Madeleine search samples will take months to analyse
POLICE searching an Algarve reservoir in connection with the disappearance of Madeleine Mccann cleared a large area of woodland where they dug eight deep holes to remove samples.
After three days of intense searches came to an end, the police cordon was yesterday lifted revealing a bizarre landscape scarred by focused digging.
Officers had singled out a 10x16ft area of woodland about 100ft above the waterline of the Arade dam where the prime suspect was believed to have spent time in the days after the threeyear-old British girl went missing in May 2007. The shrubs and trees had been felled and rusting sun loungers, chairs and a sea buoy had been set aside before the forensic excavations began.
Christian Brueckner, a 45-year-old convicted paedophile and rapist, was believed to have boasted that the secluded, remote location above Barragem do Arade was his “little paradise”.
The very specific targeting of locations on the promontory raises the possibility that German police had taken their source to the scene to pinpoint exactly where Brueckner had stayed.
Officers from both Germany and Portugal had removed a large amount of topsoil to create a shelf where deeper excavations were carried out. Eight carefully excavated holes up to a foot wide and nearly two feet deep had been bored into the ground and the soil bagged and removed. Some of the remaining soil contained burnt and blackened flecks of wood.
The focus of the searches suggest officers had used ground radar and metal detectors to target specific locations. Similar holes had been dug across the promontory, some clustered around recent fire pits. It is feared samples unearthed at the reservoir could take weeks to be analysed.
German detectives have removed numerous bags, which yesterday evening were in two vans making their way more than 2,000 miles to a forensic science laboratory in Germany.
Christian Wolters, a German prosecutor, said: “Of course we are still looking for the body. We’re not just looking for that, of course. There are other things too. Any discovery of clothing could help our investigation”.
A statement by the Portuguese police said the three-day search had resulted in “the collection of some material that will be subject to expertise analysis”.
Mr Wolters said that a statement would soon be issued if nothing of significance was uncovered. But, if the samples proved relevant, a public announcement would be delayed, possibly for weeks.