On Thursday 21 April, Portuguese police announced they finally had a formal suspect in the Madeleine McCann case. However, the suspect Christian Brueckner, 44, has since claimed to have an alibi for the night of Maddie’s disappearance in 2007. What’s odd is that he has refused to give this information to authorities. Only giving details to a TV documentary featuring former British detective Mark Williams-Thomas.
15-year time limit
Portugal has a statute of limitations which sets a time limit of 15 years after an event for the initiation of legal proceedings and Madeleine McCann’s case will have reached that time limit on 3 May 2022.
It is for this reason that authorities have now declared Christian B an “arguido” in Maddie’s case. By making this move, Portuguese police have to a degree initiated a case. Allowing them more options moving forward past the 15th anniversary of the toddler’s disappearance.
“I assume that this measure is a procedural artifice to stop the statute of limitations threatening in a few days.”
Brueckner’s lawyer Friedrich Fuelscher
Christian B alibi claims
The German drifter has become known as Christian B after German reports evaded giving his surname due to the country’s privacy laws.
Authorities believe he had been travelling between Praia da Luz and Germany in a VW camper van for several years before Madeleine’s disappearance. However, he was imprisoned in Germany in 2017 after facing charges of drug offences. Shortly after his incarceration he also faced charges for the 2005 rape of a British pensioner in Portugal.
According to Sky News, Christian B has been a suspect in Madeleine’s case since 2020. This was shortly after authorities found out about him confessing to a friend that he had snatched the three-year-old. Following this, officials questioned the already imprisoned suspect multiple times, but to no avail. Christian B has until now persistently remained silent.
Although, oddly enough, when Christian did eventually come out with an explanation it was to the interviewer of a TV documentary and not to the authorities.
The Documentary
The new documentary is a three-part series titled “Madeleine McCann: Prime Suspect” featuring former investigator Mark Williams-Thomas. US network AMC Crime has scheduled the details of Christian B’s alibi to air on 3 May 2022, the date of the case’s 15th anniversary.
Mr Williams-Thomas told The Sun that prison authorities had blocked his requests to interview the suspect. However, he continued to communicate with Christian in writing. Mr Williams Thomas states that in these writings Christian B “has told me exactly where he was on the night Madeleine disappeared”.
“My inquiries have unearthed evidence which is pretty explosive,”
Mark Williams-Thomas