The Portuguese say that the disappearance of Maddie McCann is “something that nobody talks about”

Madeleine McCann disappeared 15 years ago, on May 3, 2007, and several Praia da Luz locals came out to say that her kidnapping is “a thing of the past here now”.

The great South African Wim Bosman has only one rule in his Praia da Luz restaurant: “You don’t talk about politics, religion… or Madeleine McCann.”

It has been 15 years since the young woman disappeared from her parents’ vacation apartment at the resort while they were dining at a nearby tapas bar.

Yet to this day, that night brings back painful memories for those who call “Light” home.

“It’s become something no one talks about,” says Wim, who opened the Bosman restaurant a decade before Madeleine disappeared just before her fourth birthday.

“What happened to her is tragic and I can’t imagine what her parents have been through, but it’s in the past now.

“If someone brings it up, it inevitably turns into a discussion because people’s opinions differ so much.

“Some blame the parents and say they should never have left her alone, others are full of sympathy for them.

“So people have their theories about what happened to him, but the truth is I don’t think we’ll ever know.”

The sun-kissed resort has changed little in the past 15 years.

Although visitors were initially replaced by journalists covering the story, tourists have returned and locals believe it no longer carries the stigma of being “the place Maddie disappeared”.

Wim adds: “Apart from a few months, I strongly believe that visitors and families were not put off coming here.

“The complex was affected by the financial crisis and covid as much as the bad publicity related to Maddie’s case.”

Luz feels like a place that has moved.

The Rua Dr. Agostinho da Silva apartment where Madeleine disappeared is once again rented out to tourists and a previous suspect’s house, searched at the time, has been demolished in favor of new apartments.

But locals recently found their hometown in the news again when Christian Brueckner was named an “arguido” – formal suspect – in the case.

The German pedophile spent years renting a country house before Madeleine’s disappearance.

Despite moving in a year before she disappeared, the house has become a ghoulish tourist attraction.

It is now owned by a British man who told the Mirror he is “sick and tired” of people stopping to “gawk” at him.

He adds: “It’s really frustrating because the whole place has been renovated since he lived here.

“No one at the resort wants to talk about Madeleine or the guy they think took her, it just isn’t talked about.

“He was living in a motorhome when she disappeared, not here.

This property has nothing to do with that.” Outside the church of the Parroquia de Senhora da Luz, two women talk.

One of them, Benedita Fernandes, 72, is an oddity: a local willing to speak out about Madeleine’s disappearance.

“People don’t like to be reminded of it, but I disagree,” he says.

“She was a girl and we must never forget her. I don’t blame her parents. It’s cruel to do it.

“Someone evil came to this place that night. It is they who are to blame.

“I pray for Madeleine all the time and also for her family. I really hope we find out what happened to him.”

Kate, 54, and Gerry, 53, will mark the day quietly.

While German investigators remain convinced that Brueckner is responsible for Madeleine’s disappearance, which his lawyer strongly denies, Scotland Yard’s search for her kidnapper, dubbed Operation Grange, is expected to be shelved later this year.