On June 4, 2020, in the German city of Braunschweig, prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters gathered the press for an amazing announcement. The German authorities thought they had the answer to the question some of the best investigative minds in the world have struggled with for 13 years: What happened to Madeleine McCann?
“48 Hours” correspondent Peter Van Sant covers the 2007 case and takes a look at the investigation into new suspect in “The Puzzle: Solving the Madeleine McCann Case” aired Saturday, Feb. 27 on 10 / 9c on CBS.
It has been more than a decade since Madeleine, a 3-year-old on holiday with her parents and younger brother and sister in the resort town of Praia da Luz, Portugal, disappeared from bed on the evening of May 3, 2007, without a follow. With local police responding slowly, Madeleine’s parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, both British doctors, turned to the international press for help around the world in finding their daughter. Hundreds of man-hours spent searching, millions spent on international investigations, endless attention from the global press, thousands of false “observations” of Madeleine, even a meeting with the pope and more than 13 years of desperate hope gave no viable indication .
So how can a modest German prosecutor state with absolute conviction that “… in connection with the disappearance of the 3-year-old British girl, Madeleine Beth McCann … the Braunschweig prosecutor’s office is investigating a 43-year-old German citizen suspected of crime. From this you can see that we assume the girl died. “When asked by Van Sant why they were so sure of this terrible disaster, Prosecutor Wolters replied,” We have strong evidence that Madeleine McCann is dead and that she was killed by our suspect, Christian B. ”
Due to German law, Wolters is not allowed to use Christian Bruecknerfull name and no comment on the evidence they have against him, but it’s no secret that this career murderer and repeat sex offender is their main suspect in the abduction and possible murder of Madeleine McCann. In fact, he’s been on their radar for a while.
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Wolters says that in 2017, a decade after Madeleine’s disappearance, a person contacted the German police and gave them the suspect’s name. Wolters was crooked about the details, but according to news reports, Christian Brueckner had made a drunken confession to a friend that he knew what had happened to Madeleine McCann.
The highest police agency in Germany conducted an investigation and what they found was that Brueckner had a long and disturbing history of crime. “Christian B. is a … criminal who has committed a lot of financially motivated crimes, such as burglary or drug trafficking,” says German analyst Mark Hofmann. “But it also has a darker side,” Hofmann adds.
Brueckner has a history of possession of child pornography and has been convicted twice of sexual abuse of a child. Hofmann says, “It fits perfectly with the profile of a person who could kidnap or kill a little girl like Madeleine McCann.”
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In 2016, investigators conducted several searches of a deserted factory deep in the forests of Saxony Anhalt, Germany, which Brueckner once owned. “48 Hours” found that these searches were part of a comprehensive investigation into child pornography. Hofmann says they found USB drives containing pictures and videos of child abuse buried under a dead dog. But what would that have to do with the Madeleine McCann case?
“He’s definitely a psychopath. And he’s definitely a full-time killer … But the question is … is he guilty in Maddie McCann’s case?” Hofmann asks.
Learn more about Brueckner’s sordid background and the evidence that may place him near or at the crime scene in Portugal in a completely new episode of “48 Hours.” “The Puzzle: Solving the Madeleine McCann Case” airs Saturday, Feb. 27 at 10 / 9c on CBS.