Madeleine McCann Crime Scene Photos: Revisiting The Perplexing Case After Polish Woman Claims To Be British Girl Missing Since 2007
Feb. 22 2023, Published 9:00 p.m. ET
In May 2007, the McCann family traveled from their UK home to Algarve, Portugal, for holiday with friends. The fateful trip would change the lives of Kate and Gerry McCann forever, after their 3-year-old daughter, Madeleine, was discovered missing from the family's rental in the Praia da Lux apartment building.
In light of a Polish woman claiming to be Madeleine after all these years, RadarOnline.com has revisited the crime scene through photos taken by investigators.
On the evening of May 3, The McCanns put Madeleine — who was dressed in a pair of pink and white Eeyore pajamas — and her then-two-year-old twin siblings to bed on the ground floor of their Praia da Lux apartment.
After the children's 8:30 PM bedtime, Kate and Gerry went to dinner with friends a short distance away.
While the parents dined, a sinister act unfolded at the apartment that has left detectives and internet sleuths stumped for nearly two decades.
Living room where Madeleine was sleeping. An open window is highlighted.
Over the course of the parent's dinner with friends, the children were checked on.
During a routine stop conducted by Kate around 10 PM, the mother discovered something amiss.
The bedroom's door and window were both left open — and Madeleine was gone from the twin bed where parents tucked her in just a few hours earlier.
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The twin bed that Madeleine was last seen sleeping in.
Followers of the highly publicized case have criticized local authorities' immediate response to Madeleine's disappearance.
Authorities were accused of sloppy work at the crime scene, in addition to not properly securing the apartment's surrounding area which was a known hot spot for tourists.
DNA was collected from the apartment as well as the McCann's rental car, however, prosecutors had no solid leads to a suspect.
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Marking below the open window were marked by investigators.
In the weeks following Madeleine's disappearance, Portugal investigators focused on the McCanns as suspects — and eventually accused the parents of foul play.
The shocking accusation was largely in part to a misinterpretation of British DNA analysis.
Local investigators concluded that Madeleine was dead — and they alleged that Kate and Gerry falsely reported the toddler missing in a desperate attempt to cover up the toddler's alleged accidental death.
The living room where Madeleine and her siblings were left alone.
With little help from local authorities — who were officially given the status of "arguido" or suspect in September 2007 — the McCanns hired a private investigator to find their daughter.
Eventually, Scotland Yard stepped in and took over the PI's work for the family — and dubbed their work "Operation Garage" in 2011.
Investigators dusted for fingerprints outside the villa's windows.
Scotland Yard's senior investigator labeled Madeleine's disappearance "a criminal act by a stranger" and alleged that the toddler's missing status was the result of a robbery gone awry or was a planned abduction.
Major breaks in the case were few and far between until October 2022, when German prosecutors arrested a suspect previously named in Madeleine's case.
Traces of Madeleine's DNA taken from the McCann's rental car.
Christian Brückner, 45, was charged in connection to a series of sexual offenses against minors that he allegedly committed in Portugal over a 17-year period.
Less than 6 months after Brückner was charged, a Polish woman named Julia Wendell went viral after she shared a shocking claim on Instagram.
Outside the McCann's rental villa.
Wendell believes she is Madeleine and alleged to be a former victim of Brückner. The woman begged followers to share her story in hopes of securing a DNA test with the McCanns.