Latest news with #scrubland
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- General
- Daily Mail
The last chance of justice for Maddie: As the clock ticks down to the release of prime suspect Christian Brueckner, police in Portugal have spent three days desperately scouring scrubland. But have they found enough to keep him in jail?
This week masked police officers armed with pickaxes, shovels and even a mechanical digger could be glimpsed working their way through a neglected patch of Portuguese scrubland. Only a distinctive blue tent – the sort used in forensic searches – hinted at the troubling nature of their mission.
The Sun
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Sun
Madeleine McCann cops calling off search will spend weeks poring over samples after digging under ‘Brueckner tent' site
COPS in the Madeleine McCann search will spend weeks poring over samples they have collected for any shred of evidence after it is called off. Teams have spent three days scanning and digging scrubland near where Maddie disappeared - and paid particular attention to a farmhouse - but are expected to wind up this afternoon. 4 4 4 4 A group of officers today returned to the derelict farmhouse scouted on day one of the operation - and donned gloves to carry out a close fingertip search. They have also dug a trench at the site - where 2007 satellite images showed what appeared to be a white tent. Prime suspect Christian Brueckner is known to have wild-camped in the hippy hangout area around the time of Maddie's disappearance. Investigators were seen carting away soil and other material, and will now spend weeks analysing this for anything linking Brueckner to Maddie. The search was scheduled to last three days from Tuesday with an option to extend if anything of interest was unearthed. A source close to the investigation told The Sun on Thursday morning: 'There are currently no plans to extend and if the situation remains the same the search will end this evening. 'It's very disappointing but nothing taken away from the search area so far has provided any clues.' Investigators are in a race against time to turn up evidence pinning Maddie's case to Brueckner - who they are convinced killed the tot - before he flees Germany. They have zeroed in on an area of scrubland - which prolific thief Brueckner scuttled around as his "rat-run" in 2007. Plans to scour the wider area were scrapped last night - with cops focusing all their efforts on the abandoned buildings linked to the convicted rapist. Police said they were scouring at least five structures within the 21-square-kilometre search area, where there is a crumbling farmhouse, disused well and derelict barns. Cops arrived armed with a radar scanner which can penetrate 15ft into the ground, hoping to find evidence of her body or any other clues. And on Wednesday a large yellow JCB-type digger rolled up to excavate, with evidence of it digging trenches in some of the crumbling sites. The Sun team on the ground saw the excavator pulling back earth to clear it for the radar, and teams taking away boxes of soil for lab testing. It comes after we revealed key figures in the case were flown back to Germany to give further statements on the claims Brueckner kidnapped and killed the toddler in 2007. The ongoing searches are understood to be linked to these secret meetings, which took place at the start of the year. A police theory is the three-year-old or her pyjamas might have been dumped in trenches near the holiday resort that were dug as part of extensive works at the time. Brueckner is set for release from jail in September after serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for a 2005 Praia da Luz rape of an elderly American woman. He has never been formally charged over Madeleine's disappearance and denies any involvement - but German cops are convinced he is guilty. If released, he is expected to flee Germany for a country without an extradition treaty - so even if evidence linking him to Maddie emerges in the future, it may be impossible to bring him to justice. 3rd Jun 2025, 08:29 By Annabel Bate First pics of new search revealed
Sky News
6 days ago
- General
- Sky News
Madeleine McCann search: Abandoned buildings examined as ground radar may be deployed
Day two in the search in Portugal's Algarve region for clues to where Madeleine McCann is - and there are pockets of police activity dotted around the vast scrubland. From where I'm standing, I can see three searches under way, all in abandoned buildings. To our right, police are using chainsaws to cut down a tree that's grown inside a derelict barn. Ahead of us, officers in white hard hats empty rubble from inside another dilapidated building. To the left, a team of three lift stones through the window of an old stone hut. It's thought that ground radar equipment may then be used to scan the floors. As we walk through the brush, the ground is dry and hard. 'Nothing has been found' Digging here is hot, exhausting work - but so far, there is no news. Police are trying to keep the press back - but the area is too large. I ask one officer for an update: "Nothing has been found," he tells me, before heading off to the tents that are the base for the 30 or so German police running this operation. Many people question just what could possibly be found here 18 years after the three-year-old British girl went missing from her family's nearby holiday apartment in Praia da Luz. Professor of Criminology at the University of Porto, Fernando Teixeira, told me that the search will have been meticulously planned. He says: "They use identification work if any bone fragment appears, and this is done in the laboratory unit." He adds: "In the field, through equipment supported by engineering, it is possible to detect whether there are in fact bone fragments that will have been deposited in the geographic areas." What do locals think about the search? Around a mile or so from the search site, we stand outside the Ocean Club Holiday Resort where the McCanns were staying. The feeling towards press in the village is not warm - it took years for the resort to recover, and even now, mention Praia da Luz and you think of Madeleine. Taryn Brown runs a beauty spa just 30 metres from the apartment. She tells me this fresh search has upset locals. She says: "It keeps dragging down Praia da Luz. All I've ever heard about is how badly everyone was affected. It took a long, long time to recover so this keeps dragging it all up again." The McCanns aren't commenting on this latest operation - they, of course, have been here before - and are used to the heartbreak of nothing being found. There are two days left to search this land - to uncover something, somewhere that might just lead to a clue as to where their daughter is.
