Overview

• About 30 specialists from the German Federal Police and Portuguese Judicial Police are scanning abandoned houses, wells and cisterns across a secured 50-hectare area near Praia da Luz.
• Excavations focus on land surrounding a home where Christian B. lived in 2007 after he was named the prime suspect in 2020 following mobile-phone data linking him to the scene.
• The probe was ordered by the Braunschweig Public Prosecutor’s Office and is set to run through Friday, with an option to extend if conclusive evidence remains elusive.
• Christian B. is serving a sentence for a 2005 rape in Portugal and may be released from his German prison as early as September 2025, heightening the urgency of the search.
• Authorities launched the new operation after recently surfaced photos and video materials indicated possible burial spots in the targeted area.