---
title: "Portugal police search dam for Madeleine McCann's remains, 16 years on"
description: "SILVES, Portugal, May 23 (Reuters) - Portuguese authorities assisted by German police on Tuesday began searching a reservoir near the area where British girl Madeleine McCann disappeared in 2007 when she was three years old."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "Madeleine McCann"
author: "Reuters"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/reuters/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-05-23-portugal-police-search-dam-for-madeleine-mccanns-remains-16-years-on/"
published: "2023-05-23T13:32:35"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 236
---

# Portugal police search dam for Madeleine McCann's remains, 16 years on

> SILVES, Portugal, May 23 (Reuters) - Portuguese authorities assisted by German police on Tuesday began searching a reservoir near the area where British girl Madeleine McCann disappeared in 2007 when she was three years old.

By Reuters · Published 23 May 2023, 15:32 SAST

## Key points
- After years of no developments in the Madeleine McCann case, Portuguese police have been called in to assist German authorities searching for clues around a reservoir near where she disappeared 13 years ago.
- Portuguese police and German authorities are conducting a search operation near the Arade reservoir in connection with the Madeleine McCann case.
- Christian Brueckner, a German man serving time for rape, is the official suspect in McCann's disappearance.
- The search is being carried out at the request of German authorities but Portuguese police have little hope of it providing any breakthroughs.
- Brueckner has denied any involvement in the case and has not been charged with any crime related to it.

## Content

The first development for several years in the unsolved case in Portugal followed last year's move by German prosecutors, who formally identified German man Christian Brueckner as an official suspect in McCann's disappearance.

A Reuters witness said fire brigade members deployed a dinghy boat while police officers combed the area surrounding the Arade reservoir, located 52km (32 miles) inland from the beachside resort from where the toddler disappeared.

A source familiar with the investigation told Reuters the operation in Silves municipality was being carried out at the request of German authorities. Another source said Portuguese police had little hope of the search providing any breakthrough in the case.

The prosecutor's office in Braunschweig which has been handling Brueckner's case said on Tuesday Germany's federal criminal police office was assisting Portuguese authorities, but would not provide further details on the investigation.

Portugal's judicial police in charge of the operation declined to comment.

Brueckner, a convicted child abuser and drug dealer, is behind bars in Germany for raping a 72-year-old woman in the same area of the Algarve region from where McCann went missing.

German police said in June 2020 that Madeleine was assumed dead and that Brueckner was likely to be responsible.

Brueckner has denied any involvement and has not been charged with any crime related to it.

(Reporting by Luis Ferreira and Inti Landauro, additional reporting by Rachel More, editing by Andrei Khalip and Ed Osmond)