German and Portuguese investigators celebrated together as the latest searches related to Madeleine McCann’s disappearance came to an end a day sooner than planned, it has been revealed.
Search teams concluded their operation in Atalaia, near Lagos, Portugal, on Thursday, after three days of meticulously examining scrubland and deserted buildings. The search had initially been slated to run into Friday.
Their efforts were concentrated on a 120-acre expanse of land, utilising equipment such as chainsaws, diggers and ground-penetrating radar.
This operation took place 18 years after three-year-old Madeleine vanished from nearby Praia da Luz while holidaying with her family in 2007.
The British girl disappeared after being left asleep whilst her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, dined at a nearby restaurant.
Officers involved in the recent searches held a debrief before departing the site, followed by applause and the removal of a crate of German beer from one of the tents in the designated base area.
After the Augustiner beers were taken away, some officers had difficulty dismantling the tents due to the windy conditions.
Earlier in the day, personnel could be seen wielding pitchforks as they scoured stretches of land.
Pickaxes and shovels were used to clear some of the undergrowth, and a digger was once again employed to remove rubble from one of the abandoned structures at the site.
Search efforts for Madeleine McCann have seen police focus on a derelict building, where ground-penetrating radar has been used on the cobblestones after removing detritus with heavy machinery and chainsaws.
The Find Madeleine Campaign reported that Madeleine’s parents are not making any statements during this “active police investigation”.
The search, requested by German authorities, continues their quest for evidence against prime suspect Christian Brueckner, who is currently jailed for a separate assault in Praia da Luz back in 2005.
Brueckner, whose jail term might end in September barring new charges, was acquitted last October by a German tribunal of different suspected assaults in Portugal from 2000 to 2017.
In 2023, investigators also searched near Barragem do Arade reservoir, roughly 30 miles from Praia da Luz, an area familiar to Brueckner during 2000-2017, as evidenced by his photos and videos around the site.
The Metropolitan police confirmed that no British officers had taken part in the search. There has been no official comment as yet from authorities about the conclusion of the search. So far, officers have not announced they have found anything significant.
