Madeleine McCann suspect’s girlfriend at time of 3-year-old’s disappearance identified, could help solve case
The prime suspect in the kidnapping and killing of Madeleine McCann, who went missing on the evening of May 3, 2007, had a female accomplice in his crimes in Portugal, it has been revealed. Nicole Fehlinger was allegedly the girlfriend of Christian Brueckner who helped him in a series of burglaries in the Algarve region in 2007. The revelation about Fehlinger has sparked hope that she could help solve the mystery behind the three-year-old’s disappearance. The German woman was unmasked in an explosive documentary on Portugal’s national RTP TV station when a Portuguese couple linked her to Brueckner. The couple claimed that Fehlinger acted as an accomplice of Brueckner and used to inform him of properties in the Algarve to raid, just like the break-in at the McCanns' holiday home in 2007.
They alleged that Fehlinger tipped off Brueckner so he could steal a family's life-savings from a house along the coast from Praia da Luz just a few months after Madeleine went missing. According to reports, a man looking very similar to Brueckner was seen leaving the house in Albufeira carrying a rucksack and heavy tools that could be used to break-in. He allegedly stole $1,14,285(100,000 euros), which was the family's life-savings, in November 2007. The pair also alleged the 43-year-old woman of calling Brueckner about the empty house using a disposable mobile phone.
Born in Germany’s Wuerzburg, Fehlinger lived in Portugal for several years, where she looked after troubled teenagers as part of a German fostering program. After returning to Germany in 2017, she now lives in Bavaria and reportedly works in the hospitality business. Some reports even claimed that Fehlinger is the same woman whom Brueckner called the day Madeleine disappeared from Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz, where the little one was on holiday with her parents Kate and Gerry McCann. However, currently, there is no evidence to prove that.
Portugal's Friday at Nine TV crime show reported: “These two Portuguese women are sure that Christian Bruecker was the robber and that Nicole Fehlinger was his accomplice. They believe she as behind the cunning scheme in which a suitcase containing Euro 100,000 was stolen.”
The relatives of the family whose life-savings were stolen alleged that Fehlinger knew that they failed to deposit their money in the bank and planned the burglary with Brueckner. One relative said: “She saw us leave with a suitcase in hand, of course. And she was in the car the whole time we were in that office, she was in the car with my granddaughter. But she saw us go to the bank - it was BES bank, which was close to that office - and, I don't know how she could have realized that it was not possible to deposit the money.
“On the way to back she stopped at a mobile phone store. She even told me that she was going to buy a cell phone and she even wanted a disposable one, that she even told me. She received a call, it was spoken in German, we heard the word "naturlich", which means "for sure", "naturally."'
Friday at Nine also reported that in Madeleine’s case “the phone call took place just before the crime, signaling that the house was free. A man who neighbors have described as being Christian Brueckner made a phone call and left with a rucksack from which hung a heavy tool.”
Meanwhile, Fehlinger has declined to comment on her relationship with Brueckner and also on the allegations made against her. But her father Dieter has said how Brueckner bragged about his drug-smuggling business and that he could hide children in his motorhome. “He told me: ‘I can transport children, kids, in this space. Drugs and children, you can transport them in this van, it's a safe space in the van, nobody can find them. Nobody can catch you’,” Dieter added.