Latest news with #Atalaia
The Independent
4 hours ago
- The Independent
Madeleine McCann search latest: Animal bones among limited findings as police hunt ends in Praia da Luz
German and Portuguese investigators congratulated and embraced each other as searches connected to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann drew to a close. Search teams wound down the operation in Atalaia, near Lagos, Portugal, on Thursday, after three days of scouring scrubland and abandoned structures. Officers involved in the latest searches held a debrief before leaving the site, and there was a round of applause before a crate of German beer was removed from one of the tents in the designated base area. After the Augustiner beers were carried away, some officers struggled to grapple with the tents they were taking down because of the blustery conditions. Earlier in the day, personnel could be seen holding pitchforks as they combed stretches of land. Pick-axes and shovels were used to dig some of the undergrowth and a digger was again used to remove rubble from one of the abandoned structures at the site. They spent the first two days of the search focusing on one particular derelict building, using ground-penetrating radar on the cobbled ground after clearing the area of debris and vegetation using a digger and chainsaws
Telegraph
14 hours ago
- General
- Telegraph
Madeleine McCann police leave empty-handed after three-day search
Detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann have left empty-handed after a three-day search near where she went missing 18 years ago. Officers from Portugal's Polícia Judiciária, under the direction of German authorities, scoured 120 acres of gorse scrubland east of Praia da Luz for any trace of the three-year-old's remains. A team of 60 police officers, a JCB-style digger and ground penetrating radar (GPR) devices, all at an estimated cost of £300,000, were deployed in the hope of bringing closure to the infamous missing persons case. By the time the detectives packed up their tents at 5pm on Thursday, the sum total of their findings were a handful of animal bones, decayed adult clothes and some soil. And even then, The Telegraph was told that these samples would not be sent back to Germany for further examination. 'Not very well', said one police officer when asked how the search was going, hours before the digging stopped for the last time. 'We were criticised for not doing our job 20 years ago. Beyond that, I can't say anything', he told The Telegraph before walking back to his colleagues, shovel in hand. The new search area encompassed 20 plots of private land in the small region of Atalaia and is dotted with derelict farmhouses, disused wells, and abandoned buildings. It sits less than a mile away from the former home of Christian Brueckner, a convicted paedophile and the main suspect in Madeleine's disappearance in May 2007. Brueckner has denied his involvement and so far has not faced any charges in connection with the McCann case. Teams of officers used shovels and later diggers to excavate the ground floors of abandoned buildings and then scan the earth below with radar devices. Some questioned whether this short-lived search was based on fresh intelligence unearthed by detectives or whether it was more random and speculative than that. The answer remains unclear. It marks what could be the last roll of the dice in the detectives' bid to find answers and crucial evidence relating to Madeleine's disappearance. Brueckner is due to walk out of Germany's Sehnde prison in three months time after serving seven-year-prison sentence for raping an elderly American woman in Praia da Luz in 2005, only two years before Madeleine went missing. Prosecutors view this window as the last possible opportunity to find the crucial bit of evidence needed to charge Brueckner before he absconds abroad and is likely never to be seen again. He was first named as a suspect in the case in 2020, when prosecutors in Germany claimed to have compelling evidence linking him to Madeleine's abduction and murder. However, the exact nature of that potentially damning evidence has never been divulged. Hans Christian Wolters, the German prosecutor leading the investigation, has repeatedly refused to disclose what has prompted the search. In the search site, the roar of chainsaws and hedge trimmers filled the air as they started clearing the shrub from the ruins of abandoned villas in the 73F (23C) heat on Tuesday morning. Their efforts were closely monitored by a throng of international journalists and press photographers with long lenses who clambered through the thorny undergrowth for a closer look. Dirt tracks heading north were cordoned off with police tape to deter the hundreds of tourists walking along the coastal trail that runs parallel to the search sites. Officers were sent in small teams of two or three to sift through the rubble and pack containers with soil to be taken away for further analysis. However, the Telegraph were told the samples weren't going to be sent back to Germany in yet another blow to the police investigation. At one property a team of half a dozen firefighters worked to dredge a disused well. The following day, a JCB digger was deployed to excavate the ruins along with a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) device, capable of mapping underground terrain to a depth of approximately 33ft (10 metres) and identifying anomalies. Detectives hoped the GPR may locate the crucial piece of evidence needed to formally charge Breuckner without damaging it in the process. Robert Green, a Professor of Forensic Science at the University of Kent, who led a programme for the Home Office setting out a national cold case strategy, explained its benefits. He said: 'Ground penetrating radar has proven to be an invaluable asset in forensic investigations, especially in locating buried bodies or remains. 'Its significant advantages enable the investigators to scan the area and generate real-time feedback, producing detailed images of subsurface anomalies that could represent potential clues, such as disturbed soil or voids that may suggest the presence of a body. 'In this manner, GPR effectively serves as the investigators' eyes, unveiling hidden depths without causing disruption.' However, the devices, also used in an earlier search in Praia Da Luz in 2014, do have their drawbacks. It takes an expert eye to be able to analyse the mapping data and discern between a natural feature such as a tree root or a piece of bone. The radar may also struggle to pick out particularly small pieces of evidence such as a tiny piece of fabric. Signals may return weakly due to highly conductive materials like clay. But for the detectives, their hopes that the GPR would be their saviour in the search for crucial evidence appeared futile after three days. The search concluded at approximately 5pm on Thursday afternoon. The team took down their tents, packed away their tools and drove away from the sites. The international team of Portuguese and German officers were seen shaking hands and applauding one another. One officer celebrated the end of the search by passing a crate of Augustiner, a German beer, to his colleagues. Professor Green had recommended that the Portuguese have on board an anthropologist or archaeologist and questioned the heavy-handed tactic of using JCB diggers. 'The GPR will highlight the possibility of underground anomalies, and employing heavy excavation equipment may have proven counterproductive,' he said. Approximately a mile away in the village of Sitio das Lajes on the outskirts of Lagos is Brueckner's old home, where he had lived intermittently since 1992. When the Telegraph visited the rundown cottage, it was boarded up with three cameras set up over the entrance with no signs of life. An algae-infested well filled with frogs sits a few yards away from the front door. Teun Koke, a Dutch father on holiday with his wife and six-month-old child at an Airbnb rental next door, said: 'When you read those stories, you think about your own children, but it didn't put me off bringing my family here 'It was a long time ago. 'We hope they find something that will solve that case, of course, it's a terrible situation.'
Daily Mail
a day ago
- General
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE New search for Madeleine McCann enters final hours as police hunting rundown buildings prepare to call off the hunt tonight
These are the buildings searched by police in a last-ditch attempt to find evidence linking prime Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner to her disappearance. 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.
The Guardian
2 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
Searches for Madeleine McCann resume in Portugal countryside
Searches for Madeleine McCann have resumed in Portugal with police using a digger to clear debris around an abandoned building a miles from where the British toddler was last seen in 2007. On Wednesday, Portuguese and German authorities continued focusing on derelict structures in countryside a few miles from the resort of Praia da Luz. The fresh searches for Madeleine began on Tuesday, 18 years after the three-year-old disappeared from Praia da Luz while her parents were out having dinner, leaving her sleeping in a nearby room with her toddler twin siblings. The sounds of chainsaws and strimmers could be heard as investigators appeared to continue clearing areas of scrubland in Atalaia, on the outskirts of Praia da Luz. Police used a JCB to clear rubble around one building and also appeared to have emptied another nearby disused structure of debris. Bricks and rocks could be seen piled outside the graffitied structure. Personnel wore protective gear including as hard hats and face masks as they cleared vegetation around the structures. Officers stopped journalists from getting close to the search areas, which were cordoned off with police tape. 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. Kate and Gerry McCann, Madeleine's parents, are not commenting during the 'active police investigation', staff at the Find Madeleine campaign said. Brueckner 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. About 30 German police, including forensic experts, are expected to take part in the search, which is expected to last until Friday, along with Portuguese officers. 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. 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. 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 British police were given permission to examine scrubland near where she vanished in 2014.
The Independent
3 days ago
- General
- The Independent
Fresh search for Madeleine McCann gets under way in Portugal
The latest searches for Madeleine McCann are getting under way in Portugal with officers gathering in countryside a few miles from the resort where she was last seen in 2007. Madeleine, then aged three, disappeared while on holiday with her family in the resort of Praia da Luz after her parents went out to dinner and left her sleeping in a room with her toddler twin siblings. Police vehicles were seen around 3.5 miles from the resort on Tuesday, in the Atalaia area, where the Sun has reported search teams are expected to use radar equipment that can scan beneath the ground. The BBC said four vans carrying German officers were seen driving down a road leading to the sea, along with Portuguese police and a fire engine. Journalists were being kept a distance away from the search site amid intense international media scrutiny of the operation. TV footage showed two Portuguese police officers guarding the end to a narrow lane that leads through an area of fields and scrubland with a few houses and a vineyard. It has been variously reported that investigators 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. 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. Ulrich Oppold, a journalist from German broadcaster RTL, visited Brueckner in prison in Germany, who said if he gets out of jail the thing he is most looking forward to is a steak with a beer. Brueckner refused to answer any questions relating to Madeleine after discussions with his lawyers. He told the journalist that if he does get out of jail he will have to lie low as he is so well known. Brueckner described himself as 'bekannt wie ein bunter Hund' – which literally translated is 'as well-known as a colourful dog'. 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. Around 30 German police officers, including forensic experts, are expected to take part in the search along with Portuguese officers, with the activity due to last until Friday. The Metropolitan Police said it is aware of the operation but that British officers will not be present. German investigators and Portuguese officers last carried out searches in the country in 2023 near the Barragem do Arade reservoir, about 30 miles from Praia da Luz. 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 expressing their determination to keep searching. 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.
