On June 4, 2020, in the German city of Braunschweig, public prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters gathered the press to make an impressive announcement. The German authorities believed they had the answer to the question that some of the best research minds in the world had been struggling for 13 years: what happened to Madeleine McCann?
“48 Hours” correspondent Peter Van Sant has been covering the case since 2007 and takes a look at the investigation of the new suspect in “The Puzzle: Resolution of the Madeleine McCann Case” airing Saturday, Feb. 27 at 10/9c on CBS.
It has been more than a decade since Madeleine, 3, on holiday with her parents and younger brother and sister in the tourist resort of Praia da Luz, Portugal, disappeared from her bed on the night of May 3. of 2007, without a trace. With the quick response of the local police, the parents of Madeleine, Gerry and Kate McCann, both British doctors, turned to the international press for help all over the world to find their daughter. Hundreds of hours of research work, millions of international research, endless global media attention, thousands of fake “sightings” of Madeleine, even a meeting with the pope and more than 13 years of desperate hope have not given not a single viable track.
How is it, then, that a modest small town prosecutor in Germany can state with absolute conviction that “… in connection with the disappearance of 3-year-old British girl Madeleine Beth McCann … the Braunschweig prosecution is investigating 43 years ? Old German citizen suspected of murder. From here you can see that we assume the girl is dead “? When Van Sant asked him why they were so sure of this terrible outcome, Prosecutor Wolters replied, “We have firm evidence that Madeleine McCann has died and that she was murdered by our suspect, Christian B.”
Due to German law, Wolters cannot use it Christian BruecknerThe full name or comment on the evidence they have against him, but it’s no secret that this career criminal and sex offender is the prime suspect in the kidnapping and possible murder of Madeleine McCann. In fact, he has been on the radar for a long time.
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Wolters says that in 2017, a decade after Madeleine had disappeared, a person contacted German police and gave them the suspect’s name. Wolters had narrow lips over the details, but according to the news, Christian Brueckner would have made a drunken confession to a friend who knew what had happened to Madeleine McCann.
The top German police agency conducted an investigation and what they discovered was that Brueckner had a long and disturbing history of crime. “Christian B. is a … criminal who committed many economically motivated crimes such as theft or drug trafficking,” says German crime and intelligence analyst Mark Hofmann. “But it also has a darker side,” Hofmann adds.
Brueckner has a history of possessing child pornography and has been convicted twice for sexually abusing a child. Hofmann says it “absolutely matches the profile of a person who could kidnap or kill a girl like Madeleine McCann.”
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In 2016, researchers conducted multiple searches in a deserted factory located in the forest of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, which Brueckner owned. “48 Hours” has learned that these searches were part of extensive research on child pornography. Hofmann says they found USB drives that contained images and videos of child abuse buried under a dead dog. But what connection, if any, could they have with the Madeleine McCann case?
“He’s definitely a psychopath. And he’s definitely a full-time criminal … But the question is … is he guilty of the Maddie McCann case?” Hofmann asks.
Learn more about Brueckner’s sordid background and evidence that may place him near or at the crime scene in Portugal in a new episode of “48 Hours”. “The Puzzle: Solving the Madeleine McCann Case” airs Saturday, Feb. 27 at 10/9c on CBS.