1 of 3 A police team walks across a reservoir in the Algarve region of Portugal looking for leads into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann Photo: João Matos/AP A police team walks across a reservoir in the Algarve region of Portugal looking for leads on the disappearance of Madeleine McCann Photo: João Matos/AP
The Portuguese police completed this Thursday (25) the latest search for leads and information that could help solve the crime of the disappearance of the girl Madeleine McCann in 2007.
Police officers collected unspecified samples from a water reservoir in the Algarve, however no concrete evidence found.
The Portuguese police said in a statement that the threeday operation requested by Germany had already ended and that the collected material would be handed over to the German authorities “preserving the interests of the investigations still ongoing in Portugal”.
2 of 3 Portuguese police base on a reservoir in southern Portugal for a new wave of searches for leads on Madeleine McCann, on May 23, 2023. — Photo: João Matos/ AP Portuguese police base on a reservoir in southern Portugal for a new wave of searches for leads on Madeleine McCann, on May 23, 2023. — Photo: João Matos/ AP
German authorities, who have named a suspect in the case, have been helping Portuguese teams comb the remote area of the Algarve seaside resort where McCann then three years old disappeared while on a family holiday in 2007.
“Of course there is a certain expectation, but it’s not high,” prosecutor Christian Wolters told Portal before the end of the search.
He added that investigators are looking for the body, but also for anything that could help the investigation, such as clothing: “A lot is conceivable.”
Last year, German prosecutors named Christian Brückner as an official suspect in McCann’s disappearance. The man convicted of child abuse and human trafficking is behind bars in Germany for raping a 72yearold woman in the same area of the Algarve.
remember the case
3 of 3 Madeleine McCann, British woman, aged 3, missing in Portugal in 2007 Photo: HANDOUT / METROPOLITAN POLICE / AFP Madeleine McCann, British woman, aged 3, missing in Portugal in 2007 Photo: HANDOUT / METROPOLITAN POLICE / AFP
16 years ago, Madeleine was on vacation with her family in Portugal when she disappeared on May 3, 2007, just before her fourth birthday, in Praia da Luz, a tourist resort in the south of the European country.
The girl was in the hotel room with her brothers, twins aged two, when she disappeared. At the time of his disappearance, his parents, doctors Kate and Gerry McCann, had gone to dinner at a restaurant near the hotel.
In midApril last year, a man was charged in Germany at the request of the Portuguese judiciary for the disappearance of Madeleine. As of 2020, German authorities have claimed they have evidence of Madeleine’s murder, citing a repeat German pedophile, identified as Christian Brueckner, as the prime suspect.
At the time of the crime, Christian B. lived a few kilometers from the hotel in Praia da Luz where the girl disappeared. According to German authorities, the girl is dead.