By L. J. Carrington | International Investigations Bureau | The London Evening Sentinel
Sunday — Detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann have uncovered what senior officials are calling “one of the most disturbing pieces of evidence ever recovered” in the nearly two-decade-long case. A coded sheet retrieved from a suspect’s locked safe contains a hand-drawn sketch of a young girl bearing Madeleine’s distinctive right-eye mark — alongside GPS coordinates pointing to a remote area authorities admit they have never searched.
The sheet, written on thick parchment-like paper and marked with symbols experts say resemble a substitution cipher, was discovered last week during a raid on a rural property linked to a long-term person of interest.
But investigators have only now revealed the chilling contents.
A Drawing That “Leaves Little Doubt”
At the top of the page, detectives found an unsettling illustration: a small girl wearing a simple dress, standing beside what appears to be a rocky hillside.
Most disturbing is a carefully shaded mark around the right eye — nearly identical to Madeleine’s distinctive coloboma.
“For seasoned investigators, it was a moment of absolute stillness,” said one officer involved in the search. “It’s not just any drawing of a child. It’s a girl who appears to have her mark.”
The Coordinates No One Expected
Beneath the drawing were a sequence of numbers arranged in a pattern resembling a puzzle grid. When decoded using a basic transposition method, the sequence revealed a set of GPS coordinates.
Authorities confirmed the location is:
-
In a remote stretch of northern Portugal,
-
On privately owned land,
-
Accessible only by an unmarked footpath,
-
And has never been included in any previous search operations.
A senior official admitted the revelation “sent alarm bells all the way to the top.”
The Area That Terrified Her Parents
Sources close to the McCann family say that when investigators presented them with the decoded coordinates, the reaction was immediate and emotional.
The location lies painfully close to an area the family privately feared had never been thoroughly explored — a rugged zone known for abandoned wells, unused storage structures, and former mining paths.
“They were terrified because it aligns with a place they had always believed should have been examined,” said a family representative. “For years, they asked about it. For years, they were told it didn’t fit the established timeline.”
The family has requested privacy as the new search preparations begin.
A Cipher Designed to Conceal
Police brought in cryptography specialists who confirmed the coded sheet used a combination of:
-
Substitution ciphering,
-
Directional arrows,
-
And a grid-based numerical key.
Experts say this is not a simple doodle, but “a deliberate, layered system used to keep information hidden.”
“It was meant to be understood only by the person who created it,” said a forensic cryptanalyst in Lisbon. “The intent to conceal is unmistakable.”
A Renewed Search Operation Begins
Authorities have now sealed off the area indicated by the sheet and deployed:
-
Ground-penetrating radar
-
Cadaver dogs
-
Archaeological forensic teams
-
Drone-based heat and soil imaging
The search began quietly before sunrise this morning.
Officials refuse to speculate publicly, but privately concede they are preparing for the possibility of a “critical discovery.”
The Suspect
Police would not release the identity of the suspect associated with the safe, describing them only as:
-
Someone long on the periphery of the investigation
-
A person with a history of transient living
-
An individual who abruptly left Portugal months after Madeleine vanished
-
Someone who “kept objects most people would never store”
The suspect is currently in custody on unrelated charges and is not cooperating.
A Break That Could Change the Case Forever
If the coded sheet and coordinates lead to physical evidence, investigators say it could radically alter the case’s timeline, geography, and suspect profile.
“This is no longer about reexamining old ground,” a British official said. “This is about uncovering an intentional set of directions — and a drawing that should not exist.”
