Mystery caller who spoke to Madeleine McCann prime suspect for 30 minutes before she disappeared is named as ‘Diogo Silva’ as police launch bid to track down key witness
- Police want to locate Silva and quiz him on Christian Brueckner’s movements
- Scotland Yard released two mobile phone numbers as part of their latest appeal
- Silva may also have details about Brueckner’s plans to rob holiday apartments
The mystery caller who spoke with the new Madeleine McCann suspect minutes before she was abducted has been named as Diogo Silva by Portuguese media.
German paedophile Christian Brueckner chatted with the caller for 30 minutes on the night the three-year-old went missing from her family’s villa in the resort of Praia da Luz.
Scotland Yard took the unusual step of releasing two mobile telephone numbers as part of their latest appeal to end the 13 year mystery.
The first number +315 912 730 680 is believed have been used by the prime suspect. He received a call from another Portuguese number + 351 916 510 683 while in the Praia de Luz area.
The call started at 7.32pm and ended at 8.02pm.
German paedophile Christian Brueckner spoke with the caller for 30 minutes on the night the three year old went missing from her family’s villa in the resort of Praia da Luz
Diogo Silva may have key information on the movements of prime suspect Christian Brueckner (pictured)
Just over two hours later when Kate McCann went back to the villa from the tapas bar where she and husband Gerry had been dining with friends she discovered her daughter missing.
Silva’s name was published by the Portuguese newspaper Jornal de Noticias.
Police have received over 200 calls and emails from members of the public since their appeal and naming a German currently jailed on a rape charge as the focus of their inquiry.
They are now liaising with Portuguese police to locate and interview Silva to see what he might know about Brueckner’s movements on the night Madeleine went missing.
His evidence could prove crucial in the investigation as he could provide a vital timeline to the 43-year-old paedophile’s movements.
Silva might also have information about Brueckner’s plans to rob holiday apartments, one of his sources of incomes while living on the Algarve.
Witnesses have claimed they saw two blonde men walking near to the apartment where Madeleine was taken.
Madeleine McCann who vanished from the resort of Praia da Luz in Portugal in May 2007, while on holiday with her family
Madeleine vanished from this holiday apartment in the popular Portuguese holiday resort of Praia da Luz – Apartment 5a – while her parents were with friends nearby and regularly checking on their three sleeping children
A Netflix documentary last year revealed more about the pair in an interview with another holidaymaker, Jayne Jensen.
She told the documentary crew the moment her sister pointed out two blond men hanging around near the Ocean Club on May 3. This was the final sighting before Madeleine vanished.
Jayne said: ‘[My sister] was walking just slightly in front of me and then she stopped and looked back at me and motioned with her head.
‘I caught up with my sister and said, ‘What was that about?’ She said, ‘Well, two single blond men on their own’, which made me chuckle. But they were wrongly placed.
‘And that was that, until later that day when we had heard that Madeleine was taken, it was only then, piecing back — who were these guys?’
Reports at the time said there had also been a big increase in burglaries in the resort, peaking the month before Madeleine disappeared. Two break-ins were in the same block as her family’s apartment.
And an intruder carried out one on April 16 after knocking on the door and asking for the ‘German family’.
In 2009 police put out an new artist’s impression of a ‘very ugly’ man seen by a British tourist as he apparently watched the apartment the day before she vanished.