Everything we know as as search for Madeleine McCann enters its third day

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a day ago

Everything we know as as search for Madeleine McCann enters its third day
The search of land in Praia da Luz continues on Thursday, 18 years after the three-year-old's disappearance.
The searches are taking place between Brueckner's old rented cottage and a rural area near Lagos, Atalaia
(Image: PA )
Madeleine McCann was three years old when she vanished on May 3, 2007 after her parents left her asleep in their holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, in the Algarve, Portugal.
Since then, hers has become one of the highest-profile unsolved missing person cases in the world, with British, Portuguese and European police forces involved in the investigation.
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Police forces from across Europe have launched multiple searches for Madeleine McCann since her disappearance in 2007.
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Early efforts focused on the Praia da Luz resort, where she was last seen in her family's holiday apartment. In 2013, British police began Operation Grange, a formal investigation into the case. Searches have included digging in scrubland, draining reservoirs, and using sniffer dogs and ground-penetrating radar.
German authorities have also led inquiries in recent years, targeting prime suspect, 48-year-old Christian Brückner.
Madeleine McCann disappeared from a holiday flat in Portugal in 2007
(Image: PA )
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The latest one commenced on Tuesday this week, searching the suspects old place of residence in Praia da Luz, covering a large patch of land near the home of their prime suspect and the McCanns' holiday apartment. Here's everything we know.
The latest investigation
Where are police searching?
Operational tents have been set up in the nearby village of Atalaia as investigation teams search over 20 plots of land in Praia da Luz.
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German authorities, who are leading this investigation, are searching the old residence of Christian Brückner, a man who is currently in jail for the offence of rape, to find anything that could prove Madeleine was ever taken there.
What have they found?
Teams investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann have taken samples of potential evidence from properties near Praia Da Luz in Portugal.
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The search teams were seen using pickaxes, shovels and chainsaws to clear dense vegetation and dig near a derelict building.
On Tuesday, fresh searches for Madeleine began in countryside a few miles from Praia da Luz, with firefighters spotted pumping water to drain a well.
(Image: © 2025 PA Media, All Rights Reserved )
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About a dozen officers focused on one abandoned building where digging was taking place, while another member of the search team cleared large rocks.
The Daily Express reported that investigation teams have taken samples of potential evidence from properties near Praia Da Luz in Portugal.
A man who knew Madeleine McCann prime suspect Christian Brueckner has made a dramatic appeal to police, claiming they are searching in the wrong place. Ken Ralphs told GB News that Brueckner's alleged accomplice once broke down in tears and confessed plans to help abduct a child in Praia de Luz.
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He said: "He cried that he needed the money to get out the country with his family and children and that's why he got involved."
Mr Ralphs identified what he described as the last property Brueckner stayed in before Madeleine vanished – and urged investigators to focus there.
Frustrated by years of inaction, he said: "For over 18 years, I've pressed the police and all they can do is blame each other for not passing this information on."
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The prime suspect
Last year, Christian Brueckner was cleared of unrelated sexual offences between 2000 and 2017
(Image: Phil Harris )
Christian Brückner is serving a jail sentence in Germany after raping a 72-year-old American tourist in Portugal in 2005. He is due to be released later this year.
He moved to Portugal in 1995 after serving a two-year prison sentence in Germany for sexually assaulting a six-year-old girl in 1994, he is known to have been renting a cottage in Praia da Luz at the time of Madeleine's disappearance. Soon after the media descended on the resort in 2007, he moved back to Germany.
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In October 2024, he was acquitted of two charges rape and two of sexual abuse in a German rape trial where it was argued there was a lack of evidence and witnesses who were not credible.
Police have previously claimed he made a 30-minute phone call from the same area just an hour before Madeleine disappeared.
He is alleged to have confessed on two occasions to kidnapping and sexually abusing the toddler - once to a friend in a German bar in 2017 and again to his prison cellmate in 2020.
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The German national was formally identified as a suspect in 2022, but has denied any involvement. He also denied committing the 2005 rape for which he was convicted of in 2019.
Brückner has not been charged in the McCann case, but German authorities began investigating him in June 2020 for her kidnap and murder.
German authorities maintain that he is the main suspect in Madeleine's disappearance and are pushing for charges before his scheduled release in September.
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The last search
The most recent search prior to this one was also executed by German police in 2023.They spent a week searching the Barragem do Arade reservoir, around 30 miles from Praia da Luz, after receiving of a "tip-off".
It was previously searched by divers in 2008 after Portuguese lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia ordered them to look to see if Madeleine McCann's body was there. Nothing was found.