New details have emerged regarding the German man who allegedly disappeared in the years-old disappearance of 3-year-old Madeleine McCann, including that he was known at the time to have ‘stolen’ from hotels and holiday apartments’, according to a recent report.
A recently selected part of CBS’s “48 Hours” delves into the 13-year-old case of McCann, a British girl who was on holiday with her family in May 2007 in Praia da Luz, Portugal, when she disappeared from her hotel room has. she and siblings slept.
The years-long investigation into who McCann, who disappeared shortly before her fourth birthday, took has interested the UK – and much of the world – for years. According to her parents, Madeleine went missing after she and her twin siblings fell asleep in their holiday complex while eating with friends at a nearby restaurant.
Christian Brueckner (Getty Images); Madeleine McCann (Handout)
Police at the time said the suspect, described as white with short, blond hair and a slender build, was linked to a caravan seen in the Algarve in 2007 and believed to be in the holiday resort in the days before and after 3 May. that year.
In June 2020, British authorities announced that a German man had been identified as a suspect, with officials later identifying him as Christian Brueckner, or ‘Christian B.’. Brueckner is 43 and was in and around the Praia da Luz resort on the Algarve coast when McCann disappeared on May 3, 2007.
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Bruecker reportedly told a friend that he had information about McCann, according to Saturday’s “48 Hours” segment, “The Puzzle, Solving the Madeleine McCann Case.”
A tipster went to the German authorities about Brueckner in 2017, and an investigation was launched.
“Christian B. is a … criminal who has committed many financially motivated crimes such as housebreaking or drug trafficking,” crime analyst Mark Hofmann said during the segment. “But he also has a darker side.”
“He went from job to job. He went from crime to crime,” Hofmann added.
Brueckner sexually abused a child in Germany in 1994 before moving to Portugal before serving time in connection with the alleged crime. After returning German to meet his time, Brueckner moved back to Portugal.
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“He lived in a house, about one mile from the crime scene,” Hofmann said.
A view of the block of flats from which British girl Madeleine McCann disappeared in 2007, in Praia da Luz, on the Algarve coast of Portugal, on Thursday 4 June 2020. (AP Photo / Armando Franca)
(AP Photo / Armando Franca)
Hofmann said Brueckner was “known for burglary in hotel resorts”.
He canceled the registration of his car in the days after McCann’s disappearance and according to the report returned to German shortly afterwards.
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German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters confirmed during the segment that Brueckner’s cellphone data put him in the vicinity of the family’s vacation spot around McCann’s disappearance – but investigators are still working to confirm that Brueckner was the person using his cellphone at the time. .
“The phone number put Christian at the Ocean Club, but we need to determine which person is using this phone at the moment. Normally it was used by Christian B,” Wolters told 48 Hours. “But we do not know which person used it on May 3, 2007.”
Wolters said CBS investigators have yet to locate and speak to the person who contacted Brueckner’s cell phone on the night of McCann’s disappearance, stressing that it “may be the only person who can confirm that Christian B. is holding his cellphone. … his hand that night. ‘
He added: “And that would be proof that not only was his cell phone at the crime scene, but that he was also at the crime scene.”
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According to the report, Wolters said that in 2013 Brueckner was able to connect a Skype chat room for pedophiles.
“We have strong evidence that Christian B. killed Maddie McCann,” Wolters said during the interview.
He noted that investigators had not yet recovered the girl’s body, but added: “We are certain that Christian B. killed Madeleine McCann because of the evidence we have.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.