatives from Leicestershire Police, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), and the National Police Improvement Agency (NPIA). The PJ provided a room for the British team to work, but they reportedly disliked their presence. British police used a system called HOLMES 2 to organize their data, while Portuguese police collected information in boxes. Also, Portuguese police had less independence than British police, often needing to wait for court decisions, which slowed progress. In an interview for the book Looking for Madeleine (2014), Jim Gamble, then head of CEOP, said Portuguese police felt the British were treating them disrespectfully, like a "colonial power."
A PJ officer admitted in 2010 that Portuguese police had been suspicious of the McCanns from the start because of the "media circus." Gerry told Vanity Fair in 2008 that he decided to "market" Madeleine to keep her in the public eye. To do this, a group of public relations consultants arrived in Praia da Luz, which upset local police who saw the media attention as unhelpful. Alex Woolfall of the British PR firm Bell Pottinger, representing Mark Warner Ltd, handled media relations for the first ten days. Then, the British government sent in press officers. This was unusual.
The first government press officer was Sheree Dodd, a former journalist for the Daily Mirror, who was later replaced by Clarence Mitchell, director of media monitoring for the Central Office of Information. When the government removed Mitchell, the McCanns hired Justine McGuinness, who was reportedly chosen for the job. When McGuinness left, Hanover Communications briefly took over, led by Charles Lewington, who had previously worked for John Major. In September 2007, Brian Kennedy of Everest Windows offered to pay Mitchell’s salary so he could return to work for the McCanns full-time. Mitchell resigned from his government position and was later paid by Madeleine’s Fund.
The McCanns created Madeleine’s Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned Ltd on 15 May 2007 to raise money and awareness. Its website received 58 million hits in the first two days. From May to June, the couple’s PR team organized events to keep the case in the news, including a visit to the Portuguese city of Fátima and trips to Holland, Germany, Spain, and Morocco. On 30 May 2007, the couple traveled to Rome in Sir Philip Green’s private jet to meet Pope Benedict XVI, a visit arranged by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster. The next month, balloons were released in 300 cities worldwide.
By early June, journalists began expressing concerns. Matthew Parris said the "sheer professionalism of it … troubled journalists," as placing Madeleine on the front page of a British newspaper could sell up to 30,000 extra copies. She appeared on the cover of People magazine on 28 May 2007, on the front page of British tabloids nearly every day for six months, and as one of Sky News’s menu options: "UK News," "Madeleine," "World News." Between May 2007 and July 2008, the Portuguese tabloid Correio da Manhã published 384 articles about Madeleine. By June 2008, searching for her name on YouTube returned over 3,680 videos and seven million comments.
First Portuguese inquiry (2007–2008)
Twelve days after Madeleine's disappearance, Robert Murat, a 34-year-old British-Portuguese property consultant, became the first suspect in the case. Murat was born in Hammersmith, West London, and lived in his mother's house, Casa Liliana, which was 150 yards (140 meters) from apartment 5A in the direction where the man in the Tanner sighting had walked. He became a suspect after a Sunday Mirror journalist told Portuguese police that he had been asking about the case. The Portuguese police briefly hired Murat as an official interpreter. He said he wanted to help because he had a daughter in England about Madeleine's age.
Three members of the Tapas Seven group—Fiona Payne, Russell O'Brien, and Rachael Oldfield—said they saw Murat outside apartment 5A shortly after the disappearance. An Ocean Club nanny and two British holidaymakers also reported seeing him. This was not surprising because Murat lived close to apartment 5A. However, Murat and his mother claimed he had been at home all evening. The McCanns and their supporters were suspicious of Murat. One of the McCanns' supporters told a BBC reporter that he would share "exclusive" information about the case if the reporter reported what others were saying about Murat.
On 15 May 2007, police searched Murat's home. They drained the pool, examined his cars, computers, phones, and video tapes, searched his garden with ground radar and sniffer dogs, and questioned two of his associates. In March 2008, one of those associates had his car set on fire, with the word "fala" ("speak") painted in red on the pavement.
There was no evidence linking Murat or his friends to Madeleine's disappearance. Murat's suspect status was removed on 21 July 2008 when the case was archived. In April 2008, Murat received £600,000 in out-of-court settlements for libel, which The Observer called the largest number of libel cases related to one issue in the UK. His friends each received £100,000. In July 2014, during Operation Grange, one of Murat's friends was questioned again as a witness by the Portuguese police on behalf of Scotland Yard. In December 2014, Murat and his wife were also questioned, along with eight others. In 2017, Murat's mother told the BBC that she had seen a young woman in a plum-colored top acting suspiciously near apartment 5A that night. She also said she saw a small brown rental car speeding toward the apartment, driving the wrong way down a one-way street.
Witnesses told the Portuguese police that men acted strangely near apartment 5A before and on the day of Madeleine's disappearance. Scotland Yard believed these men might have been scouting for an abduction or burglary. There were four times more burglaries between January and May 2007 than before, including two in the McCanns' building in the 17 days before the disappearance.
Several witnesses reported seeing men collecting money for charity. On 20 April, a man who looked tired asked a tourist in an apartment near 5A for money for an orphanage in Espiche. However, no orphanages existed in Espiche at that time. The man was described as pushy and intimidating. On 25 or 26 April, a tourist who had previously rented apartment 5A saw a man on his balcony who had entered through the steps from the street. The man was polite and clean-shaven and asked for money for an orphanage. On 3 May, the day of the disappearance, four charity collections were made by two men near apartment 5A. At 4:00 p.m., two men with black hair asked a British homeowner for money for a hostel or hospice in Espiche. At 5:00 p.m., two men approached another British tourist with a similar request.
An "ugly" blond-haired man was seen across the road from 5A on 2 May, watching the apartment. He was also seen near the Ocean Club on 29 April. On 30 April, the granddaughter of 5A's former owners saw a blond-haired man leaning against a wall behind the apartments and saw him again near the tapas restaurant on 2 May, looking at 5A. She described him as a white man in his mid-30s with short, cropped hair and "ugly" with spots. On or before the day of the disappearance, a man was seen staring at the McCanns' block, where a white van was parked. In the late afternoon of 3 May, a girl on the balcony of the apartment above 5A saw a man leave through the gate below, as if he had come from a ground-floor apartment. She noticed he looked around before quietly closing the gate with both hands. At 14:30, two blond-haired men were seen on the balcony of 5C, an empty apartment two doors from 5A. At 16:00–17:00, a blond-haired man was seen near 5A. At 18:00, the same or another blond-haired man was seen in the stairwell of the McCanns' block. At 23:00, after the disappearance, two blond-haired men were seen in a nearby street speaking loudly. When they realized they had been noticed, they lowered their voices and walked away.
The first sign that the media were turning against the McCanns came on 6 June 2007, when a German journalist asked them during a press conference in Berlin if they were involved in Madeleine's disappearance. On 30 June 2007, a 3,000-word article titled "The Madeleine Case: A Pact of Silence" appeared in Sol, a Portuguese weekly newspaper. The article claimed the McCanns were suspects, pointed out inconsistencies in their statements, and suggested the Tanner sighting was made up. Reporters had obtained the mobile numbers of the Tapas Seven and another witness, showing the investigation had a leak.
Later articles in Portuguese and UK newspapers made false claims about the McCanns
Madeleine's Fund inquiry (2007–2011)
The McCanns created an organization called Madeleine's Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned Limited on 15 May 2007, twelve days after Madeleine disappeared. Over 80 million people visited the fund's website in the three months following the disappearance. Starting in September 2007, Brian Kennedy of Everest Windows provided financial support to the McCanns, and Kennedy's lawyer joined the fund's board of directors. By February 2017, the fund had seven directors, including the McCanns.
Public figures' appeals were shown during football matches across the UK. Between May 2007 and March 2008, the fund received £1,846,178. This included £1.4 million from bank donations, £390,000 online, and £64,000 from merchandise. Donations came from sources such as the News of the World (£250,000), Sir Philip Green (£250,000), Simon Cowell ($50,000), and Coleen Rooney ($25,000). J. K. Rowling and Richard Branson also gave large amounts, with Branson donating £100,000 to the McCanns' legal fund. Madeleine's Fund did not cover the couple's legal costs related to their status as arguidos, but it was criticized in October 2007 for paying two of their mortgage bills before they became arguidos. A reward of £2.5 million was offered, with contributions from the News of the World, Rowling, Branson, Green, and Stephen Winyard, a Scottish businessman.
In March 2008, Express Newspapers paid the fund £550,000 and £375,000 in damages from a lawsuit over articles about the McCanns and the Tapas Seven. In 2011, Kate McCann's book, Madeleine, was published in parts by The Sunday Times and The Sun, both owned by News International, for a payment of £500,000 to £1 million to the fund. By December 2015, the fund had about £750,000 remaining.
Madeleine's Fund hired several private investigator firms, which caused problems with Portuguese police. Shortly after the disappearance, an anonymous person paid for services from a British security company called Control Risks. There were reports of four sightings of a girl matching Madeleine's description in North Africa. Brian Kennedy traveled to Morocco in September 2007 to investigate one of these sightings. A Norwegian woman claimed she saw a girl resembling Madeleine at a gas station near Marrakesh, Morocco, on 9 May 2007. The child reportedly asked the man with her, in English, "Can we see Mummy soon?" When the witness returned to Spain, she learned about Madeleine's disappearance and contacted Spanish police. A month later, the McCanns said the police had not formally interviewed the woman, leading them to worry that leads were not being followed. The McCanns visited Morocco on 10 June 2007 to raise awareness. They stayed at the British ambassador's residence and met with consular staff and a Metropolitan Police officer.
Brian Kennedy hired a Spanish agency, Método 3, for six months at £50,000 per month. The agency assigned 35 investigators to work in Europe and Morocco. The partnership ended partly because the agency's leader made public statements that upset the McCanns, including telling CBS, "We know the kidnapper. We know who he is and how he has done it." Another investigator, David Edgar, a retired detective hired in 2009, created an e-fit of a woman who allegedly asked two British men in Barcelona about delivering her new daughter shortly after the disappearance. Other efforts included a Portuguese lawyer funding a search of a reservoir near Praia da Luz in February 2008 and a South African property developer, Stephen Birch, using ground radar to scan a house in Praia da Luz in 2012. Birch claimed the scans found bones beneath the driveway.
In 2008, Madeleine's Fund hired Oakley International, a detective agency based in Washington, D.C., for over £500,000 for six months. Oakley sent a five-person team to Portugal led by Henri Exton, a former British police officer who worked for MI5. The team conducted undercover operations at the Ocean Club, among paedophile groups, and within the Roma community.
Exton questioned the importance of a sighting by a man named Tanner and instead focused on a sighting by Martin and Mary Smith of a man carrying a child toward the beach. Oakley created e-fits based on the Smiths' description. This was a sensitive issue because Martin had recently seen BBC coverage of the McCanns' return to the UK from Portugal during a time of public debate about their involvement. When Gerry McCann exited an airplane with his son, Martin believed he recognized Gerry as the man he had seen carrying the child. Martin reported his suspicion to Leicestershire Police but later realized he was mistaken, as witnesses placed Gerry at a tapas restaurant at 22:00. However, the e-fits, which resembled Gerry, fueled conspiracy theories about the McCanns.
Exton submitted his report to Madeleine's Fund in November 2008 and suggested releasing the e-fits. The fund told Exton to keep the report and e-fits confidential. The relationship with Oakley worsened due to disputes over fees and because the report criticized the McCanns and their friends, suggesting Madeleine may have died accidentally after leaving her apartment through unlocked patio doors. The fund shared the e-fits with the police—the Portuguese police (PJ) and Leicestershire Police received them by October 2009, and Scotland Yard got them in August 2011—but did not release them publicly. Kate McCann did not include the e-fits in her book, Madeleine (2011), though she said the Tanner and Smith sightings were important.
Scotland Yard released the e-fits in October 2013 for a BBC Crimewatch reconstruction. After the broadcast, The Sunday Times reported that
Further police inquiries (2011–present)
In 2009, the McCanns met with Alan Johnson, the British Home Secretary, to ask for a review of the case. Johnson asked Jim Gamble from CEOP to create a report to study the situation. By March 2010, the Home Office began talking with the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) about starting a British investigation.
In May 2010, the Gamble report looked at how several British agencies were involved in the search for Madeleine, including CEOP, Leicestershire Police, the Metropolitan Police Service, SOCA, the NPIA, Crimestoppers, the Home Office, the Foreign Office, and 10 Downing Street. Gamble said the lack of teamwork caused problems, as some groups wanted to help but also wanted to appear helpful, which led to confusion and competition. This made the Portuguese police feel upset. Gamble suggested better cooperation between British and Portuguese officials, sharing all information, analyzing phone calls from the night of the disappearance, and following all possible clues, even those from private detectives.
In May 2011, under Home Secretary Theresa May, Scotland Yard started an investigation called Operation Grange, with 29 detectives and eight civilians. This decision seemed to be influenced by a campaign by News International, especially The Sun newspaper. A question about whether News International used pressure or threats to get this done was discussed during the Leveson Inquiry.
On May 11, 2011, The Sun published an open letter from the McCanns asking Prime Minister David Cameron to start a new investigation. About 20,000 people signed a petition that day. Later that day, Theresa May called Rebekah Brooks, the chief of News International, and Dominic Mohan, editor of The Sun. The next day, she wrote to the Metropolitan Police commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, saying the Portuguese police agreed to help with a British inquiry. Within 24 hours, Cameron announced Operation Grange, which would be funded by a Home Office emergency fund.
Operation Grange was led by Commander Simon Foy. Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood from Scotland Yard’s Homicide and Serious Crime Command was the first senior officer, reporting to Detective Chief Superintendent Hamish Campbell. The team included three detective inspectors, five detective sergeants, nineteen detective constables, and about six civilian workers. By July 2013, the review became an investigation. When Redwood left in 2014, DCI Nicola Wall took over.
The team translated tens of thousands of documents, released an updated image of Madeleine, and looked into over 8,000 possible sightings. By 2015, they had taken 1,338 statements, collected 1,027 items, and investigated 650 sex offenders and 60 people of interest. The inquiry was reduced in size in October 2015, and the number of officers dropped to four. In April 2016, the Home Secretary approved an extra £95,000 for one remaining line of investigation. Additional funding was later approved, bringing the total cost of the inquiry to £11.75 million by 2019.
In September 2025, the Metropolitan Police asked to interview Brückner before his release from a German prison, but he refused.
In September 2018, the Home Office said it was considering a request to extend funding for Operation Grange until March 2019. Up to that point, the operation had cost £11.6 million. In November 2018, an extra £150,000 was approved, increasing the total cost to about £11.75 million. In June 2019, the British government said it would fund the operation until March 2020.
In May 2024, the Home Office confirmed £192,000 had been approved for Operation Grange for the 2024–25 financial year, supporting a part-time team of three police officers and one staff member. This brought the total cost to £13.2 million as of March 31, 2024. In 2025, ministers approved £108,000 to continue the inquiry for the 2025–26 financial year.
DCI Redwood said Operation Grange was looking into a "criminal act by a stranger," possibly a planned abduction or a burglary that Madeleine might have interrupted. Between January and May 2007, local burglaries increased four times, including two in the McCanns’ neighborhood in the 17 days before the disappearance. In April 2017, Scotland Yard’s Assistant Commissioner, Mark Rowley, said the burglary theory was not completely ruled out but said police had mostly closed that line of investigation. Detectives focused on a few important leads, and some reports mentioned Scotland Yard looking for a woman seen near apartment 5A at the time of the disappearance.
Redwood said in 2013 that the disappearance looked like a planned abduction, which would have required planning. Witnesses saw men near apartment 5A before and on the day of the disappearance. In May 2013, Scotland Yard tried to find twelve manual workers at the Ocean Club when Madeleine disappeared, including six British cleaners in a white van. In October 2013, Scotland Yard and Crimewatch held a reconstruction, showing images of men near apartment 5A and the Smith sighting. After the broadcast, Portugal’s attorney general reopened the local inquiry, citing new evidence.
Another idea is that Madeleine left the apartment alone, perhaps to find her parents, and was taken by someone nearby or fell into an open construction site. This is considered unlikely. Her mother said Madeleine would have needed to open the patio doors, close the curtains, close the door again, open and close the child gate at the top of the stairs, and then open and close the gate to the street.
Using mobile phone tracking and help from over 30 countries, police found calls and texts near the Ocean Club between a former bus driver and his associates. Detectives interviewed them in 2014, but they denied any connection. Police also found that the phone of Euclides Monteiro, a former Ocean Club worker who had been fired for theft, was used near the resort that night. Monteiro, originally from Cape Verde, died in 2009 in a tractor accident. He was suspected of breaking into apartments to fund a drug habit. His wife said he had been questioned about break-ins involving child abuse but was cleared by DNA evidence.
Tabloids and social media
Eilis O'Hanlon wrote that the disappearance "could almost stand as a metaphor for the rise of social media as the predominant mode of public discourse." Twitter, which was one year old when Madeleine McCann went missing, became a source of much strong criticism. Ten years later, the "#McCann" hashtag was still producing over 100 tweets each hour, according to researchers at the University of Huddersfield. Social media users made threats, including one that claimed to plan to kidnap one of the McCanns' twins. When Scotland Yard and Crimewatch staged a reconstruction of the disappearance in 2013, some people reportedly planned to share false information to harm the search. A man who ran an anti-McCann website received a three-month suspended sentence in 2013 after distributing his claims in a village. The next year, a Twitter user died from a helium overdose after Sky News questioned her about 400 anti-McCann tweets.
At first, the McCanns' appearance and professional image helped attract public support. People across the United Kingdom, including officials at 10 Downing Street, offered help. The McCanns used this attention by hiring public relations experts and organizing events to keep media interest. However, public attention later turned against them, and a PR consultant named Michael Cole called this the "monstering of the McCanns." Critics argued the couple had left their children alone in an unlocked apartment, even though babysitters and a daycare were available. Some people claimed a working-class couple would have faced legal charges for this. In June 2007, 17,000 people signed a petition asking Leicestershire Social Services to investigate how the children were left unattended.
Kate McCann's appearance and behavior were widely discussed, especially by other women. A writer named Anne Enright wrote about her in a magazine. Some said Kate seemed too calm, too attractive, too thin, or too intense. Experts had advised her not to cry on camera, as a kidnapper might find her distress upsetting. This advice led to more criticism, including claims from a Portuguese newspaper that she had not "shed a single tear." A journalism professor, Nicola Goc, noted that Kate joined a list of mothers criticized for behavior seen as unacceptable. Some compared her situation to Lindy Chamberlain, who was wrongly convicted of killing her baby after a dingo attacked it. Like Chamberlain, Kate was suspected partly because she did not cry publicly. A false story also spread about Bible verses both women were said to have highlighted. Chamberlain later asked, "How can you apologize to me and do this again to someone else?"
In November 2011, the McCanns testified before the Leveson Inquiry, which studied British press standards. The inquiry heard that the editor of the Daily Express, Peter Hill, became "obsessed" with the couple. The newspaper published headlines such as "Madeleine killed by sleeping pills" and "Find body or McCanns will escape." The Daily Star, part of the same company, wrote, "Maddie 'Sold' by Hard-Up McCanns," based on a waiter's interview. Lord Justice Leveson called these articles "complete piffle," and a journalist named Roy Greenslade described them as "a sustained campaign of vitriol against a grief-stricken family."
In January 2026, the release of 3 million documents related to the Epstein files reignited discussions about Madeleine's disappearance, as her name appeared in an email from July 2019.
The McCanns and the Tapas Seven, a group of people involved in the case, filed legal actions against newspapers for false claims. The Daily Express, Daily Star, and their Sunday editions, owned by Northern & Shell, published front-page apologies in 2008 and donated £550,000 to Madeleine's Fund. The Tapas Seven received £375,000 from the Express group, which also donated to Madeleine's Fund and issued an apology in the Daily Express. The McCanns received £55,000 from The Sunday Times in 2013 after the paper suggested they had hidden evidence from police.
Robert Murat received £600,000 in out-of-court settlements for libel related to 100 articles published by 11 newspapers, including The Sun, Daily Express, and Daily Mail. His two associates each received $100,000. All three received public apologies. The British Sky Broadcasting Group, which owns Sky News, paid Murat an undisclosed amount in 2008 and agreed to host an apology on its website for twelve months. According to The Observer, this was the largest number of libel cases in the UK related to one issue.
Netflix documentary (2019)
Netflix released an eight-part documentary series called The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann on March 15, 2019. People interviewed in the series included Jim Gamble, former head of CEOP; Alan Johnson, former British home secretary; Brian Kennedy, a British businessman who helped the McCanns financially; Justine McGuiness, the McCanns' former spokesperson; Gonçalo Amaral, former head of the PJ investigation; Robert Murat, the first arguido; Julian Peribañez, a former Método 3 private investigator; Sandra Felgueiras, a Portuguese journalist who covered the disappearance; and Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan, authors of Looking for Madeleine (2014). The McCann family did not support the documentary, refused to participate, and told others not to be involved.