Search relaunched for Madeleine McCann, the 3-year-old British girl who vanished in 2007
Officials in Europe have relaunched the search for Madeleine McCann, who disappeared nearly two decades ago from a vacation apartment in Portugal as her parents ate at a nearby restaurant.
Portuguese police are searching the Algarve region, where the British toddler vanished in 2007 when she was 3 years old, according to Reuters. The country's southernmost area, the Algarve is known for its beaches and golf resorts.
Portugal's investigative Judicial Police said the new search comes on the heels of a request from German authorities, Reuters reported.
The child's disappearance sparked one of the most publicized missing-person investigations in British history.
Judicial police were "executing a European Investigation Order on behalf of the public prosecutor's office in Braunschweig, Germany," according to a statement obtained by Reuters. In 2022, prosecutors in Braunschweig identified German Christian Brueckner as a primary suspect in the girl's missing child case.
Search warrants would be conducted from June 2-6 in Lagos, Portugal, and any evidence seized is set to be handed over to Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), Reuters reported, citing Portuguese police.
The search will focus on an area between Praia da Luz (a civil parish belonging to the town of Lagos) and one of the houses where Brueckner lived at the time the girl vanished, CNN Portugal reported.
German prosecutors told Reuters "criminal procedural measures" related to the McCann case were taking place in Portugal involving the BKA and Portuguese law enforcement. The attorneys did not elaborate.
Here's what to know about the case.
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Madeleine disappeared from her bed in a rental apartment in the resort town of Praia da Luz in the Algarve region on May 3, 2007.
The girl vanished while her parents ate dinner a few hundred yards away and her 2-year-old twin siblings slept in the same room.
The last search for McCann was carried out in May 2023, when police combed an inland reservoir in the Algarve but did not find anything.
In June 2020, police in Germany announced McCann was assumed dead and Brueckner "was likely responsible," Reuters reported, adding Brueckner has denied involvement in her disappearance.
Although currently serving a prison sentence in Germany for raping a senior woman in Algarve, Brueckner has never been charged with any crime related to the child's case.
Madeleine was born on May 12, 2003. As of June 2, she would be age 22.
Contributing: Reuters
Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on X @nataliealun
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What happened to Madeleine McCann? Why police relaunched the search
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