The private investigator hired by the McCann family to find missing Madeleine McCann has issued an update on her disappearance nearly 20 years ago, saying he suspects she was abducted by an Eastern European trafficking network.
Julian Peribañez remains determined to continue the search, sharing his own theories about the little girl's fate. Speaking to the Olive Press, he said: "I don't know if she's alive or not, because hardly anyone on Earth does. But as long as I have hope, I won't stop looking."
Investigator appeals for information
Mr Peribañez has been following his own investigative leads and appealed to anyone in the Algarve area with information to get in touch, stating: "If you've had encounters with people who fit the profile, please reach out. All I need is a name. Give me a name, and I'll chase it wherever I have to."
Madeleine was three years old when she disappeared from her family's ground-floor holiday flat in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on the evening of May 3, 2007. Her parents, Kate and Gerry, had left Madeleine and her younger twin siblings asleep while they ate at a tapas restaurant approximately 55 metres away, checking on them periodically during the evening.
Case remains unsolved
At around 10pm, Kate found Madeleine's bed empty and the bedroom window open, sparking an international search operation that swiftly became one of the most prominent, intricate, and lengthy police investigations in recent history. The extensive multi-agency probe has pursued thousands of leads throughout Europe, including Scotland Yard's Operation Grange, but the case continues to remain officially unsolved.
German prosecutors have dedicated years to investigating convicted rapist Christian Brueckner, who was named as the chief suspect in 2020 after mobile phone records positioned him close to the holiday resort on the evening Madeleine vanished. Yet no murder charges have been filed against him in connection with her disappearance, and the investigation has consistently hit roadblocks due to complicated legal proceedings and separate criminal trials.
Brueckner had faced allegations of carrying out five offences in Portugal between December 2000 and June 2017. The appeal, however, relates to just four of these charges. Among the most disturbing claims was the rape of an elderly woman, which prosecutors alleged had been recorded on video. Yet judges determined that witnesses' accounts of the purported footage were inadequate to confirm what had taken place.
