18 years after the girl’s disappearance, police will conduct new research and searches in Portugal – Liberation

Eighteen after the disappearance of little Maddie, the investigation continues its course. Portuguese judicial police announced on Monday June 2 that they were going to lead « A large set of steps » In the investigation concerning the British girl, who disappeared in 2007. New research and searches will thus be carried out near the seaside resort in southern Portugal – where the facts took place – from Tuesday, June 3 to Friday, June 6, a spokesperson announced.

These approaches take place within the framework of a mandate issued by the public prosecutor of Brunswick (northern Germany), which leads a preliminary investigation against Christian Brückner, suspected by German justice for having killed Madeleine McCann, We have specified from the same source. « All the evidence entered by the PJ will be, with the prior authorization of the national public prosecutor, given to agents of the Federal German Criminal Police Service », has we added.

The installation of the equipment and workforce intended for this research started this Monday, but the excavations themselves will start on Tuesday, said the same spokesperson. The last excavations in this investigation took place in May 2023, near a lake.

« As part of the investigation into the Madeleine McCann case, criminal procedures are underway in Portugal »for his part confirmed a spokesperson for the Brunswick prosecution, Christian Wolters.

“We are aware of the research carried out by the BKA (the German federal police) in Portugal as part of their investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. British police services are not there, but we will help our international colleagues where they will need it ”, For his part, a spokesperson for the British police said.

Christian Brückner, who is currently serving a rape prison sentence, was acquitted in October 2024 In Germany in a trial for two sexual assaults and three rapes committed between 2000 and 2017 in Portugal. So many distinct cases of the Maddie file, disappeared in 2007 in the same country, and for which Christian Brückner has, at this stage, still not charged.

In 2020, German justice then caused a sensation by saying that it was convinced of the involvement of Christian Brückner in the disappearance of the little girl, a criminal enigma in the world impact where the false tracks and the twists and turns were numerous.

In 2007, Maddie, 3, disappeared from the apartment where she spent a vacation with her parents while they dined nearby. His disappearance gave rise to an international campaign and an extraordinary media mobilization. At the time of the facts, Christian Brückner lived on the Portuguese coast of Algarve, near the McCann resort, and a mobile phone in his name had limited near their accommodation on the evening of the disappearance.