A new suspect in the case of missing Madeleine McCann has been identified on a dramatic day 13 years after the three-year-old went missing.
A German paedophile, nameed as Christian Brueckner, is now at the centre of investigations after Madeleine disappeared in Portugal. He received a call on a Portuguese phone number on the night she went missing, before re-registering a Jaguar car in someone else’s name the day after the disappearance. The first picture of him has now been released, after German police said they were treating the case as a murder investigation.
The 2007 incident shocked Britain and sparked major police investigations lasting years and costing millions of pounds. Here is what we know about Brueckner so far:
- He is German, aged 43, but at the time Madeleine vanished on May 3, 2007, he would have been 30 and may have looked somewhere between 25 and early 30s. He is described as white, with short blonde hair, of a slim build and around 6ft tall.
- He is currently serving a prison sentence for a sex crime and has two previous convictions for ‘sexual contact with girls’, Christian Hoppe, from Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), told the country’s ZDF television channel.
- Brueckner is believed to have been using a Portuguese mobile phone, number +351 912 730 680, on the day Madeleine went missing. That phone received a call, starting at 7.32pm and finishing at 8.02pm, on May 3 2007 in the area of Praia da Luz from a second mobile number (+351 916 510 683) from a person not in the area.
- He is known to have frequented the Praia da Luz area between 1995 and 2007, with some short spells in Germany.
- The suspect is described as having a ‘transient lifestyle’, living in his camper van for days at a time.
- Bruecnkner has also been linked to a 1993 British Jaguar, model XJR 6, with a German number plate and registered in Germany, which is believed to have been in the Praia da Luz and surrounding areas in 2006 and 2007. The car was originally registered in the suspect’s name but was re-registered to someone else in Germany the day after Madeleine’s disappearance, although the vehicle is believed to have still been in Portugal.
- An appeal on German Crimewatch-style programme XY said he is thought to have worked odd jobs, including as a waiter, but also committed burglaries in hotels and holiday resorts and dealt drugs. It said also said he was linked to two houses in Portugal – one between Praia da Luz and Lagos, and a second inland.
- At the time of Madeleine’s disappearance, he had access to a distinctive VW T3 Westfalia camper van, from at least April 2007 until sometime after May 2007, which was used in and around the area of Praia da Luz. It is an early 1980s model, with two tone markings, a white upper body and a yellow skirting, with a Portuguese registration plate. Detectives believe he was living in the van for days, possibly weeks, and may have been using it on May 3, 2007.
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