Madeleine lives with her parents Kate and Gerry McCann, and her younger brother and sister. Their home is in a town called Rothley in central England. It is a small town – the sort of town where nothing ever happens, certainly nothing that gets into the newspapers.

　　At the end of April, the McCann family went on holiday to Portugal, to a resort called Praia da Luz. On the evening of 3 May, Gerry and Kate put their children to bed. When the children were asleep, at about 9.30pm, Kate and Gerry went to a restaurant close by to have a meal. At 10pm Kate came back to see that the children were OK. Madeleine was gone.

　　It quickly became clear that Madeleine had not just woken up and gone for a walk. Someone had taken her. She had been kidnapped.

　　The kidnapping of Madeleine McCann, and the search for her, has been a huge story in the British press and on TV and radio. Kate and Gerry have done everything they can to get publicity. They believe it is the only way they will ever see their daughter again. They have contacted everyone whom they think might be able to help them. They have met government ministers in several countries in Europe, and had an audience with the Pope. They have appeared on TV, and answered questions from journalists at press conferences. Newspapers have offered big rewards for information which may help to find Madeleine. There are “Find Madeleine” websites, and people have put pictures of the missing girl on advertising hoardings and in shop windows all over Europe, and on big screens at football matches.

　　Despite all of this, there seems to be very little evidence to help the Portuguese police. One witness reports that he saw a man carrying a small girl wearing pink pyjamas at about the time that Madeleine disappeared. The Portuguese police have questioned a British man who lives near Praia da Luz, but they now say that they do not have any evidence against him. There has been a report that a girl who looks like Madeleine has been seen in Morocco. The police have asked people who were on holiday near Praia da Luz to send them their holiday photos. The police hope that somewhere in these photos, in the background perhaps, they will see a face that they know – the face of someone who has previously been involved in kidnapping or abusing children.

　　And last week a Dutch newspaper received an anonymous message that Madeleine was dead, and that her body could be found in an area close to Praia da Luz. The police searched the area and found nothing.

　　So Kate and Gerry McCann wait for news. They continue to try to create as much publicity as they can. Someone may have seen something which could help the police. Certainly someone, somewhere, knows where Madeleine is and what has happened to her. But for the moment, there is nothing.