Latest Madeleine McCann case update: Portugal reservoir search enters second day as police seen digging next to dam

Watch live as police continue their search of Portugal’s reservoir in the Madeleine McCann investigation.

German prisoner Christian Brueckner was first named in connection with the unsolved mystery that summer and officially named as a suspect last year. Her yellow and white VW T3 Westfalia trailer was reportedly identified as having been near the Praia da Luz resort in Portugal where the young woman disappeared on May 3, 2007.

Three-year-old Madeleine disappeared from her holiday apartment bed while her parents and family friends ate dinner 55 meters away. Her two-year-old twin brothers were also in the apartment she disappeared from. Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann have been looking for answers ever since.

The Metropolitan Police took over the investigation, Operation Grange, in 2011, but it hit a dead end. There had not been another significant suspect in the case since 2007 until Brueckner.

Police cut down trees and brush as they continued to search Madeleine McCann, suspected of being Christian Brueckner’s “little paradise” in Portugal.

Police officers worked with brush cutters and heavy machinery at Barragem do Arade on Wednesday, about 30 miles from where Madeleine disappeared in 2007.

On the second day of the latest hunt for the missing girl, the search party concentrated this morning in a valley just north of a secluded clearing behind trees near where three tents had been pitched on Monday.

Kate and Gerry McCann’s eldest daughter disappeared from a Portuguese holiday resort 16 years ago, but the emergence of a new suspect has brought new hope for answers and closure:

Sixteen years after Madeleine McCann disappeared from the Algarve holiday apartment where she slept with her twin brothers, police have launched a major new search for evidence.

After lying dormant for several years since David Cameron launched an unsuccessful Metropolitan Police investigation in 2011, the three-year-old missing child case was revived once again in 2020 when German prosecutors revealed a new suspect.

But three years later, 43-year-old convicted pedophile Christian Brueckner – who denies any connection to the missing youth – has still not been charged as he languishes in a German prison for the rape of a 72-year-old American woman two years before the disappearance. of Madeleine in the same resort.

Madeleine McCann’s disappearance has intrigued detectives for over 15 years – but in 2020 a new potential suspect has emerged.

Now police are combing a remote reservoir in Portugal’s Algarve that he used to visit in a renewed effort to shed more light on the case.

German prisoner Christian Brueckner was first named in connection with the unsolved mystery that summer and officially named as a suspect last year.

Her yellow and white VW T3 Westfalia trailer was reportedly identified as having been near the Praia da Luz resort in Portugal where the young woman disappeared on May 3, 2007.

Madeleine McCann, a three-year-old girl from Rothley, Leicestershire, disappeared from the Portuguese holiday resort of Praia da Luz in the Algarve on 3 May 2007, a case still unresolved and still the subject of great public and press interest. . .

Her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, posted a statement on the Find Madeleine website on May 3, 2023, marking the final anniversary of their daughter’s disappearance, reiterating their hopes of being reunited with her one day and posting a poem, “The Contradiction ” by Clare. Pollard, to express his feelings.

“Today marks the 16th anniversary of Madeleine’s abduction. Still missing… still missing so much,” they wrote.

“The police investigation continues and we expect a breakthrough. Thanks everyone for the support – it really helps.

Here is a reminder of the events of the case:

Police are searching a Portuguese lake for the pink pajamas Madeleine McCann was wearing when she disappeared in 2007, sources close to the investigation say.

Police officers are searching Portugal’s Barragem do Arade reservoir for any fragments of clothing or old rags that could be linked to Madeleine’s disappearance, according to reports.

Investigators suspect 45-year-old German prisoner Christian Brueckner killed Madeleine, then three, after kidnapping her from a holiday apartment.