The Portuguese police have received orders to conclude on Thursday afternoon the special operation in the Arade swamp in search of clues about the whereabouts of Madeleine McCann, 16 years after her disappearance in the town of Praia da Luz, 50 kilometers from this place.
After three days, and under the direction of the German Prosecutor's Office, the investigators have filled several bags with objects collected on the shore and at the bottom of the swamp. The search was concentrated above all on a peninsula where the main suspect, Christian Brueckner, came to take pictures in a place that he considered his "little paradise".
The police have mainly searched for possible remains of the pink pajamas worn by Maddie, who was about to turn four at the time of the disappearance. Several witnesses may have confirmed the presence of Brueckner in the vicinity of the Arade reservoir a few days after the incident that went around the world, in May 2007.
The place had already been combed for the first time in 2008, in an operation sponsored by Portuguese lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia. In any case, it is the first official investigation in Arade and the first cooperation in the case of the Portuguese, German and British police since 2014, which has caused great media attention, in the presence of divers, radar equipment and police dogs.
"We are looking for a good reason," declared German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolter, convinced of the guilt of Christian Brueckner, who is serving a seven-year sentence for the rape of an American tourist. "We have indications to believe that we can find evidence in this place," he anticipated, although he asked the media for caution and referred to a statement at the end of the operation.
The device was initially going to have lasted 48 hours, although it was extended for another day. The Portuguese Judicial Police, however, received instructions to conclude the investigations on Thursday afternoon.
Scotland Yard has sent several detectives involved in the investigation. His role has mainly been to keep in touch with Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry, who recently celebrated the 16th anniversary of her daughter's disappearance at an emotional gathering in Rothley, near Leicester.
Prosecutor Christian Wolters anticipated "a period of silence" until all the collected material is analyzed before the possible discovery of "significant evidence" for the case. "If we don't find something, we'll let you know as soon as possible," Wolters said.
Maddie's parents await news from British soil, while former detective Gonçalo Amaral, the same one who accused them of being guilty of his daughter's disappearance, criticized the device riding in the swamp in the Algarve as "a waste of money and resources" and an attempt to "manufacture the case to find a scapegoat".
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