German Law Enforcement Launch New Search for Madeleine McCann in Portugal [WATCH]

German police have launched a renewed search for missing British child Madeleine McCann in southern Portugal, marking the first significant development in the case in three years, as reported by The New York Post.

The latest operation began Tuesday in the Praia da Luz area, where the then-3-year-old vanished in May 2007 during a family vacation.

This latest effort, authorized through international judicial cooperation between German and Portuguese authorities, involves more than 30 German officers.

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The search will focus on 21 privately owned plots of land located between the Praia da Luz resort and a residence once occupied by Christian Brueckner, the primary suspect in the case.

A ruined and overgrown farmhouse is the first scene to be searched by German police, looking for signs of Madeleine McCann. This latest investigation comes more than 18 years since the three year old vanished from Praia d Luz. @GMB @itvnews #MadeleineMccann pic.twitter.com/KtKU2hSoPc

— Richard Gaisford (@richardgaisford) June 3, 2025

According to Portuguese media and officials, the current operation is expected to last three days and will be limited to land searches. A source in Portugal confirmed, “They will be land searches only. The main objective is to look for any signs of Madeleine’s body.”

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The renewed effort follows a failed weeklong search conducted in May 2023, approximately 40 minutes from Praia da Luz. That operation, as well as previous attempts—including searches of three local wells in 2020—did not yield any results.

The search is taking place near the location where Brueckner, a convicted sex offender, previously lived. Brueckner is currently incarcerated in Germany, serving a seven-year prison sentence for the 2005 rape of a 72-year-old woman in the same area where Madeleine disappeared.

Brueckner was first publicly identified as a person of interest in the McCann case by German authorities in 2020. Two years later, in April 2022, he was formally declared the primary suspect by German prosecutors.

The Portuguese Public Ministry confirmed, “The person was made [a suspect] by the German authorities in the execution of a request for international judicial cooperation.”

The disappearance occurred on the night of May 3, 2007, just days before Madeleine’s fourth birthday. Her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, had left their three children sleeping in their vacation apartment while they dined at a nearby restaurant.

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She was three-years-old when she went missing in Praia da Luz in the south of Portugal in 2007.

It is one of Europe’s highest-profile missing person cases. pic.twitter.com/emApzeFunf

— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) June 3, 2025

They returned regularly to check on the children. When Kate McCann returned around 10 p.m., she discovered the apartment’s door and window open and Madeleine missing.

The case prompted an international investigation and widespread media attention. In 2011, British police opened Operation Grange to re-examine the case, which remains open.

Authorities have not provided further details on whether the current search has yielded any new evidence.

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