A previously submitted tip documented in the Jeffrey Epstein case files has reignited online discussion about a possible connection to one of the most enduring missing-child mysteries: the 2007 disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann. The document, logged by the FBI in 2020, references an alleged sighting from September 2009—more than two years after Madeleine vanished from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal. The claim describes a woman resembling Ghislaine Maxwell walking with a young girl who matched Madeleine’s description at the time. Despite the dramatic nature of the report, authorities have never confirmed any link between Maxwell, Epstein, and the McCann case, and the tip remains unverified.

Madeleine McCann, then three years old, disappeared on the evening of May 3, 2007, while her parents dined nearby with friends at the Ocean Club resort. Her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, left the sleeping children in their unlocked apartment and checked on them periodically. When Kate returned around 10 p.m., Madeleine was gone. Portuguese police initially treated the case as an abduction, launching a massive search that drew international attention. Over the years, thousands of reported sightings flooded in from across Europe and beyond, most proving unrelated.

The 2009 tip surfaced years later. On July 6, 2020—shortly after Ghislaine Maxwell’s high-profile arrest in New Hampshire on sex-trafficking charges—an individual in the United Kingdom submitted an online report to the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center. The tipster claimed that in September 2009 they had observed a woman who “looked just like Ghislaine Maxwell” walking with a child. According to the account, the girl appeared to resemble Madeleine McCann, who would have been about six years old by then. A striking detail stood out to the witness: the child kept her hand covering her right eye for the entire duration of the sighting.

The tipster stated they had reported the encounter to police back in 2009 as a possible Madeleine sighting but had not connected the accompanying woman to anyone specific at the time. It was only after seeing widespread 2020 news coverage and social-media discussion about Maxwell’s arrest that the memory resurfaced. The individual forwarded the recollection to the FBI, where it was logged and preserved among thousands of other tips related to the Epstein investigation.

The Epstein files—publicly released in batches by the U.S. Department of Justice—contain a wide array of documents, including court filings, witness statements, flight logs, and public tips submitted after Maxwell’s July 2020 detention and Epstein’s earlier death in custody in 2019. The Madeleine-related entry appears as one such unsolicited public tip rather than evidence developed by investigators. No follow-up investigation results, corroborating witnesses, or official conclusions about the sighting are included in the released materials. The FBI routinely receives and reviews tips in high-profile cases, but most are not substantiated.

Madeleine’s disappearance remains officially unsolved. Portuguese authorities shelved the original inquiry in 2008, but Britain’s Operation Grange—launched in 2011—continues to treat the case as a live investigation. In 2020, German prosecutors identified Christian Brueckner, a convicted sex offender who lived in the Algarve region at the time, as the prime suspect. Authorities say they have evidence placing him near the Ocean Club on the night Madeleine vanished, though he has not been charged in her case. Brueckner denies involvement.

No law-enforcement agency involved in the McCann probe—Portugal’s Polícia Judiciária, Scotland Yard, or the FBI—has ever named Ghislaine Maxwell or Jeffrey Epstein as a person of interest. Fact-checks and investigative reporting have repeatedly addressed viral comparisons between Maxwell and a separate 2009 e-fit (police artist sketch) released in the McCann case. That sketch depicted a woman seen acting suspiciously in Barcelona on May 7, 2007—four days after the disappearance. The woman was described as approximately 30–35 years old, about 5ft 2in tall, with an Australian accent in some accounts. The image resurfaced online after Maxwell’s 2020 arrest due to a superficial resemblance, but official sources note key discrepancies: the described woman was younger than Maxwell would have been, and Maxwell’s documented whereabouts place her in New York City for much of April and May 2007.

The September 2009 tip in the Epstein files is distinct from the 2007 Barcelona sighting. It originated in the United Kingdom rather than Portugal or Spain, and it was submitted retrospectively after Maxwell became headline news again. The detail about the child covering her right eye has fueled speculation among true-crime followers and online forums, but no medical or identifying records tie the behavior to Madeleine, who had a distinctive coloboma (a flaw) in her right iris that could be visible in photographs.

Public fascination with the Epstein-Maxwell saga has amplified interest in any overlap with other high-profile cases. Maxwell was convicted in 2021 on five counts related to recruiting and grooming underage girls for Epstein between 1994 and 2004. She is serving a 20-year sentence. Epstein, a financier with connections to powerful figures, died by suicide while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges. The release of additional Epstein documents in recent years has kept the story in the news cycle, prompting renewed scrutiny of old tips and rumors.

Online platforms have seen a surge in posts sharing screenshots of the 2020 FBI tip page, often framing it as a “bombshell” or “smoking gun.” Discussions range from serious analysis of the child’s eye-covering gesture to broader conspiracy theories linking Epstein’s trafficking network to missing-children cases worldwide. Yet investigators stress that tips must be corroborated with physical evidence, witness statements, or forensic matches—none of which have emerged in this instance.

The McCann family has endured nearly two decades of hope, heartbreak, and constant media attention. Kate and Gerry McCann have maintained that their daughter is alive and continue to fund private searches while cooperating with Operation Grange. They have consistently urged the public to forward credible information to authorities rather than speculate online.

As of February 2026, the Madeleine McCann case file remains open. Authorities continue to follow leads, including those generated by documentaries, books, and periodic document releases in unrelated but high-profile investigations. The 2009 sighting claim documented in the Epstein files represents one of many thousands of reports received over the years—intriguing to the public, but unconfirmed by any official action or evidence.

The persistence of such tips underscores both the enduring public desire for answers in Madeleine’s disappearance and the challenge investigators face in separating genuine leads from well-meaning but ultimately unfounded observations. Until concrete evidence surfaces, the mystery of what happened to the three-year-old girl on that spring night in 2007 remains unresolved, with each new document release adding another layer of speculation but no definitive resolution.