German authorities: missing UK girl presumed dead

(4 Jun 2020) German prosecutors said Thursday they believe Madeleine McCann - a British girl who disappeared in Portugal in 2007 - is dead.
Hans Christian Wolters, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office in Braunschweig, confirmed that a German sex offender who's currently in prison for other offences was their prime suspect.
He said that in connection with the McCann case, prosecutors were investigating a 43-year-old German citizen on suspicion of murder. "You can infer from that we assume the girl is dead," he told reporters.
McCann was three at the time of her disappearance while she was on vacation with her family.
The long-running McCann case has mesmerized Britain for years.
Her parents say she disappeared  after they had left her and her twin siblings asleep in their holiday complex while they had dinner with friends at a nearby restaurant.  
More than 600 people had been identified  as being potentially significant, but officers were tipped off about the German suspect following a 2017 appeal, ten years after the girl went missing.  
Police said the suspect, described as white with short, blond hair and a slim build, was linked to a camper van seen in the Algarve in 2007 and was believed to be in the resort area in the days before and after May 3 that year.  
The suspect is being investigated by prosecutors in Braunschweig, as that's the last place he was registered before he moved abroad.

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