Madeleine McCann investigators ‘believe there are two other areas to look for clues’

Investigators leading the search for Madeleine McCann reportedly believe there are two other areas in Portugal that they may be looking for clues.

Investigators last week searched the remote Barragem do Arade reservoir in the Algarve, which prime suspect Christian Brueckner referred to as a “little piece of paradise” and is located 30 miles from where Madeleine was abducted in 2007.

Police said they found a “relevant clue” during their search of the beautiful location after an informant was able to compare photos showing Brueckner near the reservoir.

And it is now understood that there could be other areas around Praia da Luz, where Madeleine had been staying with her family, that police may search after German detectives searched more than 8,000 photographs belonging to Brueckner.

A source told the Sun: “German officers have reviewed more than 8,000 photographs belonging to Christian B. That forensic work led them to Barragem, but there are other locations that have appeared in the photographs as well.”

“Detectives are trying to find out where they are and why Christian B was taking pictures of those locations.”

Last week, researchers cleared a large area of ​​forest in the reservoir and dug eight deep holes to collect soil samples, which were sent for DNA and forensic testing in Germany.

A “relevant clue” was found during the last day of the search, leading police to focus on a specific area of ​​the secluded beauty spot.

Several articles have been removed from the site, which may or may not be relevant to the investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance. They include a bra strap, clothing items, and plastic items.

The source said German police believe the original investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance by Portuguese police was flawed.

They said: “German detectives remain highly skeptical of the way the investigation was carried out in Portugal, so they are willing to continue searching and observing areas, including those where the Portuguese police claim to have examined.”

“They believe the new work could unlock new leads that will move the case forward.”

Last week’s investigation was the first major search for the boy in nine years and comes after German police discovered photos of Brueckner in his self-described “little paradise” in the Portuguese region, it is understood.

Brueckner, 45, camped out next to the reservoir on weekends and is believed to have set up a sinister base there to “clean up”, it emerged last week.

A former friend of Brueckner’s, who has lived in the Algarve for almost 30 years and has been helping police with their investigation, says the criminal visited the reservoir “often” but “always kept it a secret”.

The German mother of three, whose identity has not been made public, recalled how Brueckner would drive his motorhome to the edge of the lake because he “liked to be near the water”.

She claimed that he always camped in the same spot and that “there was usually no one else around.”

“This was his exact special place where he said he liked to come to get cleaned up,” he said of his camp, telling The Sun: “I don’t know what he did there as he was very secretive.”

Details of Brueckner’s secret lair came to light when a British couple told The Mail on Sunday how they saw a strange ‘shrine’ to Madeleine in the reservoir just seven months after she went missing.

The retired couple, who asked to be identified only as Ralf and Ann, were so distraught by what they saw that they took pictures and sent them to Portuguese detectives, thinking they were important but surprisingly never received a reply.

Consisting of arrow-shaped boulders pointing toward a picnic spot that was dug up by police last week, the makeshift memorial was weighted down by a large boulder and held a bouquet of flowers and a photograph of the kidnapped Madeleine.

Three years ago, when German police identified the main suspect, 45-year-old Brueckner, the couple contacted detectives after seeing an appeal for anyone who was on holiday in the Algarve when Madeleine disappeared in May 2007. would get in touch.

This time, German officers from the BKA (criminal investigation unit) responded within hours of Ralf and Ann emailing them and questioned them over the phone for several hours before asking them to give a formal statement.

It raises the question of whether it was his information that led German authorities to request a search of the remote picnic area camp on the edge of the reservoir near Silves, which Brueckner used to call his “little paradise.”

German prosecutors last year named convicted child molester and drug dealer Brueckner as the prime suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance.

She was three years old in May 2007 when she disappeared from her bedroom in the apartment where her family was staying at the Praia da Luz resort on the Algarve coast. The reservoir is about 31 miles inland from the resort.

Bruecker is now behind bars in Germany for raping a 72-year-old woman in the same area of ​​the Algarve region where McCann disappeared.

Sources close to Brueckner’s legal team said any new search will be a “waste of time.”

The source told the Sun: He didn’t kill Madeleine and all of this is taking attention away from the job of finding out who really did it.

Brueckner was known to break into hotel rooms and apartments in the Algarve to supplement his income from the drug trade, suddenly leaving southern Portugal in 2007, the year Madeleine disappeared, after living there for more than a decade.

He is alleged to have admitted to abducting Madeleine to a friend in a bar, and German investigators are said to firmly believe he killed the three-year-old.

But more than three years after linking Brueckner to Madeleine’s disappearance, he has yet to be charged with her abduction because prosecutors don’t have enough evidence.