Latest / Beyond The Horizon / Madeleine McCann And The Search For Answers In Algarve
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: What's up everyone and welcome back to the program. The
- 0:04Speaker 1: sad tale of Madeleine McCann continues to unfold year by
- 0:09Speaker 1: year and piece by piece. And now German authorities say
- 0:14Speaker 1: they discovered photos of their prime suspect in Madeleine McCann's disappearance,
- 0:20Speaker 1: Christian Bruckner, at what he called his little paradise beside
- 0:25Speaker 1: a reservoir in Algarve. And remember, this all comes on
- 0:29Speaker 1: the back end of some woman recently claiming that she
- 0:33Speaker 1: was Madeline McCann. However, after DNA testing, it came back
- 0:37Speaker 1: that she was not Madeline McCann. So, let's dive into
- 0:41Speaker 1: this article from the Daily Mail and let's get caught up. Headline,
- 0:46Speaker 1: digging gets underway as police hunt for Madeline McCann in Portugal.
- 0:51Speaker 1: After German cops discovered photos of suspect Christian Bruckner at
- 0:56Speaker 1: his little paradise in Beside Algarve Reservoir. That sounds haunting
- 1:01Speaker 1: as hell. What does that even mean? His little paradise, huh?
- 1:05Speaker 1: And this guy, he's responsible for all kinds of disgusting behavior,
- 1:09Speaker 1: according to German authorities. So, certainly fits the profile. And
- 1:13Speaker 1: the German authorities have been pretty adamant that this is
- 1:16Speaker 1: the guy that they believe took Madeleine McCann and did
- 1:21Speaker 1: lord knows what to her. This article was authored by
- 1:25Speaker 1: Nick Pisa and Gerard Cousins. Detectives investigating the disappearance of
- 1:32Speaker 1: Madeline McCann have started to dig a remote Algarve Reservoir
- 1:37Speaker 1: as they search for signs of the missing British girl.
- 1:40Speaker 1: The area around the Barragum du Aradi Reservoir was locked
- 1:45Speaker 1: down overnight and police divers entered the water early on
- 1:49Speaker 1: Tuesday at the site found about 30 miles from Praia
- 1:54Speaker 1: da Luz, where Madeline went missing in 2007. The first
- 1:59Speaker 1: major search for Madeline in nine years comes after German
- 2:02Speaker 1: police discovered photos of prime suspect Christian Bruckner at his
- 2:07Speaker 1: self-described little paradise in the Portuguese region. It is understood.
- 2:12Speaker 1: So they're looking for a place where, I hate to
- 2:16Speaker 1: say it, but where he could have buried Madeline McCann.
- 2:21Speaker 1: And when they talk about his little paradise, that's what
- 2:23Speaker 1: they mean. And it's very disturbing to think about. Imagine
- 2:27Speaker 1: some disgusting, gross-ass adult like this man creeping over the
- 2:33Speaker 1: wall or whatever while the parents are eating and snatching
- 2:36Speaker 1: this little girl from her bedroom and then nobody ever
- 2:39Speaker 1: seeing her ever again. It sounds like something from a movie.
- 2:43Speaker 1: But unfortunately for the McCanns, this is their reality. Portuguese
- 2:48Speaker 1: media outlets reported that excavations at the reservoir have already begun,
- 2:53Speaker 1: with video appearing to show police officers digging at the site.
- 2:58Speaker 1: According to Correio de Maha, excavations began at around 11 a.m.
- 3:03Speaker 1: local time and were being carried out at two different
- 3:06Speaker 1: spots around the water's edge. The newspaper reported that about
- 3:10Speaker 1: a dozen police officers are involved in the digging and
- 3:14Speaker 1: that sniffer dogs are also present. So, of course, we
- 3:18Speaker 1: know what they're looking for. They're not looking for somebody
- 3:20Speaker 1: who's alive out here. This isn't a, you know, search
- 3:24Speaker 1: and rescue effort. This is a recovery effort. And if
- 3:28Speaker 1: they're doing that, it would lead me to believe that
- 3:31Speaker 1: they think that Madeline McCann has been murdered by this sick,
- 3:35Speaker 1: disgusting bastard. And considering we haven't seen anything to lead
- 3:40Speaker 1: us to believe that Madeline McCann is still alive, unfortunately,
- 3:45Speaker 1: I think that is where we're at. This is not
- 3:48Speaker 1: a search and rescue type of operation, just in general,
- 3:52Speaker 1: not just here in Algarve, but overall. Instead, it's a
- 3:56Speaker 1: recovery mission. And if this man did do something to
- 3:59Speaker 1: this little girl, hopefully they can find some evidence of
- 4:02Speaker 1: that here and prosecute him to the fullest extent of
- 4:05Speaker 1: the law and start to give the McCanns, at the
- 4:08Speaker 1: very least, a little bit of closure. In the afternoon,
- 4:11Speaker 1: police appear to be concentrating their efforts on a peninsula
- 4:15Speaker 1: of land jutting into the reservoir. Two sides of the
- 4:19Speaker 1: area have gently sloping banks towards the water, while the
- 4:22Speaker 1: third is a sheer cliff, where three white tents could
- 4:25Speaker 1: be seen set back from the edge today. The site
- 4:29Speaker 1: is popular with camper van users and has barbecue stands
- 4:33Speaker 1: and sun loungers scattered around. and Bruckner is known to
- 4:37Speaker 1: have driven there frequently in his VW camper van. Dudes
- 4:41Speaker 1: driving around in a camper van? Kidnapping children? You want
- 4:45Speaker 1: to talk about the prototypical creeper, huh? Is he handing
- 4:48Speaker 1: out candy and saying he has lost puppies as well?
- 4:53Speaker 1: Officers using sticks were beating back undergrowth as they inched
- 4:57Speaker 1: their way through the woods before fanning down onto the
- 4:59Speaker 1: beach to carry on the search. Roads leading to the
- 5:03Speaker 1: Araje Dam, a 40-minute drive from Praia da Luz, where
- 5:07Speaker 1: the youngster vanished 16 years ago, were sealed off yesterday
- 5:11Speaker 1: as part of preparation day ahead of the search operation.
- 5:15Speaker 1: So they're going all out. This would lead me to
- 5:18Speaker 1: believe that the Portuguese police and the German police have
- 5:23Speaker 1: strong information that they're going to find something here that's
- 5:26Speaker 1: going to lead them to more information about what happened
- 5:29Speaker 1: to Madeleine McCann. And overnight, a no-fly zone covering the
- 5:34Speaker 1: whole of the man-made dam was put in place, leaving
- 5:37Speaker 1: the airspace above the water and land near the water's
- 5:40Speaker 1: edge open to police drones only. So they wanted the
- 5:44Speaker 1: whole area cleared out so they could really go in
- 5:47Speaker 1: here and give it a good once-over. And when they're
- 5:50Speaker 1: bringing in excavation machines and they're using drones and all
- 5:54Speaker 1: this stuff, you have to believe that they think that
- 5:57Speaker 1: they're onto something. or else they wouldn't throw all of
- 5:59Speaker 1: these resources at this area. The ring of steel meant
- 6:04Speaker 1: journalists and curious onlookers were kept more than a mile
- 6:07Speaker 1: back from two white tents put up yesterday by a
- 6:10Speaker 1: secluded hilltop area of the peninsula jutting into the reservoir.
- 6:14Speaker 1: Portuguese police are expected to comb until nightfall. So that's
- 6:19Speaker 1: probably their operational command center where they're going to coordinate
- 6:23Speaker 1: the whole entire search from. Not a bad idea. Get
- 6:26Speaker 1: some high ground. Give yourself a nice vantage point to
- 6:29Speaker 1: start from and then go from there. And I'm sure
- 6:31Speaker 1: that they have the whole area gridded up as they're
- 6:34Speaker 1: doing their searches. Senior Police Judiciary Officer Helena Monteiro led
- 6:40Speaker 1: the first Portuguese police to reach the Arade Dam near
- 6:44Speaker 1: the town of Silvas around 45 minutes before digs began.
- 6:48Speaker 1: A convoy of five vehicles, including two off-road vehicles and
- 6:52Speaker 1: a large logistics van, followed close behind. German police arrived
- 6:57Speaker 1: 10 minutes later, just after 8 a.m. local time, in
- 7:00Speaker 1: two people carriers and a Ford Ranger. They were spotted
- 7:04Speaker 1: getting out of the vehicles with baklavas covering their faces.
- 7:09Speaker 1: Ground-penetrating radar, of the sort often used to detect buried
- 7:13Speaker 1: explosive devices, was brought in by the Portuguese GNR police,
- 7:17Speaker 1: which is working alongside the Polícia Judiciária. So they brought
- 7:22Speaker 1: in the federal police as well as the local police,
- 7:25Speaker 1: to help with this search. Although police sources said overnight
- 7:30Speaker 1: they did not think sniffer dogs would not be used
- 7:32Speaker 1: on day one of the search, a dog was spotted
- 7:35Speaker 1: on site early this morning. Meanwhile, a boat provided by
- 7:39Speaker 1: firefighters in Silvis, which local media are saying will be
- 7:44Speaker 1: used to search parts of the reservoir with a police-provided
- 7:47Speaker 1: sonar equipment, was filmed by the water's edge and appearing
- 7:51Speaker 1: to wait instructions before being taken out some 300 meters offshore,
- 7:56Speaker 1: just after 9.30 a.m. local time. So they're doing the
- 8:00Speaker 1: full Monty here. They're doing the dragnet in the water.
- 8:03Speaker 1: I bet they're going to dredge the water a bit.
- 8:05Speaker 1: They're going to have divers in the water. They have
- 8:08Speaker 1: the dogs out, ground-penetrating sonar. So if there's anything to
- 8:13Speaker 1: be found here, my guess is they're going to find it.
- 8:17Speaker 1: The search started around 8.40 a.m. local time, some 20
- 8:20Speaker 1: minutes earlier than scheduled, after three Portuguese police pickups went
- 8:25Speaker 1: into a clearing behind trees by two white tents, which
- 8:29Speaker 1: today's search is expected to focus on. A fourth vehicle,
- 8:33Speaker 1: belonging to a GNR subsoil unit, was also at the scene.
- 8:37Speaker 1: The German police headed directly to a meeting zone after arrival,
- 8:42Speaker 1: but as the search commenced, they were seen grabbing tools,
- 8:45Speaker 1: including spades and shovels, to put in their vans before
- 8:48Speaker 1: heading to the dig area. A group of around 10
- 8:51Speaker 1: police officers were sighted walking close by on the edge
- 8:55Speaker 1: of the peninsula, jutting out into the dam, looking at
- 8:58Speaker 1: handheld tablets and pointing towards the ground with their fingers
- 9:02Speaker 1: as if they were comparing photos on their screen with
- 9:05Speaker 1: what they were seeing beneath their feet. Shortly after 9 a.m.,
- 9:09Speaker 1: the GNR put a single drone up into the air,
- 9:12Speaker 1: so they were probably comparing the soil and the... area
- 9:17Speaker 1: to what they saw in those pictures to make sure
- 9:19Speaker 1: that they were in the right area and the proper
- 9:22Speaker 1: search pattern was set up because when you have a
- 9:25Speaker 1: search area like this and you have a lot of
- 9:27Speaker 1: people involved what they do is they put it into
- 9:29Speaker 1: a grid and each team gets a little square and
- 9:33Speaker 1: then you report back that your square has been checked
- 9:36Speaker 1: and the process continues so i'm sure that's what they
- 9:38Speaker 1: have going on here as well officials have been tight-lipped
- 9:42Speaker 1: about the search This morning, in a statement, German prosecutor
- 9:46Speaker 1: Hans Christian Walter said criminal proceedings are currently taking place
- 9:50Speaker 1: in Portugal as part of an investigation into the Madeleine
- 9:54Speaker 1: McCann case. Walter said German officers are investigating in Portugal
- 9:59Speaker 1: on the basis. of certain tips. He said he was
- 10:02Speaker 1: unable at this stage to give more detail on what
- 10:05Speaker 1: prompted the search and what officials were hoping to find,
- 10:09Speaker 1: but said that such details would be released if we
- 10:12Speaker 1: think the results are publishable. So basically the same thing
- 10:15Speaker 1: we hear in the United States. We have an investigation
- 10:19Speaker 1: that's ongoing and we're not giving you any information. Sorry. Yes,
- 10:24Speaker 1: the measures in Portugal are connected with Madeleine McCann proceedings,
- 10:28Speaker 1: which means that we are investigating there in Portugal on
- 10:31Speaker 1: the basis of certain tips and tip-offs, Walter said today.
- 10:36Speaker 1: There is a major search operation taking place that is
- 10:39Speaker 1: being implemented by the Portuguese authorities, but there are also
- 10:43Speaker 1: German officers from the Federal Crime Police Office on site,
- 10:47Speaker 1: who are supporting the whole thing. He added, I can't
- 10:51Speaker 1: disclose the background at the moment, i.e. why we are
- 10:54Speaker 1: searching there and what we hope to find there. That
- 10:56Speaker 1: shall remain our secret for the moment. Well, it can
- 10:59Speaker 1: only be a few things, right? I don't want to
- 11:01Speaker 1: get too morbid, but I doubt they're looking for somebody
- 11:04Speaker 1: who's alive here. If we find something and we think
- 11:07Speaker 1: the results are publishable, then we will certainly inform you
- 11:10Speaker 1: about it. But give us a little bit of time.
- 11:12Speaker 1: The action itself will also take a bit of time.
- 11:16Speaker 1: It will not be completed within two hours or so,
- 11:19Speaker 1: and whether we then find something, and what we find,
- 11:22Speaker 1: of course, we have to see that first. Sources close
- 11:25Speaker 1: to the investigation said they had evidence the clearing in
- 11:28Speaker 1: the trees where tents had been set up was the
- 11:31Speaker 1: spot Bruckner used to spend time at after parking his
- 11:34Speaker 1: camper van nearby. A local who asked to not be named,
- 11:39Speaker 1: but who knows the area well, said, It's pretty well
- 11:42Speaker 1: hidden by the trees, and you don't realize it's there
- 11:45Speaker 1: until you're almost upon it. People wild camp there overnight
- 11:49Speaker 1: from time to time, which is why you'll find the
- 11:51Speaker 1: remains of fires inside small walls of stones. It's got
- 11:56Speaker 1: old sun loungers in it and makeshift benches that visitors
- 11:59Speaker 1: use to rest on. It's very out of the way
- 12:02Speaker 1: and very peaceful, but at the same time, it's got
- 12:05Speaker 1: a slightly eerie feel about it. A well-placed police source
- 12:09Speaker 1: said Portuguese police are going to carry out a very
- 12:12Speaker 1: thorough and very careful search of the area today. Polícia
- 12:16Speaker 1: officers are going to be divided into four teams who
- 12:20Speaker 1: will focus on the land search. It will be very
- 12:22Speaker 1: meticulous and exhaustive. Forget the idea of big trucks and
- 12:27Speaker 1: large machinery. A lot of the work that's going to
- 12:29Speaker 1: be done here today will be done by hand with
- 12:32Speaker 1: backup technology. High-tech equipment used to detect human remains buried
- 12:37Speaker 1: under the earth, as well as underwater, if required, is
- 12:40Speaker 1: expected to be used. And we saw this with J.J.
- 12:44Speaker 1: Vallow and Tylee Ryan. Those investigators were on their hands
- 12:48Speaker 1: and knees, digging through the dirt with their bare hands. So,
- 12:52Speaker 1: when you're excavating a site, and especially a site where
- 12:55Speaker 1: you think you might find some remains, there's a whole
- 12:58Speaker 1: lot that goes into it. No heavy machinery was taken
- 13:01Speaker 1: to the area yesterday and council officials were spotted carrying
- 13:05Speaker 1: a lorry load of wheelbarrows to the zone by the
- 13:09Speaker 1: hidden leisure area clearing, suggesting police will rake and dig
- 13:12Speaker 1: it by hand using the likes of pickaxes rather than
- 13:16Speaker 1: excavate earth with diggers in an attempt to preserve any evidence.
- 13:21Speaker 1: Local Portuguese reports, partly confirmed by police sources, claim the
- 13:26Speaker 1: searches were requested and authorized after German police obtained videos
- 13:31Speaker 1: and photos of Bruckner by the planned dig site. They
- 13:35Speaker 1: are thought to have been found buried in the pedophile's
- 13:38Speaker 1: secret lair in a dilapidated factory site in the German
- 13:42Speaker 1: village of Neuwerger-Sleben, which is 65 miles southeast of Hanover.
- 13:49Speaker 1: Police raided the site in February 2016 in search of
- 13:51Speaker 1: the body of of a missing five-year-old girl named Inga Garicki,
- 13:58Speaker 1: who vanished while on a family outing in Saxony and
- 14:01Speaker 1: Halt in May of 2015 and has been dubbed the
- 14:05Speaker 1: German Maddie. Reports at the time said German detectives had
- 14:09Speaker 1: discovered more than 8,000 images and videos on USB sticks
- 14:14Speaker 1: and hard drives filled with child abuse images. And we
- 14:18Speaker 1: talked about that at the time. What a gross-ass individual
- 14:21Speaker 1: this dude is. Even if he's not responsible for Matty McCann,
- 14:25Speaker 1: you know this guy did something to kids because it's
- 14:28Speaker 1: right there on the video for you. So even if
- 14:31Speaker 1: they don't find Matty or any remains of Matty's, I
- 14:35Speaker 1: hope that this Christian Bruckner guy gets thrown directly into
- 14:38Speaker 1: a volcano. They were said to have been buried under
- 14:41Speaker 1: the body of Bruckner's dead dog. Portugal's Polícia Força, whose
- 14:46Speaker 1: officers are doing most of the dig work today, has
- 14:49Speaker 1: confirmed the searches were requested by their German counterparts, the BKA.
- 14:55Speaker 1: The request was made via international letter of request sent
- 14:59Speaker 1: to Portugal's Attorney General's office and passed on to prosecutors
- 15:04Speaker 1: in Porto Mal. Portuguese officials have not yet said when
- 15:08Speaker 1: it was received, but it is believed to have been
- 15:11Speaker 1: about a month or two ago. Although this week's operation
- 15:14Speaker 1: has been initiated by German police, Portuguese detectives are showing
- 15:19Speaker 1: with the manpower and logistical support they are providing that
- 15:23Speaker 1: they are fully on board. Carlos Farina, the PJ's deputy director,
- 15:29Speaker 1: traveled from Lisbon yesterday to the reservoir to view the
- 15:33Speaker 1: preparation work ahead of the start of the searches and
- 15:36Speaker 1: meet German counterparts. So they're all in, right? The Portuguese authorities,
- 15:41Speaker 1: they're taking this seriously. And they've obviously seen the case files.
- 15:45Speaker 1: They've seen the information. and they think that what's going
- 15:49Speaker 1: on here is worthwhile, because if not, I highly doubt
- 15:52Speaker 1: they'd be dumping the type of resources into this as
- 15:55Speaker 1: they are. He is believed to have attended a briefing
- 15:59Speaker 1: meeting with German police, who arrived at the scene around 6.30pm
- 16:03Speaker 1: local time in four vehicles, including three VW people carriers,
- 16:08Speaker 1: and left two hours later. Today, Al Garvey PJ Chief
- 16:12Speaker 1: Fernando Jordao, who is normally based in Faro, and Helena Monteiro,
- 16:18Speaker 1: tasked with an ongoing Portuguese police cold case review from
- 16:22Speaker 1: the northern city of Porto, are due to spend time
- 16:26Speaker 1: at the search area in another show of the importance
- 16:29Speaker 1: attached to this week's operation by the Portuguese forces upper hierarchy. Look,
- 16:34Speaker 1: they want resolution. The Portuguese authorities, they want to know
- 16:38Speaker 1: what happened to Madeline too, right? They want to have
- 16:41Speaker 1: some closure here. They want to be able to show
- 16:43Speaker 1: the world, look, we can close out a case. And
- 16:46Speaker 1: even if it takes us decades, we're going to stay
- 16:49Speaker 1: on it and we're going to get the person responsible.
- 16:51Speaker 1: Operational coordination will be in the hands of a chief
- 16:54Speaker 1: inspector who has not yet been named. Scotland Yard representatives
- 16:59Speaker 1: will be in the area for what has been described
- 17:01Speaker 1: as a watching brief. Respected Portuguese broadcaster SIC has said
- 17:07Speaker 1: the searches, due to last for at least two days
- 17:10Speaker 1: and longer if anything of relevance is found, will be
- 17:13Speaker 1: 80% land-based, and 20% water-based. In a lunchtime broadcast yesterday,
- 17:20Speaker 1: it said, investigators know suspect Christian Bruckner used to come
- 17:24Speaker 1: to this dam regularly. He would call it his little
- 17:27Speaker 1: paradise and he would often spend the night there. He
- 17:30Speaker 1: was seen there often. The German authorities considered this reservoir
- 17:35Speaker 1: to be an area of interest and ended up sending
- 17:37Speaker 1: an international letter of request or letter rogatory. No police
- 17:42Speaker 1: divers have yet been spotted And there are conflicting reports
- 17:46Speaker 1: about whether underwater searches will take place or if they
- 17:50Speaker 1: will occur in shallows near the edge of the reservoir
- 17:53Speaker 1: where water levels are currently much lower than normal because
- 17:57Speaker 1: of an ongoing drought. In a statement issued yesterday evening,
- 18:01Speaker 1: the first so far by authorities in Portugal, Germany or UK,
- 18:05Speaker 1: after news of the operation broke, the PJ said, in
- 18:09Speaker 1: the view of news made public, the judiciary police confirms
- 18:13Speaker 1: that regarding the investigation into the disappearance of an English child,
- 18:17Speaker 1: which occurred in the Algarve in 2007, steps are still
- 18:22Speaker 1: being taken to fully clarify the situation. Within the scope
- 18:26Speaker 1: of international cooperation, in the next few days, in the
- 18:30Speaker 1: Algarve region, new searches will be carried out, coordinated by
- 18:34Speaker 1: the Judiciary Police, at the request of the German authorities
- 18:38Speaker 1: and with the presence of the British authorities. So they're
- 18:42Speaker 1: all working in conjunction. They all want to find out
- 18:44Speaker 1: what happened here. And the British have sent the team
- 18:47Speaker 1: as well to oversee basically the process. Information will be
- 18:51Speaker 1: provided in due course on the outcome of the proceedings.
- 18:55Speaker 1: The force made its statement shortly before German police arrived
- 18:59Speaker 1: at the reservoir for a briefing meeting. They were traveling
- 19:02Speaker 1: in three Volkswagen vans, two black and one dark blue,
- 19:06Speaker 1: and a Ford Ranger with a Portuguese police escort in front.
- 19:10Speaker 1: The meeting took place in one of two blue tents
- 19:13Speaker 1: put up yesterday lunchtime, just under a mile from the
- 19:16Speaker 1: land set to be examined today. One of the police
- 19:19Speaker 1: and one of civil protection workers. And that's going to
- 19:22Speaker 1: be the command center. They'll run the whole operation right
- 19:26Speaker 1: through there. Everything, all the decision making and all of
- 19:29Speaker 1: that will be made in those tents. It was the
- 19:32Speaker 1: first time all day any German officials had been seen
- 19:36Speaker 1: at the reservoir, which has been searched by divers, hired,
- 19:39Speaker 1: by a Portuguese lawyer in February and March 2008. Back then,
- 19:44Speaker 1: the diving team leader, describing the long process his team
- 19:47Speaker 1: faced navigating the Blackwater. Marcos Arago Correa organized the privately
- 19:54Speaker 1: funded operation after claiming he had been tipped off by
- 19:58Speaker 1: underworld contacts that Madeline had been murdered and her body
- 20:02Speaker 1: thrown into the reservoir within 48 hours of her disappearance.
- 20:06Speaker 1: Two bags containing small bones were found during the second
- 20:09Speaker 1: search after divers had earlier recovered several lengths of cord,
- 20:14Speaker 1: some plastic tape, and a single white cotton sock. Portuguese
- 20:18Speaker 1: police were alerted following the discovery, but subsequently ruled out
- 20:22Speaker 1: the possibility that the bones were human because of their size.
- 20:26Speaker 1: Madeline's parents? Madeline's parents, Jerry and Kate McCann, had previously
- 20:31Speaker 1: dismissed Mr. Correa as a self-publicist and said there was
- 20:35Speaker 1: no evidence suggesting any link between their daughter and the reservoir.
- 20:40Speaker 1: The dam near the town of Silvis, where a lorry
- 20:43Speaker 1: driver says he saw a young woman handing a child
- 20:46Speaker 1: like Madeline McCann over to a man two days after
- 20:49Speaker 1: she went missing from her Praia da Luz holiday apartment
- 20:53Speaker 1: on May 3, 2007, is not thought to have been
- 20:57Speaker 1: searched since May 2008 as part of the ongoing investigation
- 21:02Speaker 1: into her disappearance. The search is the first major operation
- 21:06Speaker 1: of its kind since June 2014, when British police were
- 21:10Speaker 1: given permission to do digs in Praia da Luz that
- 21:14Speaker 1: involves sniffer dogs trained in detecting bodies and ground-penetrating radar.
- 21:18Speaker 1: And no matter what they've thrown at this case, no
- 21:21Speaker 1: matter the resources, no matter the manpower, they have not
- 21:24Speaker 1: come up with anything really. The Scotland Yard digs nearly
- 21:29Speaker 1: nine years ago in Praia da Luz were linked to
- 21:32Speaker 1: the leading UK police theory at the time Madeline died
- 21:35Speaker 1: during a break-in and burglars dumped her body nearby. The
- 21:40Speaker 1: searches failed to find any trace of the missing youngster.
- 21:44Speaker 1: In a smaller operation in July of 2020, Portuguese police
- 21:48Speaker 1: and firefighters searched three wells for Madeline's body but failed
- 21:52Speaker 1: to find any trace of her. the abandoned wells or
- 21:55Speaker 1: 15-minute drive from a cottage Bruckner rented on the outskirts
- 21:59Speaker 1: of Praia da Luz on a narrow road leading down
- 22:02Speaker 1: to a beach where the pedophile used to park his
- 22:05Speaker 1: VW camper van. German prosecutors Hans Christian Walters has consistently
- 22:11Speaker 1: said he has convinced Madeline is dead and caged pedophile Bruckner, 45,
- 22:16Speaker 1: has been named as the sole suspect, and he has
- 22:19Speaker 1: been adamant about that. This prosecutor has said for quite
- 22:23Speaker 1: some time now that they believe they have their guy.
- 22:26Speaker 1: They just don't have all of the evidence to prove it.
- 22:29Speaker 1: The deviant currently serving time for the September 2005 rape
- 22:34Speaker 1: of an American OPA in the resort where Madeline vanished
- 22:38Speaker 1: has yet to face any formal accusation over the youngster's disappearance.
- 22:43Speaker 1: Last April, he was made an official suspect, or aguido
- 22:47Speaker 1: in Portugal, over Madeline's disappearance, although his defense lawyers, Frederick Fulcher,
- 22:53Speaker 1: labeled it a procedural trick linked to Statue of Limitations
- 22:57Speaker 1: legislation at the time. Last autumn, Bruckner was charged in
- 23:01Speaker 1: Germany with several sex crimes on the Algarve, against women
- 23:06Speaker 1: and children, including the rape of an Irish woman on
- 23:09Speaker 1: holiday in 2004 and the sexual abuse of a 10-year-old
- 23:14Speaker 1: girl on a beach near Praia da Luz in 2007.
- 23:18Speaker 1: Bruckner's lawyers revealed in April those charges had been dropped
- 23:21Speaker 1: against him in a bombshell development after successfully arguing prosecutors
- 23:26Speaker 1: had no jurisdiction over him in Braunschweig where the Madeline
- 23:30Speaker 1: case was being brought. Isn't it great when an obvious
- 23:33Speaker 1: predator finds a way to get off on loopholes and technicalities?
- 23:38Speaker 1: The case could end up with prosecutors in Saxony and
- 23:41Speaker 1: Halt instead, but an appeal lodged by the Braunschweig Public
- 23:46Speaker 1: Prosecutor's Office has yet to be decided. So basically battling
- 23:50Speaker 1: over jurisdiction here, and where this case can be brought
- 23:53Speaker 1: and tried, and where it can't be. Braunschweig prosecutor Mr.
- 23:57Speaker 1: Walters has insisted they are still in control of the
- 24:00Speaker 1: Madeline McCann investigation and Bruckner, who denies any involvement in
- 24:05Speaker 1: Madeline's disappearance, and he remains in custody. Kate and Jerry
- 24:08Speaker 1: are expected to be kept informed of any developments as
- 24:13Speaker 1: a result of the new search through Scotland Yard liaison officers.
- 24:17Speaker 1: The Arati Dam, the Barragão do Arati in Portuguese, is
- 24:21Speaker 1: fed by the watercourse of the Arati River, whose source
- 24:25Speaker 1: lies to the southwest of a mountain range and runs
- 24:28Speaker 1: through the municipalities of Silvas, Lagoa, and Porto Amau before
- 24:33Speaker 1: reaching the ocean. Construction was concluded in 1955 and it
- 24:38Speaker 1: began operating the following year. Some pretty interesting developments in
- 24:42Speaker 1: the case of Madeleine McCann, and obviously the I'll be
- 24:45Speaker 1: keeping my eye on things to see if they find anything.
- 24:49Speaker 1: But after all of these years, I'm not getting my
- 24:52Speaker 1: hopes up. This has been one of those cases that
- 24:55Speaker 1: has just confounded investigators and the public for all of
- 24:58Speaker 1: these years. So hopefully there's some resolution and hopefully Madeline
- 25:04Speaker 1: McCann's parents are able to get some closure very soon
- 25:07Speaker 1: because what those people have been through, the allegations against
- 25:10Speaker 1: them and all the other stuff surrounding this case, It
- 25:14Speaker 1: has to be a living nightmare. So hopefully the authorities
- 25:17Speaker 1: here find what they're looking for. And if they do
- 25:20Speaker 1: find what they're looking for and it leads them to
- 25:22Speaker 1: this Christian Bruckner dude, hopefully they put him underneath the
- 25:26Speaker 1: jail and throw away the key. All right, folks, that's
- 25:29Speaker 1: going to do it for this one. All of the
- 25:31Speaker 1: information that goes with the episode can be found in
- 25:34Speaker 1: the description box.