Kate and Gerry McCann were having dinner with seven other people on the night of May 3, 2007, while their three kids were asleep in their apartment around 50 meters from the tapas restaurant where they were dining. According to Sky News, they had done the same thing earlier in their trip, but the next morning when Madeleine asked why they weren’t in the apartment when she woke up, they made sure that the next time they would check on the kids more frequently.

On May 3, the couple left for dinner with the kids asleep, leaving the apartment door slightly ajar. Around 9 p.m. that evening Gerry McCann returned to the apartment to check on the kids and found the door in a different position than how it was left. He noticed all three kids still inside and fast asleep.

Another member of the McCann’s dining party was in the apartment complex approximately 15 minutes later and reported seeing an unidentified man carrying a young girl. Six years later, police identified the man and determined that he was carrying his own daughter. Another friend checked on the kids around 9:30 p.m. and reported that they were all there, but when Kate McCann checked on them half an hour later, Madeleine was missing.