New search for Madeleine McCann gets underway in Portugal following 16th anniversary of her disappearance

For the past 16 years, all eyes have been focused on the McCann family after the heart breaking disappearance of their toddler Madeleine, who vanished from an apartment in Praia du Luz, Portugal on 3 May 2007.

The three-year-old's family celebrated what would have been her 20th birthday earlier this year while vowing to continue the search for 'Maddie' - a promise which has now come true as British and Portuguese forces are set to carry out a new search of a reservoir near to the holiday resort where she originally went missing.

The search of the Arade dam, located around 50km from the Praia du Luz area, will take at least two days and comes after German police requested an investigation into the site.

It must be noted that the Arade dam has been searched once before in the McCann case in February and March 2008, when an independent search was commissioned by Portuguese lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia.

Since then, Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann alongside her siblings Sean and Amelie, have undertaken a long-running probe to search for answers with the support of Scotland Yard’s ‘Operation Grange’ which launched in 2011.

While work has constantly been taking place in the background to try and find out what happened, the family were spotted out in public on 3 May as they marked the 16th anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance.

Madeleine’s sister Amelie, now 18-years-old, spoke publicly for the first time at the poignant candlelight vigil dedicated to the toddler in their home village of Rothley, stating: “It’s nice that everyone is here together, but it is for a sad occasion.”

Amelie has not been pictured since she was a child and is currently in the application process for university.

Despite 16 years having passed since Madeleine disappeared, hope has not dwindled yet as the Met Police’s Operation Grange was given new funding in March of this year, amounting to $370,000, after their request was approved by a Special Grants committee.

The injection came as investigators were worried funding would be cut following their previous approved grant of £302,470 for the 2022/2023 fiscal year.

Since the operation was launched, hundreds of thousands of pounds have been spent annually on attempts to find Madeleine, with reports stating that a total of £13 million has been paid out.

Although no concrete evidence has come to the surface, the 16th anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance comes just two weeks after a German court ruled not to hear a sex offences trial against a man suspected in the McCann case due to a legal technicality.

Heart doctor Gerry and medical worker Kate said: “We will never give up hope of finding Madeleine alive but whatever the outcome may be, we need to know as we need to find peace.

“All we have ever wanted is to find her, uncover the truth and bring those responsible to justice.”