It will be 14 years this coming May when Madeleine McCann disappeared. The three-year-old British girl was taken from Praia da Luz in Portugal. She was sleeping with her siblings during the family’s vacation at the holiday complex.
For many years, the case was shrouded in mystery. There seemed to be no leads into who would commit such a heinous crime. All that authorities had to work with was a general description of a male suspect.
Thirteen years later, the investigation led British authorities to a German as the lead suspect. Christian Brueckner, a 43-year-old male who met the original description perfectly, was also documented as having been in the area during the time of McCann’s disappearance.
Now is where the investigation has hit a number of perplexing hurdles. It seems that Brueckner has been a prime suspect since 2017. Brueckner had a criminal record that included multiple burglary related crimes, plus drug trafficking offenses.
His criminal activities were not restricted to drugs and theft. Brueckner had been charged with sexually abusing a minor in 1994. During the decade between the disappearance of McCann, Brueckner had drifted back and forth between Germany and Portugal.
So with such strong ties to similar offenses, why haven’t the authorities arrested this man? Brueckner lived less than a mile from where the three-year-old was abducted. Even cell phone records have pinpointed that he was in the area at the exact time of the crime.
Again, why hasn’t there been an arrest? Well, it seems due-process has provided a defense for Brueckner before he is even charged with a crime. There is a phone number that specifically pinpoints Brueckner at the Ocean Club in May 2007.
However, authorities cannot move on this piece of evidence because there is no definitive proof that it was Brueckner on the phone. If this defies all sense of logic, that’s because it does. Many of the rules of the legal process seem to do more to protect criminals than offer what they are intended, justice.
The suspect has a list of nefarious activities that would establish this person as the primary suspect. All have been pushed aside because an inability to establish that Brueckner was the actual person using a cell phone registered in his name.
As the family of this girl continues to suffer without some closure from what justice can provide, they are left devoid of even that solace. A man with a history of sexual child abuse, a reported pedophile, cannot be brought to justice because no one can be sure who was using his cell phone.
Brueckner has been convicted of financial crimes, but something of far greater value was stolen in May 2007. A little girl and the hearts of her family were snatched away. Where is the justice?
