In the middle of a resort considered one of the safest in Europe, a moment that seemed harmless unfolded into a chain of events nothing short of terrifying and a child vanished as if into thin air.

Police investigating the disappearance of Maline Macccan are searching a reservoir in Portugal after receiving tip offs.

The reservoir is almost 50 kilometers from Tea Doo where the toddler went missing 16 years ago.

And how did they manage to disappear without a trace? Meline Beth McCann was born in Leicester, England on May 12th, 2003 and quickly became adored for her energetic, curious personality and the joyful spirit she carried everywhere.

She had blonde hair, blue green eyes with a distinctive dark mark in her right iris and a small brown spot on her left calf.

rare identifying features that anyone would remember after seeing her once.

Nearing her fourth birthday, Meline proudly embraced the role of a loving big sister to the twins, Sha and Amaly.

She adored dolls, dresses, and had a special love for the color pink.

Her father, Jerry McCann, age 38, was a cardiologist at Glenfield Hospital in Leicester.

While her mother, Kate McCann, age 37, had previously worked as an anesthesiologist at Melton Mobre General Hospital before reducing her hours to focus on caring for their three children and later practicing as a general practitioner in a rural area.

The couple had met in 1993 while studying at the University of Leicester’s School of Medicine.

And after graduating, they built a warm family life with three children, a stable career, and a future that seemed full of promise.

In 2007, the Macan family along with a close group of friends and colleagues in the medical field, Jane Tanner, Russell O’Brien, Fiona and David Payne, Matthew and Rachel Oldfield, and Diana Webster decided to take a short vacation in Pria Deloo located in Logos, Portugal.

The group brought eight children and chose to stay at the Ocean Club Resort in the Algarve, a destination highly rated by travelers for its peaceful atmosphere, charming scenery, and safety level that appealed to middle-class families looking for a relaxing getaway.

The Macccan’s close friends, who often visited the area, believed it was a place with a sizable British and German community, creating a sense of familiarity and trust for anyone visiting for the first time.

On the night of May 3rd, 2007, at about 8:30 p.

m.

, the Macans left their three children asleep in apartment 5A on the ground floor of the resort, and as usual, went to have dinner at a restaurant only about 160 ft away.

The group took turns going back to check on the children every 30 minutes.

But that night at exactly 1000 p.

m.

when it was Kate’s turn, she was shocked to find that Meline was no longer in the room.

She was the only one missing, even though she was only 3 years old and eagerly looking forward to her upcoming 4th birthday.

The group immediately spread out to search the resort, but there was no sign of her.

It was not until 3 hours later that the local police arrived.

A delay considered highly unfavorable since many experts believe the first hours in missing child cases are crucial and can determine the child’s safety.

Friends and family immediately cooperated and provided investigators with everything they knew.

One witness reported that around 9:15 pu m.

They had seen a man carrying a young girl in his arms, a detail that quickly became one of the first leads.

Kate also clearly remembered that when she entered the room, the window was open and a strong gust of wind suddenly slammed the door shut.

What haunted her most was that during breakfast that morning, Meline had asked why her mother hadn’t come the night before when she and the twins had been crying.

An innocent question that left behind an unsettling sense of unease.

Right after Meline disappeared, guests, staff members, and roughly 200 local officers spread out across the resort to search for her.

Several possibilities were considered, such as the idea that Meline might have woken up, become frightened after finding herself alone, walked out to look for her parents, and possibly gotten lost or encountered an unfortunate incident.

However, the Macan family stated that Meline never had the habit of leaving the room on her own.

The most troubling question weighing on everyone’s mind was this.

If a 3-year-old girl was not safe even inside a crowded holiday resort, then what truly happened to her? And where could she be now? Amid the tense search efforts, the initial investigation was led by Oligario Susa, the judicial police chief in Porto.

While at the regional level, Commissioner Gonzalo Amaral, director of the criminal investigation department, oversaw the operation directly.

His team reviewed every photograph taken by tourists and all available security camera footage, including images of a man carrying a bundle that was suspected to be connected to the case, though this detail was never confirmed.

Authorities immediately notified Interpol and on May 9th, a yellow notice was issued to 190 member countries.

The Portuguese government also increased security measures at airports and border crossings, especially the areas near Spain, where someone attempting to take a child illegally could leave the country in a very short amount of time.

In the days that followed, Portuguese police began reviewing the entire surrounding area to identify anyone who might have been involved in cases of taking children illegally or connected to serious ethical issues involving minors.

In the early stages, investigators still believed Meline was alive and somewhere within Portugal.

From there, several theories emerged.

She might have been taken by a group that exploited children, fallen into an illegal adoption network, or been caught unintentionally in a failed break-in.

The first suspect to draw attention was Robert Murra, a British citizen living right next to the resort.

His decision to offer help as an interpreter and to interact with the media made police question his motives.

Mora explained that he only wanted to help because he had a daughter who resembled Meline, though he had not seen her in a long time due to his divorce.

Authorities searched his home, Casa Liliana, and on May 19th even flew to England to interview his ex-wife, Dawn Morat.

They continued questioning his mother and others connected to him.

Police later discovered that Morat had links to Sergey Malinka, a 22-year-old Russian who had previously helped him build a website.

Malinka had his laptop and two hard drives seized for examination.

As phone records showed multiple calls between the two around the time Meline went missing.

On August 4th, investigators returned to search the Casalana complex using high-tech systems and police dogs.

They also dug through the garden, cleared the surrounding grass, and found nothing.

In the end, no evidence was discovered against him, and he was released.

Robert later sued the press for defamation and was awarded $850,000 in compensation.

During the first 11 days of the disappearance, several searches were carried out and the entire area was examined with tracking dogs from the National Republican Guard, but no trace of the girl was found.

Beginning on May 18th, the operation increased in scale and public visibility.

Portuguese police searched more than 500 locations near the resort.

The search was later expanded internationally.

More than 1,000 officers and 100 volunteers took part in the effort to find the Macan’s daughter.

Boats, helicopters, leester police, and British abduction specialists arrived in Pria Daloo to examine the entire area.

These were experts from the United Kingdom who flew to Portugal to support the Macan family.

A team of mobile phone specialists flew to Portugal on May 29th, 2007 to analyze mobile communication data made in the area at the time of the abduction.

They used triangulation techniques to analyze the movement of phone signals in the area while receiving additional support from various specialists.

On July 31st, a team from the United Kingdom’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Center flew to Portugal to assist local detectives and build a psychological profile of someone who might have taken Meline illegally.

The mysterious disappearance quickly became the focus of international media, and Meline’s parents continuously cooperated with reporters, hoping the wide reach of the press could help bring their daughter home.

Around that time, nearly 200 journalists gathered around the resort each day to follow the case closely.

Alongside the search efforts, the Macccans launched an international campaign to rally public support, creating a powerful global response.

As practicing Catholics, they met with Pope Benedict the 16th to seek spiritual strength and prayers for Meline, hoping their daughter’s image would be blessed and remembered in prayers around the world.

The Macan family also made several international trips, including to the United States, where they met senior officials under the George Bush administration.

Seeing how missing child cases in America had been resolved thanks to strong media involvement strengthened Kate and Jerry’s determination to follow the same path.

Many influential figures including David Beckham, Euan McGregor, author Jay Front Rowling and businessman Steven Wyard also contributed millions of dollars to support the investigation and aid the search for Meline.

At that time, images of Meline, the three-year-old girl with her distinctive eyes, appeared everywhere on t-shirts, posters, flyers, car windshields, and even banners hung in football stadiums.

The front pages of major newspapers simultaneously announced a reward of $1.

8 million for anyone who could provide information leading to her discovery.

However, the overwhelming media attention and public pressure unintentionally made the work of the Portuguese investigators more difficult, as many people began questioning their competence and the way they were handling the case.

Some investigators even feared that if this had indeed been a case of a child being taken illegally, the pressure from excessive attention might push the person responsible toward more negative actions.

By early June, a full month after Meline’s disappearance, police still did not have any clear leads.

A Portuguese police chief admitted that many important forensic traces might have been compromised because apartment 5A, where Meline vanished, was not sealed off in time.

In fact, it had even been rented out twice to tourists after the Macan family left.

There were also reports that some officers had unintentionally contaminated the scene by smoking and leaving cigarette butts in the room.

Their failure to examine the apartment’s trash, review the list of guests, and question people who were present at the resort during that period sparked further criticism.

These mistakes were quickly exposed, becoming a prominent topic in both Portuguese and international media.

On June 13th, 2007, based on information provided by Dutch media, police expanded the search to a mountainous area.

By June 27, a series of reports from residents in Malta claiming they had seen a girl resembling Meline pushed the investigation in yet another direction.

In July 2007, British police deployed two specially trained dogs to assist.

The Portuguese judicial police brought them to examine apartment 5A and the car the Macccans had rented a few days after Meline disappeared.

There, the dogs detected unusual scents on the car key and suspicious traces in the trunk area.

They also reacted to several small marks inside the apartment and on some of the Macccan’s personal items.

These findings led investigators to collect samples from the apartment sofa and from the stuffed toy Meline loved, the one Kate often held when speaking to the media.

All the evidence was sent to laboratories in the United Kingdom for analysis to determine whether it was directly connected to the disappearance.

On August 4th, investigators returned once again to Robert Moras home.

This time with the support of high-tech equipment and police dogs.

They dug through the entire garden, cleared the grass, and examined every suspicious area, but still found no signs connected to Meline.

From that point, Robert was officially removed from the list of suspects.

During the same period, police released to the media a description of a man reportedly seen on the night Meline disappeared.

Someone believed to have been carrying a young girl, a detail that further strengthened the theory that she might have been taken by someone.

However, even though the information was widely circulated, no one came forward with additional details or identified the man.

As the case passed the 100 day mark, police began to lean toward the possibility that Meline might no longer be safe.

And from then on, they handled the file as a serious incident rather than a simple missing child case.

In their statement to the media, Jerry and Kate acknowledged that they understood this possibility had been mentioned from the beginning, but both continued to believe their daughter was alive and still somewhere out there.

The Macan family continued to cover expenses themselves to support the investigation.

Determined not to let hope fade, Jerry released a video in which he shared his belief that the family might have been watched by a dangerous individual in the days leading up to Meline’s disappearance.

Based on the description given by a British tourist who had seen a suspicious man near the resort, the Macans released a sketch of a potential suspect in September 2007.

Around the same time, several travelers sent them a photo taken in Morocco of a young girl who looked very similar to Meline.

But Interpol quickly confirmed it was only a false lead.

In fact, Interpol had to intervene multiple times to address false alarms in various countries as many people believed they had seen Meline.

Dozens of vague reports, messages from public figures, and countless speculative stories circulating in the media made the case increasingly chaotic.

It gradually became clear that the investigation was reaching a dead end with neither leads nor suspects remaining.

In this context, Portuguese police began to express frustration about the way the British side was involved, arguing that they had been placed under intense pressure because of the Macan’s public profile and the strong presence of British authorities.

Some investigators even believed that the British side had made several mistakes in handling the case, focusing too heavily on the disappearance narrative instead of gathering evidence through forensic procedures that could have made a crucial difference in the overall investigation.

In September 2007, Portuguese police received the forensic analysis results from the samples collected in apartment 5A, where Meline disappeared and from the car Jerry and Kate had rented after the incident.

These results caused the direction of the investigation to shift abruptly.

Kate was summoned as a witness, followed by Jerry.

But only a few days later, both were unexpectedly treated as primary suspects in a family tragedy involving their daughter.

At the same time, the seven friends who traveled with them were also placed under suspicion because police believed their statements contained several inconsistencies and even contradictions.

One witness claimed that Jerry and Kate had been at the location throughout the night with only one person in their group leaving once.

Some restaurant staff members also said the group had consumed up to eight bottles of wine, almost one bottle per person, a detail that raised controversy considering they were parents responsible for young children.

They also emphasized that about 40 minutes had passed between the moment the family discovered Meline was missing and the moment police were called, during which time friends and resort staff repeatedly went in and out of the apartment at the group’s request.

On September 9th, only a few days after Jerry and Kate were officially named suspects, they decided to take their children back to England.

At East Midlands Airport, Jerry stated that their return had been carried out with full authorization from the Portuguese authorities and that they remained completely cooperative with the investigation.

He also emphasized that leaving the Algarve did not mean they were abandoning the search for Melan.

Back in England, the Macccans immediately sought legal experts to defend themselves against the growing accusations from Portuguese police.

They contacted attorney Michael Kaplan, who had previously been part of the legal defense team for former Chilean leader Agusto Pinoce in London and worked with lawyer Angus McNab from the Kingsley Napoli firm.

Later, attorney Rogerio Alves became their primary representative in Portugal.

In an interview with the press, Kate revealed that she had been pressured by certain investigators who wanted her to admit that an unintended serious incident had led to a tragedy involving her daughter and that if she accepted responsibility, the potential sentence could be only 2 to 3 years.

Kate described the experience as overwhelming, insisting she had been pushed to accept things that were not true and calling the approach absolutely absurd.

On October 2nd, 2007, Portugal’s national director of the judicial police, Alipio Ribero, announced that Commissioner Gonalo Amaral, who had led the investigation during the first 7 months after Meline disappeared, was officially removed from the case after he told the press that British authorities had shown favoritism toward Jerry and Kate during the joint investigation.

He was replaced by Commissioner Paulo Rebello after being abruptly taken off the case.

Gonzalo suggested that the decision had likely been made shortly after a meeting between US Ambassador Alf Hoffman and British Representative Alexander Wam in Lisbon in September 2007, roughly 2 weeks after the Macans were named persons of interest.

To this day, Gonzalo maintains that there is no clear evidence proving that Meline was taken illegally by someone, but that there were signs indicating that her parents had been insufficiently cautious.

He put forward the theory that the Macan family might have unintentionally caused a serious incident involving Meline and then concealed the outcome, suggesting it could have stemmed from a strong accidental impact or something related to sleepass assisting medication.

However, all of this remains solely his personal speculation, never confirmed by any real evidence, and therefore remains only a controversial hypothesis.

When Jerry and Kate McCann returned to England and slowly began rebuilding their lives, they decided to launch an independent investigation to uncover the truth behind Meline’s disappearance.

They hired the Spanish private investigation firm Meto3, whose director, Francisco Marco, stated with certainty that he believed Meline was still alive and may have been taken by a group that exploited children under the direction of an international illegal network.

He even suggested that Robert, who had already been cleared by police, could not be entirely ruled out as having ties to this network.

Metood 3 reported that they had deployed more than 20 investigators to search for Meline and had set up an information center able to receive tips in multiple languages including English, French, Portuguese, Arabic, and Spanish.

Their investigation focused mainly on Portugal and Morocco, where they believed Meline might have been taken after disappearing from the Algarve.

Meanwhile, Jerry and Kate faced growing suspicion from the British media.

Several newspapers questioned their innocence, even implying that Meline’s parents and their traveling companions might have been involved in a serious incident that led to the tragedy surrounding the little girl.

Some articles fueled controversial speculation, suggesting that Jerry, Kate, and their friends were connected to sensitive personal behavior, making the situation even more chaotic.

None of these accusations were supported by verified evidence.

Yet, they placed immense pressure on the Macan family at a time when they were desperately searching for their daughter.

Hurt by the defamatory coverage, Jerry and Kate launched a legal battle against the British press for publicly spreading false information about them.

By March 2008, the High Court in London ruled in favor of the Macan family and ordered four newspapers under the Express Newspapers Group to pay $583,000 in compensation.

On March 19th, these newspapers simultaneously published front page apologies, admitting that they had damaged the reputation of Jerry, Kate, and their friends.

The group tabloids had labeled the Tapest 7.

In addition to that compensation, the Macccan’s received another $398,000 from the publishing group and the family transferred the entire amount directly into the Find Meline Fund to support the search for their daughter.

After the incident, Jerry and Kate changed their legal team and launched a new media campaign, redirecting public attention to the most important goal, finding Meline, rather than focusing on the baseless accusations surrounding them.

The investigation continued to expand.

Around this time, attorney Marcos Aragawo Korea initiated a search of the Arad reservoir in the Algarve after rumors surfaced about the possibility of evidence connected to the case.

Divers recovered several bone fragments, but forensic analysis showed they were animal bones and unrelated to Mattelang.

They started early.

After 16 years without answers, there was no time to lose.

Officers from Germany, Portugal, and the UK, searching a reservoir 30 miles from where Meline Macan disappeared.

Throughout the day, teams scoured the ground, hoping it would reveal any secrets it may hold.

Boat teams waited on the water.

Officers determined to uncover any evidence that may be hidden here.

When you have a look at this reservoir, it’s absolutely massive.

And the idea of being able to search it all in two days seems like a mammoth task.

But from watching the teams here, they appear to be focusing on carefully controlled areas.

This search is clearly targeted.

Portuguese police were required to reach a final decision regarding Meline’s case and to clarify the remaining points of controversy.

In November 2008, a new forensic team traveled to the United Kingdom to work directly with their British counterparts and conduct additional interviews with witnesses and individuals who had previously been considered persons of interest.

Although requested by Portuguese authorities, the British government did not allow Kate and Jerry to return to the Algarve for questioning, partly due to concerns about psychological pressure and fairness in the investigative process.

During the meeting between both sides, investigators reassessed all previous DNA results, including the blood samples and traces detected by the police dogs in apartment 5A and the rental car.

The final conclusion showed that these samples matched only 88%.

A figure insufficient for any legal accusation, especially since the traces might have been present for years and completely unrelated to Meline.

Specific details about how authorities reached these conclusions were not disclosed.

Based on the official report from the meeting, the Portuguese public ministry decided to completely remove the Macccans and their traveling companions from suspect status.

With no further elements to pursue, the case was temporarily closed.

By April 2009, after being fully cleared of suspicion, Jerry returned to Portugal with the goal of keeping the case from being forgotten.

He proposed creating a documentary to mark the second anniversary of Meline’s disappearance.

The day before Jerry returned to Portugal, 21 of the 48 employees of Green Trust SA, the company that owned the Ocean Club Resort, were suddenly dismissed.

The company explained that it had been suffering heavy financial losses due to the prolonged impact of the incident involving Meline as well as the devaluation of the British pound which had caused a noticeable decline in tourism in the area.

That Saturday, Jerry arrived at the Ocean Club with a British television crew to film a Channel 4 documentary in which they reenacted key moments of Meline’s disappearance at various locations throughout the resort.

This angered several recently terminated employees who told local media they did not understand why they had been let go at that exact moment and even questioned whether the Macan family had any influence over Green Trust essay’s decision.

For the residents of Pria Daloo, Meline’s disappearance was considered the most damaging event the small town and the entire Algarve region had ever faced.

Those whose livelihoods depended on tourism, especially establishments like the Ocean Club, suffered significant losses as visitor numbers dropped sharply for several consecutive months.

While filming, as Jerry walked through certain streets, some local residents expressed frustration and asked him to leave the town and allow things to return to normal.

The documentary directed by Emma Loach, the daughter of a British filmmaker, was later broadcast on Channel 4 in May 2009, and the rights were quickly sold to several other television networks in Portugal and across Europe.

In March 2010, a Portuguese court ruled that Meline’s parents would receive the full investigation file, roughly 2,000 pages, related to her disappearance.

At that time, former commissioner Gonalo Amaral publicly criticized the decision, arguing that the Portuguese government had yielded too much to pressure from the United Kingdom and that closing the file on such a mysterious disappearance was a disgrace to the Portuguese justice system.

Gonzalo later became the target of a legal battle initiated by the Macans over his book titled Maddie, the truth of the lie.

The book was suspended from publication in September 2009 under an order from the Lisbon Civil Court after the Macs filed a request.

However, Gonzalo appealed to the Lisbon Court of Appeal and by February 2010, he was allowed to resume publication.

In November 2010, the Portuguese Supreme Court confirmed that freedom of expression must take priority and therefore upheld the decision, allowing the book to be distributed again.

The years’s long legal dispute between the two sides eventually escalated to the European Court of Human Rights, which in September 2022 ruled in favor of Gonalo Amaral and the Portuguese Supreme Court.

Closing a long and contentious chapter centered on freedom of publication and the Macan family’s reputation.

In 2011, Kate decided to write a book titled Meline to raise funds and continue the search for her daughter.

In it, she recounted the agonizing months and years following Meline’s mysterious disappearance, along with the severe emotional crises that once pushed their marriage to the brink of breaking.

and at times left her so overwhelmed with despair that she felt as if she wanted to give up on everything.

That same year, Meline’s parents turned to the British government to request that the case be reopened.

An opportunity arose when the son published an open letter from the Macan family on its front page, signed by 2,000 supporters, calling on Prime Minister David Cameron to launch a new investigation.

In response to this appeal, Scotland Yard initiated Operation Graange, funded from the Home Office’s Contingency Budget to review the entire case from the beginning.

The operation was overseen by Commander Simon Foy with Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood from the Homicide and Serious Crime Command leading the inquiry.

DCI Andy reported to Detective Chief Superintendent James Campbell.

The investigation team included three inspectors, five sergeants, 19 detectives, and about six civilian staff members, all working together to re-examine every detail of the long-running disappearance.

In 2012, Scotland Yard began approaching the case with the hypothesis that Meline might still be alive.

And to reinstate the yellow notice previously issued by Interpol, they released an age progressed image showing what she might look like at age 9 using facial aging technology.

By July 2013, the review was officially upgraded to a new investigation.

When Scotland Yard announced that they had gathered new evidence and new witnesses connected to the disappearance from the data examined, they decided to open a full investigation, arguing that there was still a possibility Meline was alive.

Following this line of inquiry, police identified 38 persons of interest, including 13 British citizens.

At that time, Portuguese authorities were still keeping the case closed.

In a BBC investigative program, police released an image of a man who had been seen carrying a blonde girl about 3 or 4 years old in Pria Deloo just 25 minutes before Meline was reported missing.

The man was described as medium build with short brown hair, clean shaven, fairs skinned, and estimated to be between 20 and 40 years old.

This discovery prompted Portuguese police to reopen their investigation in parallel with Scotland Yard based on the newly surfaced leads.

Authorities urged the public to help identify the man in the image, emphasizing that locating him was extremely important for clarifying the case.

At that time, investigators believed the disappearance was likely premeditated, and they focused on tracing the movements of everyone present between 8:30 p.

m.

and 1000 p.

m.

, the period when the Macans were at the resort’s restaurant on the haunting night of May 3rd, 2007.

In 2014, British detectives returned to Portugal to question three individuals accused of belonging to a burglary group operating in the southern Algarve as there were suspicions they might be connected to the disappearance, but no new leads were ultimately found.

Multiple search operations continued in Priadaloo, including a scrubland area southwest of the Ocean Club complex.

Yet all efforts led to dead ends.

The investigation team carried out excavations at several different locations using specialized police dogs and advanced equipment such as ground penetrating radar and even inspected drainage systems, gas lines, and underground electrical wiring in search of any suspicious trace.

under intense international media scrutiny.

By June 2014, the 10-day search operation conducted jointly by Scotland Yard and Portuguese police officially concluded without uncovering any findings related to Meline, leaving the investigation once again at a standstill.

In the end, even the large-scale deployment failed to produce any meaningful results.

After that, Scotland Yard officers continued interviewing additional individuals who had once been considered potentially connected to the case, hoping to uncover any new indication whatsoever.

The London Metropolitan Police, METI, initially received $420,000 in Home Office funding in 2011 to support the investigation.

But from then until 2022, the total cost rose to approximately $15.

5 million.

Investigators requested the translation of tens of thousands of documents, reviewed more than 8,000 suspicious sighting reports, took 1,338 statements, collected 1,27 exhibits, and examined the records of roughly 650 individuals previously linked to serious ethical issues along with 60 other people with prior offenses.

A total of 31 dedicated investigators worked exclusively on the case.

Yet, despite this massive workload, the investigation remained completely stalled, making no further progress in uncovering the truth behind Meline’s disappearance.

In 20 to20, the Meline case unexpectedly took a major turn when German and British police announced that for the first time they had identified an official prime suspect.

He was a man who had previously carried out a serious assault against a 72year-old woman in an area close to where Meline was last seen.

The suspect, Christian Brookner, age 43, was a dangerous individual serving time in Germany for that assault, along with several other unlawful acts committed in Pria Deloo, including trafficking and harmful substances and serious ethical violations involving minors.

Suspicion grew even stronger when investigators discovered that Brookner sold his Jaguar XJR6 just one day after Meline disappeared and then quickly left Portugal to return to Germany.

In addition, the suspect’s phone was confirmed to have connected for about 30 minutes with another number located in the immediate area where Meline vanished on the night of May 3rd, 2007.

He’s white.

He’s about 6′ in height.

He’s 43 now.

Um, at the time he was 30, but he could have looked somewhere between 25 and 32.

We know the identity of this male.

We have nominated him as a suspect.

For the inquiry and the investigation team, this is a significant development.

Um, we are we’ve been working on this line of inquiry um for a couple of years.

He had access to two vehicles.

What’s significant about the two vehicles? The first one is a camper van.

It’s a VW T3 Westfailia model.

It’s an early8s model.

Um, and the uh the color tone, it’s quite distinctive.

It was quite old and probably described as a bit beaten up, but it was an white upper body and a yellow sort of um lower body.

We know that that vehicle was in the area certainly the days leading up to it and the the week afterwards.

And there’s a second vehicle.

Yes, this is um a Jaguar.

It’s been described as dark in color.

It’s an XJR 6.

Um it was uh registered in 93.

Um and we want to know does anybody remember that vehicle? Um, it’s not particularly uncommon, not particularly unique, but somebody would have remembered a Jaguar car in that area.

Um, did you see a German male using that car? Can you remember the the car? Can you remember where you saw it? Most intriguing um is he he he reregistered the car um on May the 4th.

This is the day after um Meline went missing.

He asked a friend to register the car in his friend’s name.

We’ve um um established that our suspect, the man that we have identified, used a telephone um in that region at that time.

Particularly that phone was used at 7:32 p.

m.

and the phone call was finished at uh 8:02 p.

m.

He made he received a phone call um for 30 minutes.

And we know that that phone was in the area of PDL.

With these findings, German prosecutor Hans Christian Walters opened a new investigative case, raising the possibility that Meline may have suffered a tragedy caused by this individual based on his serious criminal history.

In statements to the media, German police even asserted that they considered the case to be essentially resolved despite not having found any physical evidence to prove it.

In 2022, Meline’s case was being monitored by only four detectives from the unit specializing in unresolved files, and they continued to provide regular updates to her parents.

However, in February 2023, The Mirror published a shocking report stating that German authorities had been unable to prove that Christian Brookner, the individual previously investigated for serious ethical violations, was the person who had taken Meline illegally.

The report also emphasized that the only firmly established fact up to that point was the complete absence of any trace of Meline for many years.

and that there was absolutely no convincing evidence to support the hypothesis that she had met a tragic end at the hands of the suspect.

On February 19th, 2023, the Meline case suddenly resurfaced when Julia Fina Wendell, a 21-year-old Polish woman living in Germany, publicly stated on Instagram with the caption, “I am Meline McCann.

” That she believed she might be Meline.

After noticing similar marks on her body and realizing she could barely remember her early childhood, Julia also asked Meline’s parents to agree to a DNA test and even wrote in her bio that she was grateful for the support and claimed Kate and Jerry had agreed to the test.

The appearance of the young woman sparked an enormous wave of attention, pulling the entire case back into the public spotlight and rekindling mysteries that had remained dormant since 2007, the year Meline vanished just days before her fourth birthday.

At the same time, old debates about the parents responsibility resurfaced with some people repeating doubts that had circulated for years.

For many, these accusations were the reason they believed Meline’s parents might refuse Julia’s request for a DNA test.

On February 20th, Julia continued to stir public attention when she claimed that thanks to support from social media, she had managed to get in touch with someone who knew Kate and Jerry, and that this person told her the family was considering a DNA test.

The Daily Mirror also quoted a close source saying that Meline’s parents have nothing to lose and admitted that some of Julia’s features did resemble their daughter, meaning a test could help resolve doubts that had lingered for many years.

However, despite all the noise, the idea ultimately never became reality.

On Julia’s Instagram, countless questions began to appear regarding her true motives.

When someone asked why she did not request a DNA test from her biological parents, Julia replied that they did not agree.

And she posted several images she claimed might be connected to Meline.

The most notable being a photo showing a rare mark in her right eye, a coliboma very similar to Meline’s distinctive feature before she disappeared.

if she were still alive.

Meline would be about 19 years old, younger than Julia by three years.

But Julia believed this detail meant little, arguing that children taken from their families were often given new names and altered birth dates.

Julia also shared that she had no clear memories of her childhood and no vivid recollection of ever being taken under unusual circumstances.

Occasionally, she recalled vague images of a beach that looked similar to Portugal, and it was precisely these fragmentaryary memories that led her to believe she might be the little girl who vanished mysteriously in 2007.

She said she had never seen any childhood photos of herself and was not even sure whether her parents kept her birth certificate.

According to Julia, they always avoided her questions and never gave clear answers.

When she asked whether they were truly her biological parents, they replied only with another question.

Would that change anything? Within just 2 days, her Instagram account gained thousands of new followers.

To many, Julia was simply a young woman struggling with psychological difficulties and seeking attention.

But the situation appeared to be far more complicated.

Because before going public online, she claimed she had sought help multiple times from police in Germany, Poland, and the United Kingdom.

On her personal account, she also shared deeply personal details about her past, including having been the victim of a serious assault, which led to a prolonged period of emotional crisis and post-trauma stress, factors that made her story heavier and even more controversial.

Julia Foster from Poland has made video statements in social media claiming to be the missing toddler.

She says similarities in appearance and age give reason for her tens of thousands of followers to believe she is Maline Macan.

Police confirm they have ruled out Miss Foster’s version of events.

Maline Macan’s parents have declined to comment.

Francisco Marco, former director of the Metadau 3 detective agency, who had once assisted the Macan family, compared photos of Meline and Julia, then stated that the initial biometric checks did not indicate that Julia was Meline.

However, a final conclusion would still require DNA analysis.

The London Metropolitan Police said they did not believe Julia’s claims because, according to their investigative direction.

Meline had most likely faced a tragedy on the very night she disappeared, making the possibility that Julia was the missing girl nearly impossible.

They even created an age progressed image to compare each facial feature of Meline with Julia and found no significant similarities.

By February 28th, Julia’s biological parents released a statement through the missing person’s organization, published by the New York Post, confirming that Julia was not Meline, and expressing deep concern about the psychological difficulties their daughter was experiencing.

They explained that Julia had moved out to live on her own and had stopped taking prescribed medication, which worsened her condition.

In a remorseful message, they emphasized that they had always tried to understand and support Julia through therapy, medication, psychologists, and psychiatrists.

They also said they kept complete memories and childhood photos of Julia, contradicting what she had claimed.

All of this evidence was handed over to Polish authorities, and the situation in Julia’s home country was officially closed.

Although that was the case, Fia Johansson, a woman who described herself as a spiritual intuitive and psychologist representing Julia, insisted that the young woman’s biological mother, had refused to take a DNA test, even though Fia said she had spoken with her directly and promised to protect her in every possible way.

Even so, the woman firmly rejected the idea.

FIA and Julia continued to state that they would pursue the truth to the end to uncover Julia’s real identity.

The Aerosmith page later confirmed that Julia had undergone a DNA test, and the results showed she might be connected to another missing child case.

The name mentioned was Lydia Sheff, a girl who disappeared in Switzerland in 2011 along with her twin sister Allesia when both were only 6 years old.

In early April 2023, the final DNA results were released.

Julia had no connection whatsoever to Meline’s family.

After the truth was confirmed, Fia told the son that Julia was now very willing to explore the possibility that she might be Lydia.

And the two of them were continuing to investigate this direction as a new source of hope.

John Tully, president of the London Metropolitan Police Federation, once remarked that at some point investigators would have to stop chasing shadows across the world.

He said this in the context of the Meline case becoming the center of countless theories.

From the possibility that she was taken by someone with harmful intentions or fell into the hands of traffickers and was exploited in cruel ways to the idea that she wandered out of the apartment on her own and suffered a tragic accident or even the most controversial theory that her family staged the entire disappearance.

many speculations, yet absolutely none supported by solid evidence.

After more than 16 years of searching, Meline’s file remains open as a missing person case, and unlike many similar situations, her story continues to draw public attention.

One newspaper reported that by 2022, the case had accumulated more than 12,000 pages of official documents, over 2,000 investigative actions by police, and around 500 searches across related areas.

Yet, none have been able to unravel one of the greatest mysteries Europe has ever witnessed.

Regarding Meline, her story has never truly come to a close.

Several books have been published, including two written by Kate herself, and even a major streaming platform produced an 8 episode series retracing every development in the case.

For some, the continued attention over the years is the result of the Macan family and their advisers consistently using the media to keep the investigation alive and to reinforce their innocence.

But others believe the Macccans benefited financially from their own tragedy and they were even accused at one point of using money from the fined Meline fund to pay the mortgage on their home.

There are also those who think the case remained prominent simply because it touches the heart of any parent, making the public’s interest naturally endure over time.

What is most evident today is that there is still no sign the case will ever reach a legal conclusion.

Investigators in both Portugal and the United Kingdom have found nothing new that could unravel the mystery that has persisted for so many years, nor provide the answer millions around the world still long for.

What truly happened to Meline that night? One undeniable truth is that as long as this mystery exists, the story of the little British girl will continue to live on across social media in endless debates and in the hearts of those who keep hoping for an answer.

As we close this heartbreaking journey, it is impossible not to think of Meline, the 4-year-old girl with a smile as bright as the Algarve son, who became the symbol of a mystery that has weighed on the world for more than 16 years.

Meline’s case revealed not only investigative shortcomings, the immense force of the media, and the countless theories built over time.

But above all, it reminds us that vigilance and protection for children must never be taken lightly, not even for a single moment.

One brief lapse can create an irreplaceable void in a family’s life.

Thank you for taking the time to follow today’s story on true crime documentary.

If this case touched your heart, please share the video so more people may learn about this unresolved journey and leave a comment in memory of Meline so her light will never be forgotten.

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I’ll see you in the next video and may the truth about Meline one day finally come to light.