It’s been 13 years since 3-year-old Madeleine McCann disappeared while on vacation with her family in Portugal.
But on Wednesday, British police said a German man is a suspect in her case.
The Metropolitan Police did not release the man’s name but said he was in the Praia de Luz resort area when she disappeared on May 3, 2007, The Associated Press reported.
Her parents had said the little girl went missing when they went to dinner with friends at a nearby restaurant. Madeleine McCann was left in their resort apartment with her twin siblings.
More than 600 people had been identified as having a connection to her case. But the latest discovery came when the man who police named Wednesday came up for an appeal in 2017. He is currently in prison in Germany for sexual crimes, the AP reported.
German police said the man worked in the resort area as part of the catering industry and broke into hotels and vacation apartments and traded drugs, Reuters reported.
He was connected to a camper van seen in the area and police said he was believed to be in the resort area in the days before and after her disappearance. Police said they’re not ruling out a sexual motive and said whoever broke into the apartment then kidnapped the girl spontaneously, the AP reported.
While they may have a suspect, a German prosecutor said law enforcement believes Madeleine McCann is dead but her body has never been found, giving hope to her family that she may have survived, Reuters reported.
The case is being investigated in Germany as a suspected murder, but British police said they consider it a missing person’s case, according to Reuters.