Officers were today seen removing rubble from the graffiti-covered structure within 100 metres of a cliff edge – just 24 hours after hauling away bags of earth for forensic testing
Madeleine McCann: German police continue to search in Portugal
German detectives have ramped up their dramatic search for missing Madeleine McCann – turning their attention to a second abandoned farmhouse close to where the three-year-old vanished in 2007.
Plain-clothed officers were today seen digging through and removing rubble from the graffiti-covered structure within 100 metres of a cliff edge in Portugal. The fresh search comes just 24 hours after investigators swarmed another crumbling building nearby, hauling away bags of earth for forensic testing. Madeleine McCann vanished in May 2007 while on holiday with her family in Praia da Luz. Her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, were eating at a nearby restaurant around 100 yards from the accommodation where Madeleine, then aged 3, was sleeping with her toddler twin siblings. When Kate returned to check on the kids, Madeleine was gone.
READ MORE: Madeleine McCann UPDATES: Police remove ‘potential evidence’ from scene of dig
Officers resumed their operation on Wednesday morning on scrubland close to Praia da Luz. Search teams donning white hard hats and gloves used strimmers and chainsaws to cut back vegetation and undergrowth outside a the second abandoned property.
On Tuesday, investigators armed with shovels and strimmers descended on the plot of land between the resort and a house close to where prime suspect Christian Brueckner used to live. Police are scouring the area for evidence that could link him to Madeleine’s disappearance ahead of his expected released from prison this September.
Brueckner, 47, was born in Germany in 1976, but moved to Portugal in his late teens. He is believed to have lived there for around 12 years – between 1995 and 2007. The convicted paedophile had at one point stayed in a campervan close to Praia da Luz – and made a 30-minute phone call in the resort just an hour before the toddler vanished, according to the Telegraph.
He is also known to have spent time near the Barragem do Arade reservoir, about 30 miles from Praia da Luz, between 2000 and 2017.
Brueckner is coming to the end of a seven-year long prison sentence for the rape of a 72-year-old woman in the Algarve in 2005, which he still denies. He was arrested in Italy in 2018, but is due to be released from prison in Germany this September. Authorities fear Brueckner could disappear when he walks free from prison if they can’t tie him to the toddler’s disappearance before then.
He has always and continues to deny any involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance.
According to Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manha, no leads were uncovered during yesterday’s search. “The investigations were suspended at the end of the day, without finding anything relevant to the investigation,” the outlet said.
