Last week, police were searching the remote Barragem do Arade reservoir in Portugal’s Algarve, about 35 miles from where the three-year-old boy disappeared in 2007 while on a family vacation in Praia da Luz.
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Soil from a Portugal reservoir searched by police last month is reportedly being compared to samples from prime suspect Christian Brueckner’s camper van.
Detectives believe Brueckner visited the remote Barragem do Arade reservoir in Portugal’s Algarve region days after Madeleine went missing.
Officials now believe they can prove Brueckner’s van was in the area at the time the three-year-old was abducted, sources told The Daily Mirror.
The source claimed that if analysis of the soil sample reveals a “positive match”, police could further “close the net” around Brueckner, 45, who has not yet been charged.
Earlier, a forensics expert warned that “traditional” evidence will be difficult to find after 16 years have passed since Madeleine McCann’s disappearance.
Dan Matthews said researchers would have searched the remote reservoir in Portugal for “things that might have stood the test of time and not been destroyed by its passage,” such as fragments of clothing or jewelry.
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Timeline of Madeleine’s disappearance
The mystery began when the McCanns, well-to-do doctors Kate and Gerry, their three-year-old daughter Madeleine and two-year-old twin brothers, joined a group of seven family friends and their five children on holiday at the Ocean Club in the village of Praia da Luz in the extreme south-west of Portugal on 28 April 2007.
After a pleasant spring break by the sea, the adults in the party went out for dinner at the resort’s open-air tapas bar on May 3, gathering at 8:30 p.m. The children were left to sleep in their respective apartments with the doors open and a rotation system between parents to ensure that someone returned every half hour to check on them.
When Kate McCann took her turn and returned to her apartment at 10pm, she ran back into the restaurant shouting “Madeleine’s gone! Someone’s taken her!” The police were quickly called and 60 staff members and other guests searched the resort, calling the girl’s name to no avail until the next day.
With border police and airport staff on alert and hundreds of volunteers joining efforts to find the missing girl over the next few days, the case quickly became a sensation.
Kate and Gerry McCann are still waiting for answers 16 years later
(Leon Neal/AFP/Getty)
Sam RkainaJune 9, 2023 08:00
‘Traditional’ evidence of deposit research ‘could be microscopic’
Forensic expert Dan Matthews has warned that it may be difficult to find “traditional” evidence now that 16 years have passed since Madeleine’s disappearance.
The senior lecturer in forensic science at the University of Lincoln suggested that researchers would be searching the remote repository for “things that might have stood the test of time and not been destroyed by its passage”, such as fragments of clothing, articles of plastic or jewelry.
“If they’re looking for bodily remains, then the only things left will be skeletal,” he added.
Police will hope to have found something linked to Madeleine’s case, but Matthews says how long it will take to get the search results is “very hard to say”.
Clothing, for example, shouldn’t take long to analyze, he explained, but any fragments could be microscopic and could have deteriorated significantly over such a long period of time.
“Analysis can be quite an arduous process,” he said. “Especially when you have samples that are not in perfect condition.
“You could be looking at things that aren’t visible to the naked eye, and using something like a microscope takes time.”
Sam RkainaJune 9, 2023 07:21
Who is Christian Brueckner? Madeleine McCann suspect and the allegations against him
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 motorhome was identified as being near Praia da Luz station in Portugal, where the young woman disappeared on May 3, 2007.
But who is he? Lucy Skoulding reports:
Sam RkainaJune 8, 2023 09:00
ICYMI: How much did the Madeleine McCann investigation cost?
After lying dormant for several years since David Cameron launched an ultimately unsuccessful Metropolitan Police investigation in 2011, the case of the missing three-year-old boy was revived once again in 2020 when German prosecutors revealed a new suspicious
Here, Andy Gregory take a look at how much the research cost:
Matt MathersJune 8, 2023 08:47
ICYMI: Items seized in search of Madeleine McCann ‘cannot yet be linked’ to disappearance
German prosecutors have said items seized as part of a new search for evidence in the Madeleine McCann case cannot yet be linked to the investigation into her disappearance.
A large section of the Barragem do Arade reservoir in Portugal was cordoned off last week, about 30 miles from where three-year-old Madeleine disappeared in 2007.
Matt MathersJune 7, 2023 10:20 am
How the search for Madeleine McCann unfolded at the reservoir and what the police found
Police combed the remote Barragem do Arade in response to what was vaguely described as “certain tips” about an area that the main suspect in the case, Christian Brueckner, regularly frequented between 2000 and 2017.
While police remain tight-lipped on details, they said they recovered “a number of items” from the scene, which will now be assessed over the coming days in the hope of shedding light on the ongoing mystery at around the disappearance of Madeleine from an Algarve. vacation spot on May 3, 2007.
Hans Christian Wolters, Braunschweig’s city prosecutor, said last week: “It cannot yet be confirmed whether some of the items are actually related to the Madeleine McCann case.”
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(Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
Sam RkainaJune 6, 2023 9:42 p.m
The police who searched the reservoir were looking for a gun and a video camera
Madeleine McCann detectives who searched a reservoir in Portugal were reportedly looking for Christian B’s gun and video camera.
The newspaper said German police were tipped off by a criminal informant who said the items had been stolen from Christian B’s home.
Matt MathersJune 5, 2023 2:05 p.m
ICYMI: Madeleine McCann’s police confirm ‘number of items’ recovered from Algarve reservoir search
Last week, German authorities helped Portuguese teams comb a remote area inland from the Algarve coastal town where Madeleine disappeared from her bedroom during a family holiday in 2007.
Matt MathersJune 5, 2023 10:55 am
ICYMI: Madeleine McCann police shouldn’t just focus on prime suspect, forensics expert warns
Forensic experts have warned that investigators in the Madeleine McCann case cannot focus solely on their prime suspect and that, 16 years after her disappearance, “traditional” evidence may not have survived.
Last week, German authorities helped Portuguese teams comb a remote reservoir inland from Portugal’s Algarve coastal town where three-year-old Madeleine disappeared from her bedroom during a family holiday in 2007.
Matt MathersJune 5, 2023 10:30 am
Sixteen years and countless heartbreaks: where is Madeleine McCann’s family now?
Parents are refusing to give up hope and have spoken movingly about the ‘new normal’ of raising twins without their missing daughter, reports Joe Sommerlad.
Read the full story here:
Matt MathersJune 5, 2023 10:00 a.m
