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18th Feb 2023

German girl ‘provides evidence’ that she is Madeleine McCann

Steve Hopkins

“The police don’t want to help me”

A young woman has attempted to provide proof that she is missing British girl Madeleine McCann and in the process gone viral.

The German woman, who has not been identified, posted a video on social media suggesting she “could be Madeleine McCann” and that her grandma had first suggested the scenario.

Maddie was just four years old when she disappeared from her holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2007. No trace of her has ever been found and no one has been arrested. The prime suspect in the disappearance, convicted sex offender Christian Brueckner, has been charged in Germany with unrelated sexual offences. He is accused of five offences between 2000 and 2017 in Portugal. German prosecutors say the investigation into Maddie’s disappearance is ongoing separately.

Maddie would be 19 in April.

During the last five years a number of social media users, particularly on TikTok, have gone viral due to their resemblance to Maddie.

In a video posted on Instagram, but widely shared on TikTok, the woman explains that a comment from her grandmother prompted her to think she may be the missing youngster a few years ago.

In the video she says: “According to documents I am 21-years-old, but I think, personally, when someone kidnapped child, he or she probably changed its ID.”

She then proceeds to illustrate what similarities she has to Maddie, revealing two freckles on her leg, before saying “I hope you believe me”. Another post on her Instagram account illustrates she has a speck next to her eye that resembles Maddie’s.

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@shellmc22 Thoughts? Is this Madeleine McCann? Why is no one helping her? Why is this not news? The police won’t listen apparently!? She’s asking for it to be shared! #madeleinemccann #findmaddie #findmadeleine #iammadeleinemccann #instagramlive #maddymccann #maddiemccann #katemccann #gerrymccann #share #help #missingpersoncases #madeleinemccanncase #isthismaddie? ♬ original sound – Shell Mc ?

The woman continues in the video: “When did I start thinking about… it was a few months ago. It was something like, that I heard from my grandma, that…”

She then pauses and apologises saying she is “stressed”, before continuing: “My grandma thinks my parents and my family, my mother and my family knew about, heard about (a) paedophile.”

The woman says she tried to get a copy of her birth certificate to check the details, calling by phone, “but decided not to go there because it was weird a person from the government told me by phone my informations.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/CovsY-9KMeH/

https://www.instagram.com/p/CovyM5mq-d1/

https://www.instagram.com/p/Covx9VFKq5Y/

She also said she wanted to take a DNA tests, “but the police don’t want to help me”.

She also reaches out to Madeleine’s parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, in her Instagram bio.

It reads: “Help me, I need to talk with Kate and Gerry McCann I think I can be Madeleine. I need DNA test,” it reads

The Express noted that one re-post of the woman’s video on TikTok had been viewed 3.3m times, while others had been watched tens of thousands of times.

Investigators, unsurprisingly, are yet to comment on the development.

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