Requested by the German authorities, the Portuguese police plan to carry out new excavations in the coming days near the place where the British girl Madeleine McCann disappeared in 2007 in the south of Portugal, the judicial police confirmed on Monday evening. The Portuguese police are continuing “steps to shed light” on the “disappearance of a British girl who occurred in 2007, in the Algarve” (south), indicates a press release from the PJ.
“New excavations” in the coming days
“As part of international cooperation, new excavations will be carried out in the coming days, at the request of the German authorities” specify the Portuguese investigators adding that they will be “coordinated by the judicial police and will be carried out in the presence of the English authorities. “. The Portuguese investigators thus confirm information reported Monday morning by the local media. According to television images, a perimeter was delimited on Monday around near a dam located about fifty kilometers from the place where “Maddie” disappeared in 2007, before the start of the excavations on Tuesday. According to several local media, divers had already searched this area in 2008, but had only found remains of animals there.
The Portuguese public prosecutor’s office announced last year the indictment, at its request, of a suspect in Germany, within the framework of the investigation carried out in cooperation with the English and German authorities. According to German justice, it is Christian Brueckner, a repeat pedophile who lived for several years in southern Portugal. This man, who is serving a prison sentence for the rape of a 72-year-old American in 2005 in Portugal, had already been identified by German investigators in 2020 as the main suspect in the murder of the British girl.
And, according to the Portuguese weekly Espresso, he used to go near the Arade dam, located in the municipality of Silves.
Disappeared at the age of 4
Madeleine McCann, then almost four years old, disappeared from her room at the hotel complex in Praia da Luz, a small seaside resort in the Algarve region, on May 3, 2007 while her parents dined with friends in a restaurant. neighbor. The Portuguese police closed the investigation in 2008 after 14 months of controversial investigations, marked in particular by the indictment of the girl’s parents, who were then cleared. After spending two years studying the case, the UK officially opened its own investigation in July 2013. Portuguese authorities reopened the case soon after.