A man long considered by German authorities to be the prime suspect in the 2007 disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann is scheduled for release from prison this week, a development met with urgent warnings from a former criminal associate.
The individual, Christian Brueckner, is completing a separate sentence for the rape of an elderly woman in Portugal. He has never been formally charged in connection with the McCann case, which saw the three-year-old vanish from a holiday apartment in the Algarve region.
Ahead of his impending release, Helge Busching, who once engaged in illicit activities with Brueckner, has come forward with a stark public appeal. In an interview, Busching stated he is “100 percent sure” of Brueckner’s involvement in the child’s disappearance, labeling him a “really dangerous man.”
Busching, who claims to have reformed and is now a witness for German investigators, described a chilling exchange with Brueckner at a festival in Spain a year after McCann went missing. After Busching remarked he could not understand how someone could take a child from a hotel, he alleges Brueckner replied, “She was not screaming.”
“That is how I knew he had something to do with this,” Busching recounted, explaining the specific comment made him deeply suspicious but too fearful to press further at the time. “He took Maddie from that hotel. He is involved, sure.”
German prosecutors publicly named Brueckner as their main suspect in 2020, stating they believe McCann is dead and that he is responsible. Despite extensive investigations, conclusive evidence to bring formal charges has remained elusive. Brueckner has consistently denied any involvement.
Busching’s public intervention underscores the unresolved nature of one of the most high-profile missing persons cases in recent history, as the man at the center of the investigation prepares to leave custody.
