Madeleine McCann search latest amid fresh 'evidence', shock clue and new tactic
The latest search for any clues related to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann 18 years ago has left German police 'hoping for a breakthrough.'
After requesting approval to conduct fresh searches in an area between Praia da Luz, where the three-year-old British girl vanished on May 3, 2007, and a house near the holiday resort where suspect Christian Brueckner lived, investigators have been scouring the region in recent days.
Madeleine disappeared nearly two decades ago while holidaying with her family in Praia da Luz. She went missing while her parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, had been out for dinner with friends in a nearby restaurant. She was asleep in the accommodation with her younger twin siblings.
The Mirror reports that new information came to light after the trial of Christian Brueckner who, according to German prosecutors is the prime suspect in the case of Madeleine McCann's disappearance. This sparked the fresh searches that began this week, with Portuguese police joining German investigators.
The new search operation, officially launched on Tuesday in Portugal, saw German teams use shovels and strimmers to sweep the region between where Madeleine disappeared and a former residence of Brueckner. Around 30 German officers, as well as forensic experts, are examining the area.
Much of the focus appeared to be centred around an abandoned farmhouse, which is surrounded by outbuildings that have partially collapsed. Potential evidence has been recovered, though the nature of this remains to be seen.
A nearby well was also drained by local firemen as part of the search mission.
Reports suggest that the latest searches will involve radar equipment to probe beneath the ground and trenches.
The Sun cites an investigating source as saying: "Following Brueckner's trial last year, someone contacted them with theories on where anyone who took Madeleine might've dumped her. They told cops about trenches that were dug in Praia at the time Madeleine disappeared, and the house where Brueckner had lived on the edge of the village.
"Of course, all of these places have been searched over and over again, but now they have a new weapon in their ground-scanning radar. It means they don't need to dig for the sake of it. But as soon as they spot anything of interest they are ready to excavate and check it."
The significance of the current search being different to previous ones lies with authorities' knowledge of Christian Brueckner now.
Former Met Detective Chief Inspector Peter Kirkham shared his expert insight on the searches, explaining that not only are investigators scouring a crime scene but they are doing so with a potential association to a possible suspect in Brueckner as well.
Writing in The Mirror, Peter explained: "This provides a very different context for the investigation as a whole, and for the searches in particular, but the importance of this is often overlooked.
"Detectives investigating a serious crime are usually engaged in what is known as a reactive investigation: a crime happens and officers react to it by following lines of enquiry which could explain how it came to happen. Searches connected with a reactive investigation tend to be focused on the crime scene as at least some part of the crime must have happened right there."
He continued: "But where detectives know someone who they suspect of committing the crime they can focus on lines of enquiry arising from them too. They will know some things about the suspect – such as where they live or work, what car they drive and hundreds of other things – which provide a new focus for searches. Officers engaged in the previous, reactive investigation simply did not know of the potential new locations."
Christian Brueckner is a convicted rapist, currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for the 2005 rape of an elderly woman at the same resort where Madeleine McCann went missing. It wasn't until 2018 that he was arrested and he is currently scheduled for release in September.
The 48-year-old has never been formally charged or indicted in connection with the McCann case but German investigators consider him the prime suspect.
Brueckner was named a formal suspect in connection with Madeleine's disappearance three years ago. He moved to Portugal 30 years ago after serving a two-year prison sentence in Germany for the sexual assault of a six-year-old girl. He is understood to have returned to Germany following the global interest in Madeleine's unexplained disappearance.
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