Christian Brueckner: To be or not to be

Exclusive: Madeleine McCann cop says subtle clue from police shows 'they clearly know something'

Speaking to the Mirror hours after fresh searches for Madeleine McCann began in Portugal, Jim Gamble said he is confident we will find out what has happened to the missing Brit

ByRachel HaganWorld News Reporter

12:36, 23 May 2023Updated08:12, 24 May 2023

A cop who worked on the original Madeleine McCann investigation is sure we will find out the truth, as German police "clearly know something."

Speaking to the Mirror hours after fresh searches for missing Madeleine began in Portugal, 16 years after she went missing, Jim Gamble said: "I absolutely believe that during my lifetime we will find out what happened to Maddie."

At the request of German investigators, Portuguese police were seen extensively searching the surrounding area of the Arade dam, about 30 miles from Praia da Luz, where Maddie was last seen alive just before her fourth birthday in 2007.

The reservoir is said to be a favourite spot of convicted German rapist Christian Brückner, who is the number one suspect in her murder.

Child safety expert Gamble, who led the UK's own review of the disappearance of Madeleine, says he declines most interviews but chose to say something today due to the development's significance.

He told the Mirror that the German Police statements are "uncharacteristic", as the language they are using suggests they are certain she is dead.

He continued: "From my point of view, the German police clearly know something. They have a level of confidence when they talk about their suspect and Madeleine's death.

"But they have not shared specific reasons with the public, as you don't want to give your suspect any more information than you have to until you're ready to charge them."

Brückner is currently in jail in Germany for the rape of a 72-year-old American tourist in the same resort Maddie vanished from and has been charged with the rape of an Irish holiday rep.

He has always denied any involvement.

But Gamble says the evidence against Brückner is "all very powerful."

However, he also cautioned: "It's really important that everyone keeps an open mind. Yes, he's an excellent suspect. But up to it until he's charged people need to be consciously aware that it could be someone else.

"Anyone that was in Portugal at the time 16 years ago, or who was in the vicinity of the reservoir in the days that followed Madeleine's disappearance, really does need to think back and think ‘Did I see anything?’"

Portuguese broadcaster SIC said: “Investigators know suspect Christian Brückner used to come to this dam regularly. He would call it his little paradise and would often spend the night here. He was seen here often."

The area was already searched twice in 2008 by divers hired by a private Portuguese lawyer.

The searches brought no results, but Gamble says this time around it is different as it is a law enforcement-led search.

"The German police now have active lines of inquiry and advancement of technology. Any land-based searches or indeed anything found in the water can be forensically interrogated in ways that might not have been quite so easy 16 years ago", he said.

Gamble says if Brückner or anyone else has murdered Madeleine, then it would be very difficult to "completely and comprehensively" dispose of a body.

SIC said: "Any biological traces have likely disappeared because of the waterways in the area, but investigators could be looking for other elements, such as objects or clothes that could serve as evidence.

But Gamble believes that even if they find the "smallest, minuscule fragment of bone" new DNA advances would produce an identity.

He continued: "It is really difficult to say whether there will be any preserved evidence, but as I've said, there's every likelihood that the bones may well be intact.

You always feel hope when something else breaks, having been involved in the start I am fuelled by hope... hope that something will happen that gives the parents peace that exposes the truth about what happened to Madeleine."

Kate and Gerry McCann, Madeleine’s parents, from Leicestershire, said on the 16th anniversary of her disappearance earlier this month that they too have not given up hope.

And on Maddie's 20th birthday on May 12th, they told her: "We love you and we're waiting for you. We're never going to give up."

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/madeleine-mccann-cop-says-subtle-30051782?int_source=nba

Gawd, now we're drifting into the realms of fantasy - Firkin' Fricker's back on the case..

Exclusive: Inside the Algarve's hippy hideouts that could hold the key to Madeleine McCann puzzle

Some of the communes on the western Algarve have a seedy underbelly of drugs and crime, and it is in that secretive nomadic world that the key to unlock the mystery of Madeleine's disappearance may lie

ByMartin FrickerSenior Reporter

21:32, 26 May 2023

Portugal has been a popular destination for free-spirited hippies since the counter-culture heyday of the 1960s.

Fast-forward two generations, and the 21st-century off-gridders still flock to the country.

But some of the communes on the western Algarve have a seedy underbelly of drugs and crime.

It is in that secretive nomadic world that the key to unlock the mystery of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance may lie.

It was revealed yesterday that investigators found a “relevant clue” to the case during their search of an isolated Algarve reservoir frequented by hippies.

Prime suspect Christian Brueckner was a fixture in Portugal’s hippy communities in the mid-2000s. He helped to organise all-night raves in the forests outside Barao de Sao Joao and peddled drugs to nomad partygoers.

Brueckner, 45, also burgled houses, sold flowers in weekend hippy markets and stole fuel to fund his off-grid lifestyle.

When Madeleine went missing from Praia da Luz in May 2007, the German paedophile was living a nomadic lifestyle in a Volkswagen Westfalia camper van.

One of his favourite spots was Praia do Barranco, an isolated beach 20 minutes’ drive from the popular resort. Very few families venture to the beach because of its remoteness and the large waves that batter the coastline.

Instead it has become a popular haunt for surfers and hippy travellers – including those looking to keep a low profile.

One local said: “It’s beautiful but can be proper shady at times. It’s a hippy hangout. They have raves there all the time, not massive ones but they are going all night.

“Every drug imaginable is available if you know the right people.”

When police named Brueckner as a suspect, they released a photo of his van parked up at the beach.

A friend previously said: “He loved it down there. The remoteness, the people, the drugs. It was heaven for him.”

Portugal’s biggest hippy market takes place in Barao de Sao Joao, which is just 10 minutes’ drive from Praia da Luz. The village, where German hippies settled in the 70s, is surrounded by hillsides where off-gridders live in camper vans.

Barao became so popular with hippies in the 1970s it was dubbed “Portuguese California”.

German travellers wanting to help with the 1974 revolution lived in tents in the woods

Brueckner spent time in Barao “sofa-surfing” at the home of a German family when they were away.

He is also understood to have dated a woman who sold flowers at the Sunday hippy market and helped on her stall.

A local has said he plied underage teenage girls with drugs in exchange for sex. The woman, who did not want to be named, said he was known as the “go-to” man for cannabis and class-A drugs, often acting as a middle man for dealers.

She said: “It was a favour exchange. He provided joints and they had sex with him because they had no money.”

In an interview in 2020, fellow hippy Michael Tatschl gave details about Bruckner’s time in the Algarve in the mid 2000s.

The Austrian said: “He had lost the house but he was still enjoying living in the area. I think that confused the police a little as they were not sure where he was living exactly when Maddie vanished.

“Basically he had his VW Westfalia and was living free, going to raves and selling drugs to the local party crowd.”

Mr Taschl moved to the Spanish hippy enclave of Orgiva in early April 2007, weeks before Madeleine vanished. He said Brueckner turned up out of the blue in “late May or early June” in a Tiffin Allegro motorhome.

The inland barragems – reservoirs that supply water to the Algarve – are also on the hippy trail.

They are rarely visited by tourists as they are far away from the bustling holiday hotspots and relatively difficult to reach.

Hippys are attracted by their turquoise waters and surroundings where they can camp and take drugs in peace.

One of them, Barragem do Arade, was the location of this week’s search by German and Portuguese police.

Joao Alemeida, whose father owns a smallholding near the reservoir, said travellers often hold parties there.

“They hook up sound systems to the batteries of their vans and rave all night,” said Joao. “It’s the perfect spot. There aren’t many neighbours who will complain about the noise. They can get up to all sorts.

“To be fair, they don’t leave much rubbish behind and keep themselves to themselves.”

The peace at Barragem do Arade was shattered on Tuesday when police descended on the area.

Officers spent three days searching the site.

It was claimed yesterday they found a “relevant clue”.

Portuguese media said the mystery clue this week will be analysed by scientists in Germany.

Other finds also being tested include a bra strap, pieces of clothing and plastic items, according to daily newspaper Correio da Manha.

German prosecutors are trying to find evidence linking Brueckner to Madeleine’s disappearance.

He was a regular visitor to the reservoir, which is 50 minutes’ drive from Praia da Luz, describing it to friends as his “little paradise”.

Madeleine was just days from her fourth birthday when she vanished from her parents’ holiday apartment in the resort in May 2007.

An informer is understood to have directed police to the reservoir and specific sites around it. They used drones, ground penetrating radar and sniffer dogs during the operation.

The search was concentrated on two sites, one of them a shaded picnic area popular with off-grid campers.

Eight 2ft-deep holes were dug into the earth by investigators to take soil samples. A second more isolated site, in undergrowth on the same peninsula, was also searched.

German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said it could take weeks for results of the tests to be known.

Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann, of Rothley, Leics, are being kept updated by Scotland Yard.

Brueckner was named as the prime suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance in June 2020. The pervert, who is serving a jail term in his home country for raping a pensioner in Praia da Luz, denies any involvement.

He was awaiting trial for a string of rapes and child sexual assaults allegedly committed in Portugal.

The charges were dropped last month after a court ruling over who had jurisdiction in the case, but prosecutors are confident it will be overturned on appeal.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/inside-algarves-hippy-hideouts-could-30089283?int_source=nba
...................

The bloke's lost the plot.

Hippys are attracted by their turquoise waters and surroundings where they can camp and take drugs in peace.

Has anyone said that Madeleine had been held in the secret lair all these years and that the bra strap is hers?

Madeleine McCann's parents face an agonising wait after 'relevant clue was found' in three-day search operation at Algarve reservoir and sent for forensic tests in Germany - which could take MONTHS to be completed

Authorities say the search resulted in 'collection of some material' for analysis
Initial results are expected next week, but complete analysis could take months
READ MORE: When did Madeline go missing? Timeline and investigation history

By Nick Pisa In The Algarve and Natasha Anderson

Published: 01:44, 26 May 2023 | Updated: 10:24, 26 May 2023

Madeleine McCann's parents face months of agony as they wait for the results of forensic testing after a 'relevant clue' was reportedly found during a three-day search operation in Portugal.

Investigators cleared a large area of woodland at the Algarve reservoir and dug eight deep holes to collect samples, which have been sent for forensic and DNA testing in Germany.

Scientists are expected to have initial results next week, sources say, but it is feared it could take months for a full analysis to be completed.

The Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manha said a 'relevant clue' was found during the search on Thursday, leading police to focus on a specific area of the secluded beauty spot.

Several items were removed from the site, which may or may not be of relevance to the investigation into Madeleine's disappearance, the publication said. They include a bra strap, pieces of clothing and plastic items.

The development came after MailOnline told yesterday how investigators had been looking for a gun and camcorder stolen from prime suspect Christian Brueckner's house.

A criminal informer tipped off German prosecutors that items taken in the 2007 raid at Brueckner's isolated home were then thrown into the reservoir.

An area of around 160 square feet had been flattened and cleared of grass and shrubs with several holes dug into the ground to a depth of around two feet.

There were also other holes dug into the foreshore close to the waterline and path close to the edge of the reservoir had been cleared by the rotovator.

It is thought the soil removed was taken away by German officials for closer analysis at a lab in Wiesbaden where the country's investigative force, the BKA, are based.

Axel Peterman, a criminal profiler and former German detective, told The Mirror that the 'evidence will be examined and evaluated by experts' within days at an 'accredited DNA laboratory'.

He argued that the examination of the land may identify the form of a 'ditch or dug-out hole' that could lead to 'clothing or hidden objects' tying the suspect to the area.

However, former Met Detective Chief Inspector Peter Kirkham claimed the search was carried out 'more in hope than expectation' due to the amount of time that has passed since Madeline went missing in May 2007.

Portuguese police have confirmed that the three-day search resulted in 'the collection of some material that will be subject to expertise analysis' but, according to The Telegraph, it could be weeks or months to analyse all the samples.

German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters has said a statement would be released soon if investigators find nothing of significance. But if the samples prove relevant, the statement would be delayed.

Investigators have been combing the shores of the reservoir rather than searching under the water, as it is considerably lower than usual due to lack of rain.

Just after 5pm on Thursday police lifted the cordon and allowed media through to the site that had been searched the last three days.

Police were desperate to find the video camera as they believe it may contain images of Madeleine, but also of other sex attacks Brueckner is said to have carried out on at least two unidentified women.

The informer has backed up information from key witnesses Manfred Seyferth and another man called Helge Busching, who have already told German investigators they broke into the house while Brueckner was in jail.

Seyferth said the pair had found a gun and a video camera at the isolated house in Foral where Brueckner lived, a few miles from the reservoir at Silves on Portugal's Algarve, the focus of the latest police search.

Germans Seyferth and Busching, who tipped off the police, were living in the Algarve at the same time as Brueckner, and the two were involved in petty theft with him before having a falling out.

Footage on the video camera was said to show Brueckner torturing and raping an American woman, with footage of a girl around 15 years old also subjected to the same horrific ordeal.

In 2019, Brueckner was convicted by a German court of the rape of an elderly American woman in her home at Praia da Luz close to where Madeleine vanished, and was given a seven-year sentence.

It is not known if this is the same woman on the missing video tape but investigators are keen to track it down to build up a more damning case against Brueckner.

A source close to the investigation told MailOnline: 'Both men have told the BKA (German investigation police) they broke into Brueckner's home.

'They had all been part of a network of petty criminals in the Algarve back in the early 2000s around the time Madeleine went missing but then fell out.

'Seyferth has told police that he and Busching found a video camera and a gun at the house after they broke in.

'When the video camera was played they said it showed a masked man carrying out a sex attack on a woman and the voice they heard was Brueckner's.

'Seyferth said a gun was also found and that after finding the video camera they panicked, drove off and later threw both items in the lake.

'Seyferth has told investigators the material on the video tape was evil and if this can be found will be vital to building a case against Brueckner.

'Now another witness has come forward to confirm the story of the first two men and this has prompted intensification of the investigation.'

Last year police in Germany charged Brueckner with a variety of historical sex crimes including rapes against two unidentified women and Irish tour guide Hazel Behan between 2000 and 2006.

Meanwhile, Portuguese and German police left the scene this afternoon. In a sign that the search was over, blue tents that had been set up earlier this week were dismantled and packed away.

Officers could be seen shuttling back and forth, packing tables and chairs and carrying them to vans.

A truck used to empty portable toilets also arrived at a forward operating area that had been set up near the investigation site.

The last vehicles to leave were the German-registered black Mercedes vans belonging to the BKA investigative police.

Sources close to the investigation said that material found at the scene, mainly soil samples, would be taken back to Germany for analysis.

Forensic biologist Dr. Mark Benecke told German media: 'Soil samples contain stones, pollen and a few other small components that can be transmitted during an act.'

'This means that if I find old shoes, for example, that now contain exactly the same components as in the earth, I know the person was there.'

He added that traces of textile fibres, pebbles or pollen could still be used even centuries later.

He told RTL: 'The only question is whether no one walked around there and left other traces that disturb the whole thing.

'If other people celebrated at that point, maybe urinated, vomited, somehow left their own skin, then of course it will be more difficult.'

Meanwhile, Mr Wolters told MailOnline: 'We will see how successful we were after the search is complete.

'If necessary, we will then issue a short press release in the coming week. But that also depends on the result of the action.

'If we don't find anything, we will certainly tell you quickly. If there were any finds, this would probably not be possible.'

Just before 1.30pm local time on Thursday there was a noticeable increase in activity as machinery and equipment brought to the search site was driven away.

A large rotavator used for cutting away thick bushes and shrubs was seen being driven away on a trailer along with strimmers, wheelbarrows, pick axes and spades.

A driver in one truck shouted 'Finito' as he made his way back up the dirt track from the reservoir leading to the main road.

In a statement issued after the end of the search the Portuguese Judicial Police said: 'Following the statement of May 22, 2023, the Judiciary Police informs that the steps requested by the German authorities, through a request for international cooperation, have been fulfilled, which resulted in the collection of some material that will be subject to the competent expertise.

'The operation was coordinated by the Judiciary Police, which involved investigators, criminal experts and security personnel.

'The works had the participation of the German authorities (BKA) and were attended by British authorities (MPS).

'It also had the collaboration of the Faro Command of the National Republican Guard in various aspects, as well as the Regional Command of Emergency and Civil Protection of the Algarve and the Municipality of Silves, with regard to the logistics necessary for the development of the works.

'Safeguarding the interests of the investigation are still under way in Portugal, the collected material will be delivered to the German authorities.'

It comes as shameless former police detective Goncalo Amaral slammed the current search for Madeleine as an attempt to 'pin the case' on the prime suspect.

Amaral was kicked off the original investigation in 2008, after suggesting Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry were responsible for the then three-year-old's disappearance, and later wrote two books on the mystery.

Speaking for the first time since police began searching the area around the Arade Dam, just 35 miles from the resort of Praia da Luz, he claimed the fresh hunt was just an attempt to make prime suspect Christian Brueckner a 'scapegoat'.

He told respected Portuguese news weekly Sabado: 'The question should be how are the German police involved? How did the (Portuguese) Judicial Police agree to this and why?

'In simple analysis I see that there is no new investigation, what is happening is an act of building the profile of a scapegoat and a virtual blaming.'

He then suggested the search was an attempt to show the public 'Brueckner must be guilty' as a lot of ' time, money and human hours have been invested'.

When asked what would be found he said: 'If there was anything there, it would be possible to find bones, perhaps hair and even part of the missing girl's pyjamas.

'On the other hand, finding the child's remains would only be possible if she had not been cremated, as seems to have happened.'

In the interview, which came as a joint police team from Portugal, Germany and the Metropolitan Police continued their hunt for a third day, Amaral again pushed his theory Brueckner was a 'convenient scapegoat'.

He said: 'When British police began to consider Christian Brueckner as a suspect, he was living in Portugal and walking freely around.

'The investigation should have focused on the individual through special techniques, namely telephone and computer interceptions, personal and electronic surveillance, undercover agents etc, in order to advance the investigation of the suspect's possible responsibility and subsequent death of the child.

'But astonishingly, the German police put him in a German jail, isolating him from the outside world, making any kind of investigation centred on the suspect impossible.

'Little by little, the Germans built up the suspect's profile as a rapist, paedophile and murderer, gathering similar Portuguese cases, accusing him of them, and then the great moment came and they named him to the world.

'In conclusion they did not allow a professional and serious investigation and made this individual a scapegoat as a suspect without any evidence or proof.'

Amaral ended his interview by claiming the case was being pushed by senior figures and said: 'If the political pressures end, this case will end and there will be answers.'

Last year the McCanns lost a lengthy 13-year court battle against Amaral for the claims he made in his two books which shamelessly suggested they had been involved in her disappearance.

Amaral's 2008 book Maddie: The Truth About The Lie, implicated the McCanns in their daughter's abduction and accused them of hiding her body.

Their fight took him to the European Court of Human Rights and it rumbled on for years before coming to an end last September.

Their lawyers argued that the Portuguese authorities had breached their right to respect for a private and family life in the way the court in Lisbon dealt with their libel claim against Amaral.

Initially they had won their case in 2015 and Amaral was ordered to pay 500,000 euros in damages but he appealed and the case was overturned and eventually thrown out by the Portuguese supreme court in 2017.

It was then that Kate and Gerry decided to take the case to the ECHR in Strasbourg but judges there ruled against them and they later issued a statement saying they were 'naturally disappointed' with the ruling.

In another interview with Portuguese outlet Renascenca, Amaral even outrageously claimed detectives had contacted the factory where Madeleine's pyjamas had been made, hinting this could be used to plant evidence against Brueckner.

He said how investigators had 'these pyjamas from the factory that produced them and they were now in the hands of English authorities'.

Amaral controversially went on: 'I don't know under what conditions the pyjamas are kept and what could happen to them

'The parents and friends cannot be held responsible so a scapegoat is needed and here it is. The Germans just want to prove that this individual has something to do with the case.'

He also blasted the German investigation that saw Brueckner convicted of the 2005 rape of an elderly American woman in Praia da Luz and for which he was jailed for seven years in 2019.

Amaral said: 'The gynecological examination carried out at the Portimão Hospital, on the night the alleged crime took place, shows that there was no rape.

'The individual is convicted for something that did not exist. The sheets etc were also collected from the woman's house and nothing was found that had traces of this German.'

Brueckner was convicted after DNA was found on the sheets but he insists this was because he had stroked the victim's cat and they had been transferred onto the bedclothes.

Madeleine was aged three in May 2007 when she vanished from her bedroom in the apartment her family were staying at in the Praia da Luz resort on the Algarve coast. The reservoir is about 31 miles inland from the resort.

The probe this week was first major search for the toddler in nine years and comes after German police discovered photos of Brueckner at his self-described 'little paradise' in the Portuguese region, it is understood.

German prosecutors last year named convicted child abuser and drug dealer Brueckner as the prime suspect in McCann's disappearance.

He is currently behind bars in Germany for raping a 72-year-old woman in the same area of the Algarve region from where McCann went missing.

The case, unsolved for the past 16 years, remains a mystery as no body has ever been found. It sparked a media frenzy in Britain, with developments also followed by outlets around the world and celebrities joining appeals to help find Madeleine.

The reservoir was searched by divers hired by a Portuguese lawyer in February and March 2008. Back then, the diving team leader described the 'long process' his team faced navigating the 'black' waters.

Marcos Aragao Correia organised the privately funded operation after claiming he had been tipped off that Madeleine had been murdered and her body thrown into the reservoir within 48 hours of her disappearance.

Two bags containing small bones were found during the second search after divers had earlier recovered several lengths of cord, some plastic tape and a single white cotton sock.

Portuguese police were alerted following the discovery but subsequently ruled out the possibility the bones were human because of their size.

Madeleine's parents Gerry and Kate McCann had previously dismissed Mr Correia as a self-publicist and said there was no evidence suggesting any link between their daughter and the reservoir.

The dam, near the town of Silves where a lorry driver says he saw a woman handing a child like Madeleine over to a man two days after she went missing from her Praia da Luz holiday apartment on May 3, 2007, is not thought to have been searched since March 2008 as part of the ongoing investigation into her disappearance.

The search is the first major operation of its kind since June 2014 when British police were given permission to do digs in Praia da Luz that involved sniffer dogs trained in detecting bodies and ground-penetrating radar.

The Scotland Yard digs nearly nine years ago in Praia da Luz were linked to the leading UK police theory at the time Madeleine died during a break-in and burglars dumped her body nearby.

The searches failed to find any trace of the missing youngster.

In a smaller operation in July 2020 Portuguese police and firefighters searched three wells for Madeleine's body but failed to find any trace of her.

The abandoned wells are a 15-minute drive from a cottage Brueckner rented on the outskirts of Praia de Luz, on a narrow road leading down to a beach where the paedophile used to park his VW camper van.

German prosecutor Wolters has consistently said he is convinced Madeleine is dead and caged paedophile Brueckner has been named as the sole suspect.

The deviant, currently serving time for the September 2005 rape of an American elderly woman in the resort where Madeleine vanished, has yet to face any formal accusation over the youngster's disappearance.

Last April he was made an official suspect or arguido in Portugal over Madeleine's disappearance, although his defence lawyer Friedrich Fulscher labelled it a 'procedural trick' linked to statute of limitations legislation at the time.

Last autumn Bruecker was charged in Germany with several sex crimes on the Algarve against women and children including the rape of an Irish holiday rep in 2004 and the sexual abuse of a ten-year-old girl on a beach near Praia da Luz in 2007.

Brueckner's lawyer revealed in April those charges had been dropped against him in a bombshell development after successfully arguing prosecutors had no jurisdiction over him in Braunschweig where the Madeleine case was being brought.

The case could end up with prosecutors in Saxony-Anhalt instead but an appeal lodged by the Braunschweig public prosecutor's office has yet to be decided.

Braunschweig prosecutor Mr Wolters has insisted they are still in control of the Madeleine McCann investigation and Brueckner, who denies any involvement in Madeleine's disappearance, remains in custody.

The Arade Dam, the Barragem do Arade in Portuguese, is fed by the watercourse of the Arade River whose source lies to the south-west of the Serra do Caldeirao mountain range and runs through the municipalities of Silves, Lagoa and Portimao before reaching the ocean.

Construction was completed in 1955 and it began operating the following year.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12126409/Madeleine-McCanns-parents-face-agonising-wait-clues-Algarve-reservoir.html

Jill Havern wrote:Has anyone said that Madeleine had been held in the secret lair all these years and that the bra strap is hers?

It's only a matter of time .

Watch this space ....

Another one from years back - what's the betting it makes another appearance in due course..


Some analysts believe the cases of missing Madeleine and found ‘Maria’ are quite similar (Picture: Reuters)

Gerry and Kate McCann have said they have refreshed hopes for finding Madeleine after an abducted four-year-old girl was found in Greece.

The parents had previously said that young children who are victims of abduction are likelier to be found alive.

On Wednesday, a small blonde girl was spotted during a drugs bust in a Greek gypsy community.

Living in a camp with 13 other children, DNA tests by the police confirmed she was unrelated to the two adults she was living with.

https://metro.co.uk/2013/10/19/madeleine-mccann-hope-after-maria-found-living-with-gypsies-in-greece-4152275/

what a strange article, that mirror one with forensic expert robert green. they must have left most out, because why would you look into madeleine het genetic profile to find the people who started this case. 
fingerpointing on jj deangelo, also known as the golden state killer is very strange.

cb is in jail, so getting access to his dna would not be a problem. there is no unknown dna sequence known from 5a or possible other places, there are not even other places that could fit the words murder scene. 
5a was at least never called a murder scene by the portuguese investigation, not the first, not the second one, not during grange. 

jj deangelo was indeed found with familial dna, not his victims. in his carreer he was the one that was long not known. in the madeleine case, madeleine is the victim, her own dna is also known, and that of her parents.
there looks to be no reason to look from any persons dna to find victim or supposed perp. 

they must have left a fair bit out robert green his story, to mingle it as always into a complete meaningless mumbo jumbo. 

robert green must be not actively following this case and the german parts of it.

However he did put forth potential three theories.

"The evidence they say they have against Christian B could be photographic evidence in sort of posing with the body afterwards," he told the Mirror.

wait wasn't hcw not adamant they had no such think, when he ended up to make clear why he told the world madeleine was dead. if they had had a picture with a dead madeleine and cb. they would not have reason to ask for the help of the public. 

"It could be some information they've got from other people who pointed to him as the offender - he could have confessed to someone either in prison or outside.

not really, even helge b. had little detail about the supposed stories of a cb in orgiva. also when you put someone in separation of the rest, and cb is kept out of normal contact with other human beings, he even did made complaints about that. so the only option would be shout it out of a window, but we would have heard it when that had happened by now. the usual public in places we call jail would not mind to tell something when the publishing agent is paying them. news outlets enough that state under articles they pay for their stories.


"Or, they could have actually found his fingerprints or traditional biometrics at the scene of the murder most years ago."


first what murder scene? not 5a at least, and searches earlier can not had any result to think it could have been a murder scene, the reservoir borders seach was the fourth one the portuguese did because the germans asked for it. this search would never be needed if these had given results to get to such intel. 


well who knows, we have seen already so called journalists, at least they call themselves that, who have done some studie in geografie, what has this one under his belt, kindergarten plus? 




the next piece has one of the usual, i want a piece of pie too, mister gamble, so one of the others will get hill this week. they look so much as the always around playground bullies, i wish i had been there when the portuguese police officers, in their own far to polite ways told both they had no jurisdiction and had to leave the offices. 
the both are still mad about that. 


as soon as names like gamble and hill are said in an article my head tells me, it is better to not react to them. 
and this time gamble not even got the words bungling ex- policeman in it. there is actually some humor in that, amaral was taken only from 1 case, from gamble they took a complete department of him. 


gamble the man that made such a secret report about the bungling of the british contingent in portugal, that he only dares to let it read by wannabee best selling authors from abroad, or shady tv productions. or was that written by hill, both claim it. 


i think they have for at least two weeks shelved articles. i have not seen hill, sutton, and mwt. also in germany the media is also productive, so this one said, that one named stories are to be expected. 
probably none of them have ever read the pj files. they have just another frame of mind to sell. 


how embarrassing that the people send over there from the daily mail mist out on the scoop, so now they have to quote cmjornal. there is no scoop or relevant clues. at least when you believe the pj and the germans too. 
and bild already printed that the daily mail was wrong.

also the germans already have communicated they need only a few days. not months. 

and no american woman was harmed in the video's the two conman said to have supposed to have seen. 
the existence of all video's ever spoken about in any form in all stories against a certain cb, are never seen by others than said conman. no video material was part of the evidence or present during the investigation ever.

really mister pisa, a videocamera that was found in 2006 and said disposed of by a conman in a reservoir in 2006, is to be sought because there could be pictures of madeleine mccann on it. that guy must have brain damage.

In a nutshell..



WOOF !!! WOOF !!!

Good grief - it gets worsterer and worsterer..

Madeleine McCann's pink pyjamas hunted in Portuguese reservior search as police seen taking bags from scene

24 May 2023, 11:07 | Updated: 24 May 2023, 12:44

By Chay Quinn

Divers searching the reservoir near where Madeleine McCann vanished are searching for signs of the pink Eeyore pyjamas that she was wearing when she went missing.

[No they aren't]

Sources in Portugal have claimed that the item of interest that the police are searching for are the clothes Madeleine was wearing when she disappeared.

[No they're not]

The reservoir became of interest when a photo of the water body was found at the home of the prime suspect in the case.

[Eh?]

The prime suspect in her disappearance, convicted sex offender Christian Brueckner, spent time in the area between 2000 and 2017.

[He is not the prime suspect]

The police entered the water yesterday and have been seen removing several bags from the water while responding to a request from German authorities investigating Brueckner.

[No they weren't]


A replica of the pyjamas that Madeleine was last seen wearing when she went missing in 2007. Picture: Getty

[Pink?]

The Policia Judiciaria of Portugal are also allowing British officers to observe the search.

[How nice!]

Investigators believe the 45-year-old killed Madeleine, then aged three, after abducting her from a holiday apartment.

[No they don't]

German prosecutor Christian Wolter said: "We are investigating in Portugal on the basis of certain tips (tip-offs).

[No comment!]

"I can't disclose the background at the moment, like why we are searching there and what we hope to find there. That shall remain our secret for the moment."

[Your secret? What are you, five years old]

Maddie's parents Kate and Gerry are expected to be kept informed of any developments as a result of the new search through Scotland Yard liaison officers.

[Proper thing to!]

German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters has consistently said he is convinced Madeleine is dead and caged paedophile Brueckner, 45, has been named as the sole suspect.

[This is true]

He is currently serving time for the September 2005 rape of an American OPA in the resort where Madeleine vanished and has yet to face any formal accusation over the youngster’s disappearance.

[Rumour has it!]

Last April he was made an official suspect, or arguido, in Portugal over Madeleine’s disappearance, although his defence lawyer Friedrich Fulscher labelled it a “procedural trick” linked to statute of limitations legislation at the time.

[ ]

Last autumn Bruecker was charged in Germany with several sex crimes on the Algarve against women and children including the rape of an Irish holiday rep in 2004 and the sexual abuse of a 10-year-old girl on a beach near Praia da Luz in 2007.

[No he wasn't]

Brueckner’s lawyer revealed in April those charges had been dropped against him in a bombshell development after successfully arguing prosecutors had no jurisdiction over him in Braunschweig where the Madeleine case was being brought.

[No they weren't]

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/pink-pjs-hunted-in-new-maddie-mccann-search/

EXCLUSIVE: Did bizarre Madeleine McCann shrine – discovered by Brits months after she vanished – spark new reservoir search? Couple describe scene that gave them 'goosebumps'

Retired couple took pictures of shrine and sent them to Portuguese detectives

By Nick Pisa In The Algarve

Published: 17:04, 27 May 2023 | Updated: 17:29, 27 May 2023

A British couple have told The Mail on Sunday how they spotted a bizarre 'shrine' to missing Madeleine McCann in the reservoir police searched last week – just seven months after she vanished.

The retired couple, who have asked to be named only as Ralf and Ann, were so disturbed by what they saw they took pictures and sent them to Portuguese detectives, thinking they were of significance but, amazingly, never heard back.

Consisting of boulders in the shape of an arrow pointing towards a picnic site which was dug over by police last week, the makeshift memorial was weighed down by a large rock and had a bouquet of flowers and a photograph of abducted Madeleine on it.

Three years ago – when prime suspect Christian Brueckner, 45, was identified by German police – the couple contacted detectives after seeing an appeal for anyone who was on holiday in the Algarve when Madeleine went missing in May 2007 to get in touch.

This time, the German officers from the BKA (criminal investigation unit) responded within hours of Ralf and Ann emailing them and quizzed them on the telephone for several hours before asking them to give a formal statement.


The makeshift memorial (pictured here) was weighed down by a large rock and had a bouquet of flowers and a photograph of abducted Madeleine on it


Pictured: Three rocks in the Arade Reservoir in 2007 where a shrine was found. The flowers and tribute were left on the middle rock

It raises the question whether it was their information that prompted the German authorities to request a search of the remote picnic area campsite on the edge of the reservoir near Silves, which Brueckner sinisterly used to call his 'little paradise'.

Speaking exclusively to The Mail on Sunday from their holiday home, just a few minutes' drive from the reservoir, retired builder Ralf and former bank cashier Ann described the bizarre find. Ralf, 66, a father of two, said: 'It was around Christmas 2007, so Madeleine had only gone missing a few months beforehand and I went down to the reservoir with Ann, our daughter, who was then 16, and the dog . . .

'Our daughter ran on ahead of us and all of a sudden she just shouted to us, "Quick, come and look, someone must have died here."

When we got down, we noticed a row of stones stretching out into the water and on the last one there was a bouquet of fresh white lilies. We went out and had a look, and on the stone where the flowers were, there was a photograph of Madeleine.

'There was no note or anything and it was all very strange.'

Ann, 67, said: 'Thinking about it now gives me goosebumps because when we saw where the police were searching the past few days you could see that's where the row of stones was pointing to.

'Back then when we found it the whole thing was just so weird. At the time I thought, "has someone dumped Madeleine in the water and then come back to make a shrine in her memory?" It was so odd.'

The couple contacted Portuguese police to tell them of their discovery, sending them the photos, but heard nothing from them.

Strangely, when they returned just two days later, the flowers and photograph had vanished.


Pictured is the shrine left for the three-year-old girl

Ralf and Ann put the incident to the back of their mind but dug out the pictures three years ago after seeing news reports naming Brueckner as the prime suspect.

Ralf said: 'I immediately contacted the BKA in Germany and told them what we had and I had a reply back within a few hours.

'They wanted to know everything that we had seen and then they asked me to send them the pictures and they sent a map of the reservoir, asking me to point out where the stones were.

'As the crow flies, it was just half a mile across the water from the picnic spot where the police were digging last week.

'The German police were very interested in what we had and kept asking questions about why we were there, what we did for a living and then asked us to come to make a statement.'

Ann said: 'They said they had been in the area a few months earlier but didn't say why. They were keeping their cards very close to their chest. They asked us to come to Wiesbaden, where their headquarters are, as they were taking it very seriously and wanted to meet us in person.

'Ralf couldn't make it so I went on my own, and I was there for a good couple of hours going over what we had seen and showing them the photographs. We've had a holiday home in Portugal for years and have been going to the reservoir since the late 1990s, so we know it well and we then retired out here.'

The dam was first searched six months after the couple's discovery, but only by lawyer Marcos Aragao Corriea, who funded two searches of the reservoir alongside the Spanish detective agency Metodo 3, who were hired by the McCann family.

His hunt uncovered a bag of animal bones and a child's sock but a full police search was never carried out – until last week.

It again raises questions about how the Portuguese police initially carried out their operation.

Patricia de Sousa Cipriano, head of the Association of Missing Children, said: 'If these new searches at the Arade dam confirm flagrant errors in the investigation, then the Portuguese police has to justify itself and ensure it doesn't happen again.'

Soil samples taken from the area searched last week have been sent to Germany for analysis, but sources suggest nothing of real significance was found.

The German prosecutor downplayed reports that a bra, clothing and other objects had been found.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12131383/Police-searched-reservoir-Maddie-McCann-case-British-couple-discovered-shrine-her.html

what kind of virus is doing the round under people only working in the media, it must be extremely contagious, it is getting a bit out of hand i think. do they only hiring -80's at the moment. 

really an empty page would be more correct in these times. 

it is a way to mock d-notices, the opposite of a strike, a complot or game who is able to get the most dubious article on a website, and get paid for it.

are the editors all on holiday?

i already got it, this case has been an attraction for dubious people who are not, but like to pretend they are journalist. but come on this is a new low.

maybe they have inhaled too much of the decomposition of algae mixed with dead fish at the reservoir. too much sun on the heads, but i think most of the 'we have no idea , what the heck we are writing'brigade was not even out there. 

lucky you, verdi, you only restrict yourself to the english media, i have the idea i can find around 800 in other languages with the same and even some different, but still utter cowdung in it.

Verdi wrote:Good grief - it gets worsterer and worsterer..

The reservoir became of interest when a photo of the water body was found at the home of the prime suspect in the case.

[Eh?]


German prosecutor Christian Wolter said: "We are investigating in Portugal on the basis of certain tips (tip-offs).

[No comment!]

What home? CB has variously been described as living out a camper van or being a long-term prison inmate.

As for the tip-off, please tell me it's more than the "shrine" discovered by the retired couple in the Daily Mail article...

going from this sentence, i do not get the idea this was the tip off;

As the crow flies, it was just half a mile across the water from the picnic spot where the police were digging last week.

Columbo wrote:

Verdi wrote:Good grief - it gets worsterer and worsterer..

The reservoir became of interest when a photo of the water body was found at the home of the prime suspect in the case.

[Eh?]


German prosecutor Christian Wolter said: "We are investigating in Portugal on the basis of certain tips (tip-offs).

[No comment!]

What home? CB has variously been described as living out a camper van or being a long-term prison inmate.

As for the tip-off, please tell me it's more than the "shrine" discovered by the retired couple in the Daily Mail article...

Add to that, Brueckner is repeatedly said to have lived 'off the grid' (dodged the radar?) between the year dot and the year dot dot dot - yet the press and media and Wolters appear to know his entire life history.

I think they have been talking to the wrong people - or the right people if you want to expand a wrong impression.

It stinks!

CaKeLoveR wrote:I don't believe there was a tip-off. I think Hans Christian Wolters is trying to be credible; he's gone from  'concrete evidence' to a 'shrine' noticed by an English couple. If this were the plot of a film, it would be laughed out of existence.

But the tip-off was said to have come from a criminal informer (read felon grass or poacher turned game-keeper), associated with the credible Manfred Seyferth - if not himself.

Follow the trail, the entire case against Brueckner is built on the words of a bunch of vagrant criminals.

No more need be said.

I think Wolters needs investigating by his superiors, he is wasting an awful lot of money trying to pin Madeleine's disappearance on CB.

Why is he being allowed to continue with the persecution of him?

This latest stunt is embarassing, what next, what can Wolters possibly dream up next to keep CB in his grip.

Even if they get CB into court in connection with Madeleine, he can't possibly hope to get a fair trial.

He has already been found guilty by Wolters, who has "concrete evidence" but not enough proof, to get him into a court room.

Will he be allowed to waste millions of £s like the UK government to come up with zero evidece against him.

Wolters and Operation Rechen (Rake) are doing exactly what Operation Grange and Associates brought them in to do.

Raking over old Coals.

Verb. (figuratively, Britain) To bring back old problems; to dig up old trouble.


In other words find anything with which to Discredit the Portuguese Judiciary.

there was of course a dreaming lawyer, who 'did know' this was the place, he was not that silent, and who knows what, maybe was already being around and left even some flowers behind. 

he got attention again from the sun this week;

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22446345/madeleine-mccann-new-search-lawyer/

if he really named his children after two missing children, a little shrine with some flowers would be not that strange. the guy was quite obsessed with his dreams, and even the lie he heard it from the underworld of crime made not the big impression with the pj or the mccanns, his payed organised first search was only the result of it. and he let himself be used for the mccanns a bit later on.

it would be nice if the life story of a certain cb was not reinvented time after time, there have been a lot of stories out, that cb must be guilty, one of the factors to think that was because he left portugal quickly after may 3 2007. at the same time we see that left filled in with, visiting friends, theft of a large sum of money, staying at a tourist attraction as the surroundings of the do arade reservoir and dam is. 

from that first call out to the public about the sinister things that cb supposed had done not much is left.
remember he called on 3 may 2007 near 5a, well that mast never was there to tell that happened.
he reregistered his car on may 4, the day after, until a mate of cb told on german tv, cb had asked him to handle that thing for weeks and it was he, ab wo decided to do that on may 4 in germany. 
the living near 5a, was not that recent, he indeed left that small finca in 2006 when caught for stealing diesel. 

there have been so much stories told, but nothing that relates to the madeleine mccann case. 

i only see a hcw building his sandcastle, it all stays in the he could have done, could have been, it never got into he did and he has. i am not so optimistic that hcw will drop this case, or the others. he is invested in them. and the german law gives him the opportunity to go ahead only on indications, the could haves can be enough to win. 

no, we get stories about cb, like there looks to be a difference in opinions what camper vans cb uses at that time, was it the small vw van, or was it the big american one, it would quite a bit of driving skills to bring that last one out there around that reservoir. cb left the country, but remember the dieter f. who now thinks madeleine could have been in the big american, when he met his 'yes or no' maybe prospect son-in-law on the premises of his daughter. 

it never will grow into one story of the life of cb. just the next bucked of dry sand for hcw his sandcastle. 

what would become the result of the latest trip, probably something like the portuguese did indeed dig some holes as the germans asked them, but they have been to small, only germans do understand how big a good hole must be, you have at least being able to fit a child in it. so the portuguese holes have been far to small for that. 

for the portuguese is must be a kind of extend team building exercise.

crusader,

it is quite complicated in german law about what is to be seen as living address, officially a brave citizen will go to the council and register his address. 

cb did that for the last time at the kiosk and hcw used that address to get his hands on cb, and found the 5 other cases and the 2005 rape case against cb, all to get his hands on the madeleine case.

but the german law has little thingies that you cannot simply say that was his last known official address and use that to bring someone before the court of that bundesland. you have also to have to want to be living there, to be express living there, before it is accepted as an address.

germany is not just one country, but exists of many separate states united in the nation of germany, with all their own legislation, and competence. during the corona era it became quite a laughable concept, because it was mask on, mask of a bit further in your journey through different bundeslander. 

you have to actual live in a bundesland, before the courts of that bundesland can have its say about you. 

and because it is not that simple as last address in is rule, but cb lived on and of in different parts of europe and germany. his lawyer has now told the courts of braunschweig, he is not a citizen under their rule of law. 

ff used the old boxfactory, that cb still owns, and him living there in a van, and keeping some of his belongings there, to state cb his will to live there. the court accepted that as a later lawful address and declared from that they have no jurisdiction to handle court cases against cb at this time. 

ff the lawyer of cb passes on that the court in maagdenburg, in sachsen anholt could be competent, or because cb lived mostly abroad in the years around the time he was arrested, what happende in italy, the court of frankfurt could also be competent, because cb landed there on german soil after extradition from italy.

but there are more rules and guidance, and also politics. 

sachsen anholt is already busy and in revision for their police force, so there is also a possibility that because of that the courts in braunschweig still are getting the case to handle. 

and if they make a complete chaotic circus of it, there is a kind of rule, that the police force in the bundesland that started the investigation is given competency to handle the cases and by that the braunschweig courts gets competent also. 

so legally it is not that easy to say where do you live in germany. 

hcw could first ask a higher court to look at the competency again. after that others get also a bit of a say in it. besides the old registered address, cb stayed also partly on the allotments for some time, and the 2005 rape case was already handled in their courts.  

the cases had not been started, so there is nothing that would have to be heard in a different court for now. 

it was not a surprise from the last weeks, that ff the lawyer had questions about the competence of braunschweig. so it would have been very expected, hcw already had asked the court to solve that before he send the cases in.

but it is a enormous mountain of little things that can complicate the question where do you live. overhere we had such things too, but as long as you use a certain address as postal address in communication with the government it can be used to solve that problem. there are more possibilities in which court is competent, and if all are not clear they go to the courts of amsterdam. 

but normally you rule that early in an investigation, by just asking a investigation judge or a case judge to decide what is the competent court. hcw could have done that first. only one german possible victim, the others are not, not in germany, no active living address because of being in jail, his wandering habits all enough to clear that ground before going into a full investigation. 

so yes it is a big fail for an first cps. it is not a rookie!
but still you can not conclude the cases are busted. far too early. 

i find it by the words of amaral indeed strange that grange sought germany to handle it all, after hb told things to them, if indeed cb was living as a free man at that moment in portugal, there cannot have been need for this spectacle. portugal would have had the chance to bring cb to the portuguese investigation and from there to court. 

this is not a small thing. and shameful it does not got more attention. it would not be seen as proper to pass out the justice system of the country where it all happened and the supposed perp was walking around and by that available. 

all the promotion of germany will care themselves if their own do such things get a bitter taste from it. there was no extradiction needed at all. no german hcw with his bold sayings. far less of a spectacle even. 

but the cases hcw wanted brought on, all have in common it were no longer cases the portuguese investigated. so it will always looks like cop shopping, as in looking for one who want just take the case on, or bring on the hardest punishment. 

if ff brings that on next, that would bring headlines again. still that is why you want and have a lawyer. 

and that could be something people with some legal background will fall of their chairs.

Ridiculous to dig very small holes so close together, they should have dug the same area with one big hole.
It beggars belief they would dig such small holes so near to one another.

The UK police don't suspect CB or they wouldn't have been given another bundle of money to continue their bogus inquiry in Portugal.

Or have they been given new funding to help the German investigation.

There is, unless I'm mistaken, two seperate police forces investigating Madeleine's disappearance one looking for a body and one looking for a 20 year old Madeleine, if anything new turns up, the Portuguese will reopen the case.

The investigation I would be really interested in, is Kate and Gerry McCann and the tapas 7.

I can day dream.

Where is the child?
A child is missing
That child could throw a tantrum
Still missing, still missed


Don't any of them know Madeleine's name?

No, they all got hopelessly confused with Maddie - to be or not to be.

ETA: Don't expect too much, Kate McCann couldn't even cope with remembering her own name .... is it Healy or is it McCann - what day is it ?

The big breaks in the Madeleine McCann case… that have led us no closer to finding her: As reservoir search turns up 'relevant clue', a look at key moments that promised to turn the investigation on its head - to no avail

It's been 16 years since three-year-old Madeleine McCann vanished from resort

By Rachael Bunyan

Published: 10:17, 28 May 2023 | Updated: 10:17, 28 May 2023

It's been 16 years since three-year-old Madeleine McCann was snatched from her bed at an Algarve holiday resort.

For more than a decade, her anguished parents Gerry and Kate have waited in vain for any news - any clue - that their little girl is somehow alive after all this time.

And there have been moments - when police named suspects or members of the public had reported potential sightings - where they allowed themselves to think there was a chance they might have some answers.

But none of the tip-offs have turned out to be correct and the main suspect in the case, convicted rapist Christian Brueckner, has still not been charged in connection with Madeleine's disappearance.

It has been a case filled with false starts and false hopes, with thousands of bogus sightings of Madeleine from Dorset to as far away as New Zealand.

And with the latest three-day search for Madeleine at a reservoir in Portugal resulting in a 'relevant clue' being found following a tip-off from one of Brueckner's former friends, her parents once again face months of agony as they wait for the results.

Here, MailOnline takes a look at the key moments in Madeleine's case that promised to turn the investigation on its head - but to no avail.

May 2007: Madeleine disappears from her room

Madeleine was on holiday with her parents in Praia de Luz in Portugal when she disappeared just days before her fourth birthday.

On the night of May 3, her parents put her to bed with her two younger twin siblings, Sean and Amelie, before going out for dinner with friends nearby.

The group had organised a rotation to check up on the children every 30 minutes. At 9pm the children were there. At 9:30pm one of the friends found a door wide open. And it was around 10pm that Madeleine's mother Kate found her daughter's bed empty.

Police, friends and resort staff helped in searching the area. Days turned into months and hundreds of police officers were called in to support the search - without luck.

A huge publicity campaign led by the family, and with contributions from the likes of J.K. Rowling, leads to the naming of first suspects.

September 2007: Portuguese police astonishingly name Gerry and Kate McCann as suspects

Four months after their daughter's disappearance, grief-stricken Gerry and Kate McCann were named as suspects in the case and endured hours of gruelling interrogations.

Portuguese detectives had claimed they had found incriminating DNA evidence in the family's holiday apartment and, crucially, the boot of their hire car which they rented 25 days after Madeleine vanished.

British scientists had already warned the Portuguese that the forensic evidence was far from conclusive and the DNA could have come from almost anyone.

And it was later revealed that the police had tried to force a confession from Gerry by confronting him with the false DNA 'evidence'.

Kate was subjected to an 11-hour interview in which she faced a barrage of questions about the DNA evidence, her relationship with Madeleine and whether she ever sedated her children to make them sleep.

The Leicestershire GP angrily refused to answer a total of 48 questions.

Her husband, in an eight-hour interrogation, had to deny police suggestions that his wife suffered from depression and had wanted to give Madeleine to relatives to look after because she could not cope.

Police even asked him if the couple had taken out life insurance on three-year-old Madeleine.

Gerry said in a Spanish TV interview that October that he was 'confident' the couple would be 'eliminated' from inquiries. 'I'm confident of that, because we have done nothing,' he said.

And with no evidence and no charges brought against the McCanns, Portuguese police removed the anguished parents as suspects in the case in July 2008.

Portuguese police chief Gonçalo Amaral who led the initial investigation and ordered the couple to be made official suspects was later taken off the case.

In a major blow to the McCann's, in July 2008, Portugal's attorney general ended the investigation into Madeleine's disappearance after they had failed to uncover any evidence.

The case files - containing up to 30,000 pages - were turned over to private investigators working for Madeleine's family who vowed to continue their search.

October 2013: Case reopens as police release new sketches of potential suspects

Hope was renewed for Madeleine's family in October 2013 when the Met Police issued new sketches of potential suspects in the case, including of a man seen near the McCanns holiday apartment carrying a girl in pyjamas.

That same month, a BBC Crimewatch appeal led to almost 1,000 calls and emails from the public, with Kate and Gerry saying at the time saying they are 'genuinely hopeful' one will lead to a breakthrough.

Several tourists who were in Praia da Luz on the night of Madeleine's disappearance came forward, with two crucially naming the same man as a suspect.

Days later, Portuguese police said they would reopen the case after 'highly significant' new evidence was identified by local detectives.

The country's attorney general said 'new elements of evidence' and new witnesses justified the continuation of the original investigation.

Police in the UK and Portugal said they would work together on their investigations in parallel to pursue new leads.


Two e-fit images of the same man seen in Praia da Luz on the night Madeleine disappeared were released by the Met Police in 2013

Image
The Crimewatch special in 2013 revealed that police were now looking at Madeleine's abduction as being at 10pm and not 9.15pm

Portuguese police later named Euclides Monteiro as a key suspect in the case.

Monteiro was a heroin addict who was fired from his job in the restaurant at the Ocean's Club in Praia da Luz a year before Madeleine went missing.

But an investigation into whether Monteiro, who was run over by a tractor at the age of 40 in 2009, took Madeleine in revenge for losing his job, came to nothing.

Police had identified him as their main suspect after mobile phone records indicated he was around the McCanns' holiday apartment in Praia da Luz when Madeleine disappeared.

In January 2014, UK detectives flew to Portugal to conduct searches and interview people there in connection with Madeleine's disappearance - but no arrests were ever made.

At one point, police said they were conducting DNA tests on scraps of clothing found in a pit just feet away from where Madeleine vanished - but, again, the find came to nothing.

And in the years that followed, despite hope that two police investigations and countless searches would lead to a breakthrough, there appeared to be little progress in finding answers.

June 2020: German detectives say they 'almost have enough evidence' to charge suspect

There was a major breakthrough in the case in June 2022 when British and German authorities announced that they were investigating a 43-year-old German man in connection with Madeleine's disappearance.

Prosecutors said they had 'almost enough evidence' to charge the convicted paedophile with the kidnap and murder of Madeleine. UK authorities described the development as a 'significant new line of enquiry'.

At the time, due to German privacy laws, the suspect was not allowed to be named but it can now be revealed that it was Brueckner - though he wasn't formally named as an official suspect until April 2022.

Police revealed in 2020 that Brueckner had made a 30-minute phone call that located him in Praia da Luz just an hour before the Madeleine was last seen on May 3, 2007 - a revelation that detectives in Scotland Yard described as a 'major breakthrough' in the case.

The following day Brueckner, who had lived in Portugal's Algarve region between 1997 and 2007 and had a house in Praia de Luz, suspiciously transferred the ownership of his Jaguar car to another person despite continuing to drive it, police said.

In July 2020, Portuguese authorities conducted searches of three wells and a hidden cellar related to the investigation, but a local law enforcement source said no new information was discovered.

April 2022: Police name Christian Bruckner as suspect

Brueckner was made the 'official suspect' in Madeleine's disappearance in April last year - on the eve of the 15th anniversary of her disappearance.

He was named by German prosecutors as the man 'responsible' for the girl's kidnap and murder in June 2020 but was never named as an official suspect until last year.

Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters, who is leading the McCann investigation in Germany, said at the time he has 'concrete evidence' Brueckner killed Madeleine.

The decision to make Bruecker, a convicted paedophile who has been linked to four other child murders across Europe since 1996, an 'arguido' - or official suspect - brought new hope that one of the world's most harrowing unsolved crimes could still be solved.

'This reflects progress in the investigation, being conducted by the Portuguese, German and British authorities,' the McCanns said at the time. 'Even though the possibility may be slim, we have not given up hope that Madeleine is still alive and we will be reunited with her.'

Brueckner was questioned by Portuguese authorities about Madeleine's disappearance for the first time in April 2022 but he exercised his right to remain silent throughout the interview.

But one of Brueckner's former lovers, Anastasia Meckesy said at the time the sex offender had confessed to her in 2013 that he knew what happened to Madeleine.

'He said that he "knows what happened to little Maddie from England",' Meckesy said at the time. 'Christian is a human pig. That's how you should see him today. Today I know what he's accused of.'

Brueckner, a convicted paedophile, is currently languishing in a German prison for the rape of a 72-year-old American tourist in Portugal just 18 months before Madeleine was abducted.

His trial heard he planned the sex attack having broken into the victim's house with a rope to tie her up. She was blindfolded and gagged before being raped and robbed.

According to German media, Brueckner was first convicted of child sex offences in Germany in 1994, aged 17.

He was sentenced to two years in jail but was released early, travelling to the Algarve in 1995 as a backpacker, where he became involved in drug smuggling.

He then spent 12 years on the Algarve dealing drugs, burgling holiday homes before raping the American pensioner. The sex attack could be significant because the convicted paedophile had broken into her Praia da Luz holiday home to loot it - and police have long believed Madeleine may have been snatched during a burglary.

Indeed, Brueckner was known to break into Algarve hotel rooms and apartments to supplement his income from drug dealing, and left the south of Portugal suddenly in 2007 - the year Madeleine vanished - after more than a decade living there.

He is alleged to have admitted abducting Madeleine to a friend in a bar - and German investigators are said to firmly believe he killed the three-year-old.

But more than three years after linking Brueckner to Madeleine's disappearance, he has still not been charged regarding her abduction as prosecutors do not have enough evidence.

February 2023: Mystery Polish woman declares she is missing Madeleine

In February, Julia Faustyna - better known as Julia Wendell - created an Instagram account called iammadeleinemccann. She started professing that she, then 21, was the missing British girl, despite her parents branding her claims 'lies and manipulation'.

Appearing on US talk show Dr Phil, she said she started suspecting she was Madeleine last June - but did not provide any evidence.

Side-by-sides did show resemblance between Julia and Madeleine, but the lack of proof was leading the case nowhere.

She claimed that she could not remember large parts of her childhood and was not sure of her age. She said she had not seen her birth certificate - which her parents disputed.

Wendell's unsubstantiated claims were supported by Dr Fia Johansson, a private investigator and psychic medium. She said Wendell had been trafficked from Poland to another country by an international sex group - again without evidence.

The development was put to rest in April 2023 after Wendell agreed to take a DNA test. The results showed the woman was, after all, from Poland, with some Lithuanian and Romanian heritage.

Dr Johansson backed the findings but said 'this story is much more complicated than a simple girl from a small town in Poland making a claim to get attention. She truly believed what she was saying, and with so many questions about her childhood it is easy to understand where she was coming from.'

May 2023: New searches in Portugal

In what the McCanns hoped would be a huge breakthrough in the case, detectives announced this month they would launch a search of a remote reservoir in the Algarve.

German authorities this month announced they would begin searching the Arade reservoir - which Bruecker called his 'little paradise' after receiving 'certain tip-offs'.

The reservoir is located near the town of Silves, where a lorry driver had claimed to see a woman passing off a child resembling Madeleine's description to a man two days after the toddler disappeared.

Investigators cleared a large area of woodland at the reservoir and dug eight deep holes to collect samples, which have been sent for forensic and DNA testing in Germany.

Scientists are expected to have initial results next week, sources say, but it is feared it could take months for a full analysis to be completed.

The Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manha said a 'relevant clue' was found during the search on Thursday, leading police to focus on a specific area of the secluded beauty spot.

Several items were removed from the site, which may or may not be of relevance to the investigation into Madeleine's disappearance, the publication said. They include a bra strap, pieces of clothing and plastic items.

But it remains to be seen as to whether any of the evidence will help the McCanns get some form of closure.

The mystery of what happened to little Madeleine - and whether she is still alive - has captivated the world and seen the Met Police spend more than £14million in their investigation. But with every apparent breakthrough, there are still no answers.

Earlier this month, Gerry and Kate marked Madeleine's 20th birthday - and 16 years since she disappeared - by saying they are 'never going to give up' with their search for their daughter.

They hold onto a glimmer of hope she could still be alive 16 years after she vanished without a trace.

Madeleine's great uncle Brian Kennedy said: 'Sixteen years without someone and still not knowing where they are is a very long time. Even if it was bad news, in some ways, it would give us some closure. But with no closure there is still hope.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12123199/The-big-breaks-Madeleine-McCann-case-led-no-closer-finding-her.html
....................

Too much frippery and factually incorrect.

Madeleine McCann suspect denies killing her in disturbing new letters written from prison - 'I'm not a monster!'


Madeleine McCann suspect denies killing her in disturbing new letters written from prison - 'I'm not a monster!'

 

By Jack Walters

Published: 28/05/2023 - 14:04

Madeleine McCann disappeared during a family holiday to Portugal at the age of 3 in 2007

The lead suspect in Madeleine McCann’s disappearance has denied killing her in disturbing new letters written from his prison cell.

German paedophile Christian Brueckner, 45, returned to the headlines after police searched a Portuguese reservoir.

Brueckner has written a string of letters hoping to get publicity for his campaign to exonerate himself of anything to do with McCann’s disappearance sixteen years ago.

A neatly, pencil-written letter penned just days before this week’s search highlighted how the convicted rapist was trying to persuade the authorities and public that he is innocent.

Graphologist Tracey Trussell, who examined the letters, said they showed Brueckner was “distorted, deluded” and his “fantastical views are constant, unchanging”.

She added: “In some cases, this symbol is seen where a violent death has taken place close to the writer, and they are trying to come to terms with it.

“Whatever the truth, there is a need to continually feed his ego, and his ultimate aim is to get some sort of recognition' before concluding that he was on a 'short fuse'.”

Investigators working on McCann’s disappearance insist they have “concrete evidence” that she is dead and believe Brueckner killed her.

Brueckner wrote in a letter in May: “You can never imagine how it is when the whole world believes you are a child murderer, and you are not.”

He added: “I got told a long time ago that the prosecutor's office was closing the Maddie case because there is not even the smallest evidence. There will never be a trial.

“The prosecutors are not saying anything to the public because they must give the files to my lawyers - and they contain many (sic) material which confirms my innocence.”

Concluding his latest letter Brueckner, he wrote: “I'm writing this without self-pity and my self-confidence and self-control was never at a higher level.

“What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Chin up! Better days are coming.”

Brueckner, who is due for release from prison in 2026, even alleged that police and prosecutors are “attempting to create a monster” to “diivert and let people think that I am the right one”.

The 45-year-old was jailed for seven-years in Germany for raping a 72-year-old American woman at her Algarve home in 2005.

Police searched a Portuguese lake just 35 miles from the Algarve holiday village of Praia da Luz for pink pyjamas belonging to McCann.

Officers in Germany said in 2020 that they believed Brueckner kidnapped and murdered McCann.

The 45-year-old remains under investigation on suspicion of murder after spending many years in Portugal around the time of the then-three year old’s disappearance.

However, the convicted paedophile may never face a trial over McCann’s disappearance due to a legal technicality over foreign courts’ jurisdiction.

Bruckner has denied any involvement in McCann’s abduction and no suspects have ever been charged in connection with the case.

https://www.gbnews.com/news/madeleine-mccann-suspect-letter-prison-christian-brueckner-portugal-germany

Graphologist Tracey Trussell, who examined the letters, said they showed Brueckner was “distorted, deluded” and his “fantastical views are constant, unchanging”.

So would you be doolally if locked away in solitary confinement 24 hours a day 7 days a week - allelgedly.

They are past masters at stating the screamingly obvious, that's for sure.

Chilling innit ?