Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
PARENTS’ AGONY OVER WELLS SEARCH
McCanns cling to hope she’s still alive
MADELEINE McCann’s parents faced fresh turmoil as cops searched three wells.
The sites in Portugal are close to where prime suspect Christian Brueckner lived. Friends say Gerry and Kate McCann are in “prolonged agony” but retain “a glimmer of hope” their girl is alive.
THE parents of missing Madeleine McCann are “on tenterhooks” after police informed them they had relaunched the hunt for her remains in Portugal.
Kate and Gerry faced an agonising wait after three wells were searched in Vila do Bispo – just a 10-minute drive from the Portuguese resort where the British toddler was snatched.
But the McCanns have still not been told on what grounds the police were acting.
A family source said: “It is a period of prolonged agony.
They have still absolutely no idea what evidence police have to suggest Madeleine is dead.
“They are not being told what police believe happened to her. We feel desperately sorry for them as they’ve endured so much pain and angst for 13 years.”
Detectives and divers scoured donkey-driven irrigation systems just a
10-minute drive from
Praia da Luz, where Madeleine was snatched in May 2007 days before her fourth birthday. The search site is also near the beach where prime suspect Christian Brueckner’s VW campervan was photographed in 2007.
German police linked the convicted paedophile and rapist – currently in jail – to the case last month. Clarence Mitchell, a former publicist for Madeleine’s parents, both 52, said: “Kate and Gerry want answers more than anyone.
“But while the Metropolitan Police are still treating Madeleine’s disappearance as a missing person, rather than a murder inquiry, it gives them a glimmer of hope that she could still be alive.
“They continue to hope until there is incontrovertible evidence which proves she is dead. They are being kept informed every step of the way.”
The family source added: “Kate and Gerry will be the first to know if there is any significant development.
“But police have not given them all
These wells have always been filthy & abandoned... There are lots in this area
MARIO LUCAS WHO LIVES ON THE ADJOINING FARMLAND
the full details. They remain on tenterhooks during this time and it causes them more anguish. The Met Police are now working with Portuguese and German officers but have not been involved in direct activity in Portugal.
SURPRISED
“Wells have been searched in the past and they were expecting new searches in light of recent news from German police.
“They are rather surprised that the waterways hadn’t been searched
sooner. But this is a matter for Portuguese officers who are liaising with German authorities and Scotland Yard.”
German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters claimed authorities had “concrete evidence” that Madeleine was killed.
However, it is not believed police found anything during an eight-hour search on Thursday.
Divers from Portimao Fire Service investigations unit were drafted in to search the wells, some 45ft deep and set in scrubland. The waterline is typi
cally 15ft below ground level. The sites are a 15-minute drive from a ramshackle cottage on the outskirts of Praia da Luz which 43-year-old Brueckner rented. And it is just five minutes from Boca do Rio – a haven for German surfers and campers.
Mario Lucas, 60, owns the plot of land adjacent to the search site. He said: “I woke up at 8.30am to feed the cat and I saw a diver sitting on the edge of one of the wells.
“I went to see because I thought there had been an accident on the road. I said, ‘What’s going on?’ He said, ‘It’s none of your business’.
“At one point there were five or six cars, mostly the Portuguese rural GNR police, with up to nine or 10 people. They searched one well then started looking at another – using cables or ropes to lower themselves in.
“The water is about 10 or 15 metres deep. These wells have always been abandoned and filthy. There are lots of wells in this area.”
STARING
Details of the search emerged on Portuguese broadcaster RTP’s Friday at Nine programme.
The channel also gave fresh details about allegations Brueckner exposed himself in a playground in Sao Bartolomeu de Messines – 40 miles from Praia – in
2017. The German was arrested after four children told parents he flashed at them and performed a sex act.
One girl said in a statement: “He was only about 15ft away, staring at us as if he was controlling and observing everything we were doing. We felt very frightened and went running to my dad who was talking to a friend.”
Police were called and the father of one child grabbed Brueckner. The dad said on TV: “I went to confront the man. “He had a packet of cigarettes in his hand and he pretended to use it as a phone. He was trying to flee, he wanted to get away. We made sure he didn’t.” Prosecutors mothballed the case following Brueckner’s extradition frowm Italy to Germany a year later on drugs charges. In Germany he was also tried for the 2005 rape of an American woman, 72, in her home in Portugal. He has served 21 months in Kiel prison over the drugs crimes and was given seven years for the rape – but is appealing that conviction.
Brueckner lived around Praia da Luz for years and was 30 when Madeleine, from Rothley, Leics, vanished.
But police probing her disappearance ruled out Brueckner from initial inquires as they did not know he had been convicted of a child sex offence in Germany when he was 17.
It was one of a string of blunders which have hampered the probe.
Portuguese officers failed to lock down the resort or set up road blocks – assuming she had just wandered off.
The McCanns’ apartment was not taped off until the next day, by which time forensic evidence was contaminated. Worst of all was the shadow of suspicion the Portuguese police cast over Kate and Gerry McCann, who were treated as suspects themselves.
German prosecutors say they have evidence putting Brueckner’s mobile phone close to the flats from which Madeleine vanished.
His lawyer Friedrich Fulscher says his client is facing a “witch hunt” and there is no evidence against him.