Prosecutors believe they have tracked down the guy who kidnapped and murdered Madeleine McCann in Portugal in 2007.

Christian Brueckner, a German, is suspected of being the perpetrator, and he is presently spending time in a high-security prison in Oldenburg, Germany, for different offenses.

Madeleine McCann
Christian Brueckner, a German, is suspected of being the perpetrator, and he is presently spending time in a high-security prison

Hans Christian Wolters, a German prosecutor, told The Mirror, “We’re convinced we have the individual who stole and killed her.”

“It’s now conceivable for us to charge.” We now have that proof. But we don’t simply want to prosecute him; we want to charge him with the finest possible evidence.

“It would be madness to charge while we still have questions, rather than wait for answers that may improve our argument.”

Wolters went on to explain that the prosecution has no scientific proof and that everything they have so far is based on speculation.

“We don’t have a corpse or DNA, but we do have other evidence, and the evidence we do have leads to no other conclusion. I can’t tell you why we think she’s dead, but there’s no other option for us. There’s no hope she’s alive.”

In 2017, Brueckner was named as a suspect in the investigation, ten years after McCann vanished. He was rumored to be staying in a camper van near Praia da Luz, where Madeleine vanished.

He’s also being probed for a number of other crimes, including the sexual assault of a 10-year-old child and the murder of a teenager in Belgium.