Those investigating the Madeleine McCann case are set to drain two wells as they search the site surrounding an abandoned farmhouse in Portugal, hoping to find clues related to the disappearance of the three-year-old.
Portuguese and German authorities have today commenced collaborative searches in Portugal’s Algarve region. This area is close to the beach resort of Praia da Luz, where the young British girl vanished in 2007 while on vacation.
A source involved in the search operation said the targeted area is ‘vast’ with police using ground-penetrating radar across several hectares.
Prosecutors in Germany formally identified convicted paedophile Christian Brueckner as an official suspect in the case in 2022.
If investigators discover any pertinent evidence, it might lead to formal charges against Brueckner, who is approaching the end of his seven-year prison term for a rape committed in the Algarve in 2006.
The scale of the searches, described as a ‘last-throw-of-the-dice’, could be the most extensive in the McCann case since the initial investigation was closed in 2008.
But cracks have already started to show between the German team and local authorities, with Portuguese cops warning that the latest search, like so many before it, will come to nothing.
Cops said they are ‘complying’ with decisions taken by their German counterparts, with an anonymous source saying overnight: ‘We have low expectations about these searches but we’ve got our orders and we’re not going to stand in the way.’
The source added: ‘The information that’s being put out in the public arena is that they’ll last five days with the preparation work and clean-up afterwards and we’ve been told to expect three days of full work on the ground.
‘But on the Portuguese side at least there’s wishful thinking this could all be done in one day.
‘We would love to be proved wrong and see a significant discovery because it’s what we’ve all been working towards for so many years.
‘But the area that’s going to be turned upside down this week has already been searched by Portuguese officers.’
As well as searching an abandoned farmhouse earlier in the day, investigators have also turned their attentions to another rundown building.
The site was close to the main search area and four firemen were seen lowering a yellow hose into a well at the site.
Two wells will be drained as part of the new searches, according to a report in the Correio da Manha newspaper.
While German authorities reportedly asked for the searches to take place to see if there was anything of interest in the wells, the exact reason behind the request is not yet known.
Around an hour into this morning’s operation in the coastal area of Atalaia, six police officers could be seen searching an abandoned building in scrubland on a hillside.
They could be seen carrying plastic boxes thought to contain soil and debris from inside the old farmhouse and white safety helmets could be seen propped on a wall.
The building has no roof, and a man was seen using a strimmer on grass as part of the search.
At one point, a worker could be seen using a spade to dig ground along the side of a rundown building, while others wearing gloves were seen carrying branches away from the area being searched.
Close by, two supply tents had been set up used to store equipment including the new ground penetrating radar system.
Footage of the scene showed uniformed officers on a cordon on a dirt road in Atalaia – a neighbourhood of Lagos municipality – waving through unmarked vans and cars.
The vehicles had German license plates from the city of Wiesbaden, where the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) has its headquarters.
The BKA is assisting Portuguese law enforcement with ‘criminal procedural measures’, Braunschweig prosecutors told Reuters, declining to provide further details.
A van belonging to Portugal’s Maritime Police also arrived. That force has jurisdiction over coastal areas and took part in previous searches of beaches, wells and reservoirs using specialist divers.
The road the police cordoned off is located close to a golf course and less than 1 km (0.6 miles) from the beach.
The search area was close to a property that Brueckner lived in, a neighbour told Reuters in 2020, though when was unclear.
Portugal’s investigative Judicial Police (PJ) had said on Monday they would execute search warrants between June 2 and 6 at the behest of the public prosecutor’s office in Germany’s Braunschweig.
However Portuguese cops predict that the search, like many before it, will come to nothing.
German authorities have requested the four-day searches close to the ramshackle cottage Brueckner used to live at near to the holiday resort of Praia da Luz where Maddie vanished 18 years ago.
Madeleine went missing on May 3, 2007, while on holiday with her family in the Algarve town of Praia da Luz, sparking a frenzied search and gaining the attention of the world’s media.
She has never been found, and German authorities said in June 2020 that she was assumed dead.
Despite being named in 2020 as the prime suspect in the Maddie McCann case, Brueckner has still not been charged.
Around 30 officers from Germany’s FBI – the BKA – arrived in the area around 7.30pm yesterday after Portuguese colleagues sealed off dirt roads and erected blue tents by scrubland in preparation for today’s operation.
The major search, the first for more than two years in Portugal, will focus on wells, ruins, and water storage tanks on 21 plots of privately-owned land thought to cover around 120 acres.
Fresh but relatively focused searches were ordered by Portuguese, British and German police of scrubland, wells and reservoirs in 2014, 2020 and 2023. None of these searches were confirmed to have yielded significant evidence.
Brueckner, a German national, is currently serving a seven-year sentence for the brutal rape of a 72-year-old American woman, Dianne Menkes in the Algarve in 2006, which he still contests.
His sentence runs until September, meaning he is set for release unless prosecutors find enough evidence to charge him over Madeleine’s disappearance.
Speaking to German broadcaster RTL, Brueckner, said today he would likely travel to a country without an extradition treaty with Germany and go into hiding if released from prison.
On January 17, Sky News quoted the German prosecutor investigating Madeleine’s disappearance as saying there was currently no prospect of charges being brought against Brueckner.
