It's been 12 years since Madeleine McCann disappeared but it hasn't stopped theories and new suspects emerging. But despite police exhausting dozens of leads and spending more than £11million over the last decade, they are still no closer to solving the mystery. The Netflix documentary "The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann" has inspired renewed interest after re-examining the facts of the 2007 case. Yet through it provided a detailed timeline of events before and after her disappearance, it failed to mention one suspect who police never got to question. Back in 2013, Portuguese police began investigating a new lead, who was said to have been working as an employee at The Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz, shortly before Maddie disappeared on May 3, 2007.
Euclides Monteiro, an immigrant who was a restaurant worker at the beach club, had been fired from his job for stealing from guests. According to Portuguese media, it is claimed he may have kidnapped the girl as an act of revenge against his former employer. But police never got to question the ex-employee because he died in a tractor accident in 2009. Nevertheless, there were theories that Monteiro, a heroin addict, may have stumbled upon Madeleine while burgling her parents' room, according to The Telegraph.
He was reportedly identified as a suspect after phone records showed he had been near the holiday apartment at the time Madeleine went missing. He had initially not been questioned because he was missing from a list of current and former Ocean Club employees that was given to police during the first investigation. His widow Luisa was questioned by officers and searches for Maddie's body were carried out based on the new evidence but nothing was ever found.
Luisa told Mirror at the time: "It is disgusting they are now looking for a dead man as a scapegoat."It’s very easy to blame someone who can’t defend themselves anymore."My husband would never be capable of committing such a crime.”Clarence Mitchell, the spokesman for the McCann family, said at the time: "We are aware of reports in the Portuguese press."They are pure speculation and the McCanns are not going to give a running commentary on every new report."Maddie was nearly four when she disappeared from her family’s holiday apartment while her parents Kate and Gerry, went out to a tapas restaurant nearby with a group of friends. According to the new Netflix documentary, Kate and Gerry had been taking it in turns to check on the children throughout the night. At around 10pm, Kate made a check to the apartment, where she found Maddie's bed empty. The documentary looks at various police theories investigated in the months following that night and can be seen on Netflix now.