The big breaks in the Madeleine McCann case… that have still led us no closer ... trends now
It's been 16 years since three-year-old Madeleine McCann was snatched from her bed at an Algarve holiday resort.
For more than a decade, her anguished parents Gerry and Kate have waited in vain for any news - any clue - that their little girl is somehow alive after all this time.
And there have been moments - when police named suspects or members of the public had reported potential sightings - where they allowed themselves to think there was a chance they might have some answers.
But none of the tip-offs have turned out to be correct and the main suspect in the case, convicted rapist Christian Brueckner, has still not been charged in connection with Madeleine's disappearance.
It has been a case filled with false starts and false hopes, with thousands of bogus sightings of Madeleine from Dorset to as far away as New Zealand.
And with the latest three-day search for Madeleine at a reservoir in Portugal resulting in a 'relevant clue' being found following a tip-off from one of Brueckner's former friends, her parents once again face months of agony as they wait for the results.
Here, MailOnline takes a look at the key moments in Madeleine's case that promised to turn the investigation on its head - but to no avail.
It's been 16 years since three-year-old Madeleine McCann was snatched from her bed at an Algarve holiday resort
For more than a decade, her anguished parents Gerry and Kate (pictured together in 2017) have waited in vain for any news - any clue - that their little girl is somehow alive after all this time
May 2007: Madeleine disappears from her room
Madeleine was on holiday with her parents in Praia de Luz in Portugal when she disappeared just days before her fourth birthday.
On the night of May 3, her parents put her to bed with her two younger twin siblings, Sean and Amelie, before going out for dinner with friends nearby.
The group had organised a rotation to check up on the children every 30 minutes. At 9pm the children were there. At 9:30pm one of the friends found a door wide open. And it was around 10pm that Madeleine's mother Kate found her daughter's bed empty.
Police, friends and resort staff helped in searching the area. Days turned into months and hundreds of police officers were called in to support the search - without luck.
A huge publicity campaign led by the family, and with contributions from the likes of J.K. Rowling, leads to the naming of first suspects.
Kate and Gerry McCann make an appeal for their three year old Madeleine's return in 2007
Four months after their daughter's disappearance, grief-stricken Gerry and Kate McCann were named as suspects in the case and endured hours of gruelling interrogations.
Portuguese detectives had claimed they had found incriminating DNA evidence in the family's holiday apartment and, crucially, the boot of their hire car which they rented 25 days after Madeleine vanished.
British scientists had already warned the Portuguese that the forensic evidence was far from conclusive and the DNA could have come from almost anyone.
And it was later revealed that the police had tried to force a confession from Gerry by confronting him with the false DNA 'evidence'.
Four months after their daughter's disappearance, grief-stricken Gerry and Kate McCann (pictured in Portugal on May 17, 2007 with their twins) were named as suspects in the case and enduring hours of gruelling interrogations
Kate was subjected to an 11-hour interview in which she faced a barrage of questions about the DNA evidence, her relationship with Madeleine and whether she ever sedated her children to make them sleep.
The Leicestershire GP angrily refused to answer a total of 48 questions.
Her husband, in an eight-hour interrogation, had to deny police suggestions that his wife suffered from depression and had wanted to give Madeleine to relatives to look after because she could not cope.
Police even asked him if the couple had taken out life insurance on three-year-old Madeleine.
Gerry said in a Spanish TV interview that October that he was 'confident' the couple would be 'eliminated' from inquiries. 'I'm confident of that, because we have done nothing,' he said.
Madeleine McCann disappeared from her family's holiday apartment in 2007
And with no evidence and no charges brought against the McCanns, Portuguese police removed the anguished parents as suspects in the case in July 2008.
Portuguese police chief Gonçalo Amaral who led the initial investigation and ordered the couple to be made official suspects was later taken off the case.
In a major blow to the McCann's, in July 2008, Portugal's attorney general ended the investigation into Madeleine's disappearance after they had failed to uncover any evidence.
The case files - containing up to 30,000 pages - were turned over to private investigators working for Madeleine's family who vowed to continue their search.
October 2013: Case reopens as police release new sketches of potential suspectsHope was renewed for Madeleine's family in October 2013 when the Met Police issued new sketches of potential suspects in the case, including of a man seen near the McCanns holiday apartment carrying a girl in pyjamas.
That same month, a BBC Crimewatch appeal led to almost 1,000 calls and emails from the public, with Kate and Gerry saying at the time saying they are 'genuinely hopeful' one will lead to a breakthrough.
Several tourists who were in Praia da Luz on the night of Madeleine's disappearance came forward, with two crucially naming the same man as a suspect.
Days later, Portuguese police said they would reopen the case after 'highly significant' new evidence was identified by local detectives.
The country's attorney general said 'new elements of evidence' and new witnesses justified the continuation of the original investigation.
Police in the UK and Portugal said they would work together on their investigations in parallel to pursue new leads.
Gerry McCann and Kate McCann hold pyjamas belonging to their daughter Amelie which are similar to the ones worn by their daughter, three-year-old Madeleine McCann, on the night she went missing as they make an appeal for the BBC's Crimewatch programme in 2013
Two e-fit images of the same man seen in Praia da Luz on the night Madeleine disappeared were released by the Met Police in 2013
The Crimewatch special in 2013 revealed that police were now looking at Madeleine's abduction as being at 10pm and not 9.15pm
Portuguese police later named Euclides Monteiro as a key suspect in the case.
Monteiro was a heroin addict who was fired from his job in the restaurant at the Ocean's Club in Praia da Luz a year before Madeleine went missing.
But an investigation into whether Monteiro, who was run over by a tractor at the age of 40 in 2009, took Madeleine in revenge for losing his job, came to nothing.
Police had identified him as their main suspect after mobile phone records indicated he was around the McCanns' holiday apartment in Praia da Luz when Madeleine disappeared.
In January 2014, UK detectives flew to Portugal to conduct searches and interview people there in connection with Madeleine's disappearance - but no arrests were ever made.
At one point, police said they were conducting DNA tests on scraps of clothing found in a pit just feet away from where Madeleine vanished - but, again, the find came to nothing.
And in the years that followed, despite hope that two police investigations and countless searches would lead to a breakthrough, there appeared to be little progress in finding answers.
In 2012, five years after Madeleine's disappearance, her family issued an age progression efit photo to show what Madeleine may have looked like aged nine (right)
There was a major breakthrough in the case in June 2022 when British and German authorities announced that they were investigating a 43-year-old German man in connection with Madeleine's disappearance.
Prosecutors said they had 'almost enough evidence' to charge the convicted paedophile with the kidnap and murder of Madeleine. UK authorities described the development as a 'significant new line of enquiry'.
At the time, due to German privacy laws, the suspect was not allowed to be named but it can now be revealed that it was Brueckner - though he wasn't formally named as an official suspect until April 2022.
