Madeleine McCann is the 3-year-old girl who vanished from a resort in Portugal in 2007. Now 16 years later, the search for the girl is still on. In the latest update for the missing girl, officials from Portugal, Germany, and the UK are working together.
Keep reading to know more about the latest update in this missing person search.
Police who are looking for Madeleine McCann are now searching the remote Algarve reservoir which was visited by main suspect Christian Brueckner.
The area for the search is about 30 miles from the Praia da Luz holiday where McCann first disappeared in May 2007. A mile-long peninsula that jutted into the reservoir was sealed off in order to be searched.
Council lorries were seen at the search site as tents were constructed all to help with the search. And just a mile away from that area, Portuguese civil protection workers were setting up their own tents as well.
An onlooker at the site said, “There are around two dozen Policia Judiciaria officers who seem to be supervising things at this stage.”
Portugal’s judiciary police confirmed that it was indeed a German-led investigation, with German and British officers who were expected to reach the area to go on with the search.
It is not exactly known what prompted the search but it has been suggested that authorities were prompted by information they received where the main suspect Brueckner had made regular trips to the dam.
The source added, “Portuguese police will offer logistical support but the initiative is German and they were the ones that requested the work that is going to take place this week. Scotland Yard officers are due to travel to Portugal but theirs will be a watching brief.”
Brueckner is a convicted pedophile who has spent time in Algarve between the years 2000 and 2017. He has reportedly called the area near the reservoir his “little slice of paradise.” The search of the area will reportedly last for a few days.
The reservoir has previously been searched by professional divers hired by Portuguese lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia who said he had reports from his criminal contacts that McCann’s body was in the waterway.
Earlier this month, McCann’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann posted a video to mark their daughter’s 20th birthday. “We love you and we’re waiting for you. We’re never going to give up,” they said.
They added, “Happy Birthday Madeleine. Still missing. Still very much missed. Still looking. For as long as it takes.”
It is expected that the McCanns will be kept updated about whatever is found during the search through Scotland Yard liaison officers. German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters has repeatedly said he believes McCann is dead and named Brueckner as the main suspect.
Brueckner is serving time for the rape of a 72-year-old American in 2005 at the same resort where McCann went missing. He has never officially been accused of the little girl’s disappearance.
Last April he was made the official suspect in the investigation but his attorney Friedrich Fulscher labeled it a “procedural trick” which he linked to the statute of limitations at the time.
Last autumn, Brueckner was charged with several sex crimes in the Algarve in Germany. These crimes were against women and children. This included the rape of an Irish holiday representative in 2004 as well as the sexual abuse of a 10-year-old girl on a beach in 2007.
The charges were dropped as Brueckner’s lawyer argued that the German courts had no jurisdiction over his client.
The search for McCann has been constant. In July 2020, Portuguese police and firefighters searched three wells for any trace of the missing girl’s body but did not find anything.
Portugal’s judicial police has released a statement about the searches saying, “In the next few days in the Algarve region, new searches will be carried out, coordinated by the Judiciary Police, at the request of the German Authorities (BKA) and with the presence of the British Authorities.
“Information will be provided in due course on the outcome of the proceedings.”
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All in all, hopefully, this new search unearths fresh clues which are able to lead to the discovery of Madeleine McCann. The family has spent years in agony, not knowing what happened to their little girl.
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