New major police operation to search for Madeleine McCann's body in Portugal

LondonTwo years after the Portuguese police, the German police and Scotland Yard forces started and abandoned within a few days another search for Madeleine McCann's body, German authorities have launched a new search on the outskirts of Praia da Luz, in the Algarve, as part of their investigation into the kidnapping of the three-year-old British girl who disappeared in May 2007 from the apartment where she was on holiday with her parents and siblings, eighteen-month-old twins. Madeleine was kidnapped from the bedroom where she was sleeping while her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, were dining with friends at a restaurant in the apartment. resort Ocean Club where they were staying.

The operations, which will last for the next seventy-two hours, are focused on a 42 square kilometer strip around the former home of the main suspect, Christian Brueckner, a 48-year-old German citizen convicted and currently imprisoned for various sexual offenses.

According to sources close to the case, reported by the British press on Tuesday, some thirty German police officers and forensic specialists are already in Portugal to participate in the operation, which is considered the largest since 2008. around the area known as Atalaia, a few kilometers from the tourist town of Lagos.

Brueckner is currently serving a seven-year sentence for raping an American tourist in Portugal and is due to be released on September 17 if he pays a fine of approximately 1,500 euros from a previous conviction. If he does not pay the fine, the suspect will have to remain in prison until January 6, 2026.

With the new device, the police are trying to find evidence that will allow him to be charged in the Madeleine case before he is released. With a past marked by multiple sexual crimes and a wandering life in the Algarve area between 2000 and 2017, the German authorities He was identified five years ago as the prime suspect in the McCann case.Last year, Brueckner was acquitted of attacking five other girls and of raping an Irish woman, Hazel Behan, in the Algarve. However, he was never charged with Madeleine's disappearance.

More than 13 million euros for the investigation.

The Portuguese Judicial Police, which is collaborating in the operation, has closed several rural roads and set up blue forensic tents to limit the area of intervention. The inspections are supported by a court order issued by the Prosecutor's Office in Braunschweig, Germany, which is the jurisdiction that reopened the case based on new evidence that came to light while the suspect was incarcerated. Since 2019, Brueckner had been serving a seven-year prison sentence for the 2005 rape of a 72-year-old American tourist, committed relatively close to the Praia da Luz area where the McCanns were vacationing.

Once again, the British press this Tuesday is subscribing to one of the criminal cases that most captivates the public's attention, and which has been the subject of television programs and countless investigations by both police forces and private detectives. The search two years ago took place in the area of the Arade reservoir, located about 50 kilometers from where the girl disappeared. A Scotland Yard spokesperson said: "We are aware of the searches being carried out by the BKA [the Bundeskriminalamt, the German criminal police] in Portugal as part of their investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. The Metropolitan Police is not involved in the search, but we will support our colleagues."

Kate and Gerry McCann, both doctors from Rothley, Leicestershire, said in a statement last month, marking the 18th anniversary of their daughter's disappearance: "The years seem to pass ever more quickly and, although we do not have any major developments to share, our determination to share must not waver."

In April, the British Home Office awarded an additional £100,000 in funding for Scotland Yard's investigation into Madeleine's disappearance. Operation Grange funding has already exceeded 13.2 million euros since 2011.