Police begin searching the area, which is 50 kilometers from where the girl disappeared in 2007.
Police investigating the disappearance of British girl Madeleine McCann are conducting searches at a dam in Portugal.
Madeleine was on holiday with her family in the Algarve, in the extreme south of Portugal, when she disappeared, aged 3, on May 3, 2007.
The search at the Arade dam began on Tuesday (05/23), 50 kilometers from Praia da Luz, where the girl was last seen.
The operation was requested by German police, seeking evidence linking Madeleine’s disappearance to Christian Brueckner, a 45-year-old German citizen officially declared a suspect by Portuguese prosecutors in 2022.
Brueckner visited the Praia da Luz region when Madeleine went missing.
Portuguese police said in a press release that they will coordinate searches in the coming days and that British agents will also be present.
The German state prosecutor’s office in Braunschweig issued a brief statement confirming the operation:
“As part of the investigation into the Madeleine McCann case, there are measures relating to criminal cases currently underway in Portugal.”
“The measures are being implemented by Portuguese law enforcement authorities with the support of officers from the (German) Federal Criminal Police.”
“No additional background information will be released at this time,” the statement concluded.
An area of the dam just over a mile long was cordoned off by police shortly after noon on Monday, Portuguese television network SIC reported.
Police set up blue tents and closed off roads leading to the dam, while a total of 20 police officers were deployed for the search operation.
Police officers with sniffer dogs moved along the bank of the dam on Tuesday morning, while a dinghy and divers scoured the water.
According to the SIC report, the searches are expected to take place on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Hans Christian Wolters, the German prosecutor in Braunschweig, is treating Brueckner as the prime suspect in the McCann case, although he has never been charged in Madeleine’s disappearance and has denied any involvement.
Wolters said a growing body of evidence links Brueckner to the case, including his cell phone records showing he was in the Praia da Luz area at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance.
Brueckner, a German citizen, is currently in jail in Germany for the 2005 rape of a 72-year-old woman in the same area where Madeleine McCann disappeared.
He lived near the Praia da Luz resort when the McCann family vacationed in the area and spent time in the area between 2000 and 2017.
It is not the first time that searches have been carried out at the dam as part of the investigation.
In 2008, Portuguese lawyer Marcos Aragão Correia hired specialized divers to monitor the waterway after being tipped off by contacts in the crime area that Madeleine’s body was in the dam.
The last search related to the case in Portugal took place in 2014, when British police were given permission to search the undergrowth near where the girl disappeared.
Earlier this month, Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry held a vigil to mark the 16th anniversary of her passing.
They also celebrated their daughter’s 20th birthday in May, pledging to “never give up” to find her.
“Happy birthday, Madeleine. Still missing. We still miss you dearly. We’re still looking. As long as it takes,” they wrote in a post on the official Facebook page of the Find Madeleine campaign. “We love you and are waiting for you. We will never give up.”
Source: Terra
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