Heavy equipment and sniffer dogs were deployed Wednesday on the second day of a renewed search related to the disappearance of then 3-year-old Madeleine McCann from a Portuguese vacation villa in 2007.
Police were seeking clues in several areas surrounding the Arade dam, about 30 miles from the Praia da Luz resort where the British toddler — who would be 20 today — disappeared from her bed 16 years ago. One of the spots had been cited in media reports as a place the lead suspect would often stay.
About 30 Portuguese, German and British police were involved in the search, which was conducted at the request of German authorities acting on a tip.
“We have indications that we could find evidence there,” Braunschweig prosecutor Christian Wolters told German public broadcaster NDR. “I don’t want to say what that is exactly, and I also don’t want to say where these indications come from.”
“The only thing that I would clarify is that it doesn’t come from the suspect — so we don’t have a confession or anything similar now, or an indication from the suspect of where it would make sense to search,” Wolters said, according to The Associated Press. “It was other indications that prompted us to conduct this search.”
This is the fourth search launched for the girl in Portugal. The first was in 2007 right after she disappeared, and two more were held in 2013 and 2014. Another search was conducted in Germany in 2020, according to the AP.
This time around, heavy equipment was brought in to clear trees and bushes in the search zone, near the shores of the Arade reservoir. The search was expected to continue through Thursday.
Madeleine disappeared during a family vacation as her parents dined nearby, periodically checking on the girl and her 2-year-old twin siblings as they slept. She went missing between 9 and 10 p.m. that evening, sparking an international search.