Madeleine McCann cops say 'a number of items' were recovered
Madeleine McCann cops say ‘a number of items’ which may be connected to the missing girl were recovered during Algarve reservoir search
- Investigators searched Algarve reservoir and found a ‘relevant clue’ there
- It was previously believed that the analysis could take months
German cops investigating Madeleine McCann’s disappearance have said a ‘number of items’ which may be connected to the missing girl were recovered during their search of a reservoir in the Algarve.
Investigators last week searched the remote Barragem do Arade reservoir in the Algarve, which prime suspect Christian Brueckner referred to as a ‘little piece of paradise’ and is located 30 miles from where Madeleine was taken in 2007.
Detectives cleared a large area of woodland at the reservoir and dug eight deep holes to collect samples of soil, which have been sent for forensic and DNA testing in Germany.
Now, German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters, who is leading the case, confirmed today that a ‘number of items’ were seized during the search.
Wolters said: ‘A number of items were seized as part of the investigation. These will be in the evaluated in the coming days and weeks.
‘Whether individual items actually have a connection to the Madeleine McCann case cannot yet be said. The investigations conducted here in Braunschweig against the 46-year-old suspect are expected to continue for a long time.’
Investigators last week searched the remote Barragem do Arade reservoir in the Algarve (pictured)
Authorities gather at a makeshift base camp in the Arade dam area during the search operation amid the investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance on May 23
Police had said they found a ‘relevant clue’ during their search of the beauty spot after an informant was able to match photographs showing Brueckner close to the reservoir.
Several items were removed from the site, which may or may not be of relevance to the investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance. They include a bra strap, pieces of clothing and plastic items.
After the dig police left behind two-foot deep holes and the soil they took from them is being forensically analysed in Germany.
It was thought that this analysis, which could result into vital clues about Maddie’s disappearance, could take months.
Police teams were seen methodically taking down trees and hacking at the undergrowth to expose an area just a short distance from the water.
Photographs appear to show the remains of a camp at the mysterious spot with broken furniture, a torn ship’s buoy and even what looked like a makeshift toilet made from a chair.
Portuguese sources point to an informant handing police a specific tip-off that Brueckner visited the site just days after Maddie disappeared from her room in Praia da Luz.
This tip-off is believed to have been matched with geolocation clues found in Brueckner’s collection of 8,000 videos and images.
Together it is thought that these clues combined triggered the search at the remote site.
It was claimed they were looking for a camcorder and a gun tossed into the water but Portuguese police sources were quick to dismiss this.
Madeleine (left) was aged three in May 2007 when she vanished from her bedroom in the apartment her family were staying at in the Praia da Luz resort on the Algarve coast. German prosecutors believe Christian Brueckner (right) is behind her disappearance
German criminal profiler Axel Petermann says the cops were right to dig at a place Brueckner is so fond of.
He told The Mirror: ‘The criminal perpetrators who I got to know over the years tend to hide their victims in places where they feel safe and can assess danger.
‘These are places which are secluded and secret and where they can stop and assess various risks.
‘They can also be places where they feel good, and where there is a certain private memory of a certain act.
‘So, I think the search activity may have been going in this direction.’
He added: ‘My recommendation when dealing with suspects in the case of missing people is always to find the places where these suspects spent time, where they had secrets, where they could assess risks, so from this point of view I think the investigators’ current search was very important.
‘You must always delve into the life of the suspect so you can find out about their preferences, their tendencies, their favourite locations where they liked to spend time.
READ MORE: The big breaks in the Madeleine McCann case… that have led us no closer to finding her: As reservoir search turns up ‘relevant clue’, a look at key moments that promised to turn the investigation on its head – to no avail
‘And I don’t think you can really find any better possibilities than to look in secret, confidential locations.’
Bruecker is now behind bars in Germany for raping a 72-year-old woman in the same area of the Algarve region from where McCann went missing. He has always said he has nothing to do with Maddie’s disappearance.
He is currently due for release in 2026 and argues that police and prosecutors are ‘attempting to create a monster’ to ‘divert and let people think that I am the right one’.
However, chief public prosecutor Hans-Christian Wolters, who is pursuing the case against Brueckner, has said in the past they have ‘concrete evidence’ that Maddie is dead and believe Brueckner killed her.
Wolters confirmed that they will be making an announcement about the results of the dig soon.
Yet he suggested that his investigation team may not have discovered any crucial evidence just yet.
Speaking to The Mirror, Wolters said: ‘We will issue a short press release. But please don’t expect too much, especially nothing spectacular.’
Investigators leading the search for Madeleine McCann reportedly believe there are two other areas in Portugal they can scour for clues.
When investigators last week searched the remote Barragem do Arade reservoir in the Algarve, police said they found a ‘relevant clue’ during their search of the beauty spot after an informant was able to match photographs showing Brueckner close to the reservoir.
It is now understood there could be other areas surrounding Praia da Luz, where Madeleine had been staying with her family, that police can search after German detectives scoured through more than 8,000 photographs belonging to Brueckner.
A source told the Sun: ‘German officers have gone through more than 8,000 pictures belonging to Christian B. That forensic work led to them to Barragem – but there are other places that have come up in the pictures too.
‘Detectives are seeking to work out where they are and why Christian B was taking pictures of those places.’
A ‘relevant clue’ was found during the last day of the search, leading police to focus on a specific area of the secluded beauty spot.
Several items were removed from the site, which may or may not be of relevance to the investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance. They include a bra strap, pieces of clothing and plastic items.
The source said German cops believe that the original investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance by Portuguese cops was flawed.
They said: ‘German detectives remain hugely skeptical about the way the investigation has been carried out in Portugal which is why they are keen to carry on searching and looking at areas – even those where Portuguese cops claim to have examined.
‘They believe fresh work could unlock new clues which move the case forward.’
Last week investigators cleared a large area of woodland at the Algarve reservoir and dug deep holes to collect samples, which have been sent for forensic and DNA testing in Germany
Christian Brueckner, 45, would camp in the Barragem do Arade reservoir where cops last week searched for clues in Madeline McCann missing persons case. The convicted rapist and paedophile is understood to have built a circle out of stones from the water (pictured)
For more than a decade, Madeleine’s anguished parents Gerry and Kate (pictured together in 2017) have waited in vain for any news – any clue – that their little girl is somehow alive after all this time
Last week’s probe was first major search for the toddler in nine years and comes after German police discovered photos of Brueckner at his self-described ‘little paradise’ in the Portuguese region, it is understood.
Brueckner would camp by the reservoir at weekends and is understood to have set up a sinister base there to ‘cleanse himself’, it emerged last week.
A former friend of Brueckner, who has lived on Algarve for nearly 30 years and has been helping police with their investigation, claims the criminal would visit the reservoir ‘often’ but was ‘always secretive about it’.
The German mother-of-three, whose identity has not been publicised, recalled how Brueckner would drive his camper-van to the edge of the lake because he ‘liked to be near the water’.
She claimed he always camped in the same location and ‘there was usually no one else around’.
‘This was his exact special spot that he said he liked to come to cleanse himself,’ she said of his campsite, telling The Sun: ‘I don’t know what he did there as he was very secretive.’
Details of Brueckner’s secret lair came to light as a British couple told The Mail on Sunday how they spotted a bizarre ‘shrine’ to Madeleine in the reservoir just seven months after she vanished.
The retired couple, who have asked to be named only as Ralf and Ann, were so disturbed by what they saw they took pictures and sent them to Portuguese detectives, thinking they were of significance but, amazingly, never heard back.
Consisting of boulders in the shape of an arrow pointing towards a picnic site which was dug over by police last week, the makeshift memorial was weighed down by a large rock and had a bouquet of flowers and a photograph of abducted Madeleine on it.
Three years ago – when prime suspect Brueckner, 45, was identified by German police – the couple contacted detectives after seeing an appeal for anyone who was on holiday in the Algarve when Madeleine went missing in May 2007 to get in touch.
This time, the German officers from the BKA (criminal investigation unit) responded within hours of Ralf and Ann emailing them and quizzed them on the telephone for several hours before asking them to give a formal statement.
It raises the question whether it was their information that prompted the German authorities to request a search of the remote picnic area campsite on the edge of the reservoir near Silves, which Brueckner used to call his ‘little paradise’.
German prosecutors last year named convicted child abuser and drug dealer Brueckner as the prime suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance.
She was three in May 2007 when she vanished from her bedroom in the apartment her family were staying at in the Praia da Luz resort on the Algarve coast. The reservoir is about 31 miles inland from the resort.
Pictured: Christian Brueckner was filmed at the wheel of a battered VW campervan weeks before Madeleine was kidnapped
The German suspect had lived in a warehouse outside Praia da Luz for several years but moved into a campervan just before Madeleine vanished
Sources close to Brueckner’s legal team said any new searches will be a ‘waste of time’.
The source told the Sun: ‘He didn’t kill Madeleine and all of this is taking attention away from the job of finding out who really did.’
Brueckner was known to break into Algarve hotel rooms and apartments to supplement his income from drug dealing, and left the south of Portugal suddenly in 2007 – the year Madeleine vanished – after more than a decade living there.
He is alleged to have admitted abducting Madeleine to a friend in a bar – and German investigators are said to firmly believe he killed the three-year-old.
But more than three years after linking Brueckner to Madeleine’s disappearance, he has still not been charged regarding her abduction as prosecutors do not have enough evidence.
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