LAST DITCH EFFORT

POLICE LAUNCH A DESPERATE LAST-MINUTE SEARCH TO GET JUSTICE FOR THE MISSING BRITISH GIRL

- By Kylie Walters

With time quickly running out until the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, Christian Brueckner, walks from prison a free man, police have launched a desperate attempt to keep him behind bars.

Portuguese and German authorities joined forces for several days from June 3 to mount a large search of land near where the 3-year-old was abducted from in 2007.

Search teams scoured the scrubland between the Praia da Luz apartment where the McCann family was staying and a series of derelict farmhouses and barns that Brueckner was camping in at the time, hoping to find new clues they could use to keep him behind bars. A well was drained and investigators used chainsaws to clear areas of dense vegetation.

“German cops know it is now or never so they need to push ahead with every credible tip they have,” a source told British newspaper