15 years ago, a little girl called Madeleine McCann disappeared from a resort in Portugal in 2007, she was never found and until today they did not know who was responsible for her disappearance. The case shocked British media and has led to over a decades long search across Europe.
According to TODAY, a suspect has finally been formally named in the case.
The Portuguese officials did not identify the man, however, previously German police identified Christian Brueckner, a German citizen, and a registered sex offender as a suspect in 2020, per BBC News. In addition, he was also serving multiple sentences on drug offenses in a German prison and has a pending seven-year sentence for the 2005 rape of a 72-year-old American woman in Portugal. The rape also took place in Praia da Luz, the same area that the toddler was taken.
While Madeleine’s parents were prime suspects for years following the disappearance, they were later dropped.
As we reported, Madeleine disappeared from her family’s vacation villa in the Algarve region of Portugal on May 3, 2007. She was just 3 years old at the time.
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Brueckner has vehemently denied any involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance.
Jim Gamble, the former head of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre who worked on Madeleine’s disappearance spoke to the BBC about the case,
“Well, this breakthrough could mean everything or it could mean nothing.”
“My own gut feeling on it – from the moment the Germans began to release information two years ago – was that this was the best fit. You have proximity, you have opportunity, and you have a profile with regards to an offender that absolutely fits in a way that no others have.”
“This is all positive. And from my own position, and I wouldn’t be surprised if charges did follow.”
How the disappearance of Madeleine McCann went down
Kate and Gerry McCann and their three children – Madeleine, Amelie and Sean came to Portugal for a vacation at the Ocean Club complex in Praia da Luz.
The couple would regularly meet up with their adult friends at the resort’s tapas restaurant, which was just a very short walking distance from where the McCanns’ children are sleeping at the villa.
The night of the disappearance the twins are placed in a travel cot next to Madeleine’s bed and the children fall asleep. Kate and Gerry leave the door ajar before they head to dinner on May 3.m Around 10pm that night, Kate McCann finishes dinner and returns to the villa where she discovers that the children’s bedroom door is wide open and that Madeleine is missing.
The search then begins with her father making a plea to the public to find his little girl,
“Words cannot describe the anguish and despair that we are feeling as the parents of our beautiful daughter Madeleine.”
“We request that anyone who may have information relating to Madeleine’s disappearance, no matter how trivial, contact the Portuguese police and help us get her back safely.”
“Please, if you have Madeleine, let her come home to her mummy, daddy, brother and sister.”
As we approach the 15th anniversary of her disappearance, we can only hope the little girl finally gets justice.