They don’t give up, they want to finally solve the disappearance of little Maddie!
Praia da Luz (Portugal) – For the first time in almost ten years, the search for the girl who disappeared in Portugal in 2007 is active again. Starting Tuesday, a reservoir will be submerged near the town of Silves in the Algarve – about 40 kilometers from Praia da Luz, where Maddie disappeared from her family’s holiday apartment on the evening of May 3rd. The forest area around the reservoir is also searched.
Christian Brückner (45) in a photo from the Italian police
The initiative for the new search came from the German authorities. The public prosecutor’s office in Braunschweig, which is currently investigating the previously convicted child molester Christian Brückner (45), was initially unavailable for comment.
Investigators hope for knowledge from the reservoir
A road leading to the “Barragem do Arade” reservoir was blocked off on Monday. Police tents were also set up there.
The reservoir had already been searched in 2008. Bones found in a bag were judged to be of “non-human origin”. It is unclear why the police are looking there again right now. Should old tracks be checked again? Are there any new clues? According to BILD information, Brückner may have had friends in the area.
Spectacular Crimes The case of Maddie McCann
The search with divers and excavators should initially take two days. It is the first major operation of this kind since June 2014, when the British police received permission from the Portuguese to search the holiday resort of Praia da Luz with sniffer dogs and to use ground-penetrating radar to locate bodies.
Brückner, who lived in the Algarve between 1995 and 2007, is currently serving a prison sentence in Germany for rape.