For some 18 years, people have followed the news about Madeleine McCann, the toddler who disappeared from her parent’s vacation condo in 2007. There has been much effort and money put into the case, but it now seems as if there may be some movement.
When investigators were searching for Madeleine McCann, they came across a gruesome discovery in a remote Portuguese scrubland. It was 30 miles from where the toddler disappeared and they found pieces of clothing and fragments of bone buried in the area.
They were found during a large dig last week, and suddenly there is new life in the 18-year-old case. Portuguese and German police are working hard to prove whether there is a link between suspect Christian Brueckner and the missing girls disappearing before his prison sentence comes to an end in September.
The three-day operation ended on June 5 and it focused on a 120-acre tract of scrubland near the Barragem do Arade reservoir in Lagos. Authorities have found fragments of clothing and bone fragments, and they are now investigating the remains in the laboratory.
There has not yet been a connection between the little girl’s disappearance and Brueckner, but this may prove to be one of the most tangible leads anyone has found in years. It may also prevent Brueckner from being released.
Brueckner is currently serving time in Germany on charges of rape among other things, although it is an unrelated case. He came up on the radar in the missing girl’s case in 2020 and has remained the prime suspect.
Despite the ‘mountain of circumstantial evidence’ held by German authorities, they have never charged him formally with the disappearance. At this point, it is a race against time as he is set to be released from prison on September 17, 2025.
They attempted to extend his case by prosecuting him for five other rapes and child abuse cases but a German judge through them out of court, saying that the evidence was ‘almost worthless’. They then turned to the Madeleine McCann case.
Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said: “We have strong evidence that Madeleine McCann is d*ad and that our suspect k*lled her. We don’t have the body and no parts of the body, but we have enough proof.”
This story continues to develop and it is their hope that they will be able to pin him to the case for many reasons. According to an inside source, if he gets out of prison, he will likely disappear and never be found again.
