Police seized ‘number of items’ during search of Portuguese reservoir
Police seized a “number of items” during the search of a reservoir in Portuguese while investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
The latest search commenced last week at the request of German investigators, who said it is unclear whether “some of the items are actually related to the Madeleine McCann case”.
Detectives closed off the area near a reservoir in Silves, in the Algarve region, for the search.
It is a place that the chief suspect Christian Brueckner used to visit. The German authorities said the investigation into him would “continue for some time”.
In an update today, the Braunschweig Public Prosecutor’s Office said: “The search operation carried out last week in the area of the Arade reservoir in Portugal ended on Thursday after three days as planned.
“A previously precisely defined area along the reservoir was completely searched for possible evidence.
“A number of items were seized as part of the operation. These will be evaluated in the coming days and weeks.”
They thanked authorities from the UK, Portugal and Germany for “excellent and very constructive” teamwork.
“The investigations conducted here in Braunschweig against the 46-year-old suspect are expected to continue for some time,” the statement added, referring to Brueckner.
The suspect is currently in prison for raping a 72-year-old woman in the same area of the Algarve but has not been charged with any crime relating to her disappearance. He has denied any involvement.
The three-day search involved divers examining the water and sniffer dogs searching the surrounding areas.
The reservoir is around 31 miles away from where Madeleine went missing while on holiday with her family in Praia da Luz on 3 May 2007.
The child, from Rothley, Leicestershire, was aged three at the time and with her parents Kate and Gerry McCann, and her two-year-old twin siblings.
Their parents were having dinner in a restaurant 55 metres away and checked on the children throughout the evening until Kate discovered Madeleine was missing at 10pm.
A major search was underway over the following weeks and the case received global media attention.
The fresh search is the first major operation in the investigation into what happened to Madeleine since 2014 – when British officers were given permission to dig in Praia da Luz, using sniffer dogs and ground-penetrating radar.
The area has already been searched twice in 2008 by divers hired by Portuguese lawyer Marcos Aragão Correia.
He said underworld contacts had tipped him off that Madeleine had been murdered and her body was disposed of in the river.
Bones were retrieved during the previous search but Portuguese police claimed they were too small to be human.
