EXCLUSIVE New search for Madeleine McCann enters final hours as police hunting rundown buildings prepare to call off the hunt tonight
A collection of sinister, ramshackle derelict barns and cottages on scrubland covering more than eight square miles, covered with thick vegetation.
With crumbling walls and covered in obscure graffiti the half dozen locations are being systematically examined by a task force of German and Portuguese police.
Searches started on Tuesday and are expected to finish by Friday as police frantically try and find some evidence to link Brueckner to Madeleine's 2007 disappearance.
She vanished from the Ocean Club holiday complex in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz and German police are adamant convicted rapist and paedophile Brueckner did it.
The search area is scrubland at Atalaia, around 3.5 miles from Praia da Luz and just a mile from where the German drifter lived.
Locals say the area – which is crisscrossed by footpaths and on a popular coastal walk known as the Fisherman's Trail was popular with wild campers, hippies and drifters.
There is evidence of rough sleeping in many of the buildings with empty wine bottles, beer cans and food tins strewn on the floor.
Brueckner is thought to have parked his VW camper van close by and used the scrubland as a rat run to get to and from Praia da Luz.
He was sensationally named by German authorities in June 2020 as the man responsible for Madeleine's abduction and murder, but he has not been charged – and the sands of time are running out.
In three months, he could walk out of jail and that is why detectives are desperately looking for something concrete to link him to her disappearance to go with the circumstantial evidence they have.
His mobile phone places him in the area when then three-year-old Madeleine vanished and his profile as a conceited rapist and paedophile fits the bill.
Plus, a key witness has told authorities Brueckner told him a year after she vanished that 'Maddie didn't scream' when he took her.
Police have spent the last few days clearing away rubble and debris from inside the buildings using a backhoe and piles of dust covered debris have been piled outside.
Once a working area has been cleared, officers wearing masks to prevent their identity being revealed have gone in using spades and pickaxes to level off the ground.
Some have been seen carrying away soil in plastic boxes to blue tent that has been set up closeby, and any evidence recovered will be sent back to Germany.
The roofs of the eerie buildings being searched have all caved in and some have wooden posts holding up exterior walls – meaning search teams have to wear hard hats.
Ground penetrating equipment has been brought in for the search and this was used extensively at least two buildings and is expected to be used on the other sites.
There are also several wells on the scrubland and firefighters have been drafted in to drain off the water so they can be examined.
Publicly Portuguese police are keen to stress they are happy working jointly with their German counterparts but privately many are sceptical.
When one local policeman was asked what they expected to find he rolled his eyes and shrugged his shoulders before saying:' You tell me.'
It is not clear what led to the police investigation whether it was a hard tip off to German investigators.
Or whether it was meta data obtained from vile child porn images found on a USB stick Brueckner had buried in an old warehouse he lived in back in Germany.
What is clear though is that as Brueckner nears the end of a seven-year sentence for raping an elderly American woman in Praia da Luz in 2005 police need to move fast.
His earliest possible release date is September 17 however that is unlikely as he will have to pay 1500 Euro in outstanding fines from a series of motor offences to do so.
Gerry, left, and Kate McCann, parents of four-year old Madeleine McCann, present a picture of their daughter during a press conference in Berlin, Wednesday, June 6, 2007
But his legal team say he is broke and so a release date of January 6 looks more likely, but he has already admitted he will 'probably leave the country' which means police will have a nightmare to bring him back if charged.
Last October he was cleared of a series of unrelated sex attacks that took place in the Algarve between 2000 and 2017.
Two years ago police also searched a dam close by for evidence but after a week-long operation nothing was found and Brueckner continues to deny any involvement with Madeleine's disappearance.
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