Christian Brueckner: To be or not to be

Jeffrey Epstein was suicided.
Jimmy Savile was on BBC TV for 50 years.
Rolf Harris has just died.
No-one was ever prosecuted over the murder of JonBenet Ramsey.
Madeleine McCann was 'abducted' on Thursday 3 May 2007.
Jim Gamble, boss of CEOP, uploaded a page on Madeleine McCann on the CEOP website on Sunday 30 April 2007.

KLM = Kid's lives matter   

Except they apparently don't  

It's not a small number of people who like to hurt and kill children, either, and they are very well organised in some cases.

crusader wrote:Professional courtesy? I'm sure the Portuguese police would love to see an end to the fiasco.

You are probably right - if the Portuguese were requested by Germany through international policing protocol to undertake a search in a specific area of Portugal, I guess the Portuguese authorities had no option but to agree.

I'd still like to know who is paying for this operation - hopefully a forum friend in Portugal will reveal all in due course.  No doubt Snr Amaral still keeps in touch with the investigation, I hope we hear something from him or a reliable source close thereto very soon.

As days pass, without spending every hour of every day following proceedings over in Portugal, it's looking more and more like the tip-off that allegedly started the German invasion is hidden in the words .... 'Brueckner's Paradise'.  Much like all the other tip-offs that never materialised into anything productive - remember the conversation over-heard in a bar somewhere in a galaxy far far away?  The hearsay conversation said to have launched the fabricated case against Brueckner?

Chief witness - Manfredman

And so would you ^^

onehand wrote:the independant has a livestream today, yesterday too, even longer than the cnn18 one.

this is the link to their you tube account;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpXwI1r-qFs

a lot of tents, very small people, a lot of water and a lot of bushes. not much moving at the moment. 

the bbc live blog is still up, but not running at the moment, but this is the link for who want to follow on;

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-65676619

Live: Portugal police search Algarve reservoir for Madeleine McCann's remains



BBC update..

Live Reporting

Edited by Brandon Livesay

Posted at 14:16 23 May14:16 23 May
We're pausing our live coverage

Thanks for following our live coverage as police began a new search for Madeleine McCann at a reservoir in Portugal.

We're expecting the search to last a few more days and it will span across at least four areas around the Arade reservoir.

Today's writers were Emily McGarvey, Malu Cursino and Laura Gozzi, and Rob Corp and Brandon Livesay were the editors.

For all the latest on the search for Madeleine McCann, read our news story here.

In short - nothing to see here .

Madeleine searches, Arade dam – airspace closed till 10pm tonight

By  Natasha Donn - 24th May 2023

11 km radius around dam blocked to flights below 610 metres

As press packs from around the world return to Portugal for another flurry of police activity related to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, Lusa reports that the ‘no-fly zone’ imposed around Silves’ Arade dam has only been reserved until 10pm this evening.

This gels with initial information that police were only likely to search the area for two days.

For the time being, beyond ever-increasing speculation and breathless reports with the dam in the background, there is no ‘news’.

Police activity has extended beyond digging to the use of ‘brush-cutters’ (strimmers) in some areas; a collection of bags “that could contain evidence” have been removed from the scene; “dozens of sniffer dogs” have been seen working the area.

Various reports suggest the police search operation was prompted by information given to German police “from a very reliable source”.

Beyond that, there is very little to ‘hold onto’. It has to be remembered that defence lawyer Friedrich Fülscher described the original source for German investigators’ focus on Christian Brückner as “the worst witness you can get”.

https://www.portugalresident.com/madeleine-searches-arade-dam-airspace-closed-till-10pm-tonight/



I love this lady's inimitable style - tells it like it is with a touch of thrown in.

Nothing on the BBC this morning. Absolutely nothing. Decided that there's nothing to see there, packed up & bogged off to the beach/golf course?

The same  reason  Gerry McCann knew he could bring forward the 'It won't be a one year anniversary, it will be sooner than that"?

they are searching today again, because of the rain on the first day. at least that is written on sic noticias pt, and that was the one who found it all out, so they must have a good source around. 

the independent has also a live stream again; 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6WQWRCZ-YY

not that much happening only these tents and a bit of lake without people to see for now.

indeed nicely done by donn , as always. 

lucky the rest of the world means something different when using the term reliable. but we already know the hcw vocabulary is a bit off.

There is a comment in the video mentioned above^^, 'It must have been the German guy, or where would have they got all this information from?' Because they LIE!!!

So, here we have it.

The ESTIMABLE Portuguese retired senior police officer, who dutifully coordinated the first 4-5 months of the investigation into Madeleine McCann's disappearance until removed from the case for political reasons, speaks - at least through the medium of a UK tabloid.

We await official confirmation of his words..

Shameless Portuguese cop Goncalo Amaral says Algarve reservoir search for Madeleine McCann is an attempt to 'pin the case' on Christian Brueckner

Amaral was kicked off the 2008 investigation into Madeleine's disappearance
He claimed fresh hunt at reservoir was attempt to make suspect a 'scapegoat'

By Nick Pisa In The Algarve For Mailonline

Published: 11:09, 25 May 2023 | Updated: 11:39, 25 May 2023

Shameless Portuguese former detective Goncalo Amaral has slammed the current search for Madeleine McCann at a remote reservoir in Portugal as an attempt to 'pin the case' on the prime suspect.

Amaral was kicked off the original investigation in 2008, after suggesting Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry were responsible for the then three-year-old's disappearance and later wrote two books on the mystery.

Speaking for the first time since police began searching the area around the Arade Dam, just 35 miles from the resort of Praia da Luz, he claimed the fresh hunt was just an attempt to make prime suspect Christian Brueckner a 'scapegoat'.

He told respected Portuguese news weekly Sabado: 'The question should be how are the German police involved ? How did the (Portuguese) Judicial Police agree to this and why?

'In simple analysis I see that there is no new investigation, what is happening is an act of building the profile of a scapegoat and a virtual blaming.'

Shameless Portuguese former detective Goncalo Amaral has slammed the current search for Madeleine McCann at a remote reservoir in Portugal as an attempt to 'pin the case' on the prime suspect.

Amaral was kicked off the original investigation in 2008, after suggesting Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry were responsible for the then three-year-old's disappearance and later wrote two books on the mystery.

Speaking for the first time since police began searching the area around the Arade Dam, just 35 miles from the resort of Praia da Luz, he claimed the fresh hunt was just an attempt to make prime suspect Christian Brueckner a 'scapegoat'.

He told respected Portuguese news weekly Sabado: 'The question should be how are the German police involved ? How did the (Portuguese) Judicial Police agree to this and why?

'In simple analysis I see that there is no new investigation, what is happening is an act of building the profile of a scapegoat and a virtual blaming.'

'On the other hand, finding the child's remains would only be possible if she had not been cremated, as seems to have happened.'

In the interview, which came as a joint police team from Portugal, Germany and the Metropolitan Police continued their hunt for a third day, Amaral again pushed his theory Brueckner was a 'convenient scapegoat'.

He said:' When British police began to consider Christian Brueckner as a suspect, he was living in Portugal and walking freely around.

'The investigation should have focused on the individual through special techniques, namely telephone and computer interceptions, personal and electronic surveillance, undercover agents etc, in order to advance the investigation of the suspect's possible responsibility and subsequent death of the child.

'But astonishingly, the German police put him in a German jail, isolating him from the outside world, making any kind of investigation centred on the suspect impossible.

'Little by little, the Germans built up the suspect's profile as a rapist, paedophile and murderer, gathering similar Portuguese cases, accusing him of them, and then the great moment came and they named him to the world.

'In concussion they did not allow a professional and serious investigation and made this individual a scapegoat as a suspect without any evidence or proof.'

Amaral ended his interview by claiming the case was being pushed by senior figures and said:' If the political pressures end, this case will end and there will be answers.'

Last year the McCanns lost a lengthy 13-year court battle against Amaral for the claims he made in his two books which shamelessly suggested they had been involved in her disappearnce.

Amaral's 2008 book Maddie: The Truth About The Lie, implicated the McCanns in their daughter's abduction and accused them of hiding her body.

Their fight took him to the European Court of Human rights and it rumbled on for years before coming to an end last September.

Their lawyers argued that the Portuguese authorities had breached their right to respect for a private and family life in the way the court in Lisbon dealt with their libel claim against Amaral.

Initially they had won their case in 2015 and Amaral was ordered to pay 500,000 euros in damages but he appealed and the case was overturned and eventually thrown out by the Portuguese supreme court in 2017.

It was then that Kate and Gerry decided to take the case to the ECHR in Strasbourg but judges there ruled against them and they later issued a statement saying they were 'naturally disappointed' with the ruling.

Meanwhile police continued with their search this morning at the reservoir that has been a focus of activity since Tuesday and is expected to finish later today.

Teams of officers wearing face coverings arrived to carry on digging through soil at a picnic spot on the western edge of the reservoir where prime suspect Brueckner, 45, is said to have parked his campervan.

Brueckner visited the Barragem do Arade reservoir, possibly with others, 'some days' after Madeleine was snatched from her bed in 2007, the suspect's former friend told police.

The source also claimed that investigators also believe Madeleine could have been alive for two or three days after she disappeared from the holiday resort of Praia da Luz, reports The Times.

It comes as the search of the site, which Brueckner referred to as a 'little piece of paradise' and is located 30 miles from where Madeleine was taken, enters its third and final day.

A no fly zone out in for two days ended at 10pm on Wednesday night and according to the website of the Portuguese civil aviation authority had not been renewed suggesting the search would be ending.

Portuguese media is reporting that so far no significant discoveries have been made but that a press conference is planned when the operation eventually ends.

While the focus of the search is on finding clues about Madeleine's disappearance, investigators are hoping to find evidence of other potential victims who are believed to have been targeted by convicted sex offender Brueckner on the Algarve.

The search was ordered by prosecutors in Germany, who say they have 'credible information' linking Brueckner to the site promoting speculation they are looking for clothes or remains.

Officials are said to be looking for fragments of clothing and old rags that could be related to Madeleine's disappearance - particularly the pink pyjamas she was wearing the night she vanished.

The reservoir is located near the town of Silves, where a lorry driver had claimed to see a woman passing off a child resembling Maddie's description to a man two days after the toddler disappeared.

The hunt is focusing on the foreshore as the water level in the reservoir is considerably lower due to low rainfall last few months. This may explain why no divers have been seen operating in the area although they are on standby.

Madeleine was aged three in May 2007 when she vanished from her bedroom in the apartment her family were staying at in the Praia da Luz resort on the Algarve coast. The reservoir is about 31 miles inland from the resort.

The first major search for the toddler in nine years comes after German police discovered photos of Brueckner at his self-described 'little paradise' in the Portuguese region, it is understood.

German prosecutors last year named convicted child abuser and drug dealer Brueckner as the prime suspect in McCann's disappearance.

He is currently behind bars in Germany for raping a 72-year-old woman in the same area of the Algarve region from where McCann went missing.

The case, unsolved for the past 16 years, remains a mystery as no body has ever been found. It sparked a media frenzy in Britain, with developments also followed by outlets around the world and celebrities joining appeals to help find Maddie.

Photos and footage of the search operation yesterday showed a group of Portugal's National Republican Guard (GNR) being led by sniffer dogs to a small grove close to the water's edge. Officers were seen clearing branches shortly after.

According to respected Portuguese media outlet Expresso, the operation was launched because of a 'very credible tip'.

'Expresso knows that these searches have their origin in a tip from a BKA informant who that police force considers very credible,' it reported on its website. 'This informant told investigators details that the German police took very seriously.'

It added: 'The searches were requested by the German police after receiving this information.' The media outlet said it had obtained its information from a 'source close to the investigation.'

Emergency services with brush cutters to clear the search area arrived at the temporary camp set up on the shores of the Arade reservoir early on Wednesday.

Portuguese police, assisted by German and British counterparts, had focused their search on Tuesday on the reservoir's shoreline.

Yesterday morning police appeared to be focusing on a valley slightly north of a secluded clearing behind trees near to where three tents were put up on Monday.

The dense vegetation meant they had to use tools including chainsaws to remove trees to access it properly.

Meanwhile, a fire service vehicle and rigid-hull inflatable boat were again on the banks of the reservoir, and appeared ready to launch on to the water.

Later in the day, emergency services brought in a remote-controlled tractor-mounted tree cutter to clear what appeared to be a new search area, a few hundred yards away from a temporary camp set up on Tuesday on the shores of the Arade reservoir by Portuguese police, assisted by German and British counterparts.

On Wednesday, the German prosecutor leading the country's investigation into Brueckner's suspected link to Madeleine's disappearance said they do not have a confession from the convict.

Braunschweig prosecutor Christian Wolters said that while investigators have 'indications' that evidence could be found at the reservoir, this has not come from Brueckner himself.

'We have indications that we could find evidence there. I don't want to say what that is exactly, and I also don't want to say where these indications come from,' Wolters told German public broadcaster NDR yesterday.

'The only thing that I would clarify is that it doesn't come from the suspect - so we don't have a confession or anything similar now, or an indication from the suspect of where it would make sense to search, ' Wolters said, adding that 'it was other indications that prompted us to conduct this search.'

However, Wolters appeared to calm expectations of what might be found, saying, 'We never said that the girl disappeared where we are now searching.'

Tuesday saw about 20 officers with rakes and hoe-like tools spread out in a line, poking and raking the soil close to the Arade dam. Police also used a drone to scan the area from above and searched with sniffer dogs on both sides of the water.

Footage from the site showed officers taking bags away from the reservoir on Tuesday afternoon but it was not clear what was inside them. One video showed an officer being handed a bag by a colleague as they drove by in a black Ford SUV.

Tuesday night a Portuguese source close to the investigation told The Sun: 'The search is being taken very seriously and is being controlled totally by the Germans.

'They asked Portuguese officers assisting them to look for any evidence - but especially rags.'

The Times reported that Madeleine's pyjamas, which were pink and decorated with images of Eeyore from Winnie The Pooh, were a focus of the hunt.

A similar pair of pyjamas was held up by Kate and Gerry McCann during a press conference in June 2007, the month after their daughter vanished, in the hope of prompting witnesses who may have seen her that night to come forward.

Also last night the McCann's former spokesman Clarence Mitchell told the Mirror the couple were being kept updated.

'Until a body is found and proved to be Madeleine's, Kate and Gerry are not giving up hope. They will be kept informed every step of the way of any development. It leaves Kate and Gerry on tenterhooks. It is another incredibly difficult time for them.'

According to Portuguese outlet Correio da Manha, excavations were carried out at two different spots around the water's edge on Tuesday.

The reservoir is currently less than half full owing to a drought affecting Portugal and neighbouring Spain. Much of the area being searched would be below water level in years of normal rainfall.

In the afternoon police appeared to be concentrating their efforts on a peninsula of land jutting into the reservoir.

Officers using sticks were beating back undergrowth as they inched their way through the woods before fanning down onto the beach to carry on the search.

However, just before 5.30pm, a violent thunderstorm and driving rain struck the search area and the operation was abandoned after it became clear the weather would not improve. The search was meant to continue until 9pm.

A no fly zone has been set up around the area extending for six miles.



The Portuguese police are expected to give an update on the operation once it has been completed later this week.

Two sides of the area have gently sloping banks towards the water, while the third is a sheer cliff, where three white police tents could be seen set back from the edge.

The reservoir is popular with tourists, particularly campervan users, and has BBQ stands and sun loungers scattered around.

Brueckner is known to have driven there frequently in his VW campervan, and is understood to have described it as his 'little paradise'.

Sources close to the investigation have said they had evidence the clearing in the trees - where the white tents have been set up - was the spot Brueckner used to spend time at after parking up his campervan nearby.

A local who asked not to be named, but knows the area well, said: 'It's pretty well-hidden by the trees and you don't realise it's there until you're almost upon it.

'People wild camp there overnight from time to time which is why you'll find the remains of fires inside small walls of stone.

'It's got old sun loungers in it and makeshift benches that visitors use to rest on. It's very out-of-the-way and very peaceful but at the same time it's got a slightly eerie feel about it,' they said.

Local Portuguese reports, partly confirmed by police sources, claimed the searches were requested and authorised after German police obtained videos and photos of Brueckner by the planned dig site.

They are thought to have been found buried in the paedophile's 'secret lair' in a dilapidated factory site in the German village of Neuwegersleben 65 miles south-east of Hanover.

Police raided the site in February 2016 in search of the body of missing five-year-old Inga Gehricke, who vanished while on a family outing in Saxony-Anhalt in May 2015 and has been dubbed the 'German Maddie.'

Reports at the time said German detectives had discovered more than 8,000 images and videos on USB sticks and hard drives filled with child abuse images.

They were said to have been buried under the body of Brueckner's dead dog.

Officials have been tight-lipped about the search.

In a statement on Tuesday, German prosecutor Wolters said: 'Criminal proceedings are currently taking place in Portugal as part of the investigation into the Madeleine McCann case. Wolters said German officers are investigating in Portugal 'on the basis of certain tips.'

He said he was unable at this stage to give more detail on what prompted the search, and what officials were hoping to find, but said that such details would be released 'if we... think the results are publishable'.

'Yes, the measures in Portugal are connected with the Madeleine McCann proceedings, which means that we are investigating there in Portugal on the basis of certain tips (tip-offs),' Wolters said on Tuesday.

'There is a major search operation taking place that is being implemented by the Portuguese authorities. But there are also German officers from the Federal Criminal Police Office on site who are supporting the whole thing.'

He added: 'I can't disclose the background at the moment, i.e. why we are searching there and what we hope to find there. That shall remain our secret for the moment.'

'If we find something and we think the results are publishable, then we will certainly inform you about it. But give us a little bit of time. The action itself will also take a bit of time. It will not be completed within two hours or so. And whether we then find something and what we find, of course, we have to see that first.'

The Metropolitan Police has said officers are present in Portugal so they can inform Madeleine's family if there are any developments.

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Cranwell said: 'The Met continues to work with and support colleagues in Portugal and Germany, with their investigations into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

'Met officers will be in Portugal and I am grateful to the Policia Judiciaria and Bundeskriminalamt for allowing us to be present whilst their work is ongoing, so that we can inform Madeleine's family of any developments.'

The reservoir was searched by divers hired by a Portuguese lawyer in February and March 2008. Back then, the diving team leader described the 'long process' his team faced navigating the 'black' waters.

Marcos Aragao Correia organised the privately-funded operation after claiming he had been tipped off by underworld contacts that Madeleine had been murdered and her body thrown into the reservoir within 48 hours of her disappearance.

Two bags containing small bones were found during the second search after divers had earlier recovered several lengths of cord, some plastic tape and a single white cotton sock.

Portuguese police were alerted following the discovery but subsequently ruled out the possibility the bones were human because of their size.

Madeleine's parents Gerry and Kate McCann had previously dismissed Mr Correia as a self-publicist and said there was no evidence suggesting any link between their daughter and the reservoir.

The dam, near the town of Silves where a lorry driver says he saw a woman handing a child like Madeleine over to a man two days after she went missing from her Praia da Luz holiday apartment on May 3 2007, is not thought to have been searched since March 2008 as part of the ongoing investigation into her disappearance.

The search is the first major operation of its kind since June 2014 when British police were given permission to do digs in Praia da Luz that involved sniffer dogs trained in detecting bodies and ground-penetrating radar.

The Scotland Yard digs nearly nine years ago in Praia da Luz were linked to the leading UK police theory at the time Madeleine died during a break-in and burglars dumped her body nearby.

The searches failed to find any trace of the missing youngster.

In a smaller operation in July 2020 Portuguese police and firefighters searched three wells for Madeleine's body but failed to find any trace of her.

The abandoned wells are a 15 minute drive from a cottage Brueckner rented on the outskirts of Praia de Luz, on a narrow road leading down to a beach where the paedophile used to park his VW camper van.

German prosecutor Wolters has consistently said he is convinced Madeleine is dead and caged paedophile Brueckner has been named as the sole suspect.

The deviant, currently serving time for the September 2005 rape of an American OPA in the resort where Madeleine vanished, has yet to face any formal accusation over the youngster's disappearance.

Last April he was made an official suspect or arguido in Portugal over Madeleine's disappearance, although his defence lawyer Friedrich Fulscher labelled it a 'procedural trick' linked to statute of limitations legislation at the time.

Last autumn Bruecker was charged in Germany with several sex crimes on the Algarve against women and children including the rape of an Irish holiday rep in 2004 and the sexual abuse of a 10-year-old girl on a beach near Praia da Luz in 2007.

Brueckner's lawyer revealed in April those charges had been dropped against him in a bombshell development after successfully arguing prosecutors had no jurisdiction over him in Braunschweig where the Madeleine case was being brought.

The case could end up with prosecutors in Saxony-Anhalt instead but an appeal lodged by the Braunschweig public prosecutor's office has yet to be decided.

Braunschweig prosecutor Mr Wolters has insisted they are still in control of the Madeleine McCann investigation and Brueckner, who denies any involvement in Madeleine's disappearance, remains in custody.

The Arade Dam, the Barragem do Arade in Portuguese, is fed by the watercourse of the Arade River whose source lies to the southwest of the Serrra do Caldeirao mountain range and runs through the municipalities of Silves, Lagoa and Portimao before reaching the ocean.

Construction was completed in 1955 and it began operating the following year.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12123555/Portuguese-cop-says-reservoir-search-Madeleine-McCann-attempt-pin-case-Brueckner.html
.....................

Still on the myth I see Nicky - fear not, the thoughts of Snr Amaral are no different than the thoughts of thousands of your readers. Pick that out yer cornflakes.

Forgot the videos from above report..

no, they did not raided the old boxfactory because of inga, but because they could use a report of stench from the terrain by a person living around it, they already had information about cb and activities around childporn. 

sorry pisa, your source is just bending to the wrong side of the truth. 

it is very common to use a report of something minor to get access, and you do not use masses of police officer to react to such a silly stench complaint. 

and why call it shameless, what is actually correct there is absolutely no shame in talking from real knowledge of a case, amaral can talk without shame about his parts of the investigation into the fate pof madeleine mccann. also he is the one who already had the permission by law to talk about it all, and that was also proven before the highest courts in portugal and that of europe. 

well der pisa that is a different story, a so called journalist, from a so called democratic country, that use d-notices to silence the truth from coming out of the penn of pisa, and as it looks the guy is fine with that. 

i do not believe amaral did talked with shame or without, he just was asked for his expert opinion and has given that in his own words, as he can do in the free democratic society of portugal, and he could do that freely in the portuguese media. there is no shame in that. and the portuguese media can choose freely to use his words.

okay it is a very bit different in the uk, where you are left to only making the next mystical approach to hark your salary in. as always you can still take your favorite bread with a big spread of madeleine mccann. 

why ever think of the person called madeleine mccann, where is her justice? no,shamelessly penn just the next piece after piece guided by the d-notice you are still serving.

I live in hope to see the day Messrs McCann rue their vicious unwarranted campaign to destroy the life of Gonçalo Amaral.

The gentleman who coordinated a professional investigation into the disappearance of their child, an exhaustive investigation leaving 'no stone unturned' - to coin a phrase.

What exactly did you do Mr and Mrs McCann, or any of your klingon disciples?

Decent, normal people move heaven and earth to find a 'missing' child, and carry on until they drop. That rules out those two monsters and their coterie. Yet she claims they did everything they could. They did nothing.

Police dig up German suspect’s property in McCann search | 9 News Australia



2 Years ago

German police are digging up the garden of German suspect Christian Brueckner's property in hope for clues into Madeleine McCann’s disappearance in 2007


A case of political déjà vu

maybe you did not know it, but it is no secret germans are extremely fond of digging, they are very known of follow each other on the motorways to dutch beaches to just dig a hole and lie in it, for weeks at a time even, day after day digging holes. 

so i am not surprised they did it in germany too, or in portugal, it is just something a german one does. 
such a hole is called a log and has by tradition be made with bare hands. they must be made as big so a child can fit in it. 

it even had given some fatalities, not of children but the diggers. 

so if a german cps wants to look for a hole on a kind of beach, that a german did dig and that was big enough to fit a child, that is pretty normal by their standard. to fit a child in it is quite a normal way to say how big something is. 

it is true, i give you a bit of citation by an already archived piece of a local news outlet in the netherlands;

Over Duitsers bestaat het vooroordeel dat ze graag kuilen op het strand graven. Volgens Daniël klopt dit wel degelijk: "Dat is een Duitse traditie", legt hij uit. "Ik graaf dan een kuil van ongeveer een meter diep, zodat er een kind in past."


There is a preconception about Germans that they like to dig holes on the beach. According to Daniel, this is true: "That is a German tradition," he explains. "I then dig a pit about a metre deep so that a child can fit in it." by deepl.


source in dutch; https://www.rijnmond.nl/nieuws/171312/het-is-echt-waar-duitsers-graven-kuilen-op-het-strand

i can understand they need extra time this outing, because what we do know about portuguese soiltypes, before you hid child measurements you need more time.

they stopped the search early, the uk investigators who only where there toi observe left already this morning says sic noticias. 

the supervision of the search was in the hands of the portuguese police a contingent from the office in porto.

there is a press conference promised, in the bylines of the chat someone said around 19.00 hours. i have not found a source for that.

cmjornal has a bit of a puzzle in their text, first a relevant piece was found today, but in the next bit they write no indications they found something in relation to madeleine mccann.

cm says the objects found are going to germany to be studied.

I look forward to the press conference, although something tells me all will not be revealed.

Madeleine McCann: Reservoir search appears to be over

Published

42 minutes ago

By Daniel Sandford, home affairs correspondent, and Navtej Johal
BBC News

A fresh search linked to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in Portugal appears to be over.

Police were seen packing up equipment around the Arade reservoir in the Algarve, three days after they started scouring the area.

The German police-led operation was looking for evidence to link the British toddler's disappearance to Christian Brueckner, a German national.

He was made a formal suspect by Portuguese prosecutors in 2022.

German prosecutors have named Brueckner as the main suspect in their Madeleine McCann murder investigation. British police do not use that phrase, saying that as far as they are concerned it is still a missing person investigation.

The search at the Arade reservoir near Silves is part of the German investigation. They have asked Portuguese officials for assistance, and the Metropolitan Police said its officers were also in Portugal so they can inform Madeleine's family of any developments.

All the work carried out around the reservoir was on a peninsula jutting out into the Arade dam from its Western shore - 31 miles (50km) from where Madeleine went missing in Praia da Luz 16 years ago.

Officers were seen using rakes and hoes, strimmers and a small excavator to clear paths through the scrub on a nearby slope - the sound of machinery at work audible in the remote area.

The spit of land has a small car park on it, which is often used as an unofficial campsite.

Brueckner, a 45-year-old German national, is thought to have stayed there often in his Volkswagen T3 camper van.

He is also known to have visited the picturesque spot around the time Madeleine, who would now be 20, went missing.

White tents were set up on the site and sniffer dogs were used. However, no divers were seen going under the water.

German authorities have not revealed what triggered the latest search operation but state prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said they were acting on the basis of "certain tips".

He told German public broadcaster NDR: "We have indications that we could find evidence there. I don't want to say what that is exactly, and I also don't want to say where these indications come from.

"The only thing that I would clarify is that it doesn't come from the suspect - so we don't have a confession or anything similar now, or an indication from the suspect of where it would make sense to search."

Mr Wolters is treating Brueckner as the main suspect in Madeleine's case, although he has never been charged over Madeleine's disappearance and has denied any involvement.

The Madeleine McCann case: A timeline

Madeleine disappeared from a holiday apartment in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz on 3 May 2007, nine days before her fourth birthday.

Hers has become one of the most infamous missing person's cases in modern times, attracting attention in countries across Europe, and in America and Australia.

News crews from around the world remain stationed around the Arade reservoir, where they are reporting the latest developments.

Brueckner was living near the Praia da Luz resort when the McCann family was on holiday, and he spent time in the area between 2000 and 2017.

He is currently in prison in Germany for the rape of a 72-year-old woman in 2005 in the same area where Madeleine went missing.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65710265

The spit of land has a small car park on it, which is often used as an unofficial campsite.

Brueckner, a 45-year-old German national, is thought to have stayed there often in his Volkswagen T3 camper van.

So here we have it again, the infamous anonymous tip-off.

I hope Goncalo Amaral didn't unwittingly set the wheels in motion, by suggesting that a pedophile, in prison, would be made the patsy, thus giving unscrupulous people the idea.