It’s been over 9 years since little Madeleine McCann went missing during her family’s vacation in Praia da Luz, Portugal. The heartbreaking story is one that’s been called the “most heavily reported missing-person case in modern history.” 3-year-old Madeleine was on holiday vacation with her parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, and her younger twin siblings, Sean and Amelie, in Praia da Luz, along with another group of family friends and their children back in May of 2007. Madeleine and the twins were put to bed and left asleep in the apartment at 8:30 pm, while Kate and Gerry and their friends were having dinner 160 feet away in a tapas restaurant. Kate checked on the children to discover Madeleine missing an hour and half later. In the beginning of the case, the McCanns were declared as suspects after a misinterpretation of DNA analysis that showed Madeleine died in the holiday apartment. The parents were later cleared by Portugal’s attorney general.The government reported in June 2015 that the search to find Madeleine had cost in excess of £10million.
She was also holding her toy Cuddle Cat and comfort blanket.
The three children were left asleep in a bedroom next to the front door as their parents dined with their friends at a tapas restaurant 160 feet away.
Mother Kate snapped the last photo of Madeleine sitting next to her younger sister Amelie and her father, Gerry.
Her mother feels Madeleine is still somewhere in Portugal.
Kate told The Sun, “That’s where she last was and I don’t think she’s been taken a million miles from there.”
The parents will not give up searching for their little girl.
They worry that people won’t recognize her if they see her.
The photos here show how much Madeleine would’ve changed over the years.
May 12, 2016 would have been Madeleine’s 13th birthday. The photo show an artist’s impression of aged Madeleine pale and the other tan with darker hair.
Some cases of abducted children being found and returned home happen because of a vigilant member of the general public who recognized the missing child’s face from a poster.
