What happened to Madeleine McCann?
Madeleine McCann was just 3 years old when she disappeared from her holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in Portugal on the evening of the 3rd May 2007. Her neglectful parents, Gerry and Kate McCann had left Maddie alone with her 2-year-old twin sisters in the apartment on their own while they enjoyed a meal at a nearby Tapas restaurant.
It has been the most-reported missing persons case in modern history with Madeleine still missing over 20 years later. The parents claimed to have checked on the children throughout the evening, until Kate claimed Madeleine was missing around 10pm. The Portuguese police believed Madeleine had died in an accident in the apartment and her parents had covered it up. The McCanns were considered to be suspects in September 2007. However, in July 2008, they were no longer considered suspects after a supposed ‘lack of evidence.’
What was Operation Grange?
Scotland Yard began its own investigation in 2011. It was called Operation Grange, and the lead investigator announced they were treating Madeleine’s disappearance as a kidnapping and possible murder by a stranger. They refused to investigate any other angle, including the possible event of Gerry and Kate being involved in their daughter’s death. But why? Many have wondered if it has something to do with the twisted class system in the United Kingdom. If Madeleine’s parents were working class, they would have likely been investigated by British police and would also be chastised for neglecting their 3 young children to go out for a meal. It’s even more puzzling that Kate McCann refused to answer 48 questions posed to her by Portuguese police that could have assisted in finding Madeleine, and both she and Gerry went out of their way to obstruct the investigation.
Operation Grange was scaled back in 2015, and they had wasted over £13 million on the case and still had no answers. This is money that could have been spent on a number of unsolved cases that have occurred in this country.
Who is Christian Brückner?
In June 2020, German authorities bizarrely got involved in the case and declared a man by the name of Christian Brückner to be the prime suspect for the abduction and murder of Madeleine McCann, but charges have never been brought against him. Yes, Brückner is a known paedophile, who had frequented the area where Madeleine went missing but there is no evidence to suggest he was involved in her disappearance and murder.
Where is Madeleine McCann now?
The case of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance remains a mystery over 20 years since she went missing. There is no evidence to suggest she was kidnapped. However, evidence does exist that points towards a more likely scenario. A bloody footprint was found in Kate and Gerry McCann’s holiday apartment, which matched a print found on their hire car.
Cadaver dogs known as Eddie and Keela were brought into the investigation in August 2007 to try to figure out what happened to Madeleine. Eddie, a cadaver dog, was a specialist in sniffing out the odour of a dead body, while Keela had been trained to detect human blood. The sniffer dogs signalled a ‘scent of blood and a corpse’ in the apartment Madeleine McCann was last seen alive in.
Occam’s razor is a principle used in psychology circles that states that if you have 2 competing ideas to explain the same phenomenon, you should prefer the simpler one. The simpler theory in this case does not point towards a stranger kidnapping Madeleine from that apartment in Praia da Luz.
Netflix’s 8-part documentary series, The Disappearance Of Madeleine McCann is a compelling watch that investigates the many different theories in this case.
What do you think about what happened to Madeleine McCann? Let us know in the comments below.