Kate and Jerry McCann are 'on tenterhooks' as Portuguese divers search well six miles from Praia da Luz resort where she vanished 13 years ago but 'refuse to believe she is dead until they find a body'
- Portuguese police reportedly launched searches for Madeleine McCann's body
- They reportedly spent hours searching for any trace of missing Madeleine
- The third well is on the outskirts of the village of Budens in Vila do Bispo
- Others searches were reportedly conducted in wells in Vila do Bispo, Algarve
Kate and Jerry McCann are 'on tenterhooks' as Portuguese divers search a well six miles from the Praia da Luz resort where Madeleine vanished 13 years ago.
Detectives from the investigative Policia Judiciaria coordinated a search of the underground reservoir on Thursday morning.
A team of rescue firefighters, including expert divers, spent hours searching for any trace of missing Madeleine, who vanished in May 2007.
The well, on the outskirts of the village of Budens, in the municipality of Vila do Bispo, is just six and a half miles from Praia da Luz, where Madeleine was last seen 13 years ago.
Overgrown by bushes and weeds, the pool is on an abandoned farm.
Madeleine's parents Kate and Jerry 'are on tenterhooks', their former spokesperson told the Sun this evening, adding the couple refuses to believe their child is dead until her remains are found.
British police, who are not involved in the search, are keeping the couple up to date on any developments.
File photo dated 30 April 2017, shows the parents of missing Madeleine McCann, Kate and Gerry McCann. The couple 'are on tenterhooks' after police began searching a third well for the remains of their daughter in Portugal today
This is the third well in the Algarve that Portuguese police have been searching for the body of Madeleine McCann
Portuguese police have launched searches for Madeleine McCann's body on the Algarve. The searches are said to have been conducted in wells in Vila do Bispo, a 20 minute drive west of Praia da Luz where the British youngster vanished in May 2007
Portuguese police have launched searches for Madeleine McCann's body on the Algarve. The searches are said to have been conducted in wells in Vila do Bispo, a 20 minute drive west of Praia da Luz where the British youngster vanished in May 2007
It is close to a road just a short drive from the Ocean Club resort where the youngster was staying with her family
Overgrown by bushes and weeds, the pool is on an abandoned farm
The family's ex publicist Clarence Mitchell said: 'Kate and Gerry want answers more than anyone but while the Metropolitan Police are still treating Madeleine's abduction as a missing people's rather than a murder inquiry it gives them a glimmer of hope that she could still be alive.
'They continue to hope until there is incontrovertible evidence which proves she is dead. They are being kept informed every step of the way.'
The well, the third in the Portuguese police's search since Thursday, is close to a road just a short drive from the Ocean Club resort where the youngster was staying with her family.
Prime suspect Christian Brueckner is understood to have known the area well.
Portuguese broadcaster RTP claimed detectives have 'fundamental evidence' to be able to prove the 43-year-old German is responsible for Madeleine's disappearance.
News of the latest hunt comes after detectives undertook searches in wells in Vila do Bispo, a 20 minute drive west of Praia da Luz where the British youngster vanished.
Portuguese police have launched searches for Madeleine McCann's body on the Algarve. The searches are said to have been conducted in wells in Vila do Bispo, a 20 minute drive west of Praia da Luz where the British youngster vanished in May 2007
The German suspect had lived in a warehouse outside Praia da Luz for several years but moved into a campervan just before Madeleine vanished
Portuguese broadcaster RTP claimed detectives have 'fundamental evidence' to be able to prove 43-year-old Breuckner is responsible for Madeleine's disappearance
Investigators reportedly brought in a team of specialist rescue firefighters who included expert divers to examine the water wells in Vila do Bispo on the Algarve.
The broadcaster has also linked the German 43-year-old to another missing persons' case in the Algarve resort of Silves.
RTP reporter Sandra Felgueiras last week revealed Breuckner had been arrested on suspicion of exposing himself to children in a playground a short drive from Praia da Luz in 2017 when he was on the run from German authorities.
She also quizzed a couple the convicted paedophile used to live with in Portugal who claimed a Scotland Yard neighbour had been helping Algarve investigators probe Madeleine's disappearance.
There was no immediate official response from Portuguese police to the RTP well search claims.
The searches are said to have involved officers from Portugal's GNR force, which tends to cover rural areas, as well as PJ investigators and the fire rescue team.
However, Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manha said no evidence Madeleine's body had been abandoned in the wells had been found.
Portuguese police have discovered 'fundamental evidence' to be able to prove suspect Christian Brueckner (right) is responsible for Madeline McCann's (left) disappearance
After the recent appeal which led to Brueckner being identified as a suspect, Portuguese police were said to be on standby to search wells and other areas German prosecutors pinpointed as possible burial sites once they had extra information.
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The convicted child sex offender, who was born in Würzburg under a different name believed to be Fischer, is currently behind bars in Germany and serving 21 months for dealing drugs in the German resort of Sylt.
His lawyers have reportedly filed a request for him to be released after serving two-thirds of his sentence, but prosecutors fear he may flee the country after his release.
The serial sex offender is also facing a separate sentence for the rape of a 72-year-old American woman in Praia da Luz in 2005.
During the attack, Brueckner reportedly bound, gagged, blindfolded and whipped his victim with a metal cane before raping her for 15 minutes.
In late 2008, the sex offender was arrested on a European Arrest Warrant while living on the streets of Milan for the rape of the American pensioner and taken back to Germany where he was charged.
In December 2019, a court in Braunschweig, near Hanover in north-central Germany, where he had lived before fleeing to Italy, convicted him of the rape after DNA from his hair was found in the woman's holiday home.
The house where German paedophile Christian Brueckner lived in Praia da Luz shortly before Madeleine McCann went missing
The house where German paedophile Christian Brueckner lived in Praia da Luz shortly before Madeleine McCann went missing
Madeleine McCann vanished from this holiday apartment in the popular Portuguese holiday resort of Praia da Luz - Apartment 5a - while her parents were with friends nearby and regularly checking on their three sleeping children
The suspect, who is in prison in Germany, has been linked to an early 1980s camper van - with a white upper body and yellow skirting, registered in Portugal - which is seen here on the Algarve in 2007
However he is appealing the rape verdict on the grounds that his extradition from Italy was illegal, with Germany's Federal High Court due to rule on the case.
Brueckner was an 18-year-old backpacker when he moved from Germany to Praia da Luz in Portugal in 1995 after serving part of a two-year sentence for molesting a six-year-old girl in Wurzburg.
He began working in catering in seaside resorts before reportedly becoming involved in trafficking drugs into the Algarve, according to his friends.
Earlier this year, Brueckner was identified as the prime suspect into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann- who was three-years-old at the time she went missing.
German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters claimed authorities had 'concrete evidence' that the three-year-old was killed, and insisted that he had shared this information with Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry McCann in a letter.
'We have concrete evidence that our suspect has killed Madeleine and this means she is dead,' he said. 'The parents have been told the German police have evidence that she is dead but we have not told them the details.'
Prosecutors in Germany also labelled Brueckner a 'multiple sexual predator' and claimed that he had been convicted of a child sex offence in his native Germany when he was just 17.
Despite the new information, the drifter, who reportedly has as many as 17 criminal convictions, was apparently overlooked by Portuguese police.
Following his identification as a suspect in the case, he has further been linked to the disappearances of six-year-old boy René Hasse in the Algarve, 1996, and five-year-old girl Igna Gehnricke in Germany, 2015.
In June, it emerged Brueckner became a suspect for Scotland Yard in 2017 when he was said to have told a friend at a bar he 'knew all about' what had happened to Madeleine.
According to Sky News, Brueckner was prompted to make the comment when her face appeared on a TV screen in a German pub during a UK appeal for information on the tenth anniversary of her disappearance.
The convicted child sex offender reportedly went on to show his friend a video of him raping a woman.
It is understood that Brueckner lived in a remote farmhouse in Portugal from 1999 to 2006.
The remote property is surrounded by disused water wells and sits on a hillside which leads on to a footpath to the beach where the little girl played.
The farmhouse is also a 25-minute walk to the Ocean Club complex where Madeleine was on holiday with her parents and her twin siblings Sean and Amelie.
In 2014, detectives investigating the disappearance of the little girl sealed off an area of scrubland close to the farmhouse and used a ground-penetrating radar to examine whether there had been a disturbance in the soil.
Earlier this month, detective revealed a new mobile phone lead into the Madeleine McCann case after a viewer on Germany's Crimewatch recognised the phone number that suspect Bruckner is said to have phoned on the night the young girl vanished.
Details of a call involving a mobile number allegedly used by Brueckner were revealed on the German show Aktenzeichen XY… Ungelöst.
Police previously said a phone linked to Brueckner had received a 30-minute call between 7.32pm and 8.02pm on the night Madeleine disappeared from the Ocean Club apartment complex.
Last month the Metropolitan Police launched a fresh appeal into the disappearance of Madeleine and appealed for information about Brueckner and his movements.
DCI Mark Cranwell, from Operation Grange, said: 'Following our appeal for information yesterday, I want to thank those members of the public who have contacted us.
'As of 4pm today, Thursday June 4, 2020, we have received over 270 calls and emails into the incident room.
'We are pleased with the information coming in, and it will be assessed and prioritised.
'We continue to urge anyone with information to come forward and speak with us.'
Following their daughter's disappearance in May of 2007, parents Kate and Gerry McCann, who had been dining in a nearby tapas restaurant as their children slept at their apartment, were questioned by the Portuguese authorities.
However they were soon found to be innocent and have since continued their long battle in trying to find their missing daughter.
German authorities are now trying to track down Brueckner's ex-girlfriend Nakscije Miftari, who may hold key information about Madeleine's disappearance.
How the disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine McCann unfolded over 13 years
2007
May 3: Gerry and Kate McCann leave their three children, including Maddie, asleep in their hotel apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, as they eat with friends in a nearby restaurant. When they return, they find Maddie missing from her bed
May 4: A friend of the McCanns reports of seeing a man carrying a child away in the night. Meanwhile, airports and borders are put on high alert as search gets underway
May 14: Robert Mural, a property developer who lives a few yards from the hotel, is made a suspect by Portuguese police
May 30: The McCanns meet the Pope in Rome in a bid to bring worldwide attention to the search
August 11: Police in Portugal acknowledge for the first time in the investigation that Maddie might be dead.
September 7: Spanish police make the McCanns official suspects in the disappearance. Two days later the family flies back to England
2008
July 21: Spanish police remove the McCanns and Mr Mural as official suspects as the case is shelved
2009
May 1: A computer-generated image of what Maddie could look like two years after she disappeared is released by the McCanns
2011
May 12: A review into the disappearance is launched by Scotland Yard, following a plea from then-Home Secretary Theresa May
2012
April 25: After a year of reviewing the case, Scotland Yard announce they belief that Maddie could be alive and call on police in Portugal to reopen the case, but it falls on deaf ears amid 'a lack of new evidence'
Kate and Gerry McCann mark the fourth anniversary of the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine with the publication of the book written by her mother in 2011
2013
July 4: Scotland Yard opens new investigation and claim to have identified 38 'people of interest'
October 24: A review into the investigation is opened by Portuguese police and new lines of inquiry are discovered, forcing them to reopen the case
2014
January 29: British officers arrive in Portugal as a detailed investigation takes place. During the year, several locations are searched, including an area of scrubland near the resort
2015
October 28: British police announce that team investigating Maddie's disappearance is reduced from 29 officers to just four, as it is also revealed that the investigation has cost £10million
2016
April 3: Operation Grange is handed an additional £95,000 by Theresa May to keep the investigation alive for another six months
2017
March 11: Cash is once again pumped into keeping the investigation alive, with £85,000 granted to keep it running until September, when it is extended once again until April next year
2018
March 27: The Home Office reveals it has allocated further funds to Operation Grange. The new fund is believed to be as large as £150,000
September 11: Parents fear as police hunt into daughter's disappearance could be shelved within three weeks by the new Home Secretary amid funding cuts
September 26: Fresh hope in the search for Madeleine McCann as it emerges the Home Office is considering allocating more cash for the police to find her
2019
April: Controversial new Netflix documentary re-examining Maddie's kidnap is released, triggering a barrage of online abuse against Kate and Gerry by heartless trolls. They pair, who refused to take part in the eight hour programme series, slammed it for 'potentially hindering' the search for their daughter while an active police hunt is ongoing
June 5: The Home Office gives the Metropolitan Police enough funding to investigate for another year
June 22: Detectives say they are 'closer than ever' to solving the disappearance as they look into a new suspect. A joint effort by British and Portuguese police narrowed in on a 'foreign' man who was in the Algarve when she went missing in 2007
December 7: Paulo Pereira Cristovao, a long-time critic of Maddie's parents who angered them with a controversial book about the mystery disappearance, was convicted of participating in the planning of two violent break-ins at properties in Lisbon and the nearby resort of Cascais. He is jailed for seven and a half years
December 11: Maddie's revealed a touching list of what they miss most about their daughter as they spent their 13th Christmas without her
2020
February 22: Scotland Yard detectives questioned a British expat about her German ex-boyfriend. Carol Hickman, 59, claims police entered her bar in Praia da Luz, Portugal to ask questions about her former partner
March 27: Detectives requested extra money to continue their investigation into the disappearance of the toddler in Portugal back in 2007, with funds for the operation set to run out at the end of the month
June 3: Police reveal that a 43-year-old German prisoner has been identified as a suspect in Madeleine's disappearance.
