Searches for Madeleine McCann to continue in Portugal
Searches for Madeleine McCann are to resume in Portugal, near where the little girl was last seen in 2007.
On Tuesday, fresh searches for Madeleine began, as teams drained a well and cleared areas of dense vegetation near abandoned buildings in countryside a few miles from Praia da Luz.
Madeleine, then aged three, vanished while on holiday with her family in the Algarve resort, after her parents went out to dinner and left her sleeping in a room with her toddler twin siblings. PA Media Search teams look through a derelict and abandoned property to the west of Praia da Luz (James Manning/PA).
German investigators and Portuguese police officers and firefighters took part in the searches on Tuesday, as teams used strimmers, shovels and chainsaws to clear the undergrowth and debris around an abandoned building, and drained a well using a yellow hose.
About a dozen officers focused on one abandoned building where digging was taking place, while another member of the search team cleared large rocks. PA Media Teams dug, shifted rocks and cleared scrub as the work continued on Tuesday (James Manning/PA).
The Sun reported that investigators are also planning to use radar equipment that can scan beneath the ground.
It has been variously reported that teams will look where trenches were dug near the resort at the time of Madeleine's disappearance, at wells, ruins and water tanks, and that there are plans to examine 21 pieces of land. PA Media A Portuguese police van driving down a lane near where a search is taking place (Joao Matos/AP).
The search is being carried out at the request of the German federal police, as they look for evidence that could implicate prime suspect Christian Brueckner, who is in prison for raping a 72-year-old woman in Praia da Luz in 2005.
He is due to be released from jail in September if no further charges are brought.
In October last year, Brueckner was cleared by a German court of unrelated sexual offences, alleged to have taken place in Portugal between 2000 and 2017. PA Media (PA Graphics)
About 30 German police, including forensic experts, are expected to take part in the search, with Portuguese officers, which is expected to last until Friday.
The Metropolitan Police said they were aware of the operation but that British officers will not be present.
German investigators and Portuguese officers last carried out searches in 2023, near the Barragem do Arade reservoir, about 30 miles from Praia da Luz. PA Media Madeleine McCann disappeared from a holiday flat in Portugal in 2007 (Family handout/PA).
Brueckner, who spent time in the area between 2000 and 2017, had photographs and videos of himself near the reservoir.
It was previously searched in 2008, when Portuguese lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia paid for specialist divers to search it, after he claimed to have been tipped off by criminal contacts that Madeleine's body was there.
British police were later given permission to examine scrubland near where she vanished in 2014.
Last month Madeleine's family, who are from Rothley in Leicestershire, marked the 18th anniversary of her disappearance, describing her as 'beautiful and unique', before her 22nd birthday, and vowed to continue the search. PA Media (PA Graphics)
A statement from her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, and the family, said: 'The years appear to be passing even more quickly and whilst we have no significant news to share, our determination to 'leave no stone unturned' is unwavering. We will do our utmost to achieve this.'
In April, ministers approved more than £100,000 in additional funding for Scotland Yard detectives investigating Madeleine's disappearance.
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And if you actually delve deeper … and start with the PJ [Portuguese Polícia Judiciária] files, you'll see a whole new truth emerge,' the decorator from Nottingham said. She had been gripped by what she said were the 'numerous holes' and 'contradictions' in the case. She dismissed the latest searches as 'a whole waste of time', proffered theories and spoke of 'hard evidence' and media 'manipulation' before heading to the nearby beach for the day. Town residents feel uneasy about the ghoulish obsession with Madeleine's disappearance. Metres away from the Ocean Club, at the Baptista supermarket's cafe, a British businessman, Tahir, who splits his time between London and the Algarve said he came across some tourists outside the McCann apartment just last week. 'They'd obviously spotted it or they'd known where it was, and they were taking pictures of the apartment. I felt like going up to them and saying, 'That's so morbid. What's the matter with you people?'' the 45-year-old said. 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All that sort of stuff very unpredictably would combine together and you would go from virtually minimal media interest and coverage to significant and substantial media coverage, and that was all before the days of social media.' Foy, who has not been involved in the investigation since retiring, said the popularity of true crime documentaries and dramas in which complex cases are neatly wrapped up in one-hour episodes had also contributed to the public's enduring fascination with the case. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion 'What then happens is that you get people's avid fascination and expectation that it's all going to get solved really quickly, and it's all nice and neat, and follows nice dramatic lines, and in reality it never does,' he said. 'In real life, it's messy, and you can't get anything more messy than the whole Madeleine McCann investigation, the whole saga. There are human beings, there's pressure and people make mistakes. It's different. It's never as perfect as it's portrayed in the media world. But people are absolutely fascinated by a story like that, it just happens that this one is a real-life tragedy.' It is this fascination with the case, and in turn Praia da Luz, that has led some residents to blame the McCanns for damaging the town's reputation. Road signs in the town were once defaced with graffiti reading 'McCann circus'. The signs have now been cleaned up but still bear traces of the town's unease. Hundreds of journalists descended on the town to report on the mystery of the three-year-old girl, but tourism dropped and businesses suffered. 'This place was like a ghost town at one point,' said Tahir, who did not want to give his surname. It is why he and many others hope the case can be solved. 'Everyone has got an interest in what happens to Madeleine. For locals, it's still closure that they're looking for. It's not just the family, everyone wants to know. It's gone on so long. There was a point where locals wanted to bury the story because it was affecting businesses and all the rentals went down, but I think it's got over that point,' Tahir said. A retired Portuguese businessman in his 60s, who did not want to give his name, said: '[It has been] 18 years and we've had enough. For the family it's a pity, but it's enough. This area was full of people, it was a joy, a happy family place that was completely transformed and completely dead after [Madeleine disappeared]. Now it's OK but it took 10 years.' The search, the latest in a series of renewed efforts by German prosecutors, was said to have been the last chance to build a case against the prime suspect, Christian Brückner. He denies any involvement. The countdown is now on to the 48-year-old's imminent release from a German prison, where he is currently being held for the rape of an American woman in Praia da Luz in 2005. After 18 years, hundreds of leads and still no trace of the missing girl, the emotional toll must weigh heavily on Madeleine's family, who have not commented on this week's search. And for a place that once hoped its name would be reclaimed by the sun, the sea and the quiet rhythm of local life, the McCann case still casts a long shadow, one that no end-of-search announcement can fully erase.
