German prosecutors say the final search operations in connection with the disappearance of Madeleine McCann have concluded as planned.
Braunschweig's chief prosecutor, Hans Christian Wolters, said the cooperation between Portuguese and German authorities during the operation had been “very fruitful”.
The claims come after The Sun newspaper reported that samples were collected during a search last week following reports of bones and clothing fibres being found.
The newspaper reported that the bones were initially thought to be animal remains, but prosecutors seized them for forensic analysis.
The latest attempt to find clues comes 18 years after three-year-old Madeleine disappeared 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 went missing when they went out for dinner at a nearby restaurant.
Search teams completed the operation in nearby Atalaya, near the city of Lagos, after three days of meticulously searching bushland and abandoned sites.
German prosecutors requested the search as part of their ongoing efforts to gather evidence pointing to the involvement of prime suspect Christian Bruckner.
He is 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 “key questions could not be answered.”
In another letter, the suspect informed Walters that “the investigation will be closed,” The Sun reports.
Last October, a German court acquitted him of unrelated sex crimes allegedly committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
