Grim search for Maddie...
AGONY FOR MCCANNS AS COPS DREDGE THREE WELLS
THE parents of Madeleine Mccann have been told divers searched a network of wells for her body – but refuse to give up on the “glimmer of hope” she may still be alive.
Kate and Gerry Mccann have been “on tenterhooks” as they await news following the hunt in the Algarve.
Detectives and fire service divers spent Thursday scouring irrigation systems in Vila do Bispo – a 10-minute drive from where Madeleine, three, vanished in 2007.
The search site is near the beach where 43-year-old Christian Bruckner’s VW camper van was photographed that year. Police in Germany last month identified the paedophile in connection with Madeleine’s abduction from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz.
Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters claimed there was “concrete evidence” that Madeleine, from Rothley, Leics, had been killed.
But Clarence Mitchell, the former publicist for her parents Kate and Gerry, said they still have a “glimmer of hope” their daughter is alive. He added: “They are being kept informed every step of the way.”
Divers spent eight hours searching three wells on scrubland – just a 15-minute drive from a ramshackle cottage Bruckner rented – on Thursday. It is not believed they found anything.
Witness Mario Lucas, 60, who lives nearby, told the Sunday People: “There were five or six cars, mostly the Portuguese rural police, with up to nine or 10 people.
“They searched one well then another and were using cables or ropes to lower themselves in. The water in the well is about 10 or 15 metres deep.
“I’m quite old but these wells have always been abandoned and filthy. There are lots of wells in this area.”
A Mccann family source said last night: “Wells in the area have been searched in the past and they were expecting new searches to be made
They’ve endured so much pain and angst for 13 years
in light of the recent news from German police.
“They are surprised the waterways hadn’t been searched sooner. But this is a matter for Portuguese officers who are liaising with German authorities and Scotland Yard.”
The source added: “Kate and Gerry still have absolutely no idea what evidence police have to suggest Madeleine is dead. They are not being told.
“We feel desperately sorry for them as they’ve endured so much pain and angst for more than 13 years.”
Another source added: “Kate and Gerry remain on tenterhooks during this time. They still have absolutely no idea if their daughter is dead or alive.”
Details of the latest search emerged on Portuguese TV on Friday.
It also aired fresh details about claims Bruckner exposed himself to a group of children in a playground in the Algarve in 2017.
The father of one of the youngsters, a girl aged 11, told RTP’S Friday at Nine programme that he held
Bruckner down until police arrived. But the criminal probe was mothballed before the German paedophile was even formally questioned by a judge.
Speaking about the incident, the dad said: “He should have paid for what he did, not just been arrested.
“My daughter has been left with trauma. She never goes too far from me because she gets afraid.”
Prosecutors claimed there was not enough evidence for a conviction, despite the fact Bruckner had already been convicted of molesting a six-yearold girl in a playground in his home town of Wurzburg,
Bavaria, when he was just 17. Police probing Madeleine’s disappearance in 2007 ruled Bruckner out as they did not know about his past.
Last year, he was convicted of raping a 72-year-old American woman at her home in 2005, near where Madeleine vanished. He is currently in jail in Kiel, Germany, for drugs offences.
German prosecutors say they have evidence putting the pervert’s mobile phone close to the flats from which Madeleine vanished.