On Thursday, public prosecutors in Faro, Portugal, announced that an individual is being formally investigated in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, the British girl who went missing on the evening of May 3, 2007 in an apartment building in Praia da Luz in the south of the country was Portugal, where he was vacationing with his family. McCann was never found and police believe she was kidnapped and killed.
It is the first time in 15 years that Portuguese authorities have announced they have formally identified a suspect. These are also the last few days that this was possible: on May 3, 15 years after the day of McCann’s disappearance, an indictment under Portuguese law would no longer be possible.
Faro prosecutors did not disclose the person’s name and said they had identified him in cooperation with German authorities: for this reason, various newspapers speak of German citizen Christian Brückner, already convicted of other crimes and since 2020 for the disappearance von McCann is blamed by both British and German police. However, no formal proceedings of any kind were ever instituted against him, as sufficient evidence had never been found to initiate such proceedings.
– Also read: The latest developments in the Madeleine McCann case