Madeleine McCann vanished from her bed in a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, in southern Portugal, in 2007 – the case of her disappearance has never been solved
Kate McCann has revealed the “moment that changes everything” in a rare admission.
The mother of missing Madeleine McCann revealed her life has been divided into a “before” and “after” following the disappearance of her daughter in Portugal back in 2007. Ms McCann said families of missing children live with the heavy burden of uncertainty and the constant questioning of whether their child is safe.
“That is why, whenever I hear about a young person who feels vulnerable, frightened, or at risk, it resonates so deeply,” she said. “I recognise the fear, the exhaustion, and the fragile balance between hope and heartbreak that families live with every day.”
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Writing for the Independent, she backed the UK charity helpline SafeCall, which offers support to families facing missing people situations. She praised people who have donated to the charity helpline so it can support more people.
She added: “The right support at the right time can change the course of a young person’s life. It can mean the difference between crisis and safety, between isolation and connection, between another family living with unanswered questions or finding a way forward together.”
Ms McCann went on to thank people involved in the campaign. She continued: “Because of you, more children and young people will have somewhere to turn, and more families will know they are not alone.
Her comments come after the McCann family endured false claims from a woman claiming to be their missing daughter. Julia Wandelt pretended to be Madeleine and was jailed for six months in November over harassing the family.
Sentencing Wandelt at Leicester Crown Court, Judge Mrs Justice Cutts said: “It has been confirmed in this case you are not Madeleine McCann. There was not proper or logical basis for this. What you should not have done is behave as you did to the McCanns.”
Wandelt previously turned up to the McCann’s home and sent the family sinister messages begging for a DNA test. Wandelt’s own dad said he last saw her just before Christmas last year and shared the brutal message she gave him.
He said: “We had gone for a drive and then, just as she did when this all started a few years ago, she said to me, ‘Daddy, I love you, but you are not my dad, I am Madeleine McCann’. I said, ‘I am your father; you are not Madeleine,’ but she wouldn’t listen to me, no matter how much I tried to reason with her.”
