There has been a major update in the search for Madeleine McCann as a man who knew the prime suspect has shared a bold claim.
German authorities began a three-day operation focused on the land between Praia da Luz and a location once linked to prime suspect Christian Brueckner.
“They will be land searches only. The main objective is to look for any signs of Madeleine’s body,” a Portuguese source told The Mirror.
This will be the first search in Portugal since 2023, when police combed the Arade Dam - dubbed Brueckner’s “little paradise”.
That search, like one in 2014, failed to uncover any evidence.
The British investigation - Operation Grange - continues to receive funding, with Parliament approving another £108,000 (over $146,000) in April. In total, the probe has cost taxpayers over £13.2 million ($17 million) since 2011.
Despite the ongoing efforts, the investigation team has been whittled down to just one chief inspector, a detective constable, and a police staff member.
Ken Ralphs, who once crossed paths with Brueckner, claims he warned police about a critical location years ago - and was ignored.
“For over 18 years, I've pressed the police and all they can do is blame each other for not passing this information on,” Ralphs told GB News in a fiery appeal.
Ralphs identified what he says was the last property Brueckner stayed in before Madeleine vanished and urged investigators to turn their attention there.
"I was introduced to Christian [Brueckner] by someone who told me he was his best friend," Ralphs told GB News.
"We invited Christian for a drink. I was friendly with his accomplice. He started to cry and confess that he was going to get involved with Christian to take a child in Praia de Luz. I thought that was crazy.
“He cried that he needed the money to get out the country with his family and children and that's why he got involved,” Ralphs said.
"Brueckner was going to stay at a property and a house. That property is the last place Brueckner stayed," he added.
Ralphs went on: "The bottom line is, that's where they need to be searching."
The renewed operation comes just weeks after the McCann family marked 18 years since Madeleine disappeared. On May 3, 2007, she vanished from a holiday apartment while her parents, Kate and Gerry, dined nearby.
Reflecting on that night in her memoir, Kate McCann wrote: “To my horror, I saw that, no doubt in all innocence and simply to explain why she was bending the rules a bit, the receptionist had added the reason for our request: we wanted to eat close to our apartments as we were leaving our young children alone there and checking on them intermittently.
“We now bitterly regret it and will do so until the end of our days,” she added, as reported by The New York Post.
Christian Brueckner, a convicted German sex offender, was named as a suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance in 2020, but has not been charged.
A recent Channel 4 documentary, Madeleine McCann: The Unseen Evidence, exposed disturbing new findings tied to Brueckner.
At a German factory he once owned, investigators uncovered USB sticks, 75 children's swimming costumes, and highly disturbing material.
The factory was first flagged after a neighbour’s dog unearthed what looked like a grave. Among the shocking contents were a nude selfie of Brueckner taken near the Arade Dam, satnav data from the Algarve, and written fantasies involving child abduction.
One of the most damning details emerged from a 2008 conversation in Spain, in which Brueckner allegedly told an acquaintance: “She didn’t scream.”