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Madeleine McCann, the young girl who went missing while holidaying with family in Portugal in 2007, is assumed to be dead and the murder suspect is an imprisoned child abuser, a German prosecutor said on Thursday.
The three-year-old disappeared from her bedroom in Algarve on 3 May, shortly before her fourth birthday, while her parents were dining with friends nearby in the resort of Praia da Luz.
The incident triggered an international search involving multiple law enforcement and private agencies. Posters of Madeleine were distributed with celebrities appealing for information that could lead to her rescue.
"We assume that the girl is dead," Braunschweig state prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said.
"The public prosecutor's office in Braunschweig is investigating a 43-year-old German national on suspicion of murder."
The police said that the suspect, who has been named as Christian B, was residing in Praia da Luz.
German police released a photo showing the interior of a house believed to be linked to the suspect. /BKA/AFP
They said that while the exact sequence of events is still unknown, the suspect may have had a sexual motive but it is quite possible that he took a spontaneous decision to abduct Madeleine during a break-in at the apartment where she was asleep along with her twin siblings. The child's body is yet to be recovered.
Wolters said the suspect is a sex offender with multiple convictions, including for sexual abuse of children. He lived in the Algarve between 1995 and 2007 and worked in the catering industry but was also involved in burglary and trading drugs. The suspect is currently behind bars over a separate matter.
British and German police appealed for more information about the suspect and released photographs of a Volkswagen camper van and a Jaguar owned by him. He used to live in Braunschweig, northern Germany, before moving abroad.
Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry said that the German suspect was potentially very significant. /Lefteris Pitarakis/AP
The police are seeking to contact an unidentified second individual, who spoke with the suspect from a Portuguese phone number on 3 May, the day Madeleine vanished.
Despite German officers treating the case as suspected murder, the British Met police, which launched Operation Grange in 2013, maintained that it is pursuing a missing person inquiry.
Madeleine's parents said they wanted to find peace and that the German suspect was potentially very significant.
In a statement issued before Wolters spoke, Kate and Gerry McCann said: "All we have ever wanted is to find her, uncover the truth and bring those responsible to justice.
"We will never give up hope of finding Madeleine alive but whatever the outcome may be, we need to know as we need to find peace."
(CGTN)
