Media Mayhem - MCCANN MEDIA NONSENSE OF THE DAY

Father of boy who disappeared in Algarve in 1996 claims police are re-opening his son's case

Six-year-old René Hasee was on holiday with his family in Aljezur, 25 miles from Praia da Luz, when he vanished on June 21, 1996

By Phoebe Southworth and Daniel Wighton 6 June 2020 • 11:46am



The father of a German boy who disappeared in the Algarve in 1996 claims police have told him they are re-opening his son's case, as fears grow that the Madeleine McCann suspect could be linked to this third missing child.

Six-year-old René Hasee was on holiday with his family in Aljezur, 25 miles from Praia da Luz, when he vanished on June 21, 1996.

The schoolboy, from Elsdorf, had been running ahead of his mother and stepfather towards the sea during a walk on the beach.

They lost sight of him and his clothes were later found, with the authorities speculating that he drowned in a tragic accident.

But René's father, Andreas Hasee, has now claimed that an investigator from the Federal Criminal Police Office in Germany called him this week for the first time in 20 years to reveal they were re-investigating his son's case.

He believes "there could be a connection" between his son's disappearance and that of Madeleine in Praia da Luz on May 3, 2007.

The prime suspect in the Madeleine case, 43-year-old Christian Brückner, had moved from Germany to Praia da Luz in 1995 aged 18, and would have been 19 when René went missing.

Mr Hasee told The Telegraph: "I find the two cases aren’t that different at all. Madeleine was a sweet little girl and my son was a small, sweet boy, and he was also the same age. A whole lot about the two cases fits together.

"For me, it would be enough to learn that my son sunk in the Atlantic. But when I think that he maybe fell into the hands of a paedophile, I think ‘god, what did he do with my child?’ Then it's much worse, I believe.

"I found that what Madeleine's parents did, working with the British press to constantly remind everyone about it all the time, was good.

"It wasn’t like that with my son in Germany. The authorities were not so active. For us we got nothing, zero - it was a tragic game."

The new development in René's case comes after prosecutors re-opened the probe into the disappearance of German five-year-old Inga Gehricke, who vanished during a family outing in Saxony-Anhalt on May 2, 2015.

Police in Germany and the Metropolitan Police have declined to comment on whether René's case is being linked to the investigation into Madeleine's disappearance.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/06/father-boy-disappeared-algarve-1996-claims-police-re-opening/