German police hunt letters suspect Christian Brueckner may have written mentioning Madeleine McCann

German police hunt letters suspect Christian Brueckner may have written that mention Madeleine McCann as officers in Portugal probe whether her body was dumped in well

Detectives have asked suspect’s ex-girlfriends for notes he had written to them
They believe Brueckner may have written letters mentioned Madeleine McCann
Madeleine went missing from apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in May 2007
Portuguese police probing if her body was dumped in well after disappearance

By Gerard Couzens and James Robinson for MailOnline

Published: 11:19 BST, 14 June 2020 | Updated: 11:19 BST, 14 June 2020

German detectives now believe the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann wrote letters which mention her, as Portuguese police continue to probe whether her body was dumped in a well after she went missing.

Detectives probing into the life of Christian Breuckner are hunting for the supposed letters and have asked ex-girlfriends for notes the convicted sex offender may have sent them in the past.

It comes as MailOnline can reveal that Portuguese police have already looked at the possibility Madeleine McCann’s body may have been dumped in wells near suspect Christian Brueckner’s old home, it has been claimed.

Weekly Portuguese newspaper SOL did not claim full searches of the wells had been carried out.

Detectives probing into the life of Christian Breuckner (pictured with a former girlfriend) are hunting for the supposed letters and have asked ex-girlfriends for notes the convicted sex offender may have sent them in the past

Madeleine McCann (pictured left) went missing from the apartment where her parents were staying in Praia da Luz, Portugal in 2007. Christian Brueckner (right) is the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann

But it said the PJ had already undertaken some work aimed at establishing whether the missing youngster’s body might be in one of them on the basis that she is dead as the German authorities insist.

The paper reported yesterday/on Saturday: ‘In the spirit of cooperation with their German counterparts, the PJ have been undertaking tasks which include work on wells near a house Christian Brueckner lived in in the south of Portugal.

‘The aim is to ascertain whether there exists any possibility the British girl’s body could have been left there.’

It went on to claim: ‘As far as the Portuguese investigators are concerned, everything the German authorities have got so far continues to be insufficient to be able to exclude other lines of inquiry or other suspects.

‘Within the PJ it’s felt that the evidence that exists at the moment is insufficient to be able to bring a formal accusation.’

German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters has already admitted they do not have enough evidence at the moment to put Brueckner on trial, and want information from people on the places he has lived so they can search for Madeleine.

He said earlier this week: ‘We expect that she is dead, but we don’t have enough evidence that we can get a warrant for our suspect in Germany for the murder of Madeleine McCann.

Detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann released pictures of a farmhouse where Brueckner stayed while in Praia da Luz

The farmhouse and the land around it is said to contain a number of abandoned wells, which police have investigated as part of their probe into Madeleine McCann’s disappearance

‘At the moment, we also don’t have enough proof for a trial at court, but we have some evidence that the suspect has done the deed.

‘That’s why we need more information from people, especially places he has lived, so we can target these places especially and search there for Madeleine.’

SOL did not make it clear which house it was referring to when it said wells near Brueckner’s old property had been investigated.

But it is believed to have been referring to a rented ramshackle cottage just under two miles from the Praia da Luz apartment where Maddie went missing in May 2007, where the German is believed to have lived from the mid nineties to around 2005.

The property has a well right beside it, and others dotted around the countryside nearby.

Neighbours said earlier this week they were only aware of searches in the wider area six years ago led by Met Police which turned up nothing new.

DNA samples taken from where Maddie was abducted could still hold key to solving mystery of her disappearance, say experts

By Paul Thompson for MailOnline

DNA samples taken from the flat where Madeleine McCann was abducted could still prove valuable to helping the solve the mystery of her disappearance, according to a top forensic scientist.

More than 600 samples, including hair and saliva, were recovered from the ground floor apartment in Praia da Luz where the three year old was sleeping.

It is not thought any match has been found with that of Christian Brueckner who is suspected of killing the three year old in 2007.

A news report that saliva found on a bedspread belonged to the toddler has been dismissed by police sources who said it was known to have come from another member of the McCann family.

A police source said it was known for a ‘long time’ that it did not belong to 43 year old Brueckner who is currently held in jail in northern Germany on drugs charges.

The former head of Portugal’s National Forensic Medicine Institute told local media the samples taken during the police investigation are still in good condition .

Duarte Nuno Vieira, who was head of the forensic team when the youngster vanished, said all the samples taken were kept under lock and key at a lab in the northern city of Coimbra.

He said they could be used for re-testing with today’s modern technology whenever needed.

He told Portuguese broadcaster CMTV: ‘The samples are still being kept in optimum conditions and despite the fact 13 years have gone by, it’s still possible today to repeat tests.’

In a separate interview with TVI, he added: ‘Things don’t happen as fast as they do on TV series like CSI and can take days, weeks or even months to complete.

‘But in terms of quality, Portugal does some of the highest quality forensic work of any country and in the Maddie case the forensic work done was quick and competent.

‘The fact 13 years has gone by doesn’t mean the hundreds of samples collected can’t be revisited again.

‘There was hair, blood and saliva samples among the enormous amount of material that was collected and analysed.

‘The results of everything that was tested in 2007 are available and if there was a new DNA profile with someone whose DNA had to be compared with one or more of those samples, that could be done.

‘The identification of people responsible for crimes can sometimes take decades.

‘The preservation of DNA depends on the interaction of a series of very complex conditions but once samples are taken and a DNA profile can be obtained from them and they are stored in ideal conditions, they can be preserved for decades.’

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk