New police search begins in hunt for missing Madeleine McCann

Kate and Gerry McCann pose for the media with a missing poster depicting an age progression computer generated image of their daughter Madeleine during a news conference in London, May 2, 2012. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)

Lagos, Portugal -- Search teams on Tuesday scoured undergrowth and an abandoned building in Portugal in the hunt for British toddler Madeleine McCann, with police hoping to find evidence that could implicate a convicted German sex offender in her disappearance 18 years ago.

Madeleine was just three years old when she vanished from an apartment on the Algarve coast where she was on holiday with her family, sparking a global campaign to find her and unprecedented media coverage.

A previous search of a lake near the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz in 2023 yielded no results but on Tuesday investigators were back in a part of nearby Lagos to hunt for clues.

Several police vehicles with Portuguese and German number plates as well as fire trucks were seen down a cordoned-off dirt road towards the search site, AFP journalists at the scene saw.

Portuguese police said about 25 German investigators were present, with the investigation looking at an abandoned building in an overgrown wooded area.

The new searches -- carried out at the request of German authorities investigating Christian Brueckner, a convicted rapist who is suspected of having killed Madeleine -- are expected to last until Friday.

According to the British tabloid The Sun, investigators are equipped with ground radar technology that can scan the ground down to 4.5 metres (15 feet) in depth.

The area includes a cottage where Brueckner was living and is dotted with wells and ditches, it added.

A mobile phone registered in Brueckner’s name was traced close to the family’s accommodation on the night Madeleine went missing.

Determined

Brueckner, a 48-year-old German national, is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for the rape in 2005 of a 72-year-old American woman in Praia da Luz. He is due to complete his sentence in September.

He was acquitted in October 2024 in Germany at trial for two sexual assaults and three rapes committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.

German authorities in 2020 said they were convinced Brueckner was involved in Madeleine’s disappearance, which gained worldwide publicity and has seen several false leads.

He has not been charged in connection with the McCann case.

Brueckner, who according to German media had a string of previous convictions, including for sexual offences, assault and theft before he was convicted of rape, worked as an odd-job man during his 10 years in the Algarve.

He also burgled hotel rooms and holiday apartments.

At the time of Madeleine’s disappearance he was living in a camper van.

On Tuesday, a journalist from Germany’s RTL television recounted his correspondence with Brueckner, and how he had met him in prison.

Brueckner, the journalist said, complained that “half the world” considered him to be a “cruel rapist”. He said he wanted to eat steak and drink beer when he is released from prison.

A former neighbour in Portugal had told Sky News television in 2020 that Brueckner was “always a bit angry, driving fast up and down the lane, and then one day, around 2006, he just disappeared without a word”.

He returned to Germany in 2007 -- the year Madeleine disappeared -- settling in Hanover, but still spent time in Portugal.

On the 18th anniversary of their daughter’s disappearance on May 3 this year, Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann said they were still determined to find out what happened.

“The years appear to be passing even more quickly and whilst we have no significant news to share, our determination to ‘leave no stone unturned’ is unwavering,” they wrote on the findmadeleine.com website.

“We will do our utmost to achieve this.”

By Levi Fernandes, AFP