Madeleine McCann news – latest: Investigators set to widen search after new photos reveal ‘clues’

Madeleine McCann’s parents will have to wait several weeks to find out the results of the analysis of the materials gathered in the new search in their daughter’s investigation, according to German authorities.

Police were scouring the remote Barragem do Arade reservoir in the Algarve, Portugal last week, around 35 miles from where the then-three-year-old went missing in 2007 while on a family holiday in Praia da Luz.

As police concluded their three-day hunt for evidence on Thursday, they confirmed “materials collected” had been sent to Germany for analysis.

But German authorities have told the BBC that Kate and Gerry will have to wait several weeks before they find out the results.

Speaking to the BBC, Braunschweig prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said there had been good reason to scour the reservoir area and that the German-led investigation is ongoing out of the public eye, with other searches having been conducted.

Investigators are set to widen the search for Madeleine McCann after photos belonging to prime suspect Christian Brueckner revealed ‘clues’.

Two other areas surrounding Praia da Luz, where Madeleine disappeared in 2007, could be searched by police, the Sun reported.

Investigators made the discovery after looking through more than 8,000 photographs belonging to Brueckner.

A source told the Sun: “German officers have gone through more than 8,000 pictures belonging to Christian B. That forensic work led them to Barragem – but there are other places that have come up in the pictures too.

“Detectives are seeking to work out where they are and why Christian B was taking pictures of those places.”

It comes after police searched the remote Barragem do Arade reservoir in the Algarve, Portugal last week, around 35 miles from where the then-three-year-old went missing.

A “relevant clue” was found during the last day of the search after investigators cleared a large area of woodland at the reservoir and dug eight deep holes to collect samples of soil, which have been sent for forensic and DNA testing in Germany.

The office of German prosecutor Christian Wolters said investigators were acting in response to “certain tips”.

The reservoir is known to have been frequented by the latest suspect in the case Christian Brueckner.

According to Portuguese broadcaster SIC, the suspect considered the area his “little slice of paradise”.

Madeleine McCann, a three-year-old girl from Rothley, Leicestershire, went missing from the Portuguese holiday resort of Praia da Luz on the Algarve on 3 May 2007, a case still unsolved and still the subject of intense interest among the public and press.

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Letters written by the prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann case, in which he protests his innocence and tries to claim he had nothing to do with her disappearance, have been revealed for the first time.

“You can never imagine how it is when the whole world believes you are a child murderer, and you are not,” he wrote in the string of neatly written letters unveiled by MailOnline.

The initiative was instigated by German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters, who said officials were acting on “certain tips” from Christian Brueckner, an incarcerated sex offender who lived in the area between 2000 and 2017. Mr Wolters has said he is “very confident” the 45 year-old holds the key to Madeleine’s disappearance.

The initiative was instigated by German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters, who said officials were acting on “certain tips” from Christian Brueckner, an incarcerated sex offender who lived in the area between 2000 and 2017. Mr Wolters has said he is “very confident” the 45 year-old holds the key to Madeleine’s disappearance.

Reflecting on the importance of the twins in keeping their family unit together in a 2017 interview with the BBC’s Fiona Bruce, Gerry McCann said the ordeal had forced them to face “a new normality” in living without their daughter.

Kate McCann added: “What people do say is that you don’t realise how strong you are until you have no option.

“And I think that’s very true. Obviously massive events like this cause a lot of reaction, a lot of trauma and upset.

“But ultimately you have to keep going – and especially when you have got other children involved.

“Some of that is subconscious I think – your mind and body just take over to a certain extent. But if you can’t change something immediately, you have to go with it and do the best that you can.”

The couple also addressed the online abuse they have received, commenting: “I’m sure it is a very small minority of people who spend their time doing it, but it has totally inhibited what we do.

“Personally, we don’t use social media, although we have used it in Madeleine’s campaign.

“But for our twins who are growing up in an era where mobile technology is used all the time, we don’t want them not to be able to use it in the same way that their peers do.”

Ms McCann described the actions of some online commentators as shocking but said she preferred to focus on the support many more members of the public had offered the family.

Out of respect for their privacy, especially given their ages, Madeleine’s younger siblings have largely been shielded from the glare of the spotlight.

However, Amelie McCann, now 18, did join her parents in remembering her missing sister on the 16th anniversary of her disappearance on 7 May 2023.

Ms McCann reportedly joined in with chants including “Never never give up”, “leave no stone unturned”, “don’t forget about me” and “still missing, still missed”.

Her parents were among the 70-strong crowd in attendance but her brother Sean was not, preferring to remain off stage.

Rob Gladstone, leading prayers at the event, told his audience: “We are here this evening to show our loving concern for Madeleine and for all young children who have been taken away from their families against their will.

“We are also here to encourage one another to keep up hope and pray for a renewal of strength even after this long time.”

The McCanns refused to give up, issuing computer-generated images of how their daughter might look with the advancing years, publishing their own book, entitled simply Madeleine (2011), and endorsing a successful campaign to pressure then-prime minister David Cameron into reopening the case. He did so.

The result was Operation Grange, which saw officers return to Portugal in 2014 and investigate tens of thousands of documents at great expense, without definitively establishing the truth, causing the case to lie dormant for several years until Brueckner emerged as a new suspect in 2020.

Writing in Madeleine, Kate McCann discussed the toll the ordeal had taken on her devout Roman Catholic faith, stating: “There have been many times when I’ve felt God has deserted me or that He has let Madeleine down. I’ve occasionally doubted His existence altogether. And yes, I’ve been angry with Him.

“For now, though, at least, my anger towards God seems to have subsided. I believe in Him and I still feel His presence.”