Christian Brückner: Madeleine McCann suspect linked to case of another girl, 'German Maddie', who went missing in 2015
German police are reportedly probing the prime suspect in Madeleine McCann's disappearance, Christian Brückner, over another case of a missing little girl dubbed the "German Maddie". Authorities on June 3 had announced that they were investigating Brückner, a convicted pedophile, as a prime suspect in the possible murder of Madeleine. Brückner is currently in a German prison for raping a 72-year-old American tourist in Portugal in 2005.
Police revealed that they are re-investigating Brückner in the disappearance of five-year-old German girl Inga Gehricke, who disappeared in May 2015. Reports state that the 43-year-old suspect was in the same area when the girl vanished. The little girl was reportedly enjoying a barbeque with her family in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, around 50 miles from Berlin when she disappeared without a trace.
The case echoes the disappearance of Madeleine from the UK. Maddie mysteriously disappeared from her parents' vacation apartment at The Ocean Club Resort in Portugal on the night of May 3, 2007. At the time, her parents were just 50 meters away from the apartment, dining at a tapas restaurant with several close friends while Madeleine and her twin siblings slept in the house. Thirteen years later, the child is still missing. Madeleine's disappearance is the most widely-reported missing person's case in modern history.
German authorities, on Thursday, June 4, confirmed that they were probing the case again for "new clues in connection with a suspect in Braunschweig," according to Sky News. The girl's family now fears that Brückner might be involved in Inga's disappearance too after a stash of child abuse images were found at this farmhouse in Germany, located near the site the girl disappeared.
Brückner booked a parking space in a rest area less than 60 miles from the spot where Inga disappeared, German magazine Bild reported. Nearly nine months after Inga's disappearance, police had reportedly raided the suspect's farmhouse 55 miles away from the spot in Neuwegersleben. Officers at the time had discovered pictures of child abuse on a USB stick and young girl's clothing. However, there was no trace of the little girl at the lair.
The pictures were sent away for inspection. However, the case against Brückner went cold and no line of inquiry was pursued after. The case was not investigated further despite the suspect not having any alibi on the day Inga went missing, according to reports.
"Just a day before Inga disappeared... Christian B had a documented parking lot number on the A 2 near Helmstedt," family's lawyer Petra Küllmei told Volksstimme. The file was closed again only four weeks after starting work. I think that's not very ambitious."
Inga was with her family visiting friends for the weekend on May 2, 2015 when she wandered into the forest to look for wood. She, however, did not return. Her parents raised an alarm after searching the area for 15 minutes, police subsequently launched an investigation but the little girl was never found. Inga's family, just like Madeliene's, has refused to give up hope and maintain that they might find her alive one day.