Madeleine McCann: No 'smoking gun' evidence points to Christian Brueckner as prosecutor maintains Maddie's dead
There are "many pieces" of the Madeleine McCann "puzzle" pointing towards prime suspect Christian Brueckner, German authorities say. However, there's still no "smoking gun" evidence warranting charges to be brought against the 43-year-old pedophile in Maddie's disappearance, Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters has reportedly admitted.
"All I can say is this is like a puzzle and there are many pieces that lead us to believe Christian B is responsible," Wolters said in an interview on Portuguese state broadcaster RTP. "One of the pieces is the signal from the mobile phone he was using at the time Madeleine McCann disappeared and has been shown to have been in the area of the Ocean Club resort where she was staying."
Wolters explained the German decision to treat Maddie's disappearance as a murder case and not a missing persons' inquiry. "The result of our investigation does not point in any way to the possibility the suspect might have kept Madeleine alive," he asserted. "We have nothing to indicate she could be alive. Everything we have points to her being dead. We have no margin of maneuver."
Wolters also rubbished reports about Brueckner having an alleged accomplice in the disappearance of the British youngster, especially after claims made in Portuguese TV that Brueckner's ex-girlfriend Nicole Fehlinger was involved in a burglary he was linked to. "Naturally we investigate everyone known to us to see if they had something to do with Madeleine's disappearance," the Braunschweig-based prosecutor said. 'This woman was the suspect's ex-girlfriend and she is classed as a witness but we don't have any reason to believe she is linked to this crime."
"She is not a suspect for us. We are only investigating Christian B, nobody else. At this stage, we believe he acted alone in this case," he added. Wolters also nullified claims made by disgraced former cop Goncalo Amaral that Brueckner was being "scapegoated." Amaral reportedly met with Brueckner's defense lawyer Friedrich Fulscher last week in Portugal.
The former cop was removed from the original investigation into Maddie's disappearance after he criticized British law enforcement. He is now reportedly involved in an ongoing court battle with Maddie's parents Kate and Gerry McCann after he said Madeleine died in their apartment by accident and the parents covered it up. "I know this former inspector speaks a lot and comments on our work," Wolters told RTP channel's 'Sexta as 9'. "We're not going to get into a war of words. All I will say is that we have carried out a very serious investigation and there is no indication whatsoever that Madeleine McCann's parents are linked to her disappearance."
"On the other hand, we have a lot of evidence pointing to Christian B killing her. Goncalo Amaral knows how he reaches his conclusions and that's not up to us to judge," he added. Brueckner is currently in Germany's maximum-security Kiel prison for drug offenses. He is due to start a seven-year sentence for the 2005 rape of an American pensioner in Praia da Luz, for which he was convicted last year.