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After more than 13 years of dead ends and leads that amounted to nothing, investigators and prosecutors in the Madeleine McCann case are hopeful that they may have their man.

Last week, news broke that the prime suspect had been named as Christian Brückner, and there is a great deal of evidence linking him to McCann’s disappearance.

In the latest development, German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters says “all indication we have got that I can’t tell you points in the direction that Madeleine is dead”.

He also stated that whilst there is “some evidence” that Brückner (below) killed McCann, there is still not enough at present to bring him to trial.

More below via the Telegraph:

“We got things we cannot communicate that speak for the theory that Madeleine is dead, even if I have to admit that we don’t have the body.”

Image: Carabinieri Handout/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Mr Wolters continued:  “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.”

That evidence is not going to come from any forensic examination of Brückner’s camper van, which was only seized in 2019 and had been used as a party bus, with people “drinking, smoking and sleeping” in it, for a full four years after he last used it.

Police have also questioned the British ex-girlfriend of Brückner, who dated the German national in the early 2000s, and still lives in the area.

After splitting from that girlfriend in 2006, he moved into his camper van. Again from the Telegraph:

…he would park [the van] at locations up and down the rugged coastline.

It is thought he was living in the camper van in May 2007 when Madeleine was abducted from her parents’ holiday apartment.

Bruckner later returned to Germany and in 2014, while working at a kiosk in Braunschweig, allegedly began a relationship with an “underage Kosovan girl”.

The pair relocated to Praia da Luz and police are keen to trace the girl to check if Bruckner ever mentioned Madeleine during their relationship.

Reports also suggest that on the night of Madeleine’s disappearance, a hotel worker where the McCanns were staying alerted Brückner to the fact that the young girl was left unattended in their apartment.

It is also reported that the employee had Brückner’s mobile phone number in his own phone, with Brückner taking a long phone call that ended just an hour before Madeleine’s disappearance.

[sources:telegraph&telegraph]