Did Maddie shrine – discovered by British couple months after she vanished – spark new reservoir search?

A BRITISH couple have told The Mail on Sunday how they spotted a bizarre ‘shrine’ to missing Madeleine McCann in the reservoir police searched last week – just seven months after she vanished.

The retired couple, who have asked to be named only as Ralf and Ann, were so disturbed by what they saw they took pictures and sent them to Portuguese detectives, thinking they were of significance but, amazingly, never heard back.

Consisting of boulders in the shape of an arrow pointing towards a picnic site which was dug over by police last week, the makeshift memorial was weighed down by a large rock and had a bouquet of flowers and a photograph of abducted Madeleine on it.

Three years ago – when prime suspect Christian Brueckner, 45, was identified by German police – the couple contacted detectives after

‘It gives me goosebumps now – the whole thing was weird’

seeing an appeal for anyone who was on holiday in the Algarve when Madeleine went missing in May 2007 to get in touch.

This time, the German officers from the BKA (criminal investigation unit) responded within hours of Ralf and Ann emailing them and quizzed them on the telephone for several hours before asking them to give a formal statement.

It raises the question whether it was their information that prompted the German authorities to request a search of the remote picnic area campsite on the edge of the reservoir near Silves, which Brueckner sinisterly used to call his ‘little paradise’.

Speaking exclusively to The Mail on Sunday from their holiday home, just a few minutes’ drive from the reservoir, retired builder Ralf and former bank cashier Ann described the bizarre find. Ralf, 66, a father of two, said: ‘It was around Christmas 2007, so Madeleine had only gone missing a few months beforehand and I went down to the reservoir with Ann, our daughter, who was then 16, and the dog...

‘Our daughter ran on ahead of us and all of a sudden she just shouted to us, “Quick, come and look, someone must have died here.” When we got down, we noticed a row of stones stretching out into the water and on the last one there was a bouquet of fresh white lilies. We went out and had a look, and on the stone where the flowers were, there was a photograph of Madeleine.

‘There was no note or anything and it was all very strange.’

Ann, 67, said: ‘Thinking about it now gives me goosebumps because when we saw where the police were searching the past few days you could see that’s where the row of stones was pointing to.

‘Back then when we found it the whole thing was just so weird. At the time I thought, “has someone dumped Madeleine in the water and then come back to make a shrine in her memory?” It was so odd.’

The couple contacted Portuguese police to tell them of their discovery, sending them the photos, but heard nothing from them.

Strangely, when they returned just two days later, the flowers and photograph had vanished.

Ralf and Ann put the incident to the back of their mind but dug out the pictures three years ago after seeing news reports naming Brueckner as the prime suspect.

Ralf said: ‘I immediately contacted the BKA in Germany and told them what we had and I had a reply back within a few hours.

‘They wanted to know everything that we had seen and then they asked me to send them the pictures and they sent a map of the reservoir, asking me to point out where the stones were.

‘As the crow flies, it was just half a mile across the water from the picnic spot where the police were digging last week.

‘The German police were very interested in what we had and kept asking questions about why we were there, what we did for a living and then asked us to come to make a statement.’

Ann said: ‘They said they had been in the area a few months earlier but didn’t say why. They were keeping their cards very close to their chest. They asked us to come to Wiesbaden, where their headquarters are, as they were taking it very seriously and wanted to meet us in person.

‘Ralf couldn’t make it so I went on my own, and I was there for a good couple of hours going over what we had seen and showing them the photographs. We’ve had a holiday home in Portugal for years and have been going to the reservoir since the late 1990s, so we know it well and we then retired out here.’

The dam was first searched six months after the couple’s discovery, but only by lawyer Marcos Aragao Corriea, who funded two searches of the reservoir alongside the Spanish detective agency Metodo 3, who were hired by the McCann family.

His hunt uncovered a bag of animal bones and a child’s sock but a full police search was never carried out – until last week.

It again raises questions about how the Portuguese police initially carried out their operation.

Patricia de Sousa Cipriano, head of the Association of Missing Children, said: ‘If these new searches at the Arade dam confirm flagrant errors in the investigation, then the Portuguese police has to justify itself and ensure it doesn’t happen again.’

Soil samples taken from the area searched last week have been sent to Germany for analysis, but sources suggest nothing of real significance was found.

The German prosecutor downplayed reports that a bra, clothing and other objects had been found.

‘It was near where police were digging last week’