Search expected to stretch into second week....The Guardian 4/6/14

Madeleine McCann scrubland search expected to stretch into second week
Forensic officers focusing on two key areas in dense scrub in Praia da Luz, Portugal
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Josh Halliday and Brendan de Beer in Praia da Luz
The Guardian, Wednesday 4 June 2014 22.22 BST
Police tents in Praia da Luz
Police tents erected at the search site in Praia da Luz. Photograph: Rafael Marchante/Reuters
Detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann have formally applied to extend the ground-level searches into next week as forensic experts joined the investigation.

The operation was initially expected to end on Friday but progress has been slow in the meticulous search of dense scrubland a short distance from where the then three-year-old girl was last seen in 2007.

In the past 48 hours, officers have focused their searches on two key areas, including a hole in the ground concealed by corrugated iron, which on Wednesday was investigated by forensic experts wearing protective clothing.

The painstaking investigative work, which began on Monday, is being delayed by a need to clear the sites using petrol strimmers and chainsaws.

It is expected that the searches will now stretch into a second week, after Scotland Yard applied to extend the operation as they await formal approval from Portuguese police.

DCI Andy Redwood, the Scotland Yard officer leading the investigation, and Faro's Polícia Judiciária director, Mota Carmo, on Wednesday inspected both of the key sites, where forensic officers were seen wearing face masks and blue bodysuits. Though their work was shielded by a white police tent – erected over a hole in the ground concealed by a scrap of rusted iron, where officers had been digging 24 hours earlier – forensic experts were seen removing soil with wheelbarrows.

About 30 metres away, officers put up two further white police tents over a patch of land where they had earlier used ground-penetrating radar to detect any disturbance.

Madeleine's parents, Kate, 46, and Gerry, 45, are being kept abreast of developments in the first ground-level search since those conducted immediately after her disappearance in May 2007.

Portuguese media reported that officers had asked to search the sewerage system in Praia da Luz using fibre-optic cables, but the village mayor, Victor Mata, told the Guardian he had not been made aware of such a development, which would take the search outside the current 15-acre site.

I read somewhere that they wanted the search the sewage system under that piece of land. It had been put in when they were going to build houses/hotels on the land but was never used. If it is under the land they are searching then it is within the search area.

quickfingers wrote:I read somewhere that they wanted the search the sewage system under that piece of land.  It had been put in when they were going to build houses/hotels on the land but was never used.   If it is under the land they are searching then it is within the search area.

Morning quickfingers, maybe the sewerage system ran outside the Plot as well ? I can't help thinking that it would have been more beneficial to cut the grass and weeds down first to make it easier for the dogs and Radar equipment .......but hey, what to I know.  

I think the dogs will find something if its there regardless of all the undergrowth. Despite what some people say they are very clever!

quickfingers wrote:I think the dogs will find something if its there regardless of all the undergrowth.  Despite what some people say they are very clever!

Yes, they are, but the area could have been made easier for them. Somehow, even if they discover evidence that someone was buried in the area, how can they say whose body it is when the evidence in the Car could determine the twins DNA Match with Kate and Gerry, but not Madeleine's . All her clothes were washed by Kate, as was cuddlecat . As far as I know it was only the pillowcase that Gerry brought back from Madeleine's bed at home that would have had her DNA on, probably the test resullt was one of FSS who disposed of all their tests because they said no one asked for them???

Did wonder how they could be so sure that it would be all wrapped up in a week.

Perhaps the Portuguese Court set the limit so that it couldn't drag on in the event that nothing was found. They seem to have been willing to extend the limit when requested.

Drains are being inspected now , a bit late wouldn,t you say!! Anything in there would have been washed away after 7 years.

Panda wrote:Drains are being inspected now , a bit late wouldn,t you say!! Anything in there would have been washed away after 7 years.

The drains were never used. They were put in when it was planned to build homes or a hotel on the site but that never happened.

quickfingers wrote:

Panda wrote:Drains are being inspected now , a bit late wouldn,t you say!! Anything in there would have been washed away after 7 years.

The drains were never used.  They were put in when it was planned to build homes or a hotel on the site but that never happened.

I read that it was Redwood quickfingers who persuaded the Portugese to allow this search , now they are extending it without a thought for the Tourist trade in PDL or the residents who are fed up to the eye teeth with the McCanns.

I thought this site they are investigating was private property, hence the fencing on the road side and your comment about the plans for it.

If nothing is found I think the Portugese will close the case and I hope Cameron gets a hiding for using taxpayers money for this search , which will be in the region of over £6 million.

If they cut down grass on the site they could inadvertently destroy evidence.