In 2007 at a Portuguese resort an event occurred that would later be called crime of the century. A three- year-old girl from England disappeared from the room without a trace of the hotel, which led to the most expensive investigation into British history. This case has grown into dozens of versions and suspects.
Because of him they flared up international scandals, and parents The girls were received by the Pope himself. B in this video we have collected all available information and tried to answer The main question is: what happened to Medellin McCann? Friends, before starting watching I wanted to ask you to like this video, subscribe to the channel and press the bell.
This will help you huge assistance in the development of the channel so that we could do more quality content for you. In 2007, spouses Kate and Gerry McCann spent a seven-day vacation in a quiet Portuguese resort of Pradelo Luz. Choice places for a British family with three pretty obvious kids. Because of the huge number of tourists from the United Kingdom, Portuguese language here was only the second or third by frequency of use after English Locals called the resort Little Britain.
In addition, the resort had three children’s centers. You could also order babysitters there while playrooms were closed. The couple was relaxing in the company of four families: nine adults, each of which was a medical employee, and eight children, including two-year-old McCann twins and their three-year-old sister Madeline.
The couple’s vacation was quite monotonous. They had breakfast every day and dined with the children in their apartments, and after meals sent them to have fun in the nursery center Every evening, approximately until: 09:00 and half past 11 the adults had dinner at the restaurant. Children left them alone in the apartment, periodically leaving to check, except for one family.
U there was a radio monitor. The restaurant was located 50 meters from apartments, and makana for the whole time rest, we reserved a table for ourselves, because which the windows of their home were visible. The bedroom overlooked the car park and garden and was next to the back door. In it there was one window closed by the teacher, which overlooked the parking lot.
Bed Medlyn stood at the other end of the room. The twins slept in playpen cribs. Madeline sharing a bed with pink soft toy cat. She was dressed in pink and white pajamas with short shorts sleeves. May 3, approximately halfway through on the ninth Kate and Gerald went to restaurant. They left the sliding doors and the patio is covered, but they didn’t open them lock.
During dinner parents periodically went to check if everything was in order okay with the kids. They also did friends they had dinner with. At 21:05 The father came into the children’s bedroom. According to him According to him, everything was calm, and Medlin slept in her crib. The only thing what was wrong, Jerry was sure that left the door to the bedroom closed, and on the second visit it was wide open Nastizh.
Without attaching any importance to this, he returned it to its original position and went back to the restaurant. Kate was going to check on the kids around half past nine, but friend Makanov Matthew Oldfield suggested checking them too children when he goes to check his neighboring apartments. Kate agreed. Oldfield made sure that in the apartments Makanov remained calm and left.
Later he admitted that he did not see whether Medlin was at this moment in his crib. Kate went to check on the children at 10:00 p.m. She entered the apartment through the patio doors and noticed that the bedroom door was open wider than usual. But when she went close it, the door slammed like as if from a draft.
Then she saw that the window is open from the outside. The twins were sleeping. In Madeline’s crib lay her soft a toy, but the girl herself was not there. Having examined the apartments and not finding child, Kate Macan rushed to restaurant shouting that the daughter kidnapped. As friends later recalled makans who saw them immediately after daughter’s disappearance, parents stayed in deep shock.
The girl’s mother is almost immediately began to sob loudly and fell into stupor, and her husband ignored people and looked under every parked car car in the hope of finding a child there. The parents searched for their daughter until 5:00 am and agreed to go to bed only after repeated persuasion. By this time The police had already examined the apartment.
During first search of the Portuguese apartment the police behaved unprofessionally and made many mistakes. For example, investigators notified border guards about missing child only after 24 hours after the investigation began. This deprived local service opportunity to intercept the girl’s alleged abductors. In addition, the Portuguese law enforcement agencies did not arrive on time took fingerprints from the place crimes, did not establish a cordon around the apartment and in the end they weren’t prepared enough evidence. Half an hour later
after the girl’s disappearance began large-scale searches. They were attended by several dozen people, including resort staff and guests. About 6 o’clock they combed the surrounding area. was hope that the girl is interested something, just went for a walk and It’s about to be found.
However, by morning it became obviously something terrible happened. Portuguese police interrogated parents, restaurant employees, friends families, searched the adjacent territory. About the disappearance of a child English media reported. News McCann’s friends told reporters, who believed that this would create public outcry and will force the police Portugal does a better job.
However this led to police bias towards the parents. They believed that a wide eye can harm the business, reducing the chances of finding the girl. degree What also made things heated was that during the investigation parents have repeatedly accused the police of negligence, unprofessionalism and a banal reluctance to look for Mdlin.
Perhaps this is what led to the fact that as the first prime suspects began to consider the parents themselves. Portuguese police announced for the first time this version 4 months after disappearance of the girl. According to them guess Kate and Jerry, who worked as doctors for a long time, by chance killed their daughter by giving her too much dosage sleeping pills in the hope that she will sleep until they return.
According to police, parents were scared responsibility for what they did and hid body. Next they created in public and the police are under the impression that Medlin kidnapped. Since then they have allegedly transported the body was taken to some secret place and buried. This version is based on the reaction of two dogs and cheeks.
One was trained sniff out the smell of blood, and the other decomposition. They were led through the territory, where the family was, but the animals served the voice is only inside the Makanov’s apartment. One of the dogs smelled a corpse rigor inside the car, which the couple rented after 24 days from moment of the girl’s disappearance.
Analyzes hair and tissue inside the car and apartments also recorded something that aroused the suspicion of the Portuguese police. However, later investigators announced that neither the DNA test nor the results checks by dogs and cheeks are not strong evidence of involvement parents to the incident. Mostly because in 70% of cases animals confuse the smell of a corpse with something else, and The DNA test turned out to be too inaccurate.
Witnesses were found who claimed that that evening they saw a man carrying in the arms of a sleeping girl. Suspicion fell for thirty-three-year-old Briton Robert Murat, who lived 3 minutes from apartments in his mother’s house. B for several months he was considered prime suspect, but evidence against It was never possible to find him.
Then another tourist showed up who said that he was returning that evening to his room with his daughter on hands. After additional check it became clear that it was his witnesses mistaken for a kidnapper. With Robert Murota all charges were dropped. He even managed to sue for compensation from British tabloids, in fact declaring the man a criminal.
Time passed, but the parents did not lose hope find your daughter alive. They contacted British PR firm and in the future collaborated with her, trying to support public interest in the search. Inconsolable parents met with the Prosecutor General USA, by the Pope, participated in numerous talk shows.
They also founded the Medlin Foundation, in which less than 2 million pounds received in a year. Them time British explorers worked in parallel with the Portuguese ones, examining evidence and interviewing witnesses. But there were few leads, and already in 2008 Portuguese police closed the case. In 2011 British Home Secretary Theresa My initiated an investigation called “Operation Granche”.
Within its framework, a group of the best British detectives had to solve the mystery disappearance of Medlene McCann. On a huge sum was allocated for the investigation, and British investigators interviewed again dozens of people from Portugal and England. Chapter Group, Chief Inspector Andy Redwood I was sure there was an opportunity to find a child kept alive.
During the operation checked everyone convicted of a crime against children, restaurant employees, tourists vacationing at the resort. However I haven’t found any version yet confirmation. While working on the case detectives received more than 8,000 messages from people who allegedly saw Matlin.
The bulk of the applications came from the USA, UK, Switzerland, Mexico and Singapore. It is known that the investigation checked more than 100 similar clues, but information about them either classified or not found confirmation. Even though version of the involvement of Madeline’s parents in repeatedly denied her disappearance Scotlandyard, stuck with it for a long time Hansala Amoral, director initial investigation by Portuguese police.
In July 2008 he released a book and follow-up documentary film “The Truth About Lies” where he claimed that makans they faked the disappearance of their daughter, to cover up the traces of her murder. Immoral spoke about the book as a collection official evidence, but close Madeline described the piece as absurd lie.
Despite this, in Portugal’s essay became a bestseller, bringing the publisher and the author, some estimates more than a million dollars. After the book was published, the investigator gave interviews to various TV channels, continuing to blame for the incident Medlin’s parents and claim that her the body is still hidden in the ancient city.
He later stated that his parents allegedly daughter was cremated in a church near crime scenes. At some point the theory was considered that the girl stolen by order of a certain rich family. However, investigators believe this version dubious. Madeline disappeared in just 9 days before his fourth birthday.
In this age, the child remembers his family well and loved ones and hardly easily perceived by people as new family. There was also a version that the girl became an accidental victim of robbers. Based on it, some attackers got into the room, but the girl I woke up and noticed them. Criminals decided to get rid of her so that she wouldn’t was able to identify them.
The version seems absolutely unconvincing in many ways reasons. Firstly, if the robbers really decided to get rid of girls, why was it necessary to take her away from numbers? Moreover, it is difficult to believe that that they were so scared that a small child who saw them in the dark room, will be able to remember their faces.
According to British journalist Danny Collins, who once worked on Madeline’s story, the child could not steal from your bed. Most likely she left the apartment in search of parents, after which she was kidnapped strangers, the reporter believes. He supported his version with the position of the shutters on windows that were closed during the police arrived and opened only from the inside.
There are no signs of hacking on them found, just like on the front door. By According to Colnes, this indicates that robbers or intruders did not enter to the apartment. The Makans rejected Colnes’s version, considering that she could not go out on her own street. To do this she would have to open entrance door, go through the sliding doors doors and iron gates on which there was a child lock and then closed them behind you.
The journalist countered this, noticing that the parents didn’t even know that the shutters in the apartment cannot be opened outside. Initially, the couple stated that the shutters on the windows were open. If Madeline actually went outside in absence of parents, then she could become victim of several incidents. At that time 180 m from the Makans’ house workers drains were repaired.
For this they dug a trench 182 cm deep and wide 120 cm. The girl could have fallen into this hole and lose consciousness, and the next day, when the tunnel was buried, she could simply not to notice. This version has been verified the responsible foreman, stating that he people and police were checking the trench. B even as a suspect considered a British politician and writer Clement Freud, grandson Zygmunt Wraida.
He was friends with the family Makanov, and he also had a house in Proya Delouche. The man himself died in 2009, and in 2016 several girls accused him of molestation of minors. No evidence has been found to support this theory. no evidence, so she actually ceased to be considered. There is a version that the girl kidnapped and sold into slavery.
Initially in the testimony of witnesses there were two men who were seen near the hotel. They supposedly could be members of an international gang that kidnapped children on orders from influential perverts. It is assumed that the criminals have very broad connections, including Portuguese police.
That would explain why was the last one sabotaged? investigation and put forward hypotheses, as far from the truth as possible. In 2015 number of active investigators in the case Medlin decreased from 28 to 4, and by 2017 year the British authorities in total spent more than 19 million on the investigation dollars.
The public has repeatedly reproached the government for such large costs of the case, the chances of closing which are decreasing every year. At that moment it really seemed like there was no chance of finding there is practically no answer, but that’s it were wrong. In 2020, business was dealt with not only investigators from Portugal and England, but also from Germany.
It was the latter who did sensational statement 13 years later after the girl disappeared. Probable the criminal is known. At first his name is not was disclosed so as not to cause harm investigation. But in the summer of 2020 the German the police showed all their cards. Main the suspect is a German Christian Brückner, previously convicted of molestation minors.
At the same time, investigators The most disappointing version was also voiced. Most likely, the girl is no longer alive. B May, the day before the disappearance Madeline, Brueckner told one of his ex-girlfriends, what he has for tomorrow work in the Luzh pride. He called this the job was terrible, but he said he had to do it execute.
3 years later another one a friend joked that Brückner looked like one of the sketches of a possible kidnapper of a little girl. Even I asked him if he had kidnapped the child. Here the man did not give a direct answer, but He just shrugged. Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters, involved in this investigation, stated that the police found another important detail.
The suspect was discussing kidnapping a girl while talking to another sadist on the Internet. According to prosecutor, Brückner kidnapped a girl, raped her and killed her. Moreover, he believes that this is far from the only such crime men. At the moment when Brückner named the main suspect, he served a prison sentence for rape over a seventy-two-year-old American woman in Portugal.
German investigators began promptly investigate involvement Brückner to the disappearance of Medlen. They dug up two plots of land, belonged to a man. And in both In some cases, big discoveries awaited them. Under one of the plots found a certain cellar, which the newspapers called the Chamber of Secrets. Law enforcement agencies did not disclose information about what they found but they position this discovery as an extremely strong clue.
On the second site they found a buried box of videotapes, contents which are also not disclosed. Throughout apparently, there are creepy footage captured there involving Bruckner’s other victims, but not Matley. Brückner himself did not react to accused of kidnapping a girl. Known only that immediately after the sight of his name the man was transferred to solitary confinement, to protect him from others prisoners.
After all, there is still the chance that he will confess to what he did and will ease the suffering of parents who They have been looking for an answer for 14 years. Even if this doesn’t happen and the police will not find any significant evidence, the vast majority of investigators We are sure that it was Brückner who was involved in this high-profile case.
The appearance of the main the suspect’s interest returned public to extinction fourteen years ago. It’s coming again can get enough financing. If Medlin is alive, May 12 She should turn 18 in 2021. Parents still believe that their daughter somewhere there, but in recent years shows less and less activity and devotes more time to the other two children.
Despite this, the girl’s mother still buys her gifts for every holiday and believes. One day she will again will see his daughter.
