Fifteen years ago, on May 3, 2007, young Madeleine McCann, then 4 years old, disappeared in Portugal. Since then, the mystery remains intact even if the German justice considers to have apprehended a suspect. This Tuesday, May 3, 2022, a spokesperson for the German public prosecutor’s office even told the police that they had new evidence.
“The investigation continues and we have discovered new elements, new evidence, not forensic, but evidence”, said Hans Christian Wolters, spokesperson for the Brunswick prosecutor’s office, responsible for the German aspect of this case, in an interview broadcast Tuesday evening by the channel CMTV.
The Portuguese public prosecutor announced on April 22 the indictment, at his request, of a suspect in Germany, within the framework of the investigation carried out “in cooperation with the English and German authorities”.
A repeat pedophile
His identity or the nature of the suspicions weighing on him had not been specified, but according to German justice, it is Christian Brückner, a repeat pedophile who lived for several years in southern Portugal.
Also read. Maddie case. The disturbing profile of the man indicted 15 years after his disappearance
This man, who is serving a prison sentence for the rape of a 72-year-old American in 2005 in Portugal, had already been identified by German investigators in 2020 as the main suspect in the murder of the British girl.
“We are convinced that he is the murderer of Madeleine McCann”, reaffirmed Hans Christian Wolters without further details, refusing in particular to reveal details of the investigation and in particular details of the expertise carried out in a van that belonged to him.
According to the German investigation, phone records identified the suspect near the hotel complex where Maddie disappeared on the evening of May 3, 2007.
“We continue to look for who called him on the phone” that evening, said Hans Christian Wolters during this television interview.
Suspect ‘has no alibi’
Asked about the existence of an alibi proving that Christian Brückner was not in Praia da Luz the evening of the girl’s disappearance, Hans Christian Wolters is categorical: “Christian Brückner has no alibi. »
Madeleine McCann had disappeared shortly before her fourth birthday in Praia da Luz, a seaside resort in the tourist region of the Algarve, where she was on vacation with her family.
Also read. On May 3, 2007, Maddie disappeared: her parents have an “essential” need for “the truth”
Her disappearance had given rise to an exceptional international campaign led by her parents to try to find her.
After 14 months of controversial investigations, marked in particular by the indictment of the parents and then their exoneration, the Portuguese justice had closed the case in 2008, before reopening the file five years later.
« The fact that Christian Brückner is a suspect in Portugal shows that we are not in the wrong direction », said Hans Christian Wolters.