Madeleine McCann case: Prime suspect Christian Brueckner's 'secret lairs' may hold clue to missing toddler
Discovery+ continues to make headlines with 'Prime Suspect: The Madeleine McCann Case.' The three-part documentary examines the unsolved case, with German citizen Christian Brueckner being considered the prime suspect in the mysterious disappearance of the three-year-old in 2007. Current developments have seen German police being confident that McCann’s abductor is sitting in a German jail for raping a 72-year-old in Praia da Luz, the holiday destination from where the child went missing.
One of the talking points the docu will most definitely explore is the 'secret lairs' of prime suspect Brueckner. Last year June, police discovered thousands of videos on USB drives and hard drives that were buried at a property in Germany that Brueckner owned. According to 60 Minutes, the lairs could hold key details behind the disappearance of the toddler. Brueckner lived in a house in Monte Judeu just 8 km from the Ocean Club apartment in Portugal.
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Madeleine McCann case: How Christian Brueckner became prime suspect in toddler's 2004 disappearance
In addition to the home, Brueckner, 43, also had a shack roughly about 3 km from where the girl went missing on May 3, 2007. The police also discovered that on the night the toddler disappeared, Brueckner's cellphone had received a call, pinning the phone's location at or near the location of the McCanns' apartment. He also left Portugal suddenly on the day after the kid's disappearance.
Pictures released by German police show two partially ruined homes he lived between 1996 and 2007.
60 Minutes also added that there were was a witness that provided evidence at the rape trial saying he had seen Brueckner "climb through open windows in one or another holiday flat". However, there was no concrete evidence related to McCann. As far as German prosecutors' opinions go, they believe McCann is not alive anymore. They also claim that Brueckner is the prime suspect in the case. He was over 30 years old at the time McCann disappeared.
As per The Sun's reports, Brueckner was described as an "angry" man who had suddenly vanished in 2006" and his property was described as "disgusting, and absolutely vile." He was believed to have worked odd jobs, but also sold drugs and committed robberies in the meantime. According to a CBS News report, official German court documents revealed Brueckner was first arrested at 15 years old for theft in 1992. In 1994, he sexually abused a child in Germany and fled to Portugal.
It was in 2017 when the police first received a tip from an unnamed person that Brueckner had made a drunken confession that he knew what had happened to the missing child.
Produced by Danish Heartland TV and directed by Jesper H. Grand, the Discovery+ three-parter features friends of the suspect, an ex-girlfriend, and major persons in the case, including the suspect’s defense counsel, the German prosecutor, and the former Portuguese investigator. Brückner is currently serving his sentence in jail in Kiel, northern Germany.
'Prime Suspect: The Madeleine McCann Case' is currently available for streaming on Discovery+.