Everything that happened on the night Madeleine disappeared

Madeleine McCann disappeared from the Portugese coast while on holiday with her parents in 2007. Photo / Supplied

Nearly ten years has passed since three-year-old Madeleine McCann went missing while on holiday with her family in Portugal.

As officers still trying to piece together the events surrounding her disappearance, detectives will be constantly reminding themselves of what happened that night.

She was reported missing at 10.14pm on May 3 2007, which makes the three hours from 8.30pm and 11.30pm a crucial window in the investigation, reports Daily Mail.

Looking back at the evening that sparked a ten-year, £11million probe, we look at what happened on the last night Maddie was seen.

8.30pm - The McCanns go for dinner

Kate read a bedtime story to Maddie and her younger twin sisters Sean and Amelie at their apartment in the Ocean Club complex in Praia Da Luz, before the couple went to dinner 100 yards away with friends.

They joined friends Matt and Rachel Oldfield, Jane Tanner and Russell O'Brien, for a Spanish meal within the complex, and they had all left their children in their apartments.

Mr O'Brien left to check on his children just before nine, and three more friends joined shortly afterwards, David and Fiona Payne and Dianne Webster.

The group became known as the Tapas Nine as the investigation into Maddie's disappearance gripped the world.

The group went to dinner in the same place every night and checked on the children every half an hour.

Gerry McCann left to check on the children at around 9.05pm, saw them asleep in their beds and cots, left the door ajar and returned to the bar.

Jane Tanner left around ten minutes later and made a sighting that seemed innocuous at the time but went on to dominate police inquiries for years.

Police thought the child in light pink pyjamas - similar to Maddie's - being carried by a man with long hair could be crucial, but in 2013 Scotland Yard finally ruled it out as a piece of evidence, revealing that it was 'almost certain' that the man was an unconnected British tourist.

Mr Oldfield went to check on the McCann's and his own children at 9.30pm. He listened at the McCann children's door to see if they were making any noise but did not go into the room.

Mr Oldfield's failure to check inside the bedroom may have cost vital time in the search for the little girl. Kate went up to check half an hour later and found that Maddie was missing.

None of the McCanns' friends have ever spoken about the events that took place that night.

The group were eating within the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz. Photo / Getty Images

10pm - Madeleine is missing

Kate McCann said the draft slammed the door shut as she went into the room, and she noticed that Madeleine was missing when she opened it.

Shocked to discover she wasn't in her own bed, at first she wondered if her daughter had got into her parents' bed.

She told Crimewatch in 2014 that she then saw the window up and the shutters open. Witnesses then recalled her running back down the restaurant, saying 'They've taken her, they've taken her'.

The couple said that they knew she was missing because her favourite teddy bear, a Cuddle Cat teddy that she took everywhere, remained on the bed.

The McCann's then began desperately searching the complex, according to a nanny who looked after Maddie several times on holiday.

She described Kate as 'crying' and 'almost catatonic'. The group were even asked to check bins to see if her body was inside, she recalled.

Kate McCann, left, and Gerry McCann, the parents of Madeleine McCann. Photo / AP

10.14 - Police are called

The ten-year police investigation began at 10.14pm, and there were mistakes made from the outset.

Reports from witnesses vary but most say it took officers more than an hour to arrive.

There was more than an hour of questioning through the local Policia Judiciaria translator, but the area was not treated as a crime scene.

Around 20 people were allowed to wander in and out freely inside what one former officer later dubbed the 'worst preserved crime scene' he had ever seen.

Roadblocks were not installed until nearly 12 hours after she was reported missing.

Spanish border controls were not informed until the next morning, giving a potential kidnapper more than enough time to flee the country. The border is just three hours away.

Linked with the mystery is 44-year-old Robert Murat, the British ex-pat businessman who acted as a translator for Portuguese police in the early days of their investigation before being made an 'arguido' - an official police suspect - less than two weeks later.