German authorities have begun a new search in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann near the Portuguese holiday resort she was last seen 18 years ago.
The then three-year-old British girl disappeared from her bed while on vacation with her family in the Praia da Luz resort, in southern Portugal, on May 3, 2007. She has not been seen since.
Detectives acting on a request from a German public prosecutor will carry out “a broad range” of searches this week in the area of Lagos, in southern Portugal, according to Portuguese police.
The search, expected to last three days, will see more than 30 German police search 21 private plots of land after Portuguese authorities granted permission for them to fly into the country, according to BBC News.
Prosecutors in Braunschweig, Germany, who are responsible for the investigation, didn’t give details of the “judicial measures” taking place in Portugal. They said the measures are being carried out by Portuguese authorities with support from officers from Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office.
Britain’s Metropolitan Police said it was “aware of the searches being carried by the BKA (German federal police) in Portugal as part of their investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.”
“The Metropolitan Police Service is not present at the search, we will support our international colleagues where necessary,” the force added, without giving more details.
One of the areas of interest in the search falls between Praia da Luz and a house near the vacation resort where the main suspect in the case, a German national identified by media as Christian Brüeckner, previously lived.
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Brüeckner is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for raping a 72-year-old woman in Portugal in 2005. He is under investigation on suspicion of murder in the McCann case but hasn’t been charged.
Brüeckner spent many years in Portugal, including in Praia da Luz, around the time of the child’s disappearance. Brüeckner has denied any involvement in her disappearance.
The last time police resumed searches in the case was in 2023, when detectives from the three countries took part in an operation searching near a dam and a reservoir about 50 kilometres from the Praia da Luz resort.
The search was requested by German police, who claimed a suspect in the case visited the area around the time McCann disappeared.
Brüeckner was named an “arguido,” meaning suspect, in 2022, after German authorities said “new evidence” connected him to McCann.
During the active search, officials used rakes and hoe-like tools to prod the ground beside the dam while other firefighters were observed in a dinghy on the reservoir.
Officials in the Algarve, Portugal, begin the search as part of the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
Yui Mok/PA Images via Getty Images
Portuguese media said it was the fourth search for McCann, following the initial one in 2007 in the Algarve area and then two more in 2013 and 2014. Another search was held in Germany in 2020.
Last month, McCann’s parents marked the 18th year anniversary of their daughter’s disappearance, saying that their “determination to leave no stone unturned is unwavering.”
“We will do our utmost to achieve this.”
In February, Eugenea Collins, a woman from Arkansas, said she was the real McCann and began posting her claims on Instagram in September 2024 with the username, TheOfficialMadeleineMcCann. The account features numerous side-by-side photos of Collins and McCann.
Madeleine McCann (left) and Eugenea Collins (right), who claims to be the missing girl.
Family of Madeleine McCann/ Eugenea Collins / Facebook
In another social media post, Collins shared photos of her biological father, named Eugene, and claimed he looked similar to Brüeckner.
“I was always told the man in the photos was my biological father Eugene Collins. The man I’m named after. I never had any relationship with this man whatsoever and I was always told he was a little off in the head,” Collins wrote.
“My mother never allowed us to have any kind of relationship with him whatsoever and now I understand why.”
Collins said that she’s “met him a couple of times” and claims he’s “always been weird about his picture being taken.”
“When I first saw the photos of Christian Bruckner I instantly recognized that man,” Collins wrote.
Collins said she has tried to contact police in Arkansas about her claims but they have not taken her seriously.
— With files from The Associated Press
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