Missing Madeleine McCann case update: New search for UK child missing since 2007, Portuguese police confirm

Lisbon, Portugal — Portuguese police said they would resume the search for Madeleine McCann, the little Briton who disappeared in the Algarve region in 2007, in the coming days.

Portuguese Judicial Police issued a statement confirming local media reports that they would carry out the search at the request of German authorities and in the presence of British officials.

Earlier on Monday, police were seen erecting tents and cordoning off an area near the Arade Dam, around 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Praia da Luz, where the 3-year-old was was last seen alive.

British, Portuguese and German police are still trying to piece together what happened when the little girl disappeared from her bed in the southern Portuguese resort on May 3, 2007. She was in the same room as her brother and her 2-year-old twin sister while her parents dined with friends at a nearby restaurant.

In mid-2020, German police identified Christian Brueckner, a 45-year-old German citizen who was in the Algarve in 2007, as a suspect in the case. Brueckner denied any involvement.

The suspect is being investigated on suspicion of murder in the McCann case, but has not been charged. He spent many years in Portugal, notably in Praia da Luz at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance.

In October, prosecutors in the northern German city of Braunschweig indicted Brueckner in several separate cases involving sex offenses allegedly committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.

Braunschweig prosecutor Christian Wolter said on Monday that his office would issue a statement on the case on Tuesday morning.

Madeleine’s disappearance has sparked worldwide interest, with the public claiming to have seen her spread as far as Australia, along with a host of books and TV documentaries about the case.

The rewards for finding Madeleine have reached several million dollars.

The video featured above is from a previous report.