By CECÍLIA PIRES
DIVERS COMMISSIONED by a Madeira-based lawyer have been searching for Madeleine McCann in waters at the Arade Dam, near Silves.
Operations began on Thursday (January 31) but have now been temporarily halted to allow Marcos Aragão to review the search options.
Martin Salkous, from Time Dive, the diving company from Lagos that is carrying out the search, told The Resident that “the search is not finished” and that they “just decided to make a short break of a couple of days to better analyse the area and have more search options “.
“We have been searching for four days but the water is very dark now. After the last few days’ rain, conditions are not the best for this kind of search,” he said.
He added that since diving started, they have only found a rope and some wood, one of the reasons their client, Marcos Aragão, is preparing to widen the search area.
The lawyer from Madeira says he commissioned the operation after being tipped off about the location shortly after Madeleine went missing.
He says he contacted detectives from Metodo 3, the private investigators hired by Gerry and Kate McCann, who are reported to have said they consider the information is credible.
He also says he informed the Portuguese Polícia Judiciária about the information, although “they have done nothing”, he told Portuguese daily newspaper Correio da Manhã.
Marcos Aragão says he received the information about the whereabouts of Madeleine on May 6 and believes the little girl had been dumped in a “deserted lake, with murky waters and heavily vegetated banks” and that a “small sand beach would be another characteristic” to better find the place.
The lawyer added he took several months to find a location fitting the description, eventually finding it in December, when he travelled to the Algarve.
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