Madeleine McCann: How mystery of missing girl may be solved
As police conclude their search of a reservoir in Portugal, insiders have revealed Madeleine McCann’s parents have resurrected hope of new findings.
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After 16 years of dreaming they will one day be reunited with their daughter who was snatched from her bed at an Algarve holiday resort, Kate and Gerry McCann are praying the latest police search near the Portuguese town where she vanished will in some way bring an end to their anguish.
The McCanns, who are both doctors, are praying for any clue to Madeleine’s whereabouts and cling on to the hope their little honey-haired, green-eyed girl is somehow alive as a woman after all these years.
As police concluded their search of the beautiful Barragem do Arade reservoir, 48km from the Portuguese beach town Praia De Luz where she went missing just before her fourth birthday, the McCanns have resurrected hope the police search would unearth fresh clues.
Police have told them not to expect miracles.
“They will never give up hope that Madeleine is alive, they’ve been here before, a new clue, fresh information, they get hopeful again and, so far, it has ended in disappointment,” a source close to the McCanns said.
“Police have told them a bra, as well as other clothing have been found, they are waiting to hear the final analysis of the findings. Their hope is measured, it has to be to allow them to cope.”
The renewed search comes the same month the McCanns held an annual vigil on the anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance, where her now 18-year-old sister Amelie lit candles in her memory.
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On the campaign website, Mrs McCann, who went back to work as a GP two years ago after having spearheaded the campaign to find her daughter, wrote: “The police investigation continues, and we await a breakthrough.” German prosecutor Christian Wolters, leading the search at the reservoir, was more hopeful: “Of course we are still looking for the body. [But] there are other things too.”
Police are searching clues to convicted rapist Christian Brueckner, who has still not been charged in connection with Madeleine’s disappearance.
It has been a case filled with false starts and false hopes, with thousands of false sightings of Madeleine from Dorset in south England to New Zealand.
The three-day search for Madeleine at a reservoir was triggered by a tip-off from one of Brueckner’s former friends.
Police were foraging for clues to main suspect Christian B’s links to the barren site - that he reported called his “little paradise”.
The UK’s top child protection officer Jim Gamble who oversaw a review of the case that led to the creation of the Met Police’s ongoing probe Operation Grange, believes officers are closer than ever to solving the case.
“I think we are looking at the best chance we’ve had in 16 years to find out what happened to Madeleine,” he had said.
Mr Gamble believes the Germans must have strong evidence against Christian B based on their confidence in the search.
“They must have something definitive,” he told The Sun.
German and Portuguese police launched an extensive new operation to search the reservoir and the surrounding area.
It is understood police have obtained new video evidence showing the convicted sex offender at the site.
Madeleine went missing when someone broke into the children’s room of the McCanns’ holiday apartment, pulled back their eldest daughter’s duvet while their younger twins slept on, prised Madeleine from her favourite toy Cuddle Cat, and lifted her off into the darkness.
Portuguese police shut down the case, saying there was nothing more they could do. Now German police are convinced they have the man they want in their sights.
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A little under 50km from where Madeleine was abducted from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, police this week began carefully searching the murky waters of the Arade reservoir.
Convicted rapist Christian Brueckner – named by German police as the Madeleine suspect – used to visit the area in his camper van often and called the spot his “little paradise”.
The search appears to have been planned for several weeks, with German police being assisted by Portuguese cops and Scotland Yard.
Brueckner, a convicted child abuser and drug dealer, was jailed in 2020 in Germany for raping a 72-year-old woman in the same area of the Algarve region from where Madeleine was taken.
The 46-year-old has never been charged over Madeleine’s disappearance and has denied any involvement.
This week’s activity is the first major search in the Madeleine case in almost 10 years.
Police are tight-lipped about what exactly triggered the renewed interest in the dam, that had previously been searched in 2008 on a tip from underworld figures.
“For tactical reasons, no further information on the background is currently being released,” a police statement said.
German prosecutor Christian Wolter, who in 2020 called Brueckner a “sexual predator” and declared Madeleine was dead, would only say the new investigations were “on the basis of certain tips”.
Search teams are scouring the water from inflatable boats, while sniffer dogs walk along the banks of the reservoir and officers dig along a bank adjacent to the water.
Two areas close to the waters edge have been the focus of intense digging, while about 20 officers rake the soil in a line.
Officers were seen taking away items in brown bags and a drone hovered above capturing the scene from the air.
Child safety expert Jim Gamble was involved in the review of the UK investigation into the 2007 abduction of Madeleine and told the Mirror the very deliberate searches were a major hint German police knew much more than they were letting on.
“From my point of view, the German police clearly know something. They have a level of confidence when they talk about their suspect and Madeleine’s death,” he said.
The latest search meant they were probably closer than ever to finding the truth.
“I think we are looking at the best chance we’ve had in 16 years to find out what happened to Madeleine,” Mr Gamble said.
Mr Wolter, speaking in 2020 at the time they identified Brueckner, said it could be assumed by the way they were talking that Madeleine was dead – dashing hopes of millions around the world she could still be alive.
A year after Brueckner emerged as a suspect, Mr Wolter teased that investigators were waiting to gather the final piece in the puzzle before Brueckner was charged.
“We’re confident we have the man who took and killed her. It is now possible that we could charge. We have that evidence now. But it’s not just about charging him – we want to charge him with the best body of evidence possible.
“When we still have questions, it would be nonsense to charge rather than wait for the answers that could strengthen our position,” Mr Wolter said in 2021.
A Portuguese source told UK newspaper The Sun: “ [The German] are so sensitive about this information they did not even disclose the exact location of the search area until shortly before work started.”
For Madeleine’s family the latest twist is the latest cruel blow in what has become a very public nightmare.
Portuguese police initially believed Gerry and Kate were suspects before they cleared of involvement.
Madeleine’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, said earlier this month they were “still looking” for their daughter in a Facebook post to mark her 20th birthday.
“Happy birthday Madeleine. Still missing. Still very much missed. Still looking. For as long as it takes,” they said in a post on the official Facebook page of the Find Madeleine Campaign.
“We love you and we’re waiting for you. We’re never going to give up,” they said.
Former police officer turned investigative journalist Meni Caroutas, host of News Corp podcast The Missing, said his instinct had always been she was taken by a predator.
“Unfortunately there has never been any sign of her so the outcome will be tragic … The chances of her being alive are very slim,” Caroutas said.
The rumour mill had been particularly vicious towards Madeleine’s parents, he said.
“This is something that tends to happen in these cases … The parents get the finger pointed at them.”
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