It’s been 16 years since Madeleine McCann disappeared. The then four-year-old British girl disappeared in 2007 while the family was on vacation in Praia da Luz in the Portuguese Algarve. The parents had left Maddie and her two younger siblings at the apartment while they had dinner with friends at a nearby restaurant. Since then there has been no trace of the girl.
Since then there have been countless investigations and searches. Police believe Madeleine was kidnapped and killed, but no body has been found. Now things seem to be moving again. The public prosecutor’s office in Braunschweig stated on Tuesday that there are currently “criminal procedural measures in Portugal” which are being implemented by the Portuguese authorities with the support of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA). For tactical reasons, no further information is currently being released. It had already become known on Monday that a reservoir in Portugal was to be searched.
The public prosecutor’s office has been investigating a German with a criminal record for a long time. Christian B. is suspected of kidnapping and killing Madeleine McCann. There are many indications, but the chain of evidence is not closed, the public prosecutor’s office has often said. The principle of the presumption of innocence applies. The 46-year-old man is currently serving a several-year sentence for another crime – and investigators hope that at some point they will also be able to prove that he killed the girl. Most recently, a rape case against him had burst, but he is still in prison.
At the Arade reservoir in southern Portugal, the police have set up tents and cordoned off a larger area.
(Photo: Joao Matos/AP)
The Arade reservoir in the Algarve hinterland, about 50 kilometers from Praia da Luz, is now to be searched. The action was requested by the Federal Criminal Police Office and is scheduled to begin this Tuesday, the Portuguese police said. Two to three days are estimated for this. In addition to Portuguese and German officials, British police officers are also said to be taking part in the new search.
The Portuguese news channel SIC Noticias reported on Monday that ten investigators from the criminal police and several firefighters had already cordoned off a large area on the edge of the reservoir. A command post was set up in a tent in the area, which is considered a natural paradise, to coordinate the search from there.
The last known major search operation in this case took place almost three years ago, in the summer of 2020. As in previous operations, practically every stone had been turned. In July of that year, with the help of divers, a search was carried out in three wells in Vila do Bispo that had been shut down for years. Unsuccessful. The pressure to find something that will help investigators has probably increased after such a long time.