Despite the setback of the German justice system in the Madeleine McCann case, investigators continue to work and try to gather the necessary clues to be able to sit the main and only suspect in the case, the 45-year-old German pedophile Christian Breckner, on the bench. The German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters and head of the investigation into the case of the disappearance of the British minor pointed to Brueckner in June 2020 as responsible for the kidnapping and murder of Maddie and said that the case was 90 percent resolved. This compelling statement came after several years of investigation, interviews with witnesses and friends, and some scouting of new areas near Praia da Luz, the Portuguese town where the McCanns were spending a few days off in May 2007 when their daughter disappeared from the apartment while she was sleeping.
Image of the exterior of apartment 5A of the Oceans Club, from which Madeleine McCann disappeared on May 3, 2007 Armando Franca AP
Despite the fact that the Braunschweig court said that it is not competent to try Brueckner, who is serving a seven-year prison sentence for raping an elderly American woman in the Algarve, Wolters continues to work to try to complete the puzzle. For this reason, he has requested the collaboration of the Portuguese authorities to search again at the Arade dam, located about 50 kilometers from Praia da Luz. The place was frequented by the main defendant and he knew it well, so the German prosecution suspects that he was able to dispose of Madeleine’s body there before returning to Germany.
The Portuguese Judicial Police has begun to cordon off the area this morning and the search work will begin tomorrow. The area was already inspected in 2008 but they failed to find any significant evidence. Scotland Yard agents will also travel to the place, but only to “observe”.
The search is set to last at least two days, which could be extended if anything relevant turns up. A team of divers is scheduled to explore the depths of the dam, but excavations will also take place in some of the forest near the water.
Kate and Gerry McCann pose for the media with a poster of their daughter, in 2012 Sang Tan AP
The area to be searched is the Barragem do Arade reservoir, near Silves, where a trucker said he saw a woman hand a girl like Madeleine McCann over to a man two days after she disappeared from the apartment on May 3, 2007. With this there will be three records made in the area. The first two occurred in February and March 2008 by a team of divers hired by the Portuguese lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia. During this search, two bags containing small bones were found, but they were ruled out as human. In addition, divers located several pieces of rope, some plastic tape, and a white cotton sock.
This is the first major operation since June 2014, when British police obtained permission to carry out excavations at Praia da Luz involving sniffer dogs trained to detect bodies and depth radar.
Image of the van in which Brueckner lived on the day of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance La Razón
Search in another nearby lake
It is not the first time that an area where there is a large pool of water has been searched. In September 2020, it was tracked down again at Lake Barragem da Bravura, located in a natural park, some 25 kilometers north of the place of disappearance. The place was indicated by a letter found near the Praia da Luz apartments and sent to a Dutch media outlet in 2014, in which it said that Madeleine had been thrown into the water in Barragem da Bravura lake, located in a natural park, about 25 kilometers north of the place of disappearance. The note identifies the vast area of water as the “final resting place” and included Madeleine’s name. The employee said that the note was written in Portuguese and that he gave it to the police, but they did nothing with it.
As revealed by the “Mirror” newspaper, the British Kit Thackeray, who has been next to the reservoir for 30 years, said that there were Germans living in caravans everywhere in the early 2000s. And in reference to the possible whereabouts of Brueckner’s friend, he indicated that he “now he could be anywhere.” The area was searched days after Madeleine’s disappearance, but local newspapers reported that police spent just two hours there and required divers to search for the girl underwater.
Image of one of Christian Brueckner’s mugshots La Razón La Razón
Brueckner maintains his innocence
Christian Bureckner has maintained his innocence throughout this time and has accused the German prosecution of using him as a scapegoat, in addition to accusing them of using methods more typical of Nazi Germany. After the Braunschweig court withdrew, his lawyer requested his release, but it was not granted. However, and in the absence of resolution of several pending trials on sexual abuse, the German pedophile could request provisional release after serving two thirds of the sentence, something that could arrive in 2026.
Brueckner’s time in prison has not been easy. He has been in isolation for 15 months, without seeing any prisoner and with the only possibility of being able to take a short walk in the courtyard for an hour each day. According to his lawyers, his situation is “inhumane” because he is only allowed to speak with prison social workers twice a month for 20 minutes. He can also call his lawyers, but little else.
