The prime suspect in the and presumed death of Maddie McCann worked at the resort where Maddie was last seen alive — the same season she traveled with her family for a holiday in 2007.
As previously reported, authorities in Germany have identified convicted rapist and pedophile Christian Brueckner, 44, as the main suspect in Maddie’s disappearance, though he has not yet been criminally charged. The nearly 4-year-old girl was vacationing with her British family at the Praia da Luz resort in Portugal in May 2007 when she vanished from her hotel room while her parents were having dinner nearby on the resort property.
Investigators have long believed that Brueckner, who was living as a semi-transient at the time, was in the area of the resort when Maddie was allegedly kidnapped. But a new claims that Brueckner worked as a handyman at the resort in the spring of 2007, when Maddie disappeared.
As the Daily Beast reports, an investigative documentary will air Monday night in Europe, alleging that Brueckner worked as a handyman at the Algave, Portugal, resort around the same time of Maddie’s disappearance. A producer for the documentary, “New Leads in the Maddie Case,” confirmed to the Daily Beast that Brueckner “repeatedly carried out repair work” at the Praia da Luz resort and confirmed, as authorities have said, that the suspect was in Algave when Maddie and her family were vacationing there.
A spokesperson for the documentary told the news outlet that producers have handed over significant materials uncovered in the project to authorities investigating the case.
Producers reportedly communicated with Brueckner via letters from the German prison where he is serving a sentence for raping an elderly woman.
“Where possible, only drive during the day so my battered ‘hippy bus’ didn’t attract attention, only driving on roads I needed to and, most importantly, never provoking the police,” Brueckner reportedly wrote in one of the letters, according to the Daily Beast. “So, that means not committing any crimes, certainly not abducting anyone. Having said that, this was just as absurd to me at the time as starting a nuclear war or slaughtering a chicken.”
CrimeOnline will provide further updates when more information is available.
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