A hidden cellar was found on Wednesday in the former home of a man suspected of having been murdered by German police, Madeleine McCann, a 3-year-old British girl who disappeared in 2007.
Authorities tracked down a garden plot on the outskirts of Hanover in northern Germany for the third day in a row, using dogs, digging the area and placing a tent on the plot while digging deeper into the ground. German police apparently found the winery after digging a 15-meter-wide hole in the garden of the isolated chalet, according to Sky News reports.
McCann was 3 years old when he disappeared from an apartment in the coastal city of Praia da Luz, in the Portuguese Algarve region, where his family was on vacation.
POSSIBLE SUSPECT IDENTIFIED IN THE MADELEINE MCCANN CASE
Police officers from Germany remove a container during a search on an allotment garden plot in Seelze, near Hannover, Germany, on Wednesday July 29, 2020. Police have begun to search for an allotment garden plot, which It is believed to be related to the disappearance of the disappeared in Portugal in 2007 The British Madeleine McCann. (AP Photo / Martin Meissner)
The suspect, who was only identified as Christian B. by the German media, apparently spent several years in Portugal, including in Praia da Luz, at the time of McCann’s disappearance.
Prosecutors linked him to a motorhome seen in the Algarve region in 2007 and he was believed to have been at the compound the day McCann was taken.
One police theory is that the suspect kidnapped McCann and took her back to Germany with him, a journey of more than 24 hours, Sky News reported.
German police officers search with dogs for a garden plot in Seelze, near Hannover, Germany, on Wednesday July 29, 2020. (AP Photo / Martin Meissner)
MADELEINE MCCANN ADVISES FLOODING AFTER IDENTIFYING A NEW PROBE SUSPECT IN ANOTHER GIRL MISSING
Authorities targeted him last month and the 43-year-old man is currently in prison in Germany.
Police said he has two previous convictions for “sexual contact with girls.”
Prosecutors also announced in early June that they “assume the girl is dead,” but the search for crucial evidence in the case continues.
Her parents hope that she is alive.
In this photo, released on September 16, 2007, the missing girl Madeleine McCann smiles. (Flyer photo / Getty Images)
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McCann’s parents told authorities that their daughter disappeared after leaving her and her twin brothers asleep at their resort while dining with friends at a nearby restaurant.
“All we have always wanted is to find her, find out the truth and bring those responsible to justice,” Kate and Gerry McCann said in a statement in June, according to Sky News. “We will never give up hope of finding Madeleine alive, but whatever the outcome, we need to know how we need to find peace.”
Associated Press contributed to this report.
