A fresh search for Madeleine McCann is due to start today, with police heading to Praia da Luz, where the child vanished in 2007.
The searches will be the first in Portugal for more than two years, with the hunt led by German police.
The search comes after evidence that Madeleine McCann is dead was said to be on a hard drive discovered in a former factory belonging to the prime suspect in her disappearance, Christian Brueckner - who lived in the area at the time
In 2007, while on holiday in Praia De Luz, Portugal, the three-year-old disappeared and German investigators suspect Brueckner, who has recently been acquitted of unrelated sexual offences in Germany, of killing her.
According to the Sun, the drive was found in 2016 at a shuttered factory that Brueckner had purchased for £20,000 in 2008. The suspect allegedly admitted to killing Madeleine at a music event, according to an insurance document that investigators discovered.
Witness Helge B says Brueckner informed him she "didn't scream" but there have always been doubts about his credibility.
Masks, chemicals and firearms were reportedly found at the abandoned property, along with children's clothing and toys. Two memory cards and six USB sticks were also found in a wallet by German police. A dog discovered the evidence in 2016.
In one case, the suspect described drugging a mother and daughter outside of a nursery school, while in another, spoke of abusing a four-year-old girl.
It was also found that he had Skype talks with other paedophiles, in which he expressed his desire to “capture something small and use it for days.”
Police reportedly discovered over 75 bathing costumes, toys and miniature bikes during the searches, along with pictures of four and five-year-old girls being abused.
Brueckner had also visited the Algarve in the years following Madeleine's disappearance, according to a satellite navigation system.
On Wednesday evening, a Channel 4 documentary will present the claims in their entirety.
In October 2024, Brueckner was cleared at the court in Brunswick of three charges of aggravated rape and two of sexual abuse of children.
Prosecutors had argued for the German national to be handed a 15-year sentence and are expected to appeal against the decision.
Brueckner, 48, is already serving a seven-year prison term in Germany for raping a woman in 2005 in the Algarve region of Portugal where three-year-old Madeleine went missing.
He had been on trial since February over the offences he was alleged to have committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.
Defence lawyers said there was a lack of evidence and the witnesses were not credible.
Friedrich Fulscher, defending Brueckner, told the court that “there was never a sufficient suspicion” against his client.
Mr Fulscher also suggested Brueckner might not have been charged if he had not been a suspect in the McCann case.
A former prison cellmate of Brueckner’s had told a German court that he heard him bragging about abducting a girl in Portugal.
Romanian Laurentiu Codin shared a cell with Brueckner in 2020 and said Brueckner told him a story similar to the circumstances of Madeleine’s disappearance in 2007. Claiming that Brueckner bragged about being in an area of Portugal “where rich people live”, Codin told Braunschweig regional court: “There was somewhere an open window, he told me this, and this was the reason why he asked me whether fingerprints could be left when he went out of the window.
“He said he went into the flat because of money and said that he didn’t find any money, but found a kid, and took the child, and that two hours, the place he was, it was then surrounded by police and dogs,” he continued.
“And then he went away, out of the area, I am just saying what he told me ... and he took the child in Portugal in his car, and in the time when the police and dogs were there at the house, he drove away, and he was gone. He asked me if the DNA from a child can be found as evidence and I answered yes.”
Prosecutors in Portugal officially declared Christian Brueckner an arguido (suspect) in 2022. It is thought he visited the area around the time Madeleine went missing.
Madeleine was three years old when she disappeared from the family’s holiday apartment in Portugal’s Praia da Luz in 2007. Amelie and her twin brother, Sean, were sleeping in the same room the night Madeleine was allegedly kidnapped.
Despite the British Government dedicating millions of pounds to police investigations, Madeleine has never been found.
Here is a comprehensive look at the timeline of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance.
2007 - Madeleine goes missing
On May 3, Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry left their three kids asleep in their holiday apartment in Praia da Luz as they met up with friends for dinner.
At 9pm, Gerry walked back to the apartment, which was 100 yards away, to check on the little ones.
At 10pm, Kate made the same journey for another check. However, this time, Madeleine was gone.
Hotel staff and guests searched the hotel complex while the police started the investigations that night. The next few days saw hundreds of volunteers and officials join the search.
The Portuguese police revealed they believed the little girl had been abducted but remained alive and in Portugal.
A family friend of Kate and Gerry’s, who was dining with them on the night of the disappearance, revealed she’d seen a man carrying a child on the night Maddie disappeared.
On May 14, an Anglo-Portuguese property developer was arrested. He lived just 100 yards from the holiday apartment Maddie was sleeping in.
Later, in June of that year, the Portuguese officials confessed that they may have lost vital evidence. In July, the British police decided to send sniffer dogs.
On August 11, for the first time, Portuguese forces said that Madeleine might be dead.
Weeks later, in September, after talking to her parents, they also made them official suspects in their daughter’s disappearance. In a matter of days after becoming suspects, the McCanns decided to fly back to the UK with their children.
2008 - Parents no longer suspects
In July 2008, the Portuguese police removed the McCanns and the property developer from the suspect list, while investigations continued.
The reservoir area is first checked. Portuguese lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia reportedly paid for specialist divers to check the Arade dam after he claimed to have been tipped off by criminal contacts that Madeleine’s body was in the reservoir.
2009 - Portuguese detective publishes book
In May 2009, the McCanns announced they would be taking the Portuguese detective in charge of the original investigation, Goncalo Amaral, to court, after he published a book that claimed Maddie died in her family’s holiday apartment and wasn’t abducted.
In November, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre in Britain released a video message in seven languages that showcased what Maddie would look like two years after her disappearance.
2010 - Search is shelved
Madeleine’s parents launched a petition that asked for the Portugal and UK investigations to be reviewed after the two countries shelved their search efforts.
2011 - Gerry McCann publishes book
Gerry McCann published a book about Maddie’s disappearance on what would have been her eighth birthday on May 12.
Meanwhile, following the request of the then home secretary Theresa May, which was backed by then prime minister David Cameron, Scotland Yard launched an official review of the Madeleine McCann case.
2012 - Police say Maddie could be alive
In April, Scotland Yard officials revealed they believed Maddie could still be alive.
They released images of what she would look like as a nine-year-old and urged Portuguese forces to reopen the case. Portuguese officials, however, declined the request, citing a lack of fresh evidence.
2013 - Case reopened
In July, Scotland Yard officially launched its own investigation into Maddie’s disappearance, called Operation Grange.
They revealed that they had identified 38 people of interest, including 12 Britons.
In October, the Portuguese police shared that they had reviewed their original investigation and found new lines of inquiry, too, and would be reopening the case.
2014 - Search goes on
British detectives travelled to Portugal at the start of the year, with many believing they were about to make arrests. However, this didn’t happen.
In June, the authorities used specialist teams and sniffer dogs to search an area close to where Maddie was staying, but nothing of interest was discovered.
In December, the detectives started questioning 11 new people.
2015 - Cost of operation revealed
In September, the Government revealed that the investigation into the disappearance of Maddie had cost the taxpayers more than £10m. A month after the announcement, Operation Grange’s team was slashed from 29 officers to four.
2017 - A decade since the disappearance
In April, Kate and Gerry McCann marked a decade since their daughter’s disappearance by doing an interview with the BBC. They vowed that they will do “whatever it takes as long as it takes”.
2018 - Funds are increased
The Government dedicated another £150,000 to the investigation, pushing the overall cost of the search to an estimated £11.75m.
2019 - Netflix series released
In March, Netflix released an eight-part docuseries about Madeleine’s disappearance.
In May, the Portuguese media revealed that the police were investigating a foreign paedophile as a suspect.
2020 - German man named suspect
In June, Scotland Yard revealed they had identified a 43-year-old German prisoner by the name of Christian Brueckner as a suspect in Maddie’s disappearance.
The man was in the Praia de Luz resort on the night Maddie vanished. He completed a half-hour phone call shortly before she went missing on May 3, 2007, and re-registered his 1993 Jaguar vehicle the next day.
The German police revealed their investigations suggested Maddie was no longer alive.
Meanwhile, in 2020, Scotland Yard said they had now spent £12.3m of taxpayers’ money on the case and had no “definitive evidence whether Madeleine is alive or dead”.
2021 - McCann’s remain hopeful
In May, Kate and Gerry share a statement on the official Find Madeleine website saying they still hope to see their daughter again one day.
2022 - Brueckner charged with separate incidents
In April, Portuguese authorities also made Brueckner one of their formal suspects.
In May, the McCann family said it’s “essential” for them to find out what happened to their daughter.
On October 11, Brueckner was charged with three counts of rape and two charges of child sex abuse, unrelated to Maddie’s disappearance.
2023 - Fake Maddie claim
In February, an Instagrammer claimed she was Madeleine. By April, her claims had been universally dismissed and her account suspended, and a DNA test put an end to the saga once and for all, though she controversially gained more than one million followers.
In March, an additional £302,470 of funding for Operation Grange was approved for 2022/2023, and a Home Office spokesperson confirmed that another application had been made, although they did not disclose for how much.
Last month, Brueckner had the unrelated charges of rape and sexual assault thrown out by a German court because he lived in a different region of the country at the time of the alleged offences.
This means legal authorities in Braunschweig have no jurisdiction over Madeleine’s case, although he remains an official suspect.
In May, Portuguese police along with British officers searched a reservoir on the Algarve 30 minutes from where McCann vanished.
The search was requested by German authorities as Brueckner reportedly visited the area around the time Madeleine disappeared.
2024 - Brueckner cleared for other crimes
A former cellmate, Laurentiu Codin, tells Braunschweig Regional Court, in Germany, that Brueckner had raped young girls near Hanover, had abducted a girl in Portugal who sounded like Madeleine, and strangled an elderly woman.
Brueckner is currently in prison for the September 2005 rape of a 72-year-old woman in the resort where Madeleine vanished,
He has never been charged over Madeleine’s disappearance and has denied any involvement.
2025 - Fresh evidence emerges
Brueckner's hard drive photos include fresh evidence that adds another element to the puzzle of Madeleine's disappearance.
In a new Channel 4 documentary set for release on Wednesday, May 7, the contents of the hard drives that were found in prime suspect Brueckner’s garden in 2016 will be revealed.
It is believed the evidence could persuade investigators that Madeleine died after her disappearance in Praia da Luz in May 2007.
The documentary is also expected to focus on Brueckner's alleged obsession with young children.
