New details are emerging in the search for Madeleine McCann, the three-year-old child whose disappearance from a resort in Portugal in 2007 has captivated the global media landscape for more than a decade.
According to Spanish publication The Olive Press, several items of interest related to McCann’s disappearance have been discovered in the vast area in southern Portugal’s Algarve region.
The Olive Press reports that the retrieved items, including two firearms, have all been sent to Germany, where they’ll be analyzed by forensic specialists.
Madeleine McCann disappeared from a holiday resort more than 18 years ago
Earlier this month, German and Portuguese authorities reopened a search into McCann’s whereabouts.
At the time of her disappearance on May 3, 2007 from the Ocean Club holiday resort in Praia da Luz, in Lagos, Portugal, police carried out a massive search.
When McCann was not found, Portuguese police concluded that she had d*ed in an accident, and that her parents were trying to cover it up.
Years of lawsuits, lie detector tests and family grief finally ended in 2020, when German investigators said they had a suspect in the case, Christian Brückner, a German national who was living in Portugal at the time.
“We don’t know if they’re related to Brückner”: Media say guns were found in most recent search
Recently, at the request of German prosecutors who are now leading the case, another search was reopened on June 3 of this year to investigate 21 different plots of land for clues linking Brückner to McCann.
Several items of interest have already been found, including pieces of bone and clothing fragments.
According to The Olive Press, a source said that handg*ns were found, but that “we don’t know if they are related to Christian Brueckner or his offences,” the article said.
The source in the article continued that: “We’ve been told very little. But we also found a number of bones, most likely not human, and some bone fragments, all sent to Germany, where a forensic check will be undertaken by specialists.”
Netizens continue to be captivated over the case
Image credits: 48 Hours
The case received international media coverage for years, with reported sightings of the child in places as far away as Australia and plenty of books, articles, and documentaries on the subject.
The public has at times been sympathetic to McCann’s family, but in the early years of the saga, and even now, they are targeted as ‘bad parents’ and have undergone extremely negative public scrutiny.
“So none of these things were found for how many years?” one person asked.
Other people questioned why the search has been reopened: “Why are they only searching these places now even though they’ve had 18 years.”
“This should have been done when it all happened,” said another.
One person lightheartedly invoked another body mystery: “The way this search is going maybe they’ll dig up Jimmy Hoffa,” referring to the still missing corpse of the famous union leader in the U.S.
Still others sought to shine a light on all the other missing children still unaccounted for: “I’m sorry, but surely they’re gonna be finding a lot of stuff after all these years why don’t we start putting some effort into the other children that are missing!!!!”
Theories abound on what really happened on that fateful night more than 18 years ago
Theories about what really happened to the child have been running rampant for years, and without a firm conviction or sentencing, they have continued unabated.
A Portuguese newspaper, Correio da Manha, recently published a story suggesting McCann might have been fatally run over by a drunk driver at the time.
Media have reported that a woman, who was known to be a heavy drinker, was drinking and driving a vehicle on the night McCann went missing.
Reports say Portuguese authorities had wanted to stage an undercover operation to dive deeper into the theory, but that German prosecutors who are in charge of the case denied the request.
The main suspect in the case, Christian Brückner, could be out of jail later this year
Christian Brückner is currently in jail in Germany for a separate crime committed in 2025 in Portugal; the r*pe of a 72-year-old American.
Authorities have not formally charged Brückner in McCann’s case, but say he is their main suspect in the case. However, they say they do not have enough evidence to bring formal charges against him.
German authorities say Brückner worked at the resort from time to time as a handyman, and German prosecutors say they have evidence linking information from his cell phone and a vehicle to the case.
Brückner has denied all charges.
Image credits: 60 Minutes Australia
The disappearance of Madeleine McCann still stirs public sentiment even after more than 18 years
