It’s been ten years to this day since Madeleine Mccann went missing from her family’s holiday apartment on the Praia Da Luz resort in Portugal, on the Ocean Club complex. Over the course of that ten years, Portuguese police have been looking for her, British authorities have gotten involved (at the request of David Cameron, who was Prime Minister at the time and therefore mattered and was yet to ruin the country and jump ship), Maddie’s mother Kate has written a book and been blamed for her daughter’s disappearance, conspiracy theorists have gone to town, the case has had wall-to-wall press coverage despite the fact kids go missing all the time and the media usually doesn’t bat an eye – the list of what happened after Madeleine disappeared goes on.

Local suspect recalls being questioned

Paulo Ribeiro recounted the story of being interrogated by British investigators. He was one of four locals who were suspected to have taken Madeleine. He says he was stunned when the police accused him of taking her, calling the experience “incredible.” His involvement came from a theory devised by Scotland Yard detectives that she was taken during a bungled robbery.

Basically, Ribeiro was accused when a drawing cropped up that someone drew of a person they vaguely remembered seeing in the area at the time Maddie was snatched that looked kind of like him. He said when this happened, he “knew of nothing” in connection with the case. His alibi was being at home when Maddie disappeared. Ribeiro is no longer a suspect, and so far, Scotland Yard haven’t been able to come up with any evidence against the four men, the case against whom is now closed.

The Portuguese former police chief Carlos Anjos has said that the British investigation into the McCann case that Cameron injected £11 million into was a waste of money, because their theory that it was a burglary is, in Anjos’ words, “absurd,” because “not even a wallet” was taken, “no television disappeared,” and “nothing else disappeared.” As Anjos puts it, “A child disappeared,” and that was all.

There are conspiracy theories abound

There are all kind of conspiracy theories surrounding the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. The second she went missing and all the juicy details came out, conspiracy theorists had a field day. There’s a theory that Maddie was taken by a childless couple. The theory goes, they wanted a child of their own but couldn’t conceive, so they kidnapped one. However, twins Sean and Amelie, Maddie’s siblings, were also in the room asleep and they were only two and less attached to their biological parents – so why wouldn’t the child-cravers take one or both of them instead?

Another theory is that Maddie was kidnapped into the child trafficking market. As horrible as it sounds, that’s the most logical explanation for a child disappearing without a trace. It’s been ten years. Maddie could’ve vanished into the auction from “Taken” in an hour – two hours, tops. There’s another horrifying theory that Madeleine awoke, went out onto the patio as she was unsupervised by adults, went exploring, fell into a pothole that was due to be filled in the following morning, and got cemented in the next day.

Actually, there are a whole spell of accident theories about Maddie’s disappearance, each just as grim as the roadworks story. One claims that someone was driving and hit and killed her and took her body and got rid of it where no one has been able to find it. Another says she went exploring, wiggled her way into some isolated, abandoned little spot where no one could find her, and then couldn’t get out and starved to death and wasted away. And another claims that she climbed into a well and drowned.

The media is yet again taking advantage of Maddie’s disappearance

You can watch “Madeleine McCann: Ten Years On” on BBC One at 9pm tonight and “Searching for Madeleine,” which first aired on Sky1 yesterday, will be repeated on the channel tomorrow at 10pm, giving you time to watch both documentaries (or neither, no one’s putting a gun to your head).

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