Madeleine McCann case: Portugal cops search dam for toddler's remains, 16 yrs after disappearance
Police prepare to search a reservoir for the body of Madeleine McCann.
The Portuguese police, with the help of German police, on Tuesday (May 23) began searches near the Algarve reservoir where British girl Madeleine McCann disappeared in 2007 when she was three years old. According to a report by news agency Reuters, fire brigade members deployed a dinghy boat, while police officers combed the area surrounding the reservoir, located 52 kilometres from the resort of Praia da Luz where McCann disappeared.
Speaking to Reuters, a source familiar with the investigation said the operation in the Silves municipality was being carried out at the request of German authorities. Another source said the Portuguese police had little hope of the search providing any breakthrough in the case.
Tuesday's search is the first development in the case after last year's move by German prosecutors, who formally identified German man Christian Brueckner as an official suspect in McCann's disappearance.
Who happened to Madeleine McCann?
On May 3, 2007, Madeleine McCann disappeared from her bedroom in the apartment her family was staying in the Praia da Luz resort while her parents ate with friends at a nearby restaurant.
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The apartment was broken into while Madeleine and her twin-baby siblingwere asleep.Local police concluded it was a kidnapping. The family expressed concerns at what they called a slow initial police response and a failure to secure the crime scene.
McCann's disappearance drew global attention, with footballstars David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo among those joining appeals for information.
The timeline of investigation
An early investigation by the Portugal police led to no major leads and the investigators turned their attention to McCann's parents - Gerry and Kate. In 2007, Gerry and Kate were questioned by police as formal suspects. But nearly a year later, the police dropped their probe due to lack of evidence and cleared the parents of any involvement, Reuters reported.
The couple and the friends with them on the night the toddler went missing successfully sued many British tabloids for libel for suggesting they were involved in their daughter’s disappearance.
In 2015, a court in Portugal ordered a former investigator involved in the initial inquiry to pay Gerry and Kate damages for alleging in a book that their daughter died in an accident and the parents had covered it up.
Reuters further reported that a British man, whose mother lived close to the McCanns, won libel damages from British media after he was accused of being involved in the abduction.
In 2011, then-British Prime Minister David Cameron ordered a review by London police after being contacted by the toddler's family. The following year, detectives said they had identified 195 "investigative opportunities" and in 2013 the police began their investigation, saying they had identified 38 potential suspects.
Later that year, they released an e-fit image of many men. Portuguese prosecutors ordered the case to be reopened by local police.
The new inquiry led Portuguese police to interview four suspects, but they were cleared of any involvement, and a search by British detectives of wasteland near the resort also failed to provide a breakthrough.
Later, detectives suggested Madeleine might have been one of the victims of a series of sexual assaults on British children in Portugal between 2004 and 2010.
Who is the German suspect?
Nearly three years back, British and German police identified a 43-year-old German man asa suspect.Christian Bruecknerlived in the Algarve region from 1995 and 2007 and burgled hotels and holiday flats as well as traded drugs.
He was jailed for seven years in 2019 for raping and robbing a 72-year-old American woman in her home. In April 2022, he was identified as an official suspect in Madeleine's disappearance but has not been charged with any crime relating to her. In April, a court in the German city of Braunschweig threw out unrelated rape and sexual offences against Brueckner.
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