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Maddie case: investigators believe suspect was murdered
Is it possible to clarify the Maddie case after more than 13 years? Is there still any certainty, after all, about the fate of the three-year-old British girl who disappeared from a vacation spot in Portugal in 2007? For a quarter of a year, at least the findings of German researchers have fueled this hope. Her call to testify in early June brought the story back to the global public consciousness.
The news came the night of June 3. The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and the Braunschweig prosecutor announced that they were investigating a 43-year-old German as a murder suspect. He is a sex offender with multiple criminal records. At the same time, there was a new call for witnesses on the ZDF program “Aktenzeichen XY … unsolved”. More than 5 million viewers followed the show. Suddenly, the mysterious case became ubiquitous again, with a new focus on Germany.
On May 3, 2007, Madeleine McCann, then three years old, disappeared from an apartment complex in Praia da Luz, Portugal. The parents were eating at a nearby restaurant at the time. The inexplicable fate of the girl made headlines around the world. Initially, the parents were also under suspicion: investigators assumed that an accident had occurred and that the body should be hidden. The couple left no stone unturned to draw attention to the disappearance of their daughter: private detectives, a visit to the Pope, the establishment of a foundation – all the levers were in motion.
Maddie’s parents Kate and Gerry McCan. Image: keystone
Then three months ago this sentence: “We assume the girl is dead.” As spokesman for the Braunschweig prosecutor, Hans Christian Wolters had to repeat the press conference several times with the same content. Reporters from various countries headed to Lower Saxony to find out what makes investigators so confident. The huge media interest overshadowed everything the prosecution has had to deal with thus far, as Wolters puts it in hindsight.
It quickly became clear that the suspect was a man who had been convicted by the Braunschweig Regional Court in 2019 for raping a 72-year-old American woman. The court reporter for the Braunschweiger Zeitung was one of the first to establish this connection. She had followed the process at the time, and now it was again the Praia da Luz place and, for example, the suspect’s jaguar. With this information, the reporters dived into the suspect’s past for their own clues.
Researchers working in Hannover this July. Image: keystone
A stay-at-home as a child, adoption, high school completion certificate, abandoned vehicle mechanic apprenticeship – this is how it can be found in court records. Sentences were handed down in many cities, including Hannover, Braunschweig, Würzburg, and Niebüll. He was also convicted in Portugal. All of this has been reported and since then every detectable action by the investigators has been monitored. The last time there were excavations at the end of July was in an orchard on the outskirts of Hannover. It is not clear how successful they were.
The suspect is currently detained in Kiel for drug trafficking. The Federal Court of Justice also recently processed an application for early release. In addition, a decision from the Court of Justice of the European Union is awaited because the 43-year-old man asks for the Braunschweig sentence to be annulled. He was originally extradited on the basis of a European arrest warrant for another crime.
According to his defense attorney, the suspect did not comment on the Madeleine McCann kidnapping and murder charge. However, regarding the current status, the Braunschweig prosecutor’s office says: “Based on the information we have, we assume the murder of the girl by the accused.” Currently, the objective of the investigation is to substantiate the suspicion.
Maddie’s kidnapping made headlines around the world. Photo: AP PHOTO COURTESY OF THE McCANN FAMILY
Mother Kate and father Gerry McCann have not yet completely given up hope of finding their daughter alive. “But whatever the outcome: we have to know, because we have to find peace.” They do not want to comment on the German suspect: everything should focus on the investigation, they had had a spokesperson relay to them after the murder investigation became known.
In Portugal, meanwhile, there is no trace of Maddie, although police in the Algarve tirelessly search for the girl even after more than 13 years. The last time Kripo recorded there in July with the help of divers were three wells in Vila do Bispo that had been closed for years. The community is about 15 kilometers west of the spa in the Praia da Luz spa, where Maddie was allegedly abducted. Plus, residents are still being questioned over and over again today.
But the region has had enough of the case. Maddie has become a taboo subject for many. “Almost no one wants to talk about it here,” reports a local reporter. Some even hope the case is forgotten. In view of world interest, that shouldn’t happen anytime soon. As prosecutor Wolters reports, camera crews from Australia, Russia and the US were on site in addition to the European media, and there was a video link to Israel. (sda / dpa)
