Fifteen years after the disappearance of the British girl Madeleine McCann, judicial advances shed hope of unraveling the mystery after Portugal has formally constituted the German Christian Brueckner as a suspect “in extremis” (the figure of “arguido” in Portuguese law) to prevent the case from statute of limitations.
Maddie disappeared on May 3, 2007 from the apartment that his family had rented in Praia da Luzin the Portuguese Algarve, where he slept with his brothers -two two-year-old twins- while his parents had dinner with a group of friends in the same tourist complex.
The case quickly became the most mediatic disappearance of a minor to date and, after several lines of investigation, theories and suspects over fifteen yearsthe mystery may be closer to being solved than ever.
The Portuguese Justice has just constituted a German citizen, Christian Brueckneras “arguido”, a Portuguese figure that is used to designate formal suspects on whom strong evidence falls, prior to accusation.
Avoid prescribing
This decision was made a few weeks after 15 years have passed since the disappearancethe maximum term for a crime of homicide to prescribe in Portugalgiving authorities more time to further investigate and gather evidence.
“Since there is a suspect, I think the Portuguese authorities wanted to be cautious and constitute him as ‘arguido'”, explains João Mira Godinho, one of the Portuguese journalists who followed the case more closely.
Godinho, who has collaborated on a miniseries about the disappearance of Maddie which premieres on AMC next Tuesday, remember that in this way the statute of limitations is suspended (for seven and a half years) and if the investigation Brueckner bears fruit, he may finally be charged.
The 45-year-old suspect lived between 1995 and 2007 in the Algarve and was near the apartment complex the night he Maddie He disappeared, according to data from his mobile phone.
With an extensive criminal record for sexual abuse, physical assault, robbery and misdemeanors, he was on the radar of the authorities since he was extradited from Portugal to Germany in 2017 accused of another case of sexual abuse of minors in Greece.
Decade and a half of searching
The appearance of Brueckner sheds hope on the chances of solving the case after years of clues, theories and suspects that came to nothing.
The case has been investigated in parallel by the Portuguese and British authorities, which ended up torpedoing the process, according to those who followed it closely.
“There should have been more cooperation and less competition, because it seemed that the Portuguese police were on one side and the British on the other,” says Godinho, convinced that the “accusations” launched by the English press towards the Portuguese authorities made their work difficult.
Among the theories shuffled, there was speculation about the accidental death of the girl at the hands of her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, an idea that the Portuguese inspector who led the case, Gonçalo Amaral, defended tooth and nail.
Amaral he even published a book with his hypotheses and the conflict with the parents of Maddie ended up in court.
The most mediatic case
The de Maddie It is the most mediatic disappearance of a minor known to date and brought dozens of journalists from all corners of the world to a quiet tourist complex in the Algarve.
“It dominated the media almost like the war in Ukraine today,” says Godinho.
The McCanns, who were received by Pope Benedict XVI less than a month after their disappearance, cThey quickly hired a public relations team to manage the press deal.
The case has starred in countless movies, series, documentaries and books with different theories.
With the latest judicial advances, the truth may be closer than ever. (EFE)
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