A young woman claims Madeleine McCainn never found the missing child on a family trip to the Algarve in Portugal 16 years ago. In a profile on social networks, she asks for a DNA test and public help to reach Kate and Gerry, Madeleine’s parents.
The young woman, who is officially 21 and grew up in Poland, created the profile @iammadelemcann (meaning “I’m Madeleine McCainn” in Portuguese) and posted photos of herself alongside Madeleine’s pictures, noting the resemblance. Including birthmarks. The 3yearold girl disappeared on a family trip to Praia da Luz in Portugal in May 2007. Fifteen years later, the first suspect in the case was charged, German Christian Brueckner, who is said to have been 43 years old. He is also accused of other cases of pedophilia.
In texts published alongside the images, she tells the reasons that led her to create the profile and attract the attention of the press and the public. The first is that she has vague memories of her childhood, and the earliest is on a beach with white buildings just like the hotel the 3yearold disappeared into.
The second reason is that she identified “one of her perpetrators” in a portrait of one of the men wanted in the investigation. And the third is a birthmark next to the eye.
In the publications, the young woman, posing as Madeleine, said the authorities are not taking her attempts to contact her seriously and is asking for help.