Arade Dam, Portugal – Police on Tuesday renewed the search for Madeleine McCann, the British child who disappeared in Portugal in 2007. Officials dug and scraped the surface of land next to a dam not far from where she went missing. About 20 officers with rakes and hoe-like tools lined up and began puncturing and raking the ground near the Arade Dam, which is about 30 miles from Praia da Luz in southern Portugal, where the three-year-old Girl was last seen alive 16 years ago.
A couple of firefighters were previously seen in a rubber dinghy on the reservoir.
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There was initially no information about the progress of the search.
A search boat navigates the Arade dam near Silves, Portugal May 23, 2023 as Portuguese police, assisted by German and British officers, resumed their search for Madeleine McCann. João Matos/AP
The operation, led by the Portuguese police with the support of German and British colleagues, was announced on Monday. Portuguese officials said it followed a request from German authorities.
Portuguese police set up two blue tents on Monday and cordoned off the area to media and the public. More than a dozen cars and police vans arrived early Tuesday. Between 20 and 30 officers, some in uniform, were on site. Witnesses said police began searching just before 8 a.m
Portuguese media said it was the fourth search for McCann, after the first in 2007 in the Algarve and others in 2013 and 2014. Another search was conducted in Germany in 2020.
This week’s search is believed to be the first in the dam area.
The German public prosecutor’s office in Braunschweig said in a written statement on Tuesday that “criminal measures are currently being taken in Portugal as part of the investigation into the Madeleine McCann case”.
They added: “The implementation of the measures will be carried out through the legal assistance of the Portuguese law enforcement authorities with the support of officers from the Federal Criminal Police Office.”
“More information on the background is not currently being published for reasons of investigation tactics,” the statement said.
In mid-2020, German officials said a 45-year-old German national identified by the media as Christian Brückner, who was in the Algarve in 2007, was a suspect in the case. Brueckner has denied any involvement in McCann’s disappearance but is currently serving a seven-year sentence in Germany for a rape he committed in Portugal in 2005.
A police photo shows Christian Brückner. Shutterstock
Brueckner spent many years in Portugal, including in the resort of Praia da Luz around the time Madeleine disappeared from the resort in 2007.
Last year, a German prosecutor announced charges against Brückner “for multiple sex offenses he allegedly committed between December 28, 2000 and June 11, 2017 in Portugal,” unrelated to the McCann case.
He is being investigated on suspicion of murder in the McCann case, but no charges have been brought against him.
The case attracted worldwide interest for several years, with reports of sightings of her stretching as far as Australia, and a number of books and television documentaries about the case.
The rewards for finding McCann, who would now be 20, ran into millions of dollars.
British, Portuguese and German police officers are still reconstructing what happened the night she disappeared from her bed in the southern Portuguese resort on May 3, 2007. She was in the same room as her twin brother and sister, who were two at the time, while their parents were having dinner with friends at a nearby restaurant.
With a view to the most recent searches, the Braunschweig public prosecutor Christian Wolters said on Tuesday that “we are investigating there in Portugal based on certain indications”, but did not want to give any further details.
Wolters said the search “will take a little time.” Portuguese officials said the search would take place in the next few days.