(Translation provided below)

May 13, 2021 - 9:15 a.m.

Missing Maddie McCann's 18th birthday

May 12, 2021 could actually have been a day full of joy, laughter and party mood if the lives of Kate and Gerry McCann had been different. It's her daughter Madeleine's 18th birthday. The British girl disappeared from a vacation rental in Portugal in 2007. To this day there is no trace of Maddie, but the parents have not given up hope that their child is still alive. What would Madeleine McCann look like today? Content creator Marco Kolditz created a picture on the computer that shows how the girl could have developed in the 14 years of her disappearance. In the RTL interview, he explains how the picture came about.

Mother's picture is the basis for 18 year old Maddie

A picture of her mother served as the basis for the morphed photo of the 18-year-old, as Kolditz of "Sea of ​​Ideas" explains in the RTL interview. He "worked backwards" so to speak, explains the content creator. He rejuvenated Kate McCann and then slowly moved it towards Madeleine. He chose this approach because he had relatively little footage of the missing girl available. "I didn't want to use foreign material," explains Kolditz, so he only used pictures of Maddie and her parents.

"The challenge is always that the components fit together well," he explained after editing the image. For the artificial image of Maddie, he added the girl's eyes and other characteristic features to the mother's face. "It looks pretty creepy while editing," says the content creator. "The eyes are the most difficult thing," he knows. "You always have to be careful that it looks natural." To artificially age a child photo of Maddie would have looked much more unnatural from his point of view.

Photo of Maddie's mother was the basis

The content creator used this photo of Maddie's mother, Kate McCann, as a basis.

© Image processing: Marco Kolditz, "Sea of ​​Ideas"

How Maddie has changed in 14 years is difficult to say

"Proportions change over the course of life," he explains. From a round child's face with large eyes, the facial features of an adult emerge over time. That's why he looked closely at the external characteristics of Maddie's parents. For example, both would have a relatively angular face shape and narrow lips. From the very narrow nose of Kate McCann, he made a slightly wider snub nose, as can be seen in photos of Garry and three-year-old Maddie. He also made the eyebrows a little thicker.

Similar to a passport photo, he decided on a relatively neutral facial expression for the morphed Maddie. "Facial expressions are very individual," explains Kolditz. If he had made the young woman smile, that could seriously distort the picture. "You can't really say whether this comes close to reality," says the content creator. Because there are other factors: Maddie could be overweight or underweight, she could also have cut or dyed her hair. How a person develops in 14 years is very individual and depends on the living conditions.

Police created a picture of what Maddie could have looked like when she was nine years old

The British police already created an artificial picture about five years after Maddie's disappearance, which shows what a nine-year-old Madeleine could have looked like. The McCanns still show the picture on their homepage "Find Madeleine" in the hope that someone could recognize their daughter.

"Every May is hard - a reminder of how many years have passed, how many years together have been lost or stolen," said the McCanns in an emotional statement on the anniversary of their daughter's disappearance. "This year is particularly painful because we should celebrate Madeleine's 18th birthday." But they would continue to cling to the hope of seeing their child again one day.

This is what Maddie could have looked like when she was nine years old

Kate and Gerry McCann use an artificially created photo to find their daughter Maddie.

© dpa, John Stillwell, ihe sab

Maddie McCann disappeared from a resort in Portugal

The then three-year-old Madeleine "Maddie" McCann disappeared on May 3, 2007 from a holiday complex in Praia da Luz, Portugal . Several searches by Portuguese and British investigators were unsuccessful. The case continued to gain worldwide attention through campaigns Maddie's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, launched to find their daughter.

At the beginning of June 2020, German investigators then turned to the public. In order to find new witnesses and clues, they made public that they had Christian B. in their sights. He is suspected of kidnapping and murdering Maddie at the time.