May is an especially heart-wrenching month for Kate and Gerry McCann. Last Saturday, May 3, marked 18 years since their daughter, Madeleine, disappeared into the darkness from her bed in a holiday resort in Praia da Luz, Portugal. Almost overnight, the blonde three-year-old, with her toothy smile and distinctive fleck in her blue-green eyes, became the most famous missing child in the world. ‘No matter how near or far she is, she continues to be right here with us, every day,’ said Kate and Gerry in their latest tribute to their daughter. But the more difficult anniversary is yet to come. For Monday, May 12, marks Madeleine’s 22nd birthday. And the McCanns can but imagine what the curious, boisterous toddler they remember would be like at this age. The little girl obsessed with dolls and princess dresses, who loved swimming and singing and dancing around the living room, would have blossomed into a young woman. Were she here, she might have inherited a love of science from her father, 56, a leading heart specialist; or felt moved to help people, like her mother, 57, who works with dementia patients. She might be sporty, like her younger siblings, twins Amelie and Sean, now 20. Like any other 20-something, she might have flown the nest already; finished her studies and got her first job; be counting down the days to a holiday with friends. The family still lives in the same £800,000 redbrick detached house on a quiet cul-de-sac in Rothley, Leicestershire, where they have been since 2007. There, Madeleine’s pink bedroom, with its glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling, was for years filled with unopened birthday presents, lined up alongside her teddy bears, ready for her to open if she came home. This May, however, there has been even more on the McCanns’ minds than the painful milestones they must confront each year. For a bombshell documentary this week revealed the disturbing discoveries made by German police at a property owned by convicted sex offender, Christian Brueckner, the prime – and indeed only – suspect in the case. The unseen evidence, which ranged from children’s swimming costumes and toys to a hard drive of perverted material and a grubby suitcase filled with photographs of young girls, was uncovered at an abandoned factory owned by Brueckner, 48, in 2016. The findings are believed to form the basis of German investigators’ belief that Madeleine is dead, and that he is responsible. Brueckner, currently in prison for the 2005 rape of an American pensioner in Portugal, was working as a waiter in Praia da Luz at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance and was formally declared a suspect by Portuguese police in 2022. The following year, a former friend claimed he had all-but confessed to the abduction, by saying: ‘She didn’t scream’, during a conversation about the case at a music festival in 2008. German investigators would later scour the Arade reservoir in the Algarve, 31 miles from the holiday resort, for evidence connected to Madeleine – but to no avail. Images of Brueckner posing naked beside the same reservoir were found on his hard drive. Brueckner denies any involvement and has never been charged; indeed, last year he was acquitted on unrelated rape and sexual assault charges. As things stand, he is due to be released from prison in September – unless there is an appeal, or further evidence emerges linking him to the case. Back in Rothley, the McCanns had no comment to make on the latest revelations. But a family source told the Mail they were somewhat ‘in the dark’ because it is ‘an ongoing investigation’ and they have no direct contact with German or Portuguese police. ‘We don’t know what evidence police have,’ the source said. ‘If it is him, and there’s no direct and conclusive evidence, he may never say a word. He’s not saying a word now. It may be, sadly, that we never know what happened to Madeleine. But we hope to find out. We keep hoping after all these years.’ Hope, after all, is all this family has had to cling to for nearly two decades. Two long, torturous decades that have seen them face the impossible together: not just losing their daughter, but the subsequent investigations; the accusations; the conspiracy theories; the stalkers and the hundreds of letters – ranging from condolences to hate mail – that still arrive at their door. Global interest in Madeleine’s disappearance has been huge, as has the funding given to Operation Grange – the Metropolitan Police investigation into what happened – which has received £13.2million in Home Office grants, including £108,000 this year. With no arrests or formal charges in 18 years, some have questioned the viability of the fund. And Kate and Gerry have faced hurtful personal attacks, most publicly in 2007 when it was revealed they had used donations from the Find Madeleine appeal to pay their £2,000-a-month mortgage. Both had taken unpaid leave from work to join the search for their daughter. This year they have faced yet more anguish: two women were accused of sending them letters and text messages, making phone calls and turning up uninvited at their home. One, Polish-born Julia Wandel, 23, made headlines in 2023 after claiming to be Madeleine. A DNA test proved she was not, but Wandel continued to speak out on social media, and it is alleged she travelled to the UK in May last year to attend Madeleine’s annual memorial service. The second, Karen Spragg, 60, from Cardiff, faces one charge of stalking involving serious alarm or distress between May 3, 2024 and 21 February this year. Both pleaded not guilty at Leicester Crown Court last month and are due to go on trial in October. They are alleged to have stalked not just Kate and Gerry, but also twins Amelie and Sean who have, until recent years, stayed completely out of the spotlight at their parents’ behest. Though neither will remember their big sister, nor have memories of that fateful holiday, she has been a constant in their lives, a gaping absence at every family gathering and celebration. Sean, Kate recounted, once brandished a toy sword and said he was going to get the ‘bad man’ who had snatched his sister away. At school, the Catholic secondary they both attended, a place was always held for Madeleine. At home, for over a decade, her bedroom remained just as she left it. Their mother diligently opened the curtains each morning and closed them at night. ‘They’ve always been in Madeleine’s shadow, and just been the McCann twins,’ a family friend told the Mail. ‘But now they are young adults, they are carving out their own lives.’ Today, Amelie has long, blonde hair and dimples like her mother. Sean is tall like Gerry, and shares his father’s slim, athletic build and crop of brown hair. Both are at university – something their high-achieving parents no doubt dreamed of for all three of their children. According to Brian Kennedy, the twins’ great-uncle, they couldn’t be prouder. ‘Kate and Gerry are pleased with their achievements, and the fact that they are making their own way in life,’ he has said. Amelie, in her second year at a university in the north of England, is popular and outgoing. She is athletic – at school, she competed in cross country and triathlon events – but not as sporty as her brother, who’s a champion freestyle swimmer, tipped to compete for Scotland at the 2026 Commonwealth Games and Team GB at the 2028 Olympics. Writing recently on a local website after winning a grant to fund his training, Sean explained how he’d started swimming competitively, aged eight. ‘At the age of ten, I was selected to swim at City of Leicester, and I have since gone on to win multiple county titles, as well as becoming regional and national champion in my age group. In order to have achieved this, I have had to remain extremely dedicated, getting up at 4am multiple mornings each week to train.’ Currently studying chemical engineering at a different university to his sister, Sean’s life revolves around swimming. He spends 20 hours training every week, comprising nine pool sessions and three days at the gym. This time last year he won two medals – gold in 1,500m and bronze in 5,000m – for his father’s native Scotland at an international competition in Spain. A photograph shows him beaming on the beach in his royal blue kit, a shimmering medal round his neck. Many had wondered if their parents would ever venture abroad on holiday again, particularly with their children. They have – but never to Portugal. Nevertheless, the relative normality of Sean and Amelie’s lives, and their brilliant sporting and academic accolades, is testament to Kate and Gerry’s parenting. Here is a couple who have, every day for the past 18 years, had to confront the unimaginable chasm left by their missing child – while fielding calls from the police and praying for news. Locals in Rothley, the affluent village they moved to in 2006 when Madeleine was just two, say the pair continue to be involved in community life. They’re occasionally seen at one of the local pubs, sitting in the garden of a cafe or supporting a village cricket match. But, for the most part, they prefer to socialise behind closed doors. Liverpudlian Kate, who left her GP job after Madeleine disappeared but returned to the healthcare sector during the pandemic, now works with dementia sufferers and is an ambassador for the charity Missing People. She works out at her local authority gym at least three times a week, doing Pilates and spin classes. Gerry cycles, too, but to work – he is a research lead and professor of cardiac imaging at the University of Leicester, some eight miles from the family home. In March he won a prestigious award, totalling £80,000, to fund his ongoing research into heart disease. Colleagues praised his ‘life-changing work’. This, it seems, has become both his calling and solace. For while he and Kate were both once devout Christians, his faith lapsed in the wake of Madeleine’s disappearance. Kate, by contrast, is still a regular at the Catholic church a short stroll from their home. Though the missing posters have long since gone from lampposts and shop windows, locals in this close-knit community still show their support in small ways. At the war memorial in the village square, a single candle in a silver holder burns in Madeleine’s name. Shop owner Deborah Williams has a sticker in her car window that reads: ‘Still missing, still missed’, with a link to the Find Madeleine campaign website. ‘As a village, we all went through it, and we are very protective of the family,’ she says. ‘They are very kind-hearted people with two beautiful children and it is just so, so sad.’ Ex-Royal Navy veteran Trevor Wright, 81, still keeps a yellow ribbon – which became a symbol of hope and support in the search for Madeleine – on his car. Others wouldn’t miss the annual memorial, which is always well attended in the village square. Friend Michelle Canilleri told the Mail this week: ‘I have seen this family’s grief from the very beginning to now. ‘Our hearts go out to them, and the village as a whole hopes they get the answers they so desperately need.’ For now, Kate and Gerry – who stood side by side with son Sean at Madeleine’s memorial service last weekend – refuse to let their hope waver. Reading aloud to the 50-strong crowd, Kate recited words from a poem by American writer Helen Steiner Rice, who wrote Christian poetry, in which she vowed: ‘Nothing in life can defeat me.’ The couple keep abreast of the case through regular email contact with their family liaison officer from Scotland Yard. They continue to update their website, where supporters can download missing person posters, buy Kate’s 2012 book, Madeleine, or donate to the fund to find her. On the homepage, under that familiar photograph of Madeleine, is a section entitled: ‘Why do we continue?’ It is a question Kate and Gerry, and indeed Sean and Amelie, have no doubt been asked, and asked themselves, countless times over the years. Their poignant answer? ‘Madeleine is still missing and someone needs to be looking for her.’ Additional reporting: Ross Slater