Money Crimes with Nicole Lapin - Madeleine McCann: The World's Most Watched Case with Andrea Dunlop

Episode Date: August 11, 2026

In this episode, we're joined by Andrea Dunlop, host of Nobody Should Believe Me, to examine the haunting case of Madeleine McCann. On the evening of May 3, 2007, three-year-old Madeleine McCann vanished from the family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, while her parents dined at a nearby restaurant. What followed became the most publicized missing child investigation in modern history. The global media spectacle turned her parents into suspects, generated more heat than light, and produced decades of leads that went nowhere. A German national was formally named a suspect in 2020, but no charges have been filed. Behind the noise of international coverage, a small child simply disappeared. For more, follow The Final Hours wherever you listen to podcasts: https://pod.link/1872821250If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Scams, Money, & Murder to never miss a case! To hear episodes ad-free, subscribe to Crime House+. Join at crimehouseplus.com or if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts, tap “Try Free” at the top of this show’s page. Scams, Money, & Murder is a Crime House Original Podcast, powered by PAVE Studios.🎧 Need More to Binge? Listen to other Crime House Originals Clues, Crimes Of Reddit, Crime House 24/7, Serial Killers & Murderous Minds, Murder True Crime Stories, and more wherever you get your podcasts!Follow me on SocialInstagram: @CrimehouseTikTok: @CrimehouseFacebook: @crimehousestudiosX: @crimehousemediaYouTube: @crimehousestudios

Hi listeners, it's Vanessa. Before today's episode, I want to tell you about another show I think you'll love. Crime House and A&E are teaming up on the podcast version of the famous true crime series, The First 48. Each week, Carter Roy takes you inside a landmark homicide case, the interrogations, the dead ends, and the breakthroughs in the critical first 48 hours. Listen to and follow the First 48 every Thursday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts. This is Crime House.

It's 2007. You're on Priya Duluth on the southern coast of Portugal, specifically at a popular resort called the Ocean Club, the kind of place that checks every box for a family vacation. On one side of the pool are kids clubs, tennis courts, a tapas restaurant, and a bar. On the other, spacious apartments with verandas, full kitchens, and multiple bedrooms. Adventures nearby if you want them. But really, this is a place for people who love routine.

Wake up, breakfast, drop off the kids at the club, play tennis, sip wine by the pool, repeat. By day six of their trip, the McCann family had that routine dialed in. They've been eating dinner with their friends at the resort's Topas restaurant every night. It's just 180 feet away from their apartment, so every half hour, they take turns checking in on the kids. But on that night, Thursday, May 3, 2007, Kate McCann enters the house. the apartment for the 10 p.m. check, and that's when she finds the window and shutters pushed open, and her three-year-old daughter's bed is empty. Despite a massive international search, nobody has been able to find Madeline McCann for 19 years, making her case one of the most

infamous international searches in history. Every year, over half a million people go missing, and that's just in the United States alone. Most of those stories barely get a headline. Some don't even get a tip line. And when cases do get media attention, we usually only get the broad strokes. But for those of us who have lived these true crime cases, we know the devil's in the details. This is the final hours, a crime house original powered by Pave Studios. I'm Sarah Turney. And I'm Courtney Nicole. Today we've got something really special in store. We're joined by Andrea Dunlop, host of the podcast Nobody Should Believe Me, and author of some incredible books like The Mother Next Door, women are the fiercest creatures and we came here to forget.

Like us, Andrea also has a unique connection to the true crime world. And she's channeling that firsthand experience to educate people about the dangers of Munchausen's by proxy. Hi, Andrea, welcome to the podcast. Hi. Hi, Courtney. Hi, Sarah. Thank you so much for having me. It's really a pleasure to be on with you to today.

Yeah, thank you for being here. Do you want to tell us a little bit about your background? Yeah, absolutely so much, as you said, in the end of the end of the same, intro, and as you two both have, I have a connection to true crime in the world and it being covered in the media. And so my show, nobody should believe me, I started it about four years ago now to explore Munchausen by proxy abuse, which is a form of abuse in which a caregiver either fabricates, exaggerates, or induces illness, usually in a small child.

usually committed by mothers and there was a case of this abuse in my family that was never resolved and so that is what inspired me to want to learn more about it and that really took me on this whole journey and now we are seven seasons in and going strong and it is yeah it was an unexpected career pivot for sure, but I'm really happy to be on with fellow creators that really care about this space and care about doing it right and obviously know what it's like to have your own family covered in the media in not such a responsible way. And that is, so I'm glad you guys are doing this work and happy to be here with you. It's a club nobody really wants to be in, but we're really happy to have you here. Crimehouse exists because of listeners like you. Want even more? Join

Crimehouse Plus and get every episode of the final hours and the rest of the crimehouse lineup, ad-free and early. Plus at least two bonus episodes every month. To join, go to Crimehouseplus.com, or if you listen on Apple Podcasts, tap Try Free at the Top of the Final Hour show page. As always, this show is made and recorded by humans, not AI. Today, Andrea is going to help us discuss the disappearance of Madeline McCann. As Courtney and I take you through the case, Andrea will join in to give her thoughts on the

investigation. In May 2007, three-year-old Madeline was on a resort vacation in Portugal with her family and three other families they were close with. On the evening of May 3rd, she had a long, exciting day, wound down with milk, and then her parents tucked her into bed. Unfortunately, that would be the last good night for the McCanns. To this day, they continue to search for answers in their daughter's disappearance. Hey, Ontario, come on down to BedmGM Casino and see what our newest exclusive. the Price's Right Fortune Pick has to offer. Don't miss out.

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She was a three-year-old on vacation with her siblings, her parents, and three other families with young kids. They chose a resort built specifically for families, kids clubs, playgrounds, kiddie pools, nurseries. And yet, that's where she was taken, right out of her bed. It reads like a nightmare. But that's not how Madeline's life began. Before we get into what happened, let's talk about who this little girl was. It's the spring of 2007. Three-year-old Madeline Beth McCann lives with her two-year-old twin siblings

and her parents in Leicestershire, England. Her mom, 39-year-old Kate, is a general physician. Her dad, 38-year-old Jerry, is a consultant cardiologist. Kate and Jerry met in 1993 when they were both 24, living in Glasgow after graduating with their medical degrees. Their social circles overlap constantly. They kept ending up at the same events.

In December 1998, after five years together, they got married in Liverpool. Kate always dreamed of a big family, but getting pregnant didn't come easy, so she underwent IVF. When it finally worked, it felt like a miracle. Madeline Beth McCann was born on Monday, May 12, 2003. From the start, she was outgoing and full of life. She had a great sense of humor, loved to chat, and made friends easily, with both adults and kids. She was into pink and sparkles and dolls and dresses. but she also had a ton of energy.

Running, swimming, she was always up for an adventure. And Kate and Jerry were absolutely crazy about her. But they wanted that big family. So Kate did IVF again. On February 1st, 2005, she had twins. A boy and a girl, Sean and Amalie. Even at 20 months old, Madeline took the big sister role very seriously. Man, I think there's something really special about growing up with siblings.

I have two little brothers and one older sister, and although I didn't really grow up with my little brothers because of a big age gap, the bond we all have is really unlike any other, and we still learn a lot from each other to this day. Yeah, I obviously have a more complicated relationship with having a sibling. I am estranged from my sibling, and I will say also, though, that, you know, because those events that caused that estrangement happened much later in our lives, I was 20. when we became estranged, and our relationship was pretty strained throughout my 20s because of the events that led up to this whole situation. And at the same time, like, I have so many good memories of actually growing up with my sister. I think it's one of the things that I simultaneously can feel confusing and also that I hold on to. Because I did get to have those really nice childhood experiences of, you know, having someone to play with who is very close in age. We're less than two years apart, especially going on vacations together. Like, I have so many good memories of that. I know

I have two kids, so I'm watching them navigate having a sibling, which they're four and seven. So it's like, you know, one second they're best buddies and co-conspirators and then the next second they're, you know, like doing a WWF reenactment on our couch. But, you know, but it's like such a joy to watch them together. So, yeah, it's certainly, certainly, certainly like a big part of your life growing up no matter what. Yeah. Yeah, I'm in the same boat. The youngest of six, but due to my sister's case, we are estranged from each other now. It's just, I think, just so heartbreaking how true crime can break up families. And I think it happens more often than not, unfortunately. I see this all the time with families and true crime. But, I mean, to your point, I think growing up

with siblings, and when you're young and you don't know about any of these things, there is a lot of magic to that. Yeah. And Sarah, like, did you have, do you still have, like, all those, like, how do you feel about those good memories in light of what happened as adults? Yeah, I mean, I'm happy to have them. You know what I mean? It is bittersweet. You look back and you think, you know, what if we were close today and what might that evolve into? But at the very least, I am grateful for good memories with my siblings. Also, Andrea, I love that you brought up having kids. I also have three kids and they're all little as well. And it's, it's really cool to like look back on your own childhood and like having those special moments with your siblings and then now watching that same thing take place

with your kids. It's like a really special thing to live through and like to view. Yeah, it is really special. And I think, you know, it's so like the other thing Sarah like that I found is like a lot of, you know, we have really dramatic stories about becoming as strange from our siblings. But people become as strange or drift apart for all kinds of reasons as adults. And so I think it's like, yeah, like that time when you're a child with your sibling is really magical and like that's special even if you don't you aren't always that close you know hopefully you are like of course i hope my children will be best friends forever but uh you know that won't always be under our control by all accounts the mccan house was full of laughter kate and jerry love spending time

together as a family so when their friends viona and david pain invited them on a spring vacation on new year's day 2007 it didn't take much convincing plus they had two young kids as well two-year-old lily and one-year-old Scarlet. The Pains were planning a week at a Mark Warner brand resort in the Algar region of southern Portugal called the Ocean Club. Kate and Jerry had traveled with them before.

The resort had a good reputation, sports facilities, and things for the kids to do. The only thing that gave Kate Paws was the price tag, but the rest of the group talked her into it. There ended up being four families in total. The McCanns, the Pains,

Rachel and Matt Oldfield with their toddler Grace, and Jane Tanner and Russell O'Brien, with their three-year-old daughter Ella and the even younger Evie. Madeline was thrilled. She couldn't stop bragging about it at her daycare. When Kate picked her up, her caregivers would say things like, I hear you're going to Portugal, or someone can't wait for her holiday. Do you guys have any memories like this growing up?

Like, just something you were so excited about as a kid that, I don't know, was just super exciting? Um, yes, going to Disneyland. We would do it every summer, and my favorite thing was the smash pennies. Like, I didn't realize that we didn't have a lot of. money, right? So it was like a very easy souvenir. But I would spend like weeks collecting these shiniest pennies, like cleaning the dirty ones and getting ready. I loved going on vacation. Yeah, same. Vacations were so fun. I was one of those main character syndrome girls who was like, I got to get out of my small town, you know. And so like I was always like looking forward to

having these adventures and actually, you know, my, so I would like count down and like cross out days on the calendar. And like one time I remember I made, you know, those like construction paper rings that you make in a big thing to count down. Like I would do that. And also, you know, interesting, you were just talking about siblings. You know, my sister and I, because we were so close in age, like a lot of times we'd be like kind of battling it out. But then we always got along so well on vacation. And actually we're about to leave for a vacation with my two tomorrow or on Sunday. And so I'm really hoping that that holds. I'm like, I hope that you guys are just like, yes, siblings on vacation are only happy and not having over twice.

Fingers crossed for you. Yeah. You never know how that's going to go. You know, pray for me. I have a long car drive. Oh, for sure. Yeah, I remember being really little, and my mom would usually wait until the day we were supposed to go somewhere. Usually, we would always take vacations to Silverwood in Idaho.

I didn't ever go to Disneyland. So Silverwood was like my Disneyland. But she would literally wait until the day before to tell us, to get us excited. And I vividly remember not being able to fall asleep that entire night because I was just so excited. And I don't know, it was like that childlike excitement too. So it was like super intense. And I can only imagine that's what Madeline was feeling in this moment too. Yeah.

And I love that her like daycare teachers were hyping her up. That's so cute. Well, they were more than ready to go. On Saturday, April 28, 2007, the pains arrived at the McCann's house before 7. a.m. And even that early, the kids were buzzing. The two families drove to East Midlands Airport together, had breakfast, and flew to Portugal. The Oldfields and the O'Brien's were flying out of a different airport, so they'd all meet up at the resort. The McCanns and Paines arrived at the Ocean Club in Priya Dulouse around 3 p.m. After check-in, a resort minibus took them to their apartments,

a low-rise block where each family had their own unit. They could access them from the road out front through a small parking lot. But after the first couple of days, nobody would really used that entrance. They came and went through the back patio doors. Out back, the apartments overlooked a pool area with a bar and tennis courts. Each veranda opened onto a narrow access path that ran along the length of the block, though there wasn't an entrance from the path into the pool area itself. To get there, you had to go to the road and use the main entrance. The McCanns had a ground floor corner unit, nicer than they'd expected. Kate envied the Payne's ocean view from the second floor, but she was glad not to have to worry about the kids near a balcony.

Kate and Jerry's room was toward the back of the apartment. The children slept in the front bedroom, nearest the front door, which the McCand's kept locked. The kids' room had a window and exterior roller shutter, which they always kept shut as well. And that's how it was meant to stay all week. Since the setup meant the room stayed dark, Kate and Jerry always left the kid's bedroom door crack to let some light in. Little did they know, that same door would be a tell-tale clue later in the week. You want to believe you're safe in the Heartland And it just changed

On the Murder in the Heartland podcast from ID We'll examine true stories that happened in a town A lot like yours I regret not telling the police I knew who did it I wanted the person to pay For what they had done to her There was a sense of bloodthirst

We have to get revenge Listen to Murder in the Heartland Wherever you get your podcasts On Saturday, April 28, 2007, the first day of their vacation, the McCanns reorganized their sleeping arrangements and unpack some essentials. After getting settled, they joined the rest of the group by the pool. The other two families had already beaten them there. Kate took a quick dip with Madeline, even though the water was freezing.

That evening, they went to a welcome meeting with the Mark Warner team, got the rundown on all the facilities and events, and figured out dinner. Their first night, they walked to the Millennium Restaurant. The problem? it was nearly half a mile away. Getting a pack of exhausted toddlers there involved a lot of stopping and caring, and by the time they got back,

everyone was wiped out. Not to mention the kid's bedtime was an hour behind schedule. But they did find an alternative. Right across the pool from their apartment was a small outdoor tapas restaurant, canopyed, incredibly close, 15 seats max. Reservations had to be made the day of,

but they got lucky and got one for the next night. The plan? kids have their tea early, play for a bit, go to bed at their usual time. Then the adults eat later. No overtired toddlers, no half-mile march with a stroller. All four families also booked their kids into the resort clubs for the week. Madeline went to the mini club for three to five-year-olds, a sunlit room above the 24-hour reception.

Her friend Ella was there too. Even though they hadn't seen each other in months, they clicked immediately. Madeline also took a liking to their assigned nanny, as did Kate. Dropping the kids off gave Kate and Jerry a rare stretch of quality time together. They went for runs, played tennis, and signed up for group lessons for the rest of the week. By day three, their vacation routine clicked into place. Breakfast at the apartment, clubs for the kids, tennis and downtime for the parents, family lunch, afternoon activities, then high tea at 5 p.m.,

where the nannies brought out all the kids to meet their parents near the tapas area, a quick run around the play area, then bedtime. And despite the restaurant's no advance reservations rule, one of the moms, Rachel, convinced the receptionist otherwise. She agreed to hold their table at 8.30 p.m. every night for the rest of the week. Oh, one of the questions that I had for you, Andrea, is, have you ever seen in cases like this specifically where this type of routine, where it's like every single night on a vacation,

have you ever seen something like that be weaponized against the parents or the people involved? Yeah, I haven't seen something where I've just seen sort of people. do that double thing. Like I, one of the things I think about a lot is like, you know, I'll see these stories that get rewritten as false allegations. And like the first story about the parents will be their mugshots and the description from the police. And people are like, these people are horrible, throw them off a building. And then, you know, that turns around. And then it's like, oh, no, look, they were falsely accused by a conspiracy of doctors. And then people are like, these poor people, throw the doctors off a building. You know, and I'm like, I don't think either of these is the right way

to respond. And I think it's always just better if you can take a beat and remember that everyone involved is a human and keep everyone's humanity at the center and keep your compassion at the center. By now, the evening routine looks something like this. Around 6 p.m. each night, the kids would start winding down back at their apartments. The McCanns had their own little bedtime ritual, milk in stories before falling asleep. In Portugal, they were always down by 7 or 715. since they had exciting packed days with no naps. Sean and Amelie were excellent sleepers. And if Madeline ever woke up at night,

it was always in the early hours of the morning, rarely before two or three. So after putting the kids to bed, Kate and Jerry showered and got dressed for dinner. Then they enjoyed a glass of wine together in their apartment before walking over to the Tapas restaurant. At that time, most Mark Warner Resorts offered a baby listening service, which meant members of the staff would listen at guest's doors

to make sure none of the children inside had woken up. But since the Ocean Club was more spread out than other Mark Warner resorts, it didn't offer the baby listening service. And remember, this was 2007, so video baby monitors were pretty expensive and didn't have great range. There definitely weren't the ones you could check from your cell phone. The hotel did offer a night nursery from 7.30 to 11 p.m. But since it opened after the McCann children needed to be in bed,

it didn't feel like the best option. They figured with the restaurant so close to their apartments, the families would just do their own child checks. Aside from the Pains, who did have a fancy new video monitor, the other three families each sent a parent back to their own apartment every half hour to check on the kids. Kate and Jerry made sure one of them laid eyes on all three children every single time. The apartments were less than a minute away from the Tapas restaurant,

and pretty visible from the outdoor seating. Besides, the resort was very child-friendly and full of families like theirs, so they properly figured what could go wrong. For the first few nights, the answer was, nothing. So understandably, the McCanns got comfortable with this method by day five, Wednesday May 2nd. In fact, instead of heading back to the apartments after dinner that night, the adults went to the bar for a nightcap. That stretched the gap between the last child check and actually getting home to about 45 minutes instead of the usual half hour. Around 11.50 p.m., Jerry and Kate

went back to their room after a little tiff. She stayed in the kids' room with them that night. the next morning, Thursday, May 3rd, everyone's up by 7.30 a.m. At breakfast, Madeline asked her parents something that stops them cold. Quote, why didn't you come when Sean and I cried last night? Kate and Jerry hadn't heard a thing, and to them it seemed unlikely that between one of those half-hour checks, one, let alone two of their children would have woken up, cried, and soothed themselves back to sleep, especially without anyone noticing. Kate's also certain that nobody cried while she was sleeping in the room. When they ask Madeline at what point in the night she's referring to, she doesn't elaborate. She just moves on to the next thing. That same day, Kate notices something else,

a large brown stain on Madeline's pink Eeyore pajama top. She has no idea how it got there. It looks like tea. Kate and Jerry drink a lot of tea, and it's possible Madeline had a small cup in those pajamas. For the moment, Kate writes it off as a spill and hangs it out to dry on the veranda, but it's not the spill that will become memorable later. It's the pajamas themselves. That morning follows the usual routine, kids clubs and tennis. Some of the group floats the idea of canceling that night's reservation and going to the Millennium Restaurant instead. Another couple at the resort had tried to book the Tapas restaurant and couldn't get in. And with their group taking up most of the 15 seats, they felt a bit guilty. But they inevitably

stick to the plan. After her tennis lesson, Kate walks with Fiona Payne to pick up Madeline and Scarlet from their club. Fiona mentioned she'd been windsurfing that morning and spotted Madeline's club group down the beach for a mini-sail activity, a speedboat and dingy excursion. She saw Ella there, but not Madeline. What do you guys think of these clues? I mean, like, we've said so many times, hindsight is 2020, but what do you think of these small little things? Like, do you think at the time you would think they were red flags or just, you know, random things that? that kids do. I think leaving kids that young where you can't hear them is, I don't think it's a great idea, but I can see how you would talk yourself into it and kind of be like, this is fine, we're being

overly anxious or whatever, or let's not be overanxious. But then I think the minute my kid says something to me like, hey, why didn't you come when I cried like last night? I would have been like, whoop, that's it. Like, I'm not going out to dinner anymore because I would just be like, oh, this is the thing that I would be worried about happening, which is your kid needs you for something and you're not there. Yeah. And so I do. agree with you, I do think that's really a young age to leave them, especially where you can't hear, that I don't want to criticize these parents. They've been through the unimaginable. Well, and none of this points to an abduction for me. Like a three-year-old having a mysterious

stain on their pajamas, I'm not going to think she could be abducted. Well, and the unfortunate reality is that people who take these positions with kids are sometimes predators too. That's how predators get close to children is oftentimes they work with them. I used to work with kids in foster care. And we would unfortunately see that. I mean, you know, with, kids comes the predators that want to harm them, unfortunately. Especially these parents, too. Like, they specifically picked this resort because it's very family-oriented and, like, had a known reputation for being safe and all of these kids, you know, activities and, like,

all of this stuff. And so I feel like they really did their research when going here. And it's just sad because the truth is, like, you never know what's going to happen. And you never know the dangerous people that could be lurking in any given situation anywhere. After lunch and a trip to the toddler pool, Kate and Jerry drop all three kids back at their clubs and head to the tennis courts for their lesson. Afterward, Jerry stays to play around while Kate goes for a run along the beach. By 5.30 p.m., Kate finishes her run and finds Madeline and the twins already at the topis area with Jerry, having their tea. But Madeline looks pale and exhausted.

Kate asks if she's okay. Madeline says she was fine when Ella left, but now she's really tired. 10 minutes later, Kate carries her back to the apartment, cutting the day short a little early. That evening, just after 8.30 p.m., Jerry checks on the kids one last time before they head off to dinner. He and Kate exit through the back patio doors same as the nights before. They leave a lamp on in the living room, close the curtains on the glass doors for privacy, and shut the doors without locking them. The child safety gates at the top and bottom of the veranda steps are both closed too.

Over dinner, Kate and Jerry mentioned what Matt. Madeline said at breakfast, about crying in the night. Nobody wants their child waking up and wondering where their parents are. So tonight, everyone agrees to be prompt with their checks. Just before 9.05 p.m., Jerry finishes ordering and heads back for the first check. He goes through the patio doors, and almost immediately, he notices the children's bedroom door is further open than they left it. He peeks into the master bedroom first, in case Madeline wandered into her parent's bed to sleep, but she's not there. She's still in the front bedroom with her siblings,

sound asleep, so it's strange that the door was open wider than usual. Nonetheless, Madeline is in the exact same position as when they left her. And Jerry pauses for a moment, thinking how beautiful she looks. Then he puts the door back to its original cracked position, uses the bathroom, and heads back out.

At 9.30 p.m., Kate stands up to do the next check. At the same moment, their friend Matt says he's going to check on his daughter, Grace, and their apartment is right next door. So he offers to pop into their room and do the check for the McCannes. Kate hesitates, but she doesn't want to seem, in her words, silly by insisting on going herself, so she lets him. When Matt comes back, he tells them everything's quiet, though he admits that he only listened outside the door and didn't actually go inside. Then, a half hour later, at 10 p.m., Kate goes back herself. She enters through the patio doors and stands in the sitting room listening. All is quiet, but something's off. The children's bedroom door

is now wide open, so she walks over and closes it, but she notices that it slams shut with a bang, almost like there's a draft in the room. There's a reason for that. The window is open in the kid's room, a window she was sure they'd closed before leaving. So Kate pushes the bedroom door back open and looks toward Madeline's bed. It's dark, and she doesn't want to turn on the light and wake the kids, so she gives her eyes a moment to adjust. She sees the twins sleeping soundly, but Madeline is gone. It's Thursday, May 3rd, 2007,

just after 10 p.m. Kate McCann has just realized Madeline is missing. She tears through the apartment, the master bedroom, the wardrobes, the kitchen cabinets, the bathroom. Then she runs back into the children's room. As she steps inside, the curtains fly up in a gust of wind.

The window behind them is wide open. The outside shutters are raised all the way. Kate switches into the clear-headed, adrenaline-fueled focus that can only come with her years of medical training. She blasts through the rest of the apartment one more time. Then she races out the patio doors and sprints to the taffas restaurant. As soon as she can see the table, she starts screaming that Madeline is gone,

that someone has taken her. The whole group is on their feet instantly, racing back to the McCann's apartment. Jerry goes through his own stage of denial doing his own checks. Meanwhile, Kate is out in the parking lot screaming Madeline's name. From inside the kids' room, Jerry closes the open window shutter, then steps outside and finds it can also be raised from there. He, David, Russell, and Matt split into pairs and searched the neighboring apartment blocks.

They're back within minutes. No, Madeline. Just after 10.10 p.m., Jerry sends Matt to the 24-hour reception to have staff call the police. The Mark Warner employees round up as many callings as the callings as the they can, including off-duty workers and team members just finishing shifts. Around 10.30 p.m., they activate Mark Warner's Missing Child Protocol and organize a company search of the resort and its surroundings. At 11.10 p.m., two officers show up from Lagoshe, the nearest town about four miles away. But these aren't criminal investigators. They're GNR. The Guarda Nacional, Republicana, essentially military police. Their duties include things like highway

patrol and crowd control. They also handle law enforcement in more rural areas and can make arrests, but they don't handle serious criminal investigations like this is about to be. The main force that investigates crimes, the Policia Judiceyria, or PJ, doesn't arrive until about 1 a.m. Could setting the wrong police unit have been a critical failure point in Madeline's investigation? I do think so, because as we all know, those first few hours are so important in a missing person case. But I do think this happens more often than people really. realize, especially in those first few hours when everyone is still trying to figure out what they're dealing with. I mean, at this point in time, nobody knew how big this case was going to get.

Yeah, and I think that they're fighting like two realities, right? We know that most kids who are missing come back and they're found and it's like not a huge deal, but also that those first few hours and preserving a crime scene are extremely critical. So it's like, which do you choose? Well, okay, like I have a question for you guys. What do you make of the dad's story about the door being wider open, that would freak me out, I think. My thing is, like, if you have a three-year-old that can get in and out of bed, right, I'm assuming, who's to say she didn't walk out, grab a glass of water, and come back? Like, that seems like a very normal thing for a child to do or use the restroom, right?

Just leave the room and come back, and that's why the door would open. That would be my first assumption. Yeah, I mean, I don't think I would right away go to, like, something terrible has happened. I think I would be so paranoid that I just think, like, I would be so, and maybe I'm just imposing, like, that I would be so anxious if I left my kids by themselves. And I mean, yeah, like, there are these other pieces, right? Like, it's, and again, not to just, like, overly criticize the parents, but I think, like, you know, you wonder, like, why does the mom override her instinct to go check on her? Especially if she wasn't feeling well.

Like, I think that's also, like, you know, they're saying, like, she isn't feeling great that day. And they kind of went in a little early. I'm wondering if they just didn't register anything could have been wrong or maybe they just felt extremely safe there because I remember them saying that they were jealous of their friend's Ocean View on the second floor but they felt much safer on the ground level because there's no balcony that they have to worry about which I totally get like that is a big worry with little kids. So I'm wondering if it just didn't register with them. But I feel like if that was me and I saw the door, I think I'd be opposite. My mind would immediately go like someone's been in here. Like I think I'm just overly paranoid and when I see that, I'm like, okay, that's not normal. like alerts going off, but now that we kind of know everything about this case, like it's hard to distinguish what little clues could have been wrong from the get-go, rather than just the noise. Well, we know one way that delay hurt Madeline's case. There was no crime scene tape on her bedroom for the first three hours of the search.

Jerry did everything he could to keep people from disturbing the room, but it's fair to say some things might have been compromised. By the time the PJ have secured the perimeter, somebody is already ready to give a witness statement. the McCann's friend and travel companion, Jane Tanner, who was with them at dinner. Jane says around 9.15 p.m., while she was on her way back to check on her kids, she'd spotted a man crossing the street in front of the McCann's apartment. He was walking away, carrying what appeared to be a sleeping child.

At that moment, she assumed it was a dad taking his kid home from the night nursery. But the second she heard Madeline was missing, it clicked. Around 3 a.m. on Friday, May 4th, just a few hours into the investigation, the PJ officers call it quits for the night. They tell the McCanns they'll be back later after 9 a.m. and leave. By this point, they'd only spent two hours on the scene. The search that follows is slow and frustrating to say the least. Nowhere near the scale the McCanns feel the situation demands.

They're told two patrol dogs were brought in on Friday at 2 a.m. And four search and rescue dogs were brought in at 8 a.m. But if there were police searches overnight, Kate and Jerry didn't see them. In the meantime, the McCanns move apartments, as theirs is now a crime scene. It's not until later that morning that police collect Madeline's pink princess blanket so the dogs can sniff her scent. That's also when a forensic team comes out to the apartment, and the GNR asks for more details on Madeline's description. Around 10 a.m., a couple of PJ officers show up and say they need to take the McCans in for questioning, along with all three families they traveled with.

The British Council meets them at the police station for interviews that last into the evening. On Saturday, May 5th, the PJ releases a public statement. Their theory is that Madeline was abducted by a stranger and is still alive, possibly for ransom. The ground search runs for about a week without any luck before police announced that they're winding it down on May 10th. Then, on May 14th, 11 days after Madeline's disappearance, police bring in their first suspect. A local 33-year-old named Robert Morat. He lives in a place about 400,000. 50 feet from the McCann's resort apartment. The Ocean Club is not walled in like other resorts. It's integrated into the town on residential streets. So Robert has nothing to do with the ocean

club. He's just a neighbor. The same day he's questioned, they search his house and car, drain his swimming pool, and confiscate his electronic devices. But they don't find any evidence tying him to Madeline. Interestingly enough, there is a connection between Robert and Kate McCann. On the morning of May 4th, when G&R officers asked Kate for more details about Madeline, they struggled to communicate through the language barrier. Robert volunteered to translate. Robert says he wanted to help because Madeline reminds him of his own daughter. They're around the same age and look similar,

which makes it even easier to imagine himself in the McCann's position. This doesn't clear him of his suspect status, though. On May 16th, 13 days after the disappearance, the McCann set up Madeline's fund to finance their own search efforts. several celebrities donate and help amplify Madeline's story. On May 25th, the police finally released Jane's description of the man she saw walking away with a child that night. Nothing comes of it, though. With no solid new leads, they search Robert Morat's house again three months after Madeline's disappearance.

On Saturday, August 4th and Sunday, August 5th. On Saturday, August 11th, exactly 100 days after Madeline's disappearance, police admit for the first time they're considering murder. murder. The McCanns are still in Portugal, by the way, so they can stay present for the investigation. But after that day, the police don't communicate with the McCanns for almost a month. They're left wondering why, and it's painful. Finally, on Thursday, September 6th, the PJ interrogates Kate and Jerry. And the next day, Friday, September 7th, 2007, something really gut-wrenching happens. Kate and Jerry are named as formal suspects in connection with their own daughter's disappearance. And they say some of it has to do with the way Kate was grieving.

Do you guys think there's a right way for a mother, really anyone, to grieve? No. What was it specifically that people were criticizing her for? I think it was like she wasn't crying enough for them, which is what I always hear that drives me insane. Like, what is the right amount of crying? And also, like, I think there's a multitude of factors happening here. Like, one, these are both medical professionals who are trained to, you know, kind of curb their emotions in high-stress situation. So they have that training, right? And two, I know from my personal experience going on camera advocating for a missing loved one, my focus is I need to get this message across. I need to get people to care, right? And if I start crying, that all

goes out the window for me. So I really have a hard time judging people with how they grieve, because I think everybody does it different. Yeah, and I don't know what I would be like if this happened to me. I mean, and I think some people, like you said, everyone handles grief differently. and some people really shut down. Some people are very stoic. Yeah, I think especially doctors who are used to having to manage their emotions. Like, I think people don't know. It's like, it's very easy be like, well, if I was in that situation, I would do X, Y, and Z. And it's like, you don't know. Like, we don't act how we think we're going to act in these situations. Yeah, and there's a reason they can't use it in court, right? You can't convict somebody and say,

you didn't cry enough on camera. You killed your kid. Like, that doesn't hold up for a good reason. Well, the theory police have landed on is that Madeline died in the apartment, maybe at an accident, and that her parents had hidden her body and staged the abduction to cover it up. So where did that come from? Well, a few weeks earlier, back in late July, British police had flown in two specially trained sniffer dogs. One was trained to react to the scent of human blood, and the other to the scent of a dead body. And inside the McCann's apartment, and later in a car they'd rented weeks after Madeline disappeared, the dogs alerted. On paper, it does sound damning. But here's the thing. Dog alerted.

aren't fieldproof. They can't tell you whose scent it is or when it got there. So investigators take samples from the spots the dogs flagged and send them to a lab in the UK for DNA testing. The result that comes back seems to partially match Madeline, but the scientist who ran it is clear. The sample is too complex and degraded to draw any real conclusion from it. It might not be Madeline's. The Portuguese police, though, take all of it, the dogs, the partial DNA, and they run with it. And that's how Kate and Jerry, who've by now spent months begging the world to look for their daughter, suddenly become suspects. None of it holds up, but you can only imagine how it makes the family feel. I don't know. I feel like it's always fair to investigate those closest to the victim, especially when we're talking about a child.

Obviously, the parents are usually the closest to the child. So I do think it's fair to investigate the parents. But I feel like there's a big difference between following the evidence, enforcing a theory that's not there. And it really seems like in this case, Portuguese authorities were really trying to force a theory that just was not there. When you're in a case like this and the parents are labeled as suspects, especially when there's like not enough physical proof to like tie them to their child's disappearance, once that idea is in the public's mind, it's incredibly difficult to erase. So like even today, even though they've never been charged, like there's no physical evidence really linking them to their daughter's disappearance. I mean, I think there's a lot of things happening here, right? You have to start with the inner circle. That's just like basic. detective work, right? And we know that stats say that most children who are harmed are harmed by somebody they know. So all of that makes sense. I think what people don't factor in is how big this

case got and how quickly that happened. And what that does is put pressure on the authorities to solve it, right? Especially you have this adorable little girl who goes missing in your country. There's a lot of pressure to solve it. And sometimes they'll do whatever they need to make the public happy and bring that tourism back, or at least not scare people away. I do think that's a factor in this case. I mean, the reality is the really sad and tragic reality is that many kids go missing, many kids are murdered. I'm routinely disturbed by inaction from the police in cases where children are harmed or killed. That's a very sad reality. And in this situation where you have this little girl that was getting all this media attention, that is a real situation where

putting pressure on authorities to do something. Well, of course, LeMacon's don't stick around after this. On the advice of their legal counsel, they leave Portugal two days later on Sunday, September 9th, 2007, a little over four months after Madeline's disappearance, even though they haven't been cleared as suspects yet. Instead, they continue their own investigation from back in the UK using private detectives. In November, Jerry releases a video saying he believes his family was watched by a predator. The British police told him and Kate that their apartment's location

made them a hotspot for criminals. It had ground floor access from the front and side road and a secluded entrance with partial tree cover, which is something they weren't thinking about when they arrived at the seemingly safe family-oriented resort.

On top of that, their nightly tapas routine was predictable. Someone could have noticed a child in the apartment and figured out the best time to come in after watching them for a few nights. The McCanns aren't giving up. They want to find out. out who that person was, but the Portuguese police aren't as helpful. On Monday, July 21st,

2008, 14 months after Madeline's disappearance, the Portuguese Attorney General's office announces something. The case of Madeline's disappearance is closed until further evidence comes to light. Kate, Jerry, and Robert Murat are no longer considered suspects, and the Portuguese case files are released. That's when Kate discovers something horrifying. In the Ocean Club's staff message book, the receptionist wrote next to their standing dinner reservation. Maybe to explain why she bent the rules, she wrote the reason, they wanted to eat near their apartments because they were leaving their young children alone and wanted to check on them periodically. But here's the issue. This book sat on the desk of the pool reception all day long. Every staff member was meant to see it,

but it was likely visible to guests and visitors too. After this, Kate can't help but wonder about every tiny detail of their stay, giving their whereabouts at the toddler club. Madeline saying she cried the night before she disappeared, and the tea on her Eeyore shirt, which never amounts to much. But all of these details get written down, because two years later, in November 2010, Kate and Jerry signed a publishing deal to author a book about their daughter's disappearance. Kate writes it, and it's published six months later in May 2011. It's called Madeline, our daughter's disappearance and the continuing search for her. It's where we got most of our information on Madeline's final hours.

The same month it's published, May 2011, the British Prime Minister David Cameron asked the Metropolitan Police to open their own investigation into Madeline's disappearance. The Met was already helping by collecting witness statements from British citizens and by gathering and analyzing evidence, but only in support of the Portuguese authorities. Now, they launched their own investigation called, Operation Grange dedicated entirely to Madeline. And over the next nine years, the mat looks into

many potential suspects. Then, in June 2020, another country steps in. Germany announces they have a suspect, a man who doesn't look anything like the one Jane Tanner saw. His name is Christian Brookner, a 43-year-old German citizen who's been in and out of jail for violent sexual crimes since he was 17 years old. And from about 1995 to 2007, he lived in the Algarve region of Portugal. While he was there, he partnered with a German associate named Helga Bouching. They stole solar panels in diesel and dealt drugs. In 2006, Helga broke into the farmhouse Christian was renting near the Ocean Club resort to steal diesel from him.

While he was there, he found incredibly disturbing home videos. They were of Christian violently raping two women. Later that year, Christian moved out. But in 2007, police believed then 30-year-old Christian, was living and dealing drugs out of a camper van, still near the resort. In fact, his phone records placed him in the area an hour before Madeline went missing. In 2008, Christian was at a festival in Spain with Helga. They had a conversation about Madeline's disappearance,

and Helga told Christian he didn't understand how anyone could steal a small child from a hotel. And according to Helga, Christian replied that she wasn't even screaming. Helga already knew that Christian burgled hotel rooms and vacation rentals. He thinks Christian was trying to rob the McCanns when he came across Madeline, and he was the one who kidnapped her. Apparently in 2008, Helga left a voicemail for Scotland Yard about it, but it must have gotten lost with the flood of other messages that came in at the same time about Madeline's case. He tried again in 2017, 10 years after Madeline's disappearance,

now calling a dedicated hotline. This time, the police interviewed Helga a few days later. At that point, Christian serving 15 months in prison for sexually assaulting a child, with additional charges for theft, drug trafficking, and forgery. And in 2020, when Christian is announced as the primary suspect in Madeline's disappearance, he's serving a different sentence. Seven years for sexually assaulting a 72-year-old woman in 2005 in Prya de Luz, the same town Madeline vanished from two years later.

He denies his barstool confession about Madeline, and he refuses to talk to the Metropolitan Police. In September 2025, 48-year-old Christians released from prison after he finished his time. As of this recording, he's still being investigated in Madeline's case. The lead German prosecutor, Hans Christian Walters, tells the media they almost have enough evidence to charge him, but need to strengthen their position. We don't know exactly what evidence they have against Christian. As of this recording, he hasn't been charged in Madeline's case, and he continues to deny involvement, and other theories still pop up from time to time. But whatever happened to Madeline, we hope her family will soon find out. Oh, man, I feel like I first kind of consumed everything about this case.

I think it really resonates, at least with me, is because nothing is scarier than a child disappearing in a matter of minutes on what was supposed to be a fun family vacation. And my biggest question has always been, why Madeline? She shared a room with her two little siblings. So why was she the only one taken? And how did nobody wake up? It's so scary, but I mean, it sounds like they don't know if it was this guy Christian. If it's just opportunistic moment, you know, and little kids sleep really hard, you know? So I, yeah, it's like it's certainly plausible.

I can't imagine the pain and trauma that her twin siblings have grown up with. I mean, like, I feel like they're kind of always almost in the shadows because Madeline is still missing and, like, it's just unresolved. I mean, they were sleeping in the same exact room as her. So I just can't imagine that has to be really heavy and difficult to live with. Well, and they're so, I'm sure they're really affected by how this has affected their parents and just dealing with all of that. And, you know, it's just, it would be such so hanging over their lives. Yeah, you really, you really, I hope they're, I hope they're doing okay all things considered. It's really traumatic.

Yeah. I mean, there's a huge ripple effect in cases like this, right? Especially given how popular it's been in the media. I mean, I followed this case for a long time. I think, you know, all of us are well aware of it as are, you know, most of the true crime community. And it feels like every few years you have some type of official coming out and saying, we've solved this case. Here's this new suspect. We definitely have solved it this time.

And that rollercoaster of emotions is something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy, let alone the Sibb of a missing child. It's just awful. What we know for sure is in spring 2007, Madeline was on vacation in Portugal with her mom, dad, and twin siblings, and three other families. They were staying at a resort that was supposed to be family friendly. It had spacious apartments, pools, beach access, playgrounds, clubs for kids of every different age, and tennis for the adults.

Most days, Madeline and her siblings spent their time at the kids clubs with activities between meals. Then they went to bed at about 7 p.m. each night. At 8.30 p.m. while Madeline and the twins slept, her parents ate at the Tapas restaurant about 180 feet away from the apartment. They took turns checking on the kids every half hour. At 9 p.m. on Thursday, May 3rd, 2007, Madeline's dad made the first check. The door was slightly out of position, but he didn't think much of it. After all, the kids were sleeping tight. At 9.30 p.m., one of the mcannes, one of the mcans, friends made another check for them, but he only listened at the door to make sure they weren't

awake. He didn't go inside to see if the kids were there. And at 10 p.m., when Madeline's mom went to check on her kids, she saw that her sweet three-year-old daughter had vanished. The window was open. Her bed was empty, and the silence was deafening. Madeline's parents have looked for her every day since. Madeline Beth McGahn will be about 23 years old as of this report. She is Caucasian with blonde hair and blue-green eyes. Her right eye has a calaboma, a cleft in the iris that makes the pupil look elongated or keyhole shaped. If you have any information about Madeline McCann, you can email operation.grange at met.police.uk. Or visit www.findmadeline.com. If you'd like to donate to Madeline's Fund, you can visit

www.w.com and we want to thank Andrea Dunlop again for being with us here today. We loved having your perspective on the case. And you guys can find Andrea's show Nobody Should Believe Me, wherever you get podcasts. Thank you guys so much for having me on. It was really a pleasure and I would love to have you guys on for a chat on Nobody Should Believe Me sometime. Let's do it. I love it. I'm down.

Yeah, I am down. Thank you for listening to the final hours. If you have any other details about Madeline McCann's case, please share it with us on social media. We want to hear from you. Your thoughts, condolences, and feedback are what make this community so special. At Crime House, we value your support.

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