New suspect told friends in Germany ‘Madeleine is dead’
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Christian Brückner , who has been identified as thee new suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, told friends “the child is now dead” when the missing three-year-old came up in conversation in 2014, according to reports.
Former colleagues of Brückner, a paedophile who was last week revealed as a suspect in Madeleine’s 2007 disappearance, said he “completely freaked out” when a group started discussing the case.
Brückner responded by saying it was possible to “make a body disappear quickly” while telling them how to dispose of human remains, the former acquaintances claimed.
A handout photo made available by the Milan branch of Italy’s Carabinieri police force shows an undated photograph of 43-year-old German convict Christian Brueckner, whom investigators are treating as the main suspect in the as-yet-unsolved case of the 2007 disappearance of British child Madeleine McCann in Portugal .
On Wednesday, German prosecutors announced that a 43-year-old man was being investigated on suspicion of murdering Madeleine, who vanished without a trace while on holiday with her family in Praia da Luz, Portugal.
Since the development, details of Brückner’s criminal past and troubled upbringing have emerged. Growing up in Würzburg, Bavaria, he was adopted at a young age and reportedly sent to a home for troubled children because his adoptive family could not cope with his unruly behaviour.
German prosecutors, who are investigating the disappearance of the British girl in 2007, said they are conducting a murder investigation in the case.
He is believed to have been in the area where Madeleine, aged three, was last seen while on holiday in Portugal.
The UK’s Metropolitan Police said it had received more than 270 calls and emails since a new appeal for information was launched on Wednesday.
Hans Christian Wolters, from the Braunschweig Public Prosecutor’s Office in Germany, said in an update on Thursday: “We are assuming that the girl is dead.
“With the suspect, we are talking about a sexual predator who has already been convicted of crimes against little girls and he’s already serving a long sentence.”
He said the suspect was regularly living in the Algarve between 1995 and 2007 and had jobs in the area, including in catering, but also committed burglaries in hotels and dealt drugs.
