Madeleine McCann: Cops Set to Launch SECOND Search in 2 Weeks

As one search for missing toddler Madeleine McCann concluded, another one is set to begin.

The 16-year investigation into the disappearance of McCann is no where near over, as officers intend on digging an even deeper probe into the places where prime suspect Christian Brueckner used to spend a majority of his time.

Cops believe the rural area of Foral in Portugal, where the registered sex offender and convicted rapist lived in the months after the little girl vanished on May 3, 2007, could hold "vital clues" about the British child's whereabouts after she vanished from her villa while on a family vacation.

"It’s an area where police officers believe would benefit from being looked at again and revisiting to see if it can throw up fresh leads," a source revealed to a news publication on Friday, June 2. "They firmly believe other sites are out there, which require a fresh search."

The secluded village is a 50-minute drive from Praia de Luz, which is where McCann mysteriously went missing more than a decade ago.

"Christian B spent a lot of time there after Madeleine vanished. It was his favorite hangout and cops believe images of the area are among many of Christian B's pictures they currently have in their possession," the insider noted.

"Detectives are seeking to work out where these places are and why Christian B was taking pictures of those places," the source continued, noting, "the trail is leading to Foral because this is an area that officers know that Christian B spent a long time in and around at the time Maddie went missing."

A former friend of the criminal has been helping police with the investigation, informing officers that Brueckner frequented the Algarve region and would visit the Arade reservoir — where police just concluded a three-day search — "often," always choosing the same location as "there was usually no one else around."

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"This was his exact special spot that he said he liked to come to cleanse himself," the unidentified German woman explained of the reservoir. "I don't know what he did there as he was very secretive."

Brueckner is currently behind bars for a separate crime, as police never found enough evidence to prove him guilty of the suspected kidnap and murder of McCann.

Meanwhile, according to a source close to Brueckner's legal team, any further search involving their client is a "waste of time."

"He didn’t kill Madeleine and all of this is taking attention away from the job of finding out who really did," an insider alleged.

The Sun spoke to sources, as well as the friend of Brueckner, regarding the McCann investigation.