The prime suspect in the case of missing Madeleine McCann may have taken photos of the missing toddler and buried them in an underground hideaway, police believe.
Details of the incident
Convicted paedophile Christian Brueckner is alleged to have taken ‘trophies’ from his victims in the past.
In May, German Police embarked on a search of a manmade reservoir in the Algarve, near the town of Silves, that Brueckner frequented in the hope of finding clues that would bring them closer to finding Madeleine.
An unnamed source told The Sun: ‘[Authorities investigating] now know Christian B buried data carriers like hard drives and USB sticks at any of the places where he’s stayed so that was their real hope at the lake.’
‘They really thought they might find pictures there, but they are not giving up hope. They believe he made duplicates because he loved to keep them like trophies.’
Madeleine Beth McCann went missing from her bed while on holiday with her family on the evening of May 3 2007, aged three.
Police scoured the location near Silves that Brueckner reportedly called his ‘little paradise’ in May this year.
What experts say
According to The Sun, experts believe the decision to contact Brueckner in 2013 about his whereabouts in 2007 may have given him time to destroy evidence.
But German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters, who is leading the case, later confirmed that a ‘number of items’ had been seized during the search.
It was the first major operation of its kind since June 2014 when British police were given permission to dig in Praia da Luz using sniffer dogs trained in detecting bodies and ground-penetrating radar.
Portuguese broadcaster SIC reported that German police sought permission to search the dam in an official judicial request to Portugal after concluding it was ‘an area of interest’.
