'Please don’t expect too much': Detectives hunting reservoir for Madeleine McCann issue update
10 July 2023, 10:59
Police who spent days scouring a Portuguese dam for clues about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann have warned the public not to "expect too much" from their finds.
Detectives from the Federal Criminal Police (BKA), Germany’s equivalent of the FBI searched land next to the Arade Dam which prime suspect Christian Brueckner, 45, has called his "little paradise."
The high-profile search including sniffer dogs and radar occurred at the location just 31 miles from where three-year-old Madeleine vanished in 2007.
However, in a blow to Madeleine’s family, it's understood detectives are set to confirm they have not found anything of note.
German public prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters told Bild: "Please don’t expect too much."
It remains unclear as to why investigators decided to search the land near the dam so thoroughly.
Officers were seen methodically chopping down trees and hacking away at undergrowth to expose an area just a short distance from the water.
Read More: Police hunting for Madeleine McCann's body in suspect's 'little paradise' set to reveal major update
Sources in Portugal point to an informant giving police a specific tip-off that Brueckner visited the site just days after Madeleine went missing from her room in Praia da Luz.
This tip-off is believed to have been matched with geolocation clues found in the convicted paedophile's stash of 8,000 of videos and images.
Together it is thought these clues combined sparked the search at the remote site.It was claimed they were searching for a camcorder and a gun tossed into the water but Portuguese police sources were quick to dismiss that.
Regardless of what is found at the site, top German criminal profiler Axel Petermann, says the cops were right to dig at a place so close to Brueckner's heart.
He told The Mirror: “The criminal perpetrators who I got to know over the years tend to hide their victims in places where they feel safe and can assess danger.
“These are places which are secluded and secret and where they can stop and assess various risks.
“They can also be places where they feel good, and where there is a certain private memory of a certain act.
