About to complete 15 years since Madeleine McCann disappeared on a beach in Portugal, prosecutors in the country formally indicated this Thursday (21) a suspect in the case. It’s the first time this has happened since the girl’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, were nominated in 2007 – they were later exonerated.
Then, aged three, the British child disappeared on May 3, 2007 from the hotel room where the family spent their holidays in Praia da Luz, in the Algarve region. The parents had dinner with friends at a nearby restaurant. The case moved the world and to this day remains unsolved.
Prosecutors in Faro, the main city in the Algarve, did not release the suspect’s name, but said in a statement that he was identified as such by the German authorities at the request of the Portuguese. Despite identification, he was not indicted.
German police said in June 2020 that Madeleine was believed to be dead and that Christian Brueckner, 45, convicted of drug trafficking and child abuse, was likely responsible for the crime – he is in prison in Germany for raping a woman in the Algarve. Since then, however, he has not been charged in the British girl’s case and denies any involvement.
Brueckner lived in the Algarve between 1995 and 2007 and robbed hotels and flats, according to documents obtained by the Reuters news agency in 2020. He also forged passports and was caught stealing diesel from a Portuguese port.
Prosecutors explained that the investigation has been carried out in cooperation with British and German authorities. The Portuguese Judiciary Police handed over documents with hundreds of names linked to Madeleine’s case, including that of Brueckner, to British authorities in 2012, according to the corporation. German police received their first tip linking the suspect to the British girl’s case in 2013.
The reason why, after so long, Portuguese prosecutors identify a suspect is not clear, but it may be related to the statute of limitations of the case after 15 years, which would end the investigation.
