Everything we know as as search for Madeleine McCann enters its third day
The search of land in Praia da Luz continues on Thursday, 18 years after the three-year-old's disappearance.
The searches are taking place between Brueckner's old rented cottage and a rural area near Lagos, Atalaia
(Image: PA )
Madeleine McCann was three years old when she vanished on May 3, 2007 after her parents left her asleep in their holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, in the Algarve, Portugal.
Since then, hers has become one of the highest-profile unsolved missing person cases in the world, with British, Portuguese and European police forces involved in the investigation.
Police forces from across Europe have launched multiple searches for Madeleine McCann since her disappearance in 2007.
Early efforts focused on the Praia da Luz resort, where she was last seen in her family's holiday apartment. In 2013, British police began Operation Grange, a formal investigation into the case. Searches have included digging in scrubland, draining reservoirs, and using sniffer dogs and ground-penetrating radar.
German authorities have also led inquiries in recent years, targeting prime suspect, 48-year-old Christian Brückner.
Madeleine McCann disappeared from a holiday flat in Portugal in 2007
(Image: PA )
Article continues below
The latest one commenced on Tuesday this week, searching the suspects old place of residence in Praia da Luz, covering a large patch of land near the home of their prime suspect and the McCanns' holiday apartment. Here's everything we know.
The latest investigation
Where are police searching?
Operational tents have been set up in the nearby village of Atalaia as investigation teams search over 20 plots of land in Praia da Luz.
German authorities, who are leading this investigation, are searching the old residence of Christian Brückner, a man who is currently in jail for the offence of rape, to find anything that could prove Madeleine was ever taken there.
What have they found?
Teams investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann have taken samples of potential evidence from properties near Praia Da Luz in Portugal.
The search teams were seen using pickaxes, shovels and chainsaws to clear dense vegetation and dig near a derelict building.
On Tuesday, fresh searches for Madeleine began in countryside a few miles from Praia da Luz, with firefighters spotted pumping water to drain a well.
(Image: © 2025 PA Media, All Rights Reserved )
About a dozen officers focused on one abandoned building where digging was taking place, while another member of the search team cleared large rocks.
The Daily Express reported that investigation teams have taken samples of potential evidence from properties near Praia Da Luz in Portugal.
A man who knew Madeleine McCann prime suspect Christian Brueckner has made a dramatic appeal to police, claiming they are searching in the wrong place. Ken Ralphs told GB News that Brueckner's alleged accomplice once broke down in tears and confessed plans to help abduct a child in Praia de Luz.
He said: "He cried that he needed the money to get out the country with his family and children and that's why he got involved."
Mr Ralphs identified what he described as the last property Brueckner stayed in before Madeleine vanished – and urged investigators to focus there.
Frustrated by years of inaction, he said: "For over 18 years, I've pressed the police and all they can do is blame each other for not passing this information on."
The prime suspect
Last year, Christian Brueckner was cleared of unrelated sexual offences between 2000 and 2017
(Image: Phil Harris )
Christian Brückner is serving a jail sentence in Germany after raping a 72-year-old American tourist in Portugal in 2005. He is due to be released later this year.
He moved to Portugal in 1995 after serving a two-year prison sentence in Germany for sexually assaulting a six-year-old girl in 1994, he is known to have been renting a cottage in Praia da Luz at the time of Madeleine's disappearance. Soon after the media descended on the resort in 2007, he moved back to Germany.
In October 2024, he was acquitted of two charges rape and two of sexual abuse in a German rape trial where it was argued there was a lack of evidence and witnesses who were not credible.
Police have previously claimed he made a 30-minute phone call from the same area just an hour before Madeleine disappeared.
He is alleged to have confessed on two occasions to kidnapping and sexually abusing the toddler - once to a friend in a German bar in 2017 and again to his prison cellmate in 2020.
The German national was formally identified as a suspect in 2022, but has denied any involvement. He also denied committing the 2005 rape for which he was convicted of in 2019.
Brückner has not been charged in the McCann case, but German authorities began investigating him in June 2020 for her kidnap and murder.
German authorities maintain that he is the main suspect in Madeleine's disappearance and are pushing for charges before his scheduled release in September.
Article continues below
The last search
The most recent search prior to this one was also executed by German police in 2023.They spent a week searching the Barragem do Arade reservoir, around 30 miles from Praia da Luz, after receiving of a "tip-off".
It was previously searched by divers in 2008 after Portuguese lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia ordered them to look to see if Madeleine McCann's body was there. Nothing was found.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Evening Standard
25 minutes ago
- Evening Standard
British Air India crash survivor haunted by nightmares where 'everyone dies'
His brother Ajay, 35, was sitting on the opposite side of the aisle in seat 11J. He was among the hundreds killed in one of the deadliest crashes involving British citizens in recent memory. 'He sees him [Ajay] everywhere,' Keshave said. 'He speaks but he doesn't speak about the crash. His wife and his son [who is four] are there with him, supporting him. He is currently trying to have a normal life, but he is not going out too much. He is spending time at home with the family. He was living in the house in Diu with his brother before the crash.'
Daily Mirror
an hour ago
- Daily Mirror
British teen duped into starring in own snuff movie by twisted friend
Twisted murderer Jamie Reynolds harboured twisted sexual fantasies and destroyed the family of an innocent A level student when he carried out his sick dream for real Popular Georgia Williams had many friends including Jamie Reynolds, who was 22 when he betrayed his pal's trust in the worst way possible. For when the A level student agreed to Reynolds' request, she had no idea he had harboured a fascination for hanging, strangulation and necrophilia since he was a teenager. By the time the twisted killer ended her life, he had already amassed 16,800 images and 72 videos of sexual violence as well as writing 40 stories about committing fatal attacks on girls, drawing nooses on copies of their Facebook photos. Reynolds, from Telford in Shropshire, carried out his sick fantasy for real in 2013 after coming up with a ruse to ask Georgia to help realise his dreams of becoming a photographer. The teenager agreed to an "artistic photoshoot" involving a "simulation hanging", with Reynolds falsely assuring her in a message on social media: "You would be standing on a box. I would edit that out on the computer so it would look like you were floating." Two days later, following a Crimewatch appeal, Georgia's body was found in woodland near Ruthin, in north Wales. It later transpired that Reynolds had written a story called Georgia Williams in Surprise which detailed exactly what he had intended. Police found the last photos of Georgia alive on Reynolds' hard drive, showing her smiling and posing with a red rope around her neck. In the next series of images, she is dead. Reynolds became one of the youngest in British criminal history to be sentenced to a whole life term in prison. And as her family came to terms with the loss of their loved one, they were horrified to learn he had carried out a near-identical attack on a teenager five years before. Officers had previously been given evidence of his obsession with images of women being hanged but let him off with a warning. Reynolds had gone onto ram a colleague's car after she spurned his advances, with police writing it up as a traffic accident. Georgia's parents went onto fund the The Georgia Williams Trust, which funds sports, music and outdoor adventures for young people. "We still have nightmares," the student's mum Lynnette told The Mirror in 2023. "One of us will wake the other up at night screaming. We help each other through them. I relive the day as soon as I wake up or when I try to sleep. I feel drained most of the time, it's on your mind constantly. It never goes away." The murderer's whole-life sentence means he will die behind bars, with the judge at Stafford Crown Court calling him a "serial killer in the making".
Metro
2 hours ago
- Metro
Water park shut to help police search for woman who vanished
Police are frantically searching for a woman who vanished yesterday morning, prompting some businesses to close and help with the investigation. Rachel Booth, 38, was last seen in the Barnton area of Northwich yesterday around 4.50 am. She is described as 5' 9' tall, of a slim build, with blonde hair, and is believed to be wearing black leggings and a black top. Inspector James Wilson said: 'We are currently conducting a number of enquiries to trace Rachel, and we are becoming increasingly concerned for her welfare. 'Anyone who has seen Rachel since she was reported missing is asked to contact us. The same goes for anyone who has any information on her whereabouts.' Nearby water sports centre, Wild Shore Delamere, announced they would shut to help the investigation. 'We are really sorry but there has been an incident in the area and the police have requested that we close the site to aid their investigation,' they wrote. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Deaths, fires and prison breaks: The mystery behind the eerie Annabelle doll MORE: Ali went for a walk to clear his head – but what happened next is a mystery MORE: Drones launched in search for British hiker, 33, missing for six days in the Alps
