Police search groups put together to set out from an operation tent close to Barragem do Arade, Portugal, Wednesday May 24, 2023.

Joao Matos/AP

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Joao Matos/AP

Police search groups put together to set out from an operation tent close to Barragem do Arade, Portugal, Wednesday May 24, 2023.

Joao Matos/AP

LISBON, Portugal — Police in Portugal have ended the newest seek for clues relating to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, the British youngster who went lacking in 2007 in southern Portugal.

Authorities gave no particulars in regards to the outcomes of the search Thursday. A press release by Portugal’s Judiciary Police stated some materials had been collected and could be handed over to German authorities for examination.

The search round a dam some 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the Praia da Luz resort, the place the 3-year-old woman was final seen 16 years in the past, started Tuesday following a request by German authorities.

A German man who’s a suspect within the case is at present in jail in Germany for a distinct case.

Portuguese, German and British police took half within the three-day operation throughout which detectives probed the banks of the Arade reservoir and likewise used sniffer canines and a drone.

Germany prosecutor Christian Wolters instructed the Associated Press Thursday authorities would gauge the success of the search after its conclusion, including {that a} assertion could also be issued subsequent week.

Portuguese media stated this was the fourth police seek for McCann, following the preliminary one in 2007 within the southern Algarve space and additional efforts in 2013 and 2014. Another search was held in Germany in 2020.

The reservoir is lower than half full due to a drought affecting Portugal and neighboring Spain. The search would’ve been under the water line beneath regular rainfall.

In mid-2020, German officers stated {that a} 45-year-old German citizen, recognized by media as Christian Brueckner, who was within the Algarve in 2007, was a suspect within the case. Brueckner has denied any involvement.

Brueckner is at present serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for raping a 72-year-old girl in Portugal in 2005.

He is beneath investigation on suspicion of homicide within the McCann case however hasn’t been charged. He spent a few years in Portugal, together with in Praia da Luz, across the time of Madeleine’s disappearance.

The case of Madeleine McCann stirred worldwide curiosity for a number of years, with studies of sightings of her stretching as distant as Australia, together with a slew of books and tv documentaries in regards to the case.

British, Portuguese and German police are nonetheless piecing collectively what occurred on the evening when the toddler disappeared from her mattress within the southern Portuguese resort on May 3, 2007. She was in the identical room as her twin brother and sister, who have been 2 years outdated on the time, whereas her mother and father had dinner with pals at a close-by restaurant.

Madeleine’s mother and father didn’t remark as a result of lively investigation, in accordance with an e mail response from the web site arrange for the seek for the kid, findmadeleine.com.