Animal bones are reported to be among limited findings after a three-day search for forensic evidence in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann case, who vanished from a holiday home in Portugal 18 years ago, was called off.

Local media said some material had been gathered on Wednesday and sent for analysis to see if it contained anything relevant to the investigation.

German investigators were given until Friday to search an area between Praia da Luz and the cottage where he lived at the time of the toddler’s disappearance in 2007, but the search was wound up on Thursday.

Christian Brueckner, a suspect in case, is due to be released from prison within months.

A neighbour who lived near Brueckner around the time of Madeleine’s disappearance described him as “quite angry”, and said she would hear him having rows with his girlfriend.

Police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann ramped up their hunt of scrubland and abandoned buildings on Wednesday with heavy machinery, including JCB and ground-penetrating radar.

Madeleine was three when she disappeared, sparking a Europe-wide police investigation.

Animal bones are reported to be among limited findings after a three-day search for forensic evidence in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann case, who vanished from a holiday home in Portugal 18 years ago, was called off.

Local media said some material had been gathered on Wednesday and sent for analysis to see if it contained anything relevant to the investigation.

German investigators were given until Friday to search an area between Praia da Luz and the cottage where he lived at the time of the toddler’s disappearance in 2007, but the search was wound up on Thursday.

Christian Brueckner, a suspect in case, is due to be released from prison within months.

A neighbour who lived near Brueckner around the time of Madeleine’s disappearance described him as “quite angry”, and said she would hear him having rows with his girlfriend.

Police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann ramped up their hunt of scrubland and abandoned buildings on Wednesday with heavy machinery, including JCB and ground-penetrating radar.

Madeleine was three when she disappeared, sparking a Europe-wide police investigation.

German national Brueckner, who was formally identified as a suspect in 2022, has denied any involvement.

German and Portuguese police congratulate each other as search ends
Praia da Luz farewells yet another search for answers
Did police find enough evidence before their suspect disappears?
Recap: How did the search play out?

2 days ago

Vast search involving dozens of police and high-tech equipment to have cost £300,000, according to reports

Dozens of police from Germany and Portugal have spent three days scouring a 120-acre stretch of scrubland and abandoned buildings for clues about Madeleine McCann’s disappearance.

That effort, which ended on Thursday, is estimated to have cost at least £300,000, The Times reports.

The newspaper reports more than 60 officers have been involved in the hunt, and on Wednesday aerial drones were deployed and an excavator was brought in to help clear rubble.

Searchers also used ground penetrating radar, which can detect abnormalities underground, such as a hidden burial.

The search area is just a couple of miles from Praia de Luz and the Ocean Club resort where Madeleine had been sleeping before she vanished on May 3, 2007.

Search teams use ground penetrating radar next to a derelict and abandoned property (PA Wire)

Rachel Clun7 June 2025 07:00

2 days ago

The area in which police hunted for clues

Rachel Clun7 June 2025 06:00

2 days ago

Full story: Inside the Algarve resort haunted by the disappearance of Madeleine McCann

Inside the Algarve resort haunted by the disappearance of Madeleine McCann

Eighteen years after Madeleine McCann went missing from an apartment block in Praia Da Luz, the Independent’s crime correspondent Amy-Clare Martin discovers a coastal resort desperate to move on

Rachel Clun7 June 2025 05:00

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In pictures: The lastest search for clues in the Madeleine McCann case

(AFP/Getty)

(Reuters)

(James Manning/PA Wire)

(PA Wire)

Rachel Clun7 June 2025 04:00

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Watch: Investigators dig at abandoned farmhouse in search for Madeleine McCann

Investigators dig at abandoned farmhouse in search for Madeleine McCann

Rachel Clun7 June 2025 03:00

2 days ago

Why did police ignore Christian Brueckner when Maddie McCann disappeared?

Christian Brueckner, a German national, remains in jail, serving the final months of a seven-year sentence for the rape of a 72-year-old American woman in 2005 at the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz — the same hotel where Madeleine McCann went missing two years later.

But as he seeks early release from the 2019 sentence, police in Germany are hurrying to charge the prime suspect in the disappearance of the British toddler before he walks free from prison in the next two weeks.

Will Christian Brueckner ever face charges over the disappearance of Maddie McCann?

As searches take place between Praia da Luz and one of houses where the prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann case lived, David James Smith looks back at 17 years of false starts in finding out what happened to the youngster and asks if the German national will ever face charges over her disappearance?

Rachel Clun7 June 2025 02:00

2 days ago

Former neighbour describes suspect as ‘angry’ young man

Amy-Clare Martin reports from Praia da Luz:

A neighbour of German suspect Christian Brueckner, who lived near Praia da Luz at the time of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance, described him as an “angry” young man who she would hear having rows with his girlfriend.

Brueckner, who has denied any involvement in the McCann case, was living in the town around the time of Madeleine’s disappearance.

The neighbour said: “If I was riding past and he’d be standing outside, we’d say hello, you know, how are you,” she said. “Nothing more. Then we found out he was a really nasty piece of work.”

The resident, who used to ride her horse around the 120-acre search area, said the farmhouses and outbuildings on the site have been derelict since at least the 80s.

The house where Christian Brueckner had reportedly staying in on the outskirts of Praia da Luz (PA Wire)

Amy-Clare Martin7 June 2025 01:00

2 days ago

Full story: A timeline of the 18-year Madeleine McCann mystery

This week’s search, a few miles from where Madeleine McCann was last seen in a Praia da Luz resort, was just the latest in the years-long, international effort to find answers.

Read the full history of the toddler’s disappearance and the effort to find her below:

What happened to Madeleine McCann? Timeline of the 18 year missing girl mystery

Police have begun a renewed search for Madeliene, nearly two decades after the three-year-old disappeared, Joe Sommerlad and Rachel Clun report

Rachel Clun7 June 2025 00:01

2 days ago

In pictures: The search ends

German and Portuguese police finished the search for clues in the Madeleine McCann case on Thursday with a beer, after spending three days scouring scrubland and abandoned buildings for any evidence.

Searchers gather as they wind up the operation near Praia da Luz (PA)

Officers pack up a tent at the end of the day (James Manning/PA Wire)

A van of German Investigation Police leaves the search operations (AFP via Getty Images)

Rachel Clun6 June 2025 23:00

2 days ago

Where police searched in latest hunt for clues