Madeleine Beth McCann born 12 May is a British missing person, who at the age of 3, disappeared from her bed in a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz , Lagos , Portugal, on the evening of 3 May The Daily Telegraph described her disappearance as "the most heavily reported missing-person case in modern history".
Madeleine was on holiday from the United Kingdom with her parents Kate and Gerry McCann, her two-year-old twin siblings, and a group of family friends and their children. The McCann children had been left asleep at in the ground-floor apartment while their parents dined with friends in a restaurant 55 metres ft away. Over the following weeks, particularly after misinterpreting a British DNA analysis , the Portuguese police came to believe that Madeleine had died in an accident in the apartment and her parents had covered it up.
The McCanns were given arguido suspect status in September , which was lifted when Portugal's attorney general archived the case in July for lack of evidence. Madeleine's parents continued the investigation using private detectives until Scotland Yard opened its own inquiry, Operation Grange , in The senior investigating officer announced that he was treating the disappearance as "a criminal act by a stranger", most likely a planned abduction or burglary gone wrong. Madeleine's disappearance attracted sustained press coverage both in the UK and internationally, reminiscent of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales , in At her parents' request, she was made a ward of court in England shortly after the disappearance, which gave the court statutory powers to act on her behalf.
Madeleine's parents are both physicians and practising Roman Catholics. She moved briefly into obstetrics and gynaecology , then anaesthetics, and finally general practice. In , he qualified in medicine and in obtained his MD , also from Glasgow. Since , he has been a consultant cardiologist at Glenfield Hospital , Leicester. Madeleine was born in and the twins, a boy and a girl, in The McCanns were on holiday with seven friends and eight children in all, including the McCanns' three. See "Tanner sighting" [ 36 ].
The McCanns arrived on 28 April for their seven-night spring break in Praia da Luz , a village in Portugal's Algarve region with a population of 1,, known as "Little Britain" because of the concentration of British homeowners and holidaymakers. The patio doors could be accessed via a public street, Rua Dr Francisco Gentil Martins, where a small gate and set of steps led to 5A's balcony and living room.
