Madeleine McCann case: Authorities reactivate the search for the missing girl

Portuguese authorities, in collaboration with German authorities, reactivated the search for the body of Madeleine McCann, the British girl who disappeared in southern Portugal in 2007 when she was 3 years old. She was on vacation with her family at the time.

As AFP was able to verify, several Portuguese and German police units moved to the area of Praia da Luz, the place where McCann disappeared almost two decades ago.

Investigators went in teams with a radar that can track down to about 15 feet deep. They also went to a property where Christian Bruckner, the prime suspect in the British minor's disappearance, was temporarily residing.

The last time a search for McCann was activated was in May 2023.

Bruckner's sentence ends in September

(AFP) Bruckner, who is serving a prison sentence for rape, was acquitted in October 2024 in Germany in a trial for two sexual assaults and three rapes committed between 2000 and 2017 in Portugal.

All of these differ from the McCann case. She disappeared in 2007 in Portugal, and Bruckner, to date, still has not been charged.

At the time of the events, Bruckner was living on Portugal's Algarve coast, near the McCanns' vacation spot, and a cell phone signal in his name was recorded near where the McCann family was staying on the night of the disappearance.

Bruckner is serving a seven-year prison sentence for the 2005 rape of a 72-year-old American woman in Praia da Luz. His sentence for this case extends, in theory, until September 2025.