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Madeleine McCann - Update


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Cross posted with the thread about the Netflix doc, but this is a big breakthrough.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/05/madeleine-mccann-suspect-linked-disappearance-missing-german/

Madeleine McCann suspect linked to disappearance of missing German girl eight years later

The suspect was linked to the case of missing Inga Gehricke, who vanished in Germany in May 2015 and has never been found

ByVictoria Ward and Justin Huggler5 June 2020 • 1:38pm
Inga Gehricke, pictured on the day she went missing
Inga Gehricke, pictured on the day she went missing

Christian Bruckner, the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, was linked to the case of a missing child in his native Germany eight years later that has never been solved.

Inga Gehricke, five, vanished during a family outing on May 2, 2015. Bruckner was in the region the previous day, it is claimed.

The mystery has often been compared to that of Madeleine's abduction in Praia da Luz on May 3, 2007. No trace has ever been found of either young girl and no one has ever been charged. 

The Gehricke family, from Schonebeck in Saxony-Anhalt, had been having a barbecue one Saturday evening in a forest in Wilhelmshof, a district of Stendal, when Inga disappeared between 6.30pm and 7.30pm. 

Police initially believed she had run into woodland to collect wood for a campfire. Detectives were on the scene that evening and the search soon expanded to include more than 1,000 officers.

 
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Police officers and volunteers scoured the 3,500 hectare forest repeatedly for four days using dogs, helicopters with thermal imaging cameras, searchlights and loud speakers. Ponds were emptied but no trace of evidence was found. 

On May 7, police admitted for the first time that a crime was likely to have been committed. On June 2, a 25,000 euro reward was offered for information. A second two day search was similarly fruitless.

“We have not the slightest hint on the whereabouts of the child, a police spokesman was quoted as saying. “The girl just disappeared.”

Criminologists have since insisted that if she had simply ran into the forest and got lost she would have been found, as police were on the scene immediately. Similarly, had she been attacked by a wild animal, remains would have been found. They believe her disappearance could only have been linked to a crime.

Bruckner, who had by this point notched up a string of criminal convictions, including several child sex offences, was living 50 miles away at the time. 

Christian Bruckner
Christian Bruckner

Police would later track down an online chat from two years earlier in which Bruckner is alleged to have told a friend he wanted to "capture something small and use it for days". 

Asked if that was dangerous he replied: "Not if the evidence is destroyed afterwards,” German newspaper Spiegel reported.

In 2016, more than 100 police officers descended on his home in the village of Neuwegersleben, some 40 miles east of Braunschweig. 

Bruckner, then 39, was not there but detectives found children's clothing and child porn.

His apartment in Braunschweig was searched simultaneously, according to reports.

Just one day before Inga's disappearance, Bruckner was involved in an accident in a car park at a motorway service area near Helmstedt, which is a 90 minute drive away from the scene, Saxony-Anhalt newspaper Volksstimme said.

It is alleged he had no alibi for the day Inga went missing but no further action was taken against him.

German police have pursued some 2,000 leads since that fateful day, but the crime remains unsolved.

Inga's grief-stricken parents have since divorced but are united in their desire for a renewed investigation and believe the answers lie in the weighty police file.

Her father’s lawyer has said that “fresh investigators for fresh approaches” are important.

Petra Kullmei, representing Inga’s mother, said: “My client sees it exactly the same way. Nothing should be left unturned. 

Experienced investigators from another unit or the State Criminal Police Office would have a completely different perspective on the case.”

Petra Kullmei, the lawyer representing Inga’s mother, told Volksstimme that the family wanted a new investigation. “The file was closed again only four weeks after starting work," she said. "I think that's not very ambitious.”

Bruckner is said to have sent a letter from prison last year to an employee at the place Inga was staying when she disappeared, although its contents are unknown.

 
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Brückner, who is in prison in the northern German city of Kiel serving an unrelated sentence for drug trafficking, is said to have told an acquaintance during a Skype chat in September 2013 that he wanted to “catch something small and use it for days”, according to a report by Der Spiegel.

In 1994, when he was a teenager, Brückner was convicted of sexual abuse of a child, attempted sexual abuse of a child, and carrying out sexual acts in front of a child. He fled to Portugal with a girlfriend the following year and lived in Praia da Luz.

Brückner has been convicted of crimes including theft and drug-dealing, and was allegedly known to have made break-ins at hotels and holiday homes in the Algarve.

 

well shit. It’s not like there was a great outcome. No matter how anyone thought about this case. 

 

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Brückner, who is in prison in the northern German city of Kiel serving an unrelated sentence for drug trafficking, is said to have told an acquaintance during a Skype chat in September 2013 that he wanted to “catch something small and use it for days”, according to a report by Der Spiegel.

In 1994, when he was a teenager, Brückner was convicted of sexual abuse of a child, attempted sexual abuse of a child, and carrying out sexual acts in front of a child. He fled to Portugal with a girlfriend the following year and lived in Praia da Luz.

Brückner has been convicted of crimes including theft and drug-dealing, and was allegedly known to have made break-ins at hotels and holiday homes in the Algarve.

 

well shit. It’s not like there was a great outcome. No matter how anyone thought about this case. 

 

No, but if the guy confesses, and it can give the parents closure...

They went through hell.
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19 minutes ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

No, but if the guy confesses, and it can give the parents closure...

They went through hell.

Yes they did. Did you see the second part where he was known to break into hotel rooms? I know they faced a lot of judgment for a decision. I never thought they killed her. 

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