German prosecutors say the final search operations related to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann have concluded as planned.
Braunschweig's chief prosecutor, Hans Christian Wolters, said the interaction between Portuguese and German authorities throughout the operation had been “very productive.”
His comments followed information from The Sun newspaper which reported that samples were collected during a search last week after claims of bones and clothing fibres being found.
The publication notes that these bones were initially considered to be animal remains, but prosecutors seized them for further forensic analysis.
The latest search comes 18 years after three-year-old Madeleine went missing from the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz during a family holiday in 2007.
Her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, left her to sleep and she disappeared while they were having dinner at a nearby restaurant.
Search teams have completed their work in the vicinity of Atalaya, near the city of Lagos, after three days of intensive searching of bushes and abandoned buildings.
German prosecutors requested the search as part of their ongoing efforts to gather evidence pointing to the involvement of the prime suspect, Christian Bruckner.
He is currently serving a sentence for raping a 72-year-old woman in Praia da Luz in 2005 and is due to be released in September unless further charges are brought.
Bruckner reportedly sent a letter to police claiming that “important questions can never be answered.”
In another letter, he told Walters that “the investigation will be closed,” according to The Sun.
Last October, a German court acquitted him of unrelated sex crimes allegedly committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
