Portuguese police embark on new Madeleine McCann search

Police are to search a remote reservoir as they renew their probe into the 2007 disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann.

Portuguese police have agreed to search a remote reservoir as they probe the 2007 disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann.

Portuguese television showed an area cordoned off around the Arade reservoir, nearly 50km from where the then three-year-old Maddie went missing in the Algarve tourist resort of Praia da Luz 16 years ago.

Kate (L) and Gerry (R) McCann, whose daughter Madeleine disappeared from a holiday flat in Portugal in 2007.

Portuguese media reported the police had already combed the site in 2008 but divers found only animal remains, adding the new search would begin on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST).

The toddler vanished without trace from her parent’s holiday apartment in May 2007 as they dined with friends at a nearby tapas bar.

Portugal’s public prosecution service said last year a suspect had been indicted in Germany as ­Lisbon pursued investigations alongside German and British authorities.

German judicial authorities say the man concerned is Christian Brueckner, already serving prison time for sex offences but identified as chief suspect in the McCann case after spending several years living in southern ­Portugal.

In June 2020, German prosecutors said they were investigating him as they had “concrete evidence” he killed Maddie.

Despite a huge international manhunt, no trace of her has been found and no one has been charged over her disappearance.

A police mug shot of Christian Brueckner.

Brueckner, who Portuguese police named as a formal suspect last year, was jailed in Germany for the 2005 rape of a 72-year-old American in Praia da Luz.

Portuguese weekly magazine Expresso has reported that he would regularly spend time near the reservoir outside the small ­inland town of Silves.

Portuguese police shelved 14 months of their investigations in 2008 after controversially saying Maddie’s parents were suspects before clearing them of any involvement. The case was reopened five years later citing “new elements”.

After spending two years studying the case, British authorities opened their own investigation in 2013.

AFP