Madeleine McCann’s Disappearance Finally Has an Official Suspect, 15 Years After She Vanished

Madeleine McCann's parents, Kate and Gerry, have been through years of pain since their three-year-old daughter disappeared in 2007. Now, there might be a sliver of hope, 15 years after their toddler's disappearance.

The British girl hasn't been seen since vanishing from her family vacation in Portugal in 2007. Now, German native Christian Brueckner has been named as an “official suspect” in the case by Portuguese prosecutors.

According to 7 News, the Faro Department of Criminal Investigation and Prosecution (DIAP) announced on Thursday that a man had been named an ‘arguido’ or ‘formal suspect’. “As part of the investigation into the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in 2007, a person was made an arguido on Wednesday,” the statement said. “The person was made an arguido by the German authorities in execution of a request for international judicial cooperation issued by the Public Ministry of Portugal. The investigation is led by the Portimao section of the DIAP in Faro with the assistance of the Policia Judiciaria police. The investigation has been carried out with the cooperation of the English and German authorities.”

Brueckner is currently serving a seven-year jail sentence in Germany for raping a woman aged 72 in Portugal. The 43-year-old's lawyer claims that Brueckner is being made an arguido because of the upcoming 15th anniversary of McCann’s abduction. “The step taken by the Portuguese authorities should not be overrated,” Brueckner’s lawyer Friedrich Fuelscher told The Mirror. “Without knowing the Portuguese legal situation in detail, I assume that this measure is a procedural artifice to stop the statute of limitations threatening in a few days.” This could be related to Portugal’s 15-year statute of limitations for crimes with a maximum prison sentence of 10 years or more. In Germany, there is no time limit for a murder charge but in Portgual there is a strict 15-year limit.

In 2020, Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters admitted to The Sun that the leads in the case had dried up and there would be no developments that year. In June, German authorities identified Brueckner for the abduction of the three-year-old but he was not charged at the time. Wolters elaborated, ''I cannot say how long our investigation will go on for but I know there will be no developments this year, in 2020. We had hoped to charge him but that has not been possible. Maybe we hope to have something by the Spring of 2021, maybe it could take longer but certainly nothing this year. We have some evidence against our suspect but it is not strong enough. We have proof that he was involved and that he killed Madeleine but it's not strong enough to charge him. We need more evidence and more witnesses but if we don't get them then the case may drop but we hope that will not happen and he will be charged."

References:

https://7news.com.au/news/world/christian-brueckner-charged-over-madeleine-mccann-disappearance-almost-15-years-since-she-vanished-c-6534845

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/breaking-christian-brueckner-named-official-26766428

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/13086481/madeleine-mccann-heartache-suspect-charged-next-year/

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