Correio da Manhã, June 17 2020 - Paper edition

Our translation:

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Page 23

EVIDENCE

GERMANS REQUEST THE PROCESS AND WANT TO TRY CHRISTIAN BRUECKNER

Suspicions – They don’t reveal the new data coming to the Maddie investigation in the last weeks

Searches - PJ will go to the field if there are concrete places to search for the girl's body

Tânia Laranjo

The Germans want to try Christian Brueckner, the suspect for the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. They have already asked for all the elements from the Portuguese authorities and intend to make use of German law, which allows the judgment of national citizens, even if the crimes were committed in other countries.

For this reason, the alleged vestige of DNA that will have been found in the house from where the girl disappeared - and that the CM knows that it will hardly have any identifying value - has already been asked to the Portuguese authorities. The Germans have heard other witnesses and have been keeping all the clues they have received in the last weeks - after the suspicions against the German were made public.

At this moment, the CM knows, the authorities are at an impasse. The PJ, which is also competent to investigate the case, will only return to the field if the Germans indicate concrete places where Maddie's body may be hidden. The searches may focus on wells and holes, but the PJ is waiting for the German investigation to reveal some new clue, since what exists in Portugal is insufficient to proceed with searches.

Also in the van that was apprehended in Lagos and sent to Germany to be subject to expertise, nothing relevant was found. There was no indication of the English girl, who disappeared on May 3, 2007, in Praia da Luz. The same happened in the house where Christian Brueckner lived, but which he left still in 2007. For now, the suspect, detained in a prison in Kiel, was still not heard by the German authorities.

EXCLUSIVE NEWS
PAPER EDITION

Insert: PORTUGAL WAS ASKED FOR THE ALLEGED VESTIGE FOUND IN THE HOUSE

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Criticism creates tension

The German prosecutor in charge of the case Hans Christian Wolters, launched some criticisms of the actions of the Portuguese authorities saying that they “still think that Maddie's parents are responsible for the disappearance” and they have lengthy procedures.

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Germany believes

It is difficult to know what the next steps of the investigation will be, but the German authorities show that they will not drop the matter, even if the main suspect refuses to speak or give any clue. The prosecutor in the case believes there will be answers soon.

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 Pages 24 and 25

PORTUGUESE INVESTIGATION

05/03/2007

The McCann couple was having dinner with friends at the tourist resort Ocean Club, in Praia da Luz. The children - Maddie, 3, Sean and Amelie, 2 - stayed in their room, about 50 meters from the restaurant. Close to 10 pm, Kate heads to the apartment and gives the alert for the disappearance of her eldest daughter. The GNR is called and, shortly after, the PJ is activated. Searches are carried out on the grounds around the resort for several days (they ended on May 11). The parents are heard by the PJ and make a public appeal for the girl's restitution.

Caption: Maddie disappeared from the room of the Ocean Club resort

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09/08/2007

Maddie's parents were constituted arguidos after being questioned at the PJ in Portimão - Kate was heard for five hours and Gerry for nine. The confirmation was made by the lawyer representing the McCanns, Carlos Pinto de Abreu, explaining that “no charges have been filed against them and the investigation is continuing”. The couple was given the measure of caution of term of identity and residence, having complete freedom to, on the following day, return home. Back in May, the Englishman Robert Murat had been constituted arguido in the case, but ended up cleared.

Caption: Kate and Gerry were interrogated at the PJ in Portimão

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09/09/2007

Kate and Gerry returned to the UK, after months of diligences without any result and numerous clues that proved to be false, including some that guaranteed the sighting of Maddie in various locations in Spain. Weeks earlier, Scotland Yard made available two dogs capable of smelling the odour of death. The animals signalled the presence of a cadaver in three locations: in the room where the girl slept, at the Ocean Club, in the garden of the tourist resort and inside the trunk of the car used by the McCann days after the disappearance.

Caption: Dogs detected cadaver odour in the car used by the couple

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7/21/2008

The Public Ministry archives the case “because no evidence of a crime has been obtained”. Thus, Kate and Gerry have also ceased to be arguidos in the process. The couple continues to make appeals for Maddie to be found, asking British tourists to spread the photo of the girl on their vacation locations. In the years that followed, Maddie's parents became involved in a war with former PJ inspector Gonçalo Amaral, who wrote a book where he points towards the girl's accidental death. In October 2013, the case is reopened, coinciding with the Brueckner investigation.

Caption: More than a year later the case was archived 

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13 YEARS WITHOUT MADDIE

SEARCHES
All attempts to find Maddie have failed. Germans say they have the key to the mystery

CLÁUDIA MACHADO/PAULO J. SANTOS

It was not for lack of commitment that the Portuguese authorities have not, until today, discovered the whereabouts of Madeleine McCann. The disappearance began to be treated as an abduction. Hence the requested collaboration of the Portuguese and British secret services and the intervention of Interpol. Without abandoning this line of investigation, the hypothesis of the child's death, accidental or provoked, also gained strength, especially since the tracking dogs from England detected odour of cadaver and blood in the McCann's holiday home, in the car used by the couple, on a flowerbed of the backyard, in Kate's clothes and on the child's cuddle cat.

But everything came to nothing. Until the Germans came into action, when they realized that their compatriot Christian Brueckner, who lived in Portugal between 1995 and 2007, was mentioned in several investigations related to the disappearance of children. For the German authorities there is no doubt: it was him.

Caption of background photo: Madeleine McCann disappeared days from completing 4 years

Caption: 1 - Kate gave the alert for the disappearance 2 - Gerry was accused, as well as his wife

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GERMAN INVESTIGATION

11/04/2013

Christian Brueckner, a German with a record who lived near Praia da Luz, in Lagos, at the time of Maddie's disappearance, has been investigated since October 2013, after an old colleague thought he looked like an e-fit. On November 4, 2013, he received a summons from the German police to be heard as a witness, but the authorities let the motive for the summons in the note. Brueckner, 43, knew he was going to become a suspect of the abduction of the English girl even before the investigation started. He managed to escape the interrogation.

Caption: Christian Brueckner, 43, is the prime suspect

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06/03/2020

German police reveals that Brueckner, in custody in the country for drug trafficking, is now the main suspect in Maddie's abduction and death. Among the clues already collected, there are several photographs of houses where the sexual predator passed in the Algarve region, including the one where he lived at the time of the crime, in an isolated area and a short distance from Praia da Luz. Images of a fireplace and a sofa, inside the residence were released. In a few days, details of the man's record emerged, including sexual crimes against minors.

Caption: House where the suspect lived is on the radar of German police

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06/05/2020

The main facts that associate Brueckner to the abduction of the English girl are beginning to be revealed. A call received by the German puts him in Praia da Luz when Maddie disappeared. The authorities release the phone numbers, hoping to find the person who called the man with a record, considered a fundamental witness. The vehicles he was driving at the time were also recovered and subjected to expertise. It is also discovered that on May 3, 2017, Brueckner said to a friend that he knew "everything that happened to Maddie".

Caption: VW motorhome Brueckner drove

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6/12/2020

Hans Christian Wolters, the prosecutor in charge of the case, says there are clues of Maddie's death, but ends up taking a step back and assuming that it is just the obvious conclusion in cases with sexual predators. The magistrate also stresses that the parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, are innocent and criticizes the Portuguese police. Meanwhile, Brueckner's ex-girlfriend reveals that, on the eve of the child's disappearance, the man told her that he was going to “do a terrible thing in Praia da Luz”, that he was going to “change” his life and would make him disappear during a while.

Caption: Hans Christian Wolters says there are signs of death

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Page 26

SUSPICIONS

Kate's silence about Madeleine's DNA

DOUBTS - Casal McCann was suspect of the eldest daughter's disappearance. They were questioned by the PJ QUESTIONS - Maddie's mother remained in silence when she was constituted arguido

PAULO JOÃO SANTOS

The investigation into the Maddie case took a 180-degree turn when the spotlight centred on the child's parents, over whom then fell the guilt for the English girl's disappearance. The constitution of arguidos for Kate and Gerry McCann was based on a set of facts and circumstances, which, for the investigation, were solid enough to point the finger at the couple.

Right away, the behaviour of the dogs, who detected cadaver and blood odours in the McCann car and holiday home.

On September 7, 2007, four months after the disappearance, Kate was called to the PJ of Portimão to clarify some loose ends in the case, but no light was shone as to what happened. Maddie's mother, who had up until then collaborated with the police, chose to be silent when she was constituted arguida. Of the tens of questions that remained unanswered, three referred to Maddie's DNA found in the car rented by the couple, a month after the girl's disappearance:

- Signalled [by the sniffer dogs] the odour of cadaver coming from the car they rented a month after [Maddie's] disappearance, said she can't explain anything more than she has already referred?

- Signalled the human blood in the trunk of the vehicle, said she can't explain anything more than she has already referred?

- Faced with the result of Maddie's DNA collected, whose analysis was carried out by a British laboratory [the public institute Forensic Science Service], behind the sofa and the trunk of the vehicle, said she can't explain anything more than she has already referred?

Two days after Kate's presence at the PJ in Portimão, where a small crowd of curious onlookers gathered and booed and whistled upon arrival, the couple and their twin daughters [sic] left for England, with no sign of Maddie.

Inserts:

GIRL'S MOTHER REFUSED TO ANSWER ABOUT ODOUR OF CADAVER IN CAR

AUTHORITIES WANTED JUSTIFICATION FOR MADDIE'S DNA IN THE TRUNK

Caption: Kate was even constituted arguido in the case of the disappearance of her daughter

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MADDIE'S DISAPPEARANCE MOBILIZES CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE FAMOUS

MCCANN COUPLE WAS RECEIVED, AT S. PEDRO SQUARE, IN VATICAN, BY THE POPE BENEDICT XVI, ON MAY 30, 2007. THE POPE BLESSED A PHOTO OF MADDIE

DAVID BECKHAM, EX-PLAYER, MADE AN APPEAL ON VIDEO TO FIND MADDIE. ALSO CR7, WHO AT THE TIME PLAYED IN ENGLAND, ALERTED TO THE CASE

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Man with record is the main suspect

Christian Brueckner, 43, is the main suspect in Maddie's abduction and murder and has a long record, which started as a teenager. In addition to sexual crimes against minors, he was sentenced to 7 years in prison for raping a 72-year-old woman in Praia da Luz and a year and a half for drug trafficking.

Caption: Brueckner is 43 years old

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INVESTIGATION HAS COST 14 MILLION EUROS

Operation Grange, the name given by the British police to the process of Maddie’s disappearance, has already cost the UK more than 14 million euros, without any practical results. There is a fixed team to investigate the case.

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Witness sees figure with child

A witness assured the authorities of having seen a figure with a child on his lap in the space of time that the child disappeared while the parents dined at a nearby restaurant. From the account, however, it was not possible to reach any conclusion. Today it is admitted that the figure in question was Brueckner.

Caption: Witness reported abduction