Police wrap up search for Madeleine McCann evidence in Portugal’s Algarve

Portuguese and German police investigating the 2007 disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann carry out searches near Lagos, southern Portugal Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Joao Matos)

LISBON - Portuguese and German police were on Thursday wrapping up their search in Portugal’s southern Algarve region for evidence related to the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann 18 years ago.

There were no immediate announcements on the outcome of the operation as vans with German licence plates and a Portuguese police vehicle left one of the search sites in Atalaia, a neighborhood of Lagos municipality.

A source involved in the operation said the searched area had included several derelict houses, wells and reservoirs covering “dozens of hectares.”

McCann went missing on May 3, 2007 while on holiday with her family in the Algarve town of Praia da Luz, sparking a frenzied search and gaining the attention of the world’s media. She has never been found.

German police said in June 2020 that McCann was presumed dead and that German national Christian Brueckner was probably responsible. He has denied responsibility.

Brueckner, a convicted child abuser and drug dealer, is behind bars in Germany for raping a 72-year-old woman in the same area of the Algarve.

His sentence runs until September, meaning he is set for release unless prosecutors find enough evidence to charge him over McCann’s disappearance.

Reporting by Miguel Pereira in Lagos, Sergio Goncalves in Lisbon; editing by Pietro Lombardi, Aislinn Laing and Andrew Heavens, Reuters