Police Announce New Suspect In Madeleine McCann Disappearance Case

Police in Germany and the U.K. announced a new suspect in the ongoing Madeleine McCann disappearance case on Wednesday. The suspect is a German man, already imprisoned for unrelated offenses, who has a history of child sexual abuse.

McCann vanished from a Portuguese resort in 2007 where she was staying with her parents and her twin younger siblings. Portuguese police closed the investigation in 2008, however, London police reopened the case in July of 2013. Millions of dollars have been spent on the case since it reopened, but so far no one has been charged in the case and McCann hasn’t been seen since she disappeared. 

The new suspect has not been named, but he has been described as a white German national, with fair skin and short blond hair, six-feet tall, and with a slim build.

In a statement, the police force involved in the case said, “We have established that he lived on and off in the Algarve between 1995 and 2007” and noted he was “connected to the area of Praia da Luz,” where McCann was last seen.

Police also revealed that the suspect had a telephone conversation just an hour before McCann went missing. “Investigators believe the person who made this call is a highly significant witness and are appealing for them to get in touch.”

The suspect has also been linked to two cars used and registered in Praia da Luz, the area where McCann and her family were vacationing. Police stated that the day after McCann went missing, the suspect got one of the cars re-registered in Germany under someone else’s name, even though it is believed the vehicle was still in Portugal.

“While this male is a suspect we retain an open mind as to his involvement and this remains a missing person inquiry. Our job as detectives is to follow the evidence, maintain an open mind and establish what happened on that day in May 2007,” the statement said.