Portuguese authorities have launched a fresh investigation near the location where British toddler Madeleine McCann vanished during a family vacation in 2007, according to a police spokeswoman, reports RTE.
At just three years old, Madeleine disappeared from an apartment in the seaside town of Praia da Luz in southern Portugal, prompting a global search effort and extensive media attention.
The last time Portuguese investigators conducted searches was in May 2023, reports RTE.
This latest phase of the investigation is expected to run through Friday and is being carried out at the request of German officials looking into Christian Brueckner, a convicted rapist whom German prosecutors consider the main suspect in Madeleine’s case.
“All the evidence seized by the police will, with the prior authorisation of the national public prosecutor’s office, be handed over to the agents of the German federal criminal police service,” a police source said, reports RTE.
On Monday, Portuguese authorities restricted access to dirt roads in the area scheduled for searching, and tents have been erected in Atalaia, near a house previously occupied by Brueckner.
Currently serving a seven-year sentence in Germany for the rape of an elderly woman in Praia da Luz in 2005, Brueckner has denied any connection to Madeleine’s disappearance, reports RTE.
The last round of searches in the case occurred in 2023 around the Barragem do Arade reservoir, roughly 48km from Praia da Luz.
Brueckner, who was frequently in the region between 2000 and 2017, had images and video footage of himself near that reservoir, reports RTE.
That same reservoir had also been searched in 2008 after Portuguese lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia financed a diving operation, claiming criminal sources had told him Madeleine’s body was there.
In 2014, British investigators were granted access to examine nearby scrubland close to where Madeleine disappeared, reports RTE.
Just last month, Madeleine’s family commemorated the 18th anniversary of her disappearance, calling her “beautiful and unique” ahead of what would have been her 22nd birthday, and reaffirming their commitment to the search.
A statement from her parents Kate and Gerry McCann and the family said: “The years appear to be passing even more quickly and whilst we have no significant news to share, our determination to ‘leave no stone unturned’ is unwavering. We will do our utmost to achieve this,” reports RTE.
In April, UK officials approved over £100,000 in new funding to support detectives working on the case.
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