Madeleine McCann case: Suspect Christian Brueckner finally to be quizzed by German cops, but it may not be soon
Three-year-old Madeleine Beth McCann disappeared on the evening of 3 May 2007 from her bed in a holiday apartment at a resort in Praia da Luz, in the Algarve region of Portugal. Convicted rapist and pedophile Christian Brueckner, 43, was identified as the number one suspect by authorities earlier this year who said they had “concrete evidence” the little girl was dead. Now, German police have said that they will question the prime suspect for McCann’s disappearance.
Christian Wolters, who is leading the inquiry in Germany, said, “When the accused will be questioned depends on further investigation. But he will be questioned.” Christian B is currently being held at the top security Wolfenbuttel jail near Hanover where he is serving seven years for raping a 72-year-old American woman in Praia da Luz on Portugal’s Algarve coast in 2005, the same place where Madeleine vanished from two years later.
As per the BBC, Christian B lived in Portugal on and off for years between 1997 and 2007, staying in a camper van at the time he is suspected of abducting Madeleine. Investigators now believe he may have committed at least three other sex crimes — two of them against children.
Wolters further told The Sun, “We are not in contact with the McCann family. Otherwise, we conduct our investigations as necessary. Interrogation of an accused often comes at the end of the investigation and is therefore not unusual. When the accused will be questioned depends on the further investigation. There is no fixed time for this.”
Earlier this month, Wolters told the BBC that while his team does not currently have enough evidence to charge Christian B, he is "very confident". He said, “If you knew the evidence we had you would come to the same conclusion as I do but I can't give you details because we don't want the accused to know what we have on him — these are tactical considerations.”
Wolters said progress in the case of Madeleine was slower because of the logistical challenges posed by a disappearance now 13 years old in a different country. He added, “I can't promise, I can't guarantee that we have enough to bring a charge but I'm very confident because what we have so far doesn't allow any other conclusion at all.”
Dame Cressida Rose Dick, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service in London, said earlier this month that Scotland Yard is still treating Madeleine McCann as a missing person. "We will continue until the time that it is right, either because much more light has been thrown on this or somebody has been brought to justice," she said. "Or if we feel we have exhausted all possible opportunities. We're not at any of those stages at the moment, and the team continues."
McCann was on holiday from the UK with her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann; her two-year-old twin siblings; and a group of family friends and their children. She and the twins had been left asleep at 8.30 pm in the ground-floor apartment, while the McCanns and friends dined in a restaurant nearby. The parents checked on the children throughout the evening, until Kate discovered she was missing around 10 pm.