Ex-Met officer insists this new Madeleine McCann search is different to all others

The Madeleine McCann investigation has seen numerous large-scale searches since her disappearance in Praia Da Luz, but what sets the current search apart?

The key difference lies in the fact that investigators are not only working from the crime scene but also tracing back from a potential suspect – Christian Brueckner. This shift in focus provides a fresh context for the entire investigation and particularly for the searches, an aspect often underestimated.

Typically, detectives probing a serious crime undertake what's known as a reactive investigation: they respond to a crime by pursuing leads that could elucidate how it occurred. Searches associated with a reactive investigation are usually centred around the crime scene, as part of the crime would have inevitably taken place there.

However, when detectives have a suspect in mind, they can also explore leads stemming from that individual. They would be privy to certain details about the suspect – such as their residence or workplace, the vehicle they drive, among hundreds of other factors – which offer a new direction for searches.

Officers involved in the earlier, reactive investigation simply weren't aware of these potential new locations, reports the Mirror.

The inner workings of the ongoing investigation, led by German police and centred on Brueckner, remain largely undisclosed to the public. However, as a former Senior Investigating Officer, it's evident to me that the majority of the planned searches in the coming days stem from leads related to Brueckner and will likely take place at locations associated with him.

This renders these searches "new", given that the officers involved in the initial, reactive probe into the disappearance wouldn't have been able to conduct them. Since they were oblivious to Brueckner being a significant suspect, there was no cause to investigate areas linked to him.

This implies that the current searches aren't merely a rehash of old territory in case something was overlooked earlier. It also suggests a higher likelihood of uncovering new evidence, provided (and this is a substantial proviso) the suspicions surrounding Brueckner are accurate and he was indeed implicated.

The officers participating in this week's searches will be armed with state-of-the-art technology to aid their efforts. Like most tech advancements, ground-penetrating radar and other tools utilised in such searches improve annually.

Officers will undoubtedly seize the chance to revisit some previously searched areas with the more efficient equipment now at their disposal.

Behind the scenes, a significant amount of research will have been conducted into the circumstances surrounding the disappearance. It's likely that gaps in previous searches have been identified and will be addressed in the coming days.

However, when it comes to the crucial question of whether these searches will finally uncover some trace of Madeleine and shed light on her 2007 disappearance, I remain rather pessimistic. The suspicions surrounding Brueckner, while substantial, are far from conclusive proof of his involvement.

He may well be the most promising suspect currently known to officers, but there are others, both known and unknown. More fundamentally, we still don't definitively know what happened to Madeleine that night.

Several other potential explanations cannot be ruled out, even after nearly two decades of international investigation.

I sincerely hope the searches yield something that propels the investigation forward. Madeleine's parents and family have endured the agony of not knowing her fate for almost twenty years.

They deserve some answers after all this time. However, regrettably, the likelihood of these searches providing those answers is extremely slim.