Madeleine McCann Development Is 'Biggest Since 2007'

Suspect is serving time in German prison
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 3, 2020 4:00 PM CDT
Madeleine McCann Development Is 'Biggest Since 2007'
Kate and Gerry McCann, whose daughter Madeleine disappeared from a holiday flat in Portugal ten-years ago, are seen during a BBC TV interview in Loughborough, England, Friday April 28, 2017.   (Joe Giddens/Pool via AP)

After 13 agonizing years, the parents of Madeleine McCann may finally get some answers. In what friends of Kate and Gerry McCann say is the biggest breakthrough in the case since the 3-year-old disappeared in Portugal in 2007, a German man has been identified as a suspect, the Telegraph reports. British police say the suspect is a 43-year-old man who was in the area of the Praia da Luz resort when Madeleine disappeared from her family's holiday apartment, the AP reports. Police say they received a tip about the suspect in 2017 after an appeal for information on the 10th anniversary of the disappearance.

German authorities say the man is currently in prison in Germany for a sex crime and has two previous convictions for "sexual contact with girls." Authorities say he is now being investigated for murder in connection with the McCann case. Police in Britain have urged members of the public to come forward with any information they have about two vehicles linked to the suspect, a VW T3 Westfalia campervan and a 1993 British Jaguar, CNN reports. The latter vehicle was re-registered in somebody else's name the day after the disappearance. "Someone out there knows a lot more than they're letting on," says Scotland Yard investigator Mark Cranwell, per the BBC. (More Madeleine McCann stories.)

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