Police searching for Madeleine McCann uncover clothing and bones in Portugal dig
10 June 2025, 14:18 | Updated: 10 June 2025, 14:20
Police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann have discovered tiny samples of clothes and bones from the latest search efforts in Portugal.
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Detectives were thought to have left the site near Praia da Luz disappointed last week after their three-day hunt for evidence appeared unsuccessful.
But reports in Germany claim officers are holding out hope for a collection of small fragments found during their dig, which they speculate could be linked to prime suspect Christian Brueckner.
The 38-year-old had previously wild-camped in the area, known as Brueckner's "rat run", located close to where the British toddler was staying with her parents back in 2007.
Police are understood to have discovered clothing and animal bones during the search and have sent the samples to Germany for testing.
They hope the findings could reveal the critical forensic link which has so far been missing in the case.
A source told the Berlin Morning Post: "Several objects have apparently been discovered, which are now being examined in more detail by the police in the laboratory.
"As Portuguese media report, clothing debris and bones were found, among other things.
"The investigators have not officially commented on whether the finds could have anything to do with Madeleine's disappearance but that is clearly their hope."
The renewed search for the missing toddler officially ended after just three days on Thursday.
Officers spent two days focusing on one particular derelict building, using a ground-penetrating radar on the cobbled ground after clearing the area of debris and vegetation.
There was an option to extend the search until Friday if any clues had been found - but officers turned up "nothing of consequence".
German authorities had requested the search as part of their ongoing attempts to find evidence to implicate prime suspect Brueckner, who is currently nearing the end of a prison sentence for the rape of an elderly American woman in Praia da Luz in 2005.
He has not been charged or indicted over Madeleine's disappearance and denies any involvement.
The animal bones and adult clothing were the only items unearthed that could potentially help police in building a case against Brueckner - but no traces found that could be directly linked to Maddie.
The latest discovery comes after Brueckner gloated that he will never be convicted if the police can’t find the missing Brit’s body.
In newly unearthed letters, he mocked German police as he declared: "The dropping of the investigation will hit the world like a bomb.”
The German taunted police by asking: "Is there a body? No, no no."
In the letter, published online by the Sun, the suspect wrote: "It is the important questions, the decisive questions that can never be answered.
"Was I or my vehicle clearly seen near the crime scene on the night of the crime?
"Is there DNA evidence of me at the crime scene? Are there DNA traces of the injured party in my vehicle?
"Are there other traces/DNA carriers of the injured party in my possession? Photos?
"And, not to forget, is there a body/corpse? All no, no no."
He added: "You don’t have to be a realist like me to predict that the accusations made against me will not hold up and that the investigation will be dropped."
Brueckner goes on to assert that the German legal system will never convict him unless they are completely sure of his guilt.
He wrote: "Now, my path is paved with misjudgements, so to speak, but from now on the whole world is watching.
"Not even the Braunschweig regional court will now dare to make an obvious misjudgement.
"Even if an attempt is currently being made to create a shocking overall picture of me through purchased witnesses, it is the important questions, the decisive questions that can never be answered with ‘yes’."
The convicted rapist goes on to complain he is being framed for a slew of crimes.
He said: "Right from the start they plotted a miscarriage of justice to make me vanish into thin air. And now half the world knows why.
"I am not exaggerating when I say that 80 per cent of what I have heard from the reports is not true.
"A large proportion of these lies are clearly being spread by the investigating authorities.
"My words are directed at those who are taking this seriously and are not laughing about it.
"Those who want to understand how brutal the German justice system is in its attempts to hammer through its own law, even if nothing is true."
It comes 18 years after three-year-old Madeleine disappeared from Praia da Luz while on holiday with her family in 2007.
She vanished after she was left sleeping while her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, went for dinner in a nearby restaurant.
