A young woman claims to be Madeleine McCann: what is known about the most famous disappearance case in Europe that has not been solved for 15 years

The name of madeleine mccann made world headlines again this week after a 21-year-old Polish girl went viral on social media for claiming she could be the British girl kidnapped in Portugal nearly 16 years ago.

Julia Wandelt presented in a video some physical similarities – a mark on the eye and a mole on the leg – with the little girl as alleged evidence of her claims. She also stated that she has been in contact with the McCann family and that she hopes to undergo a DNA test to verify her identity.

Look: Madeleine McCann: they find new evidence that points to the main suspect

A notable feature of little Madeleine is her right eye, as it has a type of coloboma, a complete fracture of the iris, which consists of a black line that reaches from the pupil to the edge of the eyeball.

However, the Portuguese authorities have stated that They have no evidence to suggest that Madeleine is still alive..

Julia’s family got angry with the young woman after her statements because they believe she is trying to give Madeleine’s parents false hope. “They think I’m a horrible person”Julia herself said in networks.

This episode adds to the one already experienced last April, when the German Christian Brueckner was charged with the disappearance of the little girl at the request of the Portuguese Prosecutor’s Office.

The case

Madeleine McCann was dragged from her room at the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz on May 3, 2007 in the middle of a family vacation in Portugal. While she and her siblings slept, her parents and a married couple who were friends of hers dined a few meters from her room and went to see them every fifteen minutes. However, in one of the rounds, they discovered the girl’s bed empty. From that moment on, the arduous search for the culprit began.

Among the almost 20 suspects that the Portuguese police have investigated to date – in collaboration with bodies from other countries – are Madeleine’s parents themselves.

At first the siege tightened around Robert Murat, a real estate consultant who lived with his mother near the place where the little girl disappeared. Murat offered himself to the family as a translator and spokesperson for the press, causing him to air his private life and come under scrutiny. A divorce, a daughter who looked similar to Madeleine, whom he had not seen for a long time… Finally, the Portuguese police decided to investigate him as a suspect, but nothing seemed to show any connection to the case.

On September 6, 2007, Madeleine’s mother, Kate McCann, was officially declared a suspect., a clinical doctor, after being questioned for approximately 11 hours. This turn in the investigation occurred after dogs trained to track corpses detected the smell of blood in the McCanns’ apartment. Meanwhile, the father, Gerry, a renowned cardiologist, was also questioned for nearly nine hours as a witness. After his statement, the quality of “argued” was attributed to him as well.

On March 19, 2008, however, two British newspapers published their apologies on the front page, after blaming the McCanns for the death of their daughter. The newspapers claimed in their apologies that there was no evidence to link the McCanns to their daughter’s death.

Kate and Gerry McCann say their hope is to find the girl and bring those responsible to justice. (MEDIUM PA).

In all this time, Kate and Gerry McCann televised their daughter’s face over and over again, powerless in the face of the inefficiency of the authorities – as they denounced – and convinced that spreading her image would help find her. About 9000 alleged sightings of Maddie all over the world, Portugal, Morocco, Malta, Chile… False leads and a telephone that did not stop ringing gave rise to all kinds of speculations but never anything conclusive.

After several years of intrigue, in June 2020 the authorities positioned Christian Brueckner as the main suspect in the case.

The German man is currently serving a seven-year sentence for raping a woman in Algrave, two years before the girl disappeared from the hotel without a trace. Likewise, it has an extensive record of crimes of a sexual nature, especially linked to the abuse of minors and the possession of child pornography. In 2015, after his girlfriend accused him of domestic violence, the Police raided his home and found not only illegal filming but also various conversations that he had with other pedophiles through the networks.

Christian Brueckner, the German identified as the main suspect in the case

In 2021, the German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolter assured that the investigators have sufficient evidence to bring a charge against Brueckner for having murdered McCann, but, first, they want to “strengthen their position.”

Despite the prosecutor’s statements, the whereabouts and no trace by Madeleine McCann. Nor has anyone been formally charged for his disappearance.

Source: Elcomercio