Police launch new search for Maddie McCann’s remains

Starting Tuesday, new searches are expected to take place for the body of the missing British toddler, according to several British tabloids.

The new search operations are expected to take place between Praia da Luz, where the three-year-old disappeared on 3 May 2007, and a house near the holiday resort where prime suspect Christian Brückner was living at the time.

Madeleine McCann, who was nearly four at the time, disappeared in May 2007 while on holiday in Portugal with her parents. While her parents were dining with friends at a restaurant in a holiday resort in Praia da Luz, she vanished from her room.

There still has not been a real breakthrough in the Maddie McCann disappearance case. Christian Brückner is officially a suspect, but has not yet been charged, as there is not enough substantial evidence against the German man. In 2007, Brückner was living in the Algarve. He is currently in prison after being convicted in October 2024 for rape and sexual abuse committed between 2000 and 2017 in Portugal. The Sun dug into the case and claims to have discovered that German police found a hard drive in Brückner’s hideout, which links him directly to Maddie’s disappearance. The hard drive allegedly also contains evidence that the British toddler died shortly after her disappearance. The existence of this hard drive has reportedly always been kept secret by the police.

According to a former cellmate, Christian Brückner has admitted to abducting a girl in Portugal. This was stated last year in court in Braunschweig, where Brückner stood trial for a series of rapes and sexual offences.

He is currently in prison on previous convictions, but could be released in September. Investigators are therefore resuming their efforts. The last searches took place more than two years ago, but yielded nothing at the time.

(SR – Source: The Sun – Illustration: ©picture-alliance/ dpa | Peter Kneffel)