'This could be the breakthrough': Madeleine McCann Netflix documentary claims she's still alive.

The long-anticipated Netflix documentary about Madeleine McCann is set to drop globally on Netflix on Friday, March 15.

The latest trailer, however, makes a bold claim – Madeleine McCann is alive. 

Maddie is the three-year-old girl who went missing from her parent’s holiday villa in Portugal in 2007, while they were dining with friends 50 metres away.

Her disappearance sparked a global hunt for the child, making her the most famous missing person in the world. Now, 12 years later, her parents are still tirelessly looking for their little girl, who they believe is still alive.

Here is the official trailer for the new documentary. Post continues after video.

The documentary The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann features 40 experts and key figures in the case, and claims Maddie is likely to have been taken by child traffickers who have kept her alive all this time.

Jim Gamble, the top child protection cop in the UK investigation into her disappearance, told the documentary, “I absolutely believe that in my lifetime we will find out what has happened to Madeleine McCann”.

“There’s a huge hope to be had with the advances in technology. As we use that technology to revisit and review that which we captured in the past, there’s every likelihood that something we already know will slip into position,” he said.

The documentary claims that because Maddie is a middle class British girl, she would be very financially valuable to traffickers.

“The value that Madeleline had was really high because if they took her it’s because they were going to get a lot of money,” said Julian Peribanez, a private investigator hired by the McCanns.

The eight part series is very much an exploration of the child trafficking theory, which was briefly considered by police when she first disappeared.

Portugal police, however, abandoned this line of enquiry pretty quickly to focus on Kate and Gerry McCann, and their supposed involvement in their daughter's disappearance.

The documentary explains how Portugal is the perfect place for child traffickers because it's a well-placed gateway, allowing abducted children to be instantly taken overseas by boat, or driven across Europe.

Ernie Allen, head of the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children in the US, tells the documentary he has assisted many other abducted children in similar circumstances to Maddie.

He has helped the McCanns create an aged image of Maddie, who would now be 15, and says "there are many, many cases we can point to in which children have been found, have come home alive, after months, after years."

The documentary will be released globally - to 159 million subscribers, and the executive producer says they're trying to lay out as much detail as possible to hopefully "jog someone's memory."

The American story of Jaycee Dugard is also referenced in the series, as a pillar of hope. Jaycee was abducted aged nine in California and was found 18 years later.

Carlina White from New York is also mentioned. She was snatched as a baby in hospital, and learned the truth at 23.

Madeleine's body has never been found, nor has any evidence that she has been harmed. It's what's kept the McCanns searching, and what makes them certain their little girl is out there. Somewhere.

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