Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.

The disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine McCann is a heart-breaking mystery. Ever since she went missing on a family holiday in Portugal in May 2007, her beautiful face has haunted the world. In that time her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann have never stopped searching for answers about what happened to their daughter. They’ve also never stopped hoping she might still be alive.

if innocence has a face, then surely it is madeleine mcCann’s.

since  the night she disapepeared  her anguished  not  unbroken  parents ,  kate and Gerry have never let  the world  forget  their daughter .

but  the evil that befill maddie may now have  a name 

christian  Brueckner

In recent criminal history there is no mystery more heartbreaking or baffling  than what    happened  to  madeleine mccann.

police  forces in three countries have spent 13 years and tens of milllions of  dollars searching for a breakthrough without even the barest glimmer of hope,but now that breakthrough appears to  have come in  the most  dramatic way.

in recent weeks police in germany and portugal have search sites where where sex predator christian Brueckner is known to have  operated.

experts  trace Brueckner‘s criminal history threw portugal, living a stone’s  throw from where madeleine was taken .

his menacing bolt hole  in  germany where he buried damming evidence of  his crimes beneath the body of  his dead dog.

and  exlusive police records of an alleged pedophile chat room, revealing his depraved  and criminal minds.

we’ll follow Brueckner‘s trail of shocking crimes ,expose the bungles incompetence and at times incredible  luck that may have let a psychopath escape.

in the critical first 48  hours there were a lot of blunders and a  lot of  misstakes.

but we also reveal the extraordinary  breakthroughs that cvould finally  bring justice to  a little girl forever lost .

cracking the  case of maddie and the  monster 

it is the night of may the 3rd 2007, apartment 5 s on  the ground floor of the ocean club resort in praia da luz

it is where  british doctors kate and Gerry mccann have been staying  for nearly a week with their young children, including three- years old daughter  madeleine.

they joined friends for dinner at a tapas bar within the resort complex

just a short distance from their apartment.

having earlier checked their children a number of times  at around 10 pm  kate mccann againg goes back to the room.

she finds maddie missing and the ground floor window open

so  begins an unimaginable nightmare for Gerry and kate mccann

former head of homicide  at scottland yard, simon foy was a member of  operation grange

the UK  investigation into maddie’s  disappearance.

the disappearance  of little maddie mccannelectrified the  community of praria da luz, hundreds of local people joined the search for her .

as their mayor hugo pereira  rembembers

“they worked tirelessly togetherwith the authoritites joining in the  desperate search to find  the child, they spared no efforts in the  following days to try to find maddie”

the portuguese people did all they could,  but the portuguese police hopelessly divided between three different forces committed grave  misstakes that would  compromise the  investigation  from the very beginning.

if it’s not  solved in ther first two days it’s very likely  that this  going to be a cold case forever…

criminal  profiler mark hoffman suscepts maddie’s abductor escaped amidst the confusion at the ocean club and  surrounding prague delugethe first 48 hours after murder or abduction these are the golden hours for the police or law enforcement to solve this crime.

the police chosen for  the ground search was not  trained for the job, they were essentially security guards ,portuguese police they were not used to this kind of cases and to this , to the amount  in size that this case would  grow into.

in praia da luz ,kai feldhause heading up the investigative unit of germany’s build magazine watched as the chaos unfolded .

to  many people  were running in and out of this apartment, to many people were bringing their DNA into the place where they were supposed  to look for othe DNA.

the mccann’s apartment was not forensically sealed, unbelievably it was  cleaned and rented  again before DNA samples were taken .

and DNA  that might  have still been there was potenially contaminated by  police dogs  taken  into the apartment.

crime reporter for the portuguese tv  sandra  felgueiras, was at the scene  of the first day of madelein’s  disappearance.

the dogs that were sent to the flat to look after  madeleine were sent before the  forensics,so the most part of the samples that were collected and they were more than 600 they were  made of dark  things.

what no one knew at the time,least of all the local  police was  that just over a kilometer from where  madeleine disappeared lived a monster.

chistian Brueckner a sex predator who’d raped a young  girl in germany and who then fled to portugal where he’d raped an  elderly woman  in praia da luz  just  two years earlier.

it ‘s really important to understan that many  child molesters are not pedophiles

mark homman says that from the moment three year old madeleine mccann arrived in brückner’s domain she was as much a target as his  elderly victim.

they like to abduct  easy victims,elderly women and children ,this is not a contradiction ,this is one of the biggest similarities

at the time of maddie’s disappearance ,portugal did not  have a sex offender registry ,but  authorities there were made aware of christian  brückner’s history  the year before.

while  facing a local  court on theft charges , Brueckner told the portuguese judge he  had a criminal record for child sex offenses  in germany.

public defender seraphim vieira represented Brueckner in 2006

in triguingly Brueckner also told  the court  he had no home adress in portugal despite having already lived there for more than 10 years.

at the time  the sexuall offense that he was convicted  didn’t appear in his criminal record in portugal for one simple matter he was not a resident in portugal, therefore there was no trace of his  past .

rather than reveal his residence Bruecknerchose instead to stay in prison a term that lasted  eight months.

he said nobody can  know about that adress,brückner calle to a  friend , a german friend from the prison and he asked that friend to go to that house  to take all the computers  and pen drives and cameras that  he had there.

whatever Brueckner was hiding there was never found,he was released from prison in december 2006 and retrned to praia da luz just months before madeleine mccann was taken .

he was a convicted child molester,when madeleine mccann disappearead and he never got into focus  so how can it be that there’s a convicted child molester  living close by close proximity few  kilometers

  and it was  like the first  but not by far not the last mistake that has been made.

within days madeleine mccann’s  disappearance christian Brueckner slipped out of portugal and headed  for germany- a monster no one knew on the move.

4th 2020 after 13 years that  have  baffled the police investigators in the UK and portugal german authorities make  a stunning  announcement in the case of  madeleine mccann

” the public prosecutor’s office is investigating a 43 year olf  german national on suspicion of murder, we are assuming that the girl is dead”

their suspect  is 43 year old  christian Brueckner a sex offender currently in a german prison for the rape of the 72 year old women .

christian Brueckner, he is the serial offender in many  past cases , he was criminal and he was in prison and he did it again and again and again ,17 or 18 times.

it’s 1995  and 19 year old  christian  brückner arrives in  the portuguese coastal  town

of praia da luz 

he lives in this house 

just over a kilometer  from the resort  called the  ocean club

in time  it will become  one of the world’s most  infamous crime scene

Brueckner comes here seeking a safe  haven  fleeing germany where two years before he was convicted for the sexual assault  of a young girl.

he was 17 years old he raped a child  he got the sentence and then he  escaped from germany  and he came to portugal

when you talk  to these  people thatchristia  knew Brueckner at that time they all qualify him as a disturb man that had strange behaviors that no one understood very vell.

he was a criminal ,he was responsible dor more than 20 burglaries

in the same area in praia da luz

Brueckner‘s targets were holiday homes and hotels, he was always  looking for houses with the same description of ocean club where madeleine went  missing 

he was always going to the first floor to windows that  were  easy to open but beneath the mask of a petty  criminal  looked  unimaginable evil.

clearly  two categories of crimes , financially  motived crimes,but he also had a darker side ,he walked into  violence and torture and rape against vulnerable  weak easy victims.

stalking the coastal roads and  tourist resorts, we know know Brueckner wasn’t just looking for houses and apartments to rob he was also hunting for victims

and in 2005 – he struck.

it was a truly awful crime the rape of a 72 year old women this is not just  rape  this is one of the most brutal ways of rape

brückner  broke into his elderly victim’s house  and over a period of hours  tortured and sexually assaulted her inflicting extreme  cruelty

according to police files that that includingbeatingher  with a metal road.

 

“the accused forced the tha naked bound and and gagged women to stand up and beat her repeatedly on her chest  a lower abdomen, arms and buttoks  with a metal  object he had brough with hime “

 

the attack revealed Brueckner targeted victims of any age  from  children to the elderly as long as  he deemed them to be weak and  vulnerable.

and in what became his hallmarl as a psychopath , he videotaped the entire  assault, the video though would eventually his undoing.

it’s about violence it’s about playing god ,it’s about power,it’sabout dominance, this is not just about  sex or rape, this is about torture.

local police investigated but the case went nowhere an opportunity that could have alerted the sleepy community to a monster on the prowl was lost 

the victim felt ashamed and too afraid to tell even her friends she didn’t talk about her being raped to anyone.

but was this  elderly woman Brueckner‘s first  victim in portugal ?

undervingly similar  was the terrible ordeal suffered by young irish  women Hazel B 

in 2004 she was raped in her ground floor apartment near  praia da luz by an attacker she desribed as being young and german and who also  filmed the attack

two violent assaults  within in to years  both bearing the same hallmarks of  a psychopath.

then on may the 3rd 2007  

in the same small  corner of portugal the little girl whose face would haunt the world   disapeared from the ocean club.

a stone’s throw  from  where christian Brueckner was living.

it is  2013 , six years after madeleine mccann’s disappearence, these are the words  of christian Brueckner, now the prime suspect in her abduction allegedly in a pedophile chat room

his life and criminal records  he’s quite  clear about his  fantasy about abducting, torturing and fightingchildren to name it and it could be a serial killer in the  making and this absolutely is a red flag

to mark hoffman christian Brueckner absolutely fits the profile of a psychopath, a psychopath who in 2007 lived just  over a kilometer from the resort where madeleine was abducted.

and close to where he brutally raped a 72 year old women and  videotaped his crime.

in reality they  don’t start with  like murder  or rape and this  is sometimes the end  of a long process of an escalating fantasy

becaue if you think about it muurder or  homicide is like the urest form of domination becauxe they choose if the victims live or die – they play god!

christian Brueckner left portugal in 2007 during a desperate  early search for madeleine mccann

the dark pieces of his life were  assembled from incidents,crimes and evidence that remain uconnectecd

until german investigators finally  joined the dots this year.

there are  forensicpolice here ,police with ground penetreting radar and also police divers.

after  bolting from portugal Brueckner moved first to the geramn city of  Brunswick

an insider wh oknew him, speaking anonymously

says for years  he ran kiosk next  to a kinder gardenthere is a kindergarden and  a junior school next door

they spent their pocket momey on the streets here,he gave the kids lollies for free.

Brueckner has a string of girlfriends,always very young, charming on the outside ,but says a neighbor his  brutal with his teenage lovers.

he was very bad  with women,if they didn’t do what he wants he just just hits them one girlfriend  had  once shown me that she had  strangulation  marks on her neck  .that he had struggled her

violence in the relationships, absolutely typical for  psychopath and absolutely  typical for people with profile of christian 

but even more chilling brükner’s friend says he talked of creating a dangoung .

 in this – his rented cottage

just like the one austrian pedophile joseph fritzel used to imprison

and abuse his daughter …

for 24 years

he had a cellar and he said he wanted to line it with heavy plates like the guy in austria.

and searches by german police in july this year  

did indeed uncover hidden celler in a property Brueckner once ownd.

may 2015 , almost eigth years  to the day from when  madeleine mcccann went missing 

 another little girl inga  gergerich disppared.

the location was just two hours  drive  from where brückner was living.

 a dark van similar to the one he owned at the time was seen leaving the abduction site 

but inga was never found  her case and many others are now being re- examined

on june the 4th this year  prosecutor  wolters announced  Brueckner was was the prime  suspect  in maddie mccann’s abduction and probably  murder.

prosectors  have strong evidence that madeleine mccann’s dead and  that the suspect  killed  her but the prosecutor  are   not  allowed  and not able at the moment to  tell  all the details of  the investigton.

no body  and no parts of the  body but they have enough evidence to say their suspect killed  madeleine mccann.

it was  some time in the last two years when they realized that she’s dead.

whatever is fueling  the certainty of german prosecutors now 

it began with kane and jerry mccann and their unflagging appeal  to the public for  information

in  the years  following maddie’s  disppearance the mccanns apeared twice on german TV.

and each time there were tip -offs.

the first w in 2013 just the name christian Brueckner, it put him  on the police radar amd omquires  began

one of the bigger misstakes that has been made was that  after  kate and gerry mccann came to  tv show

and after  this  show where they were shoing an efit of a person that was seen around the ocean  club of the  night of the disappearance

there was  a hint from a viewer said this efit remind me a lot of  a person  i know a german who  was living  there in the area ,who was living in a camper bus ,this could very well be him .

leading  his team for germany’s build magazine kai feldhouse recalls the moment in 2013 when bruckner was identified by a viewer.

and the astonishing  blunder that followed when police inadvertently alerted Brueckner that he  was a suspect.

and then, maybe the major mistake  investigation happened,that the local police sent a letter  to christian B ,asking him to show up as a witness at the police station.

and tell him  about what he knows about the disapearance of madeleine mccann, he was alerted that he  might be involved in this  crime case.

it was a serious error.bruckner realised he was in police sites as he told friends. Bruckner never showed up for the police.

but  in 2015 they uncovered  a dark clue, investigators learned he owned this deserted factory in a remote location.

searching it  they made a grim discovery. hard drives and  USB  sticks 

hidden in a plastic bag buried  with his dog.

on the property of chtistian B they found material which according to the current  information  is like 8 000 pieces videos and pictures

and  this is quite typical for  these kind of offenders they are filming what they do and sometimes they are fantasizing about their crimes everyday and every  night over  and over and over again.

bruckner’s lair revealed many  secrets  and not  just his ghastly buried trove of videos ….

there was more 

over there  was where his american camper was parked 10 meters long.

in hiscamer van ,police  discovered the swimsuits of little girls

in 2017 kate and gerry mccann’s german tv interview was replead on the 10th anniversy of  maddie’s disappearance.

this time the public response brought gold,eyewitness reports that bruckner mad a drunken confession about maddie mccann reports too that friends saw the video  of bruckner’s appaling rape of an elderly women in portugal in 2005.

evidence which would lead to his conviction

in that case 

there’s been a couple of witnesses thar alerted police and said  we have seen video, we have seen  videos of christian B raping women .

with christian bruckner now under  investigation kai  feldhouse believes the story his been covering for 13 years  may be reachingits final  chapter

the suspect who’s been  named by the german authorities is the most  important suspect in this 13 years of  the story  of the disappearance of madelein mccann

it has never been a proper suspect.

but just  what is the police evidence in this devastating case of maddie  and the monster .

the public prosecutors’s office is investigating  a 43 year old german national on suspicion of murder .

is this the end game  in the case of the mysterious disappearance of three year old madeleine mccann

police  teams continue to forensically  search properties in  portugal and  germany looking for evidence  involving  their  prime suspect  sex prediator christian bruckner.

but was is the smoking gun evidence that has  convinced german authorities  they have their man ?

we know that the phone number which was used by a suspect  on the 3rd of may 2007 was connecting the mast  belongs to the  ocean club in  pria da luz.

maddie was abdoctued between   8 am and 10 pm the nigt of may the 3rd  2007.

in the aftermath portuguese investigators  scoured mobile phone logs for the area that night but found nothing 

the logs were passed on to the  UK  scotland yard which set up  operation  grange – a special  team of officers tasekd with finding maddie .

there was a phenomenal amount of data relating  to personal phone

you want to look of a pattern of a of  did the individual have a phone  number did that phone number  appear…it’s a huge amount of data.

massive,massive  amount  of data ,it is the classic haystack into which you looking for not just the needle but  the head of a needle.

but  scotland yards  operation grange also failed to find the needle in the mobile phone logs 

it was the germans  who made the breakthrough a phone number  traced to someone with a  criminal record for child  sex offences  in theire country.

burried in he data is  a single call on may 3rd  2007  triangulated by police to  have been made just outside   the ocean  club- the phone nuber was christian bruckner’s

there has always been speculation that an  insider at the  tapas bar where the mcccann’s were having dinner ,tipped  off maddie’s  abductor

in their reservation entry it was noted that mccanns wanted to  eat  close to their apartment as they were leaving their young children alone

christian bruckner couldn’t have acted alone,that was the phone call that he was  doing to someone that helped him that nigtht.

someone must have been implicated,it’s very difficult to understand, he could have done this  by himself

german prosecutors also  discovered the day ,after  madeleine’s disappearance bruckner deregistred the jaguar car he owned.

and  identical photos based on eay witnesse at the ocean club 

revelead a stricking similarity to bruckner.

but perhaps thestrongest evidence german prosecutors  may have that madeleine is no longer alive is contained in the 8 000 videos  they unearthed in his desolate  hideway  in  germany.

they have some good  evidence  it could  be  videos.

he was in child pornography and torture and he did crimes against children at  very early age and according to the current information he also filmed his offenses  so you can  clearly say what happen there?

christian brückner’s  defense lawyer  freidrich fulscher  is tight- lipped  about wheter he has even asked his client about   madeleine mccann

“everything  the defense lawyer talks with his client is confidential”

 

for sure is as strangely cryptic as he  claims to be confident in brückner,confident certainly that bruckner will never cooperate with the german prosecutors.

what ever  the critical  new evidence german prosecutors possess including what they  may have  unearthed  in recent  days and weeks.

for now  they’re keeping it to themselves although prosecutor voltas may have give us  a hint .

we do know thar police recovered thousands of files of disturbing pictures  and videos that believed belong to christian bruckner. is there evidence on those videos of madeleine mccann?at the moment  is  not allowed  to say  if there are pictures or if there is no pictures of madeleine

given the german investigators  have said very clearly that they believe madeleine mccann is dead -they must have significant information .

the german police  are very  careful what they say publicly they would  have recognize the significance of it 

they would have recognized the international  sensitvity of it and they would probably  have recognized the public interest in it

.and so  the fact that they have made that statement is of itself significant.

if the terman authorities  do have video proving madeleine’s  death together with the mobile phone trace proving bruckner was in the area then evidence  from an  eyewitness  conclusively putting him at the ocean club between 9 and  10 p.m.on the night of may 3rd 2007 

would be the last piece of the puzzle and for gerry and kate mcccann the final  terrible truth  a trutch that may already   be known .

every parent of a missing child hopes that their child will be found.

far away from the events being  played  out in germany  and portugal .

one mother chares her paine with kate  mccann.

” take care kate.”

it was summer 1991  kerry   and her son

a beautiful  baby son 21 one month old Ben

were living on the greek island of koz  where her parents were restroing a house.

there was no trace of Ben and no witnesses then four years ago a tip-off

that he may have been accidentally  killed by a local man  operating a mechanical   digger who thenburied him in panic.

but the man has since died and excavations of the site by police  proved inconclusive.

kerry shares a unique and tragic  mother’s bond with kate mccann

it is the pain  of not knowing what happened to your beloved child and then perhaps the even greater pain of finding out.

for 13 years  the fate of madeleine  mccann has been a single  unanswerable question an  unresolved  case that still causes all touched  buy it terrible torment.

Madeleine in 2007, aged three, and forensic artist’s impression of what she may have looked like in 2012, aged nine

German prosecutors seek 15-year jail term for Madeleine McCann suspect in a separate rape trial

Story by the Associated Press ,Published 11:10 PM EDT, Wed October 2, 2024

Julian Stratenschulte/AP/File

8 October 2024

Christian Bruckner (L) has not been charged in connection with the Madeleine McCann case