Scotland Yard’s Madeleine McCann team has ‘more open thinking’ and is still treating her disappearance as a missing person’s investigation – despite German prosecutors insisting she is dead.
The London-based unit of officers, codenamed Operation Grange, is continuing to investigate the possibility that she might still be alive.
Grange is still in an ‘active’ phase of their probe, using £350,000 from a special grant awarded by the Home Office until 2022 to exhaust all further enquiries.
This is in sharp contrast to German authorities, who believe Christian Brueckner (43), was convicted of paedophile Christian Brueckner and took Maddie.
Hans Christian Wolters is the prosecutor leading this investigation and has provided almost daily updates on Brueckner’s name since June 2020. He stated that police have enough evidence to indict him.
MailOnline was told by a source that Operation Grange, the Met Police’s missing persons investigation is continuing.
The Met is more open to ideas than German authorities, which makes it clear that they are more flexible.
“Madeleine”‘s parents always believed that if she is presented with concrete proof of her death, they would accept it.
Madeleine, a young girl who was living in an apartment with her family, went missing May 3, 2007.
Gerry McCann and Kate McCann still hope to see their daughter one day.
Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters has insisted Christian Brueckner abducted and killed her
“But Operation Grange is still funded and exists, it shows that the Met thinks there’s still more work and investigation needed.”
In June 2020, British and German police launched a second appeal for witnesses after disclosing a new suspect. It was revealed later to be Brueckner.
He even held a press conference, where he spoke to Madeleine’s parents Kate & Gerry.
He insisted: ‘We are confident we have the man who took and killed your daughter.
“All I can do to show my patience is.”
But, the claims of German detectives having sent numerous notes to Madeleine were discredited within days.
The Met also issued a clear statement correcting all the claims about the correspondence.
Last year, it stated that the Met had received one letter on June 12th from the BKA. This was then passed on to the family.
After several years in Praia da Luz, the German suspect moved into a van to live with Maddie.
According to the suspect, he lived in Escola Vehla (meaning ‘old school’) during his time in Portugal.
What are our knowledge about Christian Brueckner’s Maddie crime suspect?
1992: Christian Brueckner is arrested on suspicion of burglary in his hometown of Wurzburg, Bavaria.
1994:Two-year sentence in juvenile jail for sexually abusing a child.
1995: Brueckner arrives in Portugal as an 18-year-old backpacker and begins working in catering in the seaside resorts of Lagos and Praia da Luz.
Friends say that he was involved in a drug trafficking syndicate to bring drugs into Algarve.
September 2005 A mask is put on and he enters an apartment occupied by a 72 year-old American tourist.
After being bound and gagged, the victim was blindfolded, whipped with a metal stick, and then raped for fifteen minutes. After the fact, she said that he clearly had enjoyed torturing her prior to the rape.
April 2007, The man moves from a farmhouse to a campervan that is now connected with the crime. It is found that a bag with ‘exotic’ clothes and wigs has been taken from the farmhouse.
March 3, 2007, 7:00 p.m. Madeleine McCann gets snatched from her bed at 10pm, while her parents enjoy tapas together yards away.
Brueckner is able to locate the location via his mobile phone that night. He returns to his native Germany shortly after that.
2008-2016:For drug trafficking and child abuse of ‘little girls,’ he is currently in jail.
April 3, 2017, 2:00 p.m.Brueckner, a German television presenter, is seen in a pub with a friend as he watches a tenth anniversary appeal for Maddie’s disappearance.
In a bar, he is reported to have said that he knew all about the events surrounding her. Then, he showed his friend video footage of him sexually assaulting a female.
June 2017: He is sent back to Portugal to be extradited to Germany. Braunschweig District Court sentenced him to 15 months imprisonment for sexual abuse of children.
August 2018. He was released and now lives on the streets.
September 2018. Brueckner was arrested in Milan, Italy. He is extradited to Germany to face trial for raping an American tourist.
December 2019, After being convicted for rape, extortion and other charges, he is currently in prison serving seven years.
June 3, 2020:Scotland Yard, the German Police and their detectives have confirmed that they have located a suspect in Maddie McCann.
June 4, 2020: Prosecutors in Braunschweig, where he lives, say they believe Maddie McCann has been murdered, says spokesman Hans Christian Wolters. The German press names him as the prime suspect.
‘The letter did not state that there was evidence or proof that Madeleine is dead, the MPS continues to investigate Madeleine’s disappearance as a missing person investigation.
“No correspondence has been received from the German prosecution by the Met.”
Actually, Kate and Gerry stated that they believed Kate could still live in May of this year.
The statement said that the Covid pandemic had made it more difficult this year for many reasons, but that Madeleine has been rescued and that they are continuing their investigation.
“We keep holding on to the hope of seeing Madeleine again. We must know the fate of our sweet daughter.
“We are extremely grateful to the police officers for their continuing efforts.
Brueckner is currently serving a prison sentence for drug trafficking and is expected to remain behind bars until 2026 after losing a bid to overturn a rape conviction.
He was sentenced last year to seven years imprisonment for the 2005 rape, in Brunswick, Lower Saxony, of a woman aged 72.
Brueckner, who was at Praia Da Luz on May 3rd 2007, when Madeleine disappeared, was located there via a mobile call.
Madeleine, then three years old, disappeared from the apartment she was living in with her family.
Kate and Gerry had been eating with their friends at a nearby restaurant, and were checking in on Madeleine as well as her siblings Sean and Amelie while they fell asleep.
Gerry checked on the children around 9pm and discovered that they were asleep. At 9.30 pm, Gerry called a friend from the family. She heard no sound but couldn’t see Madeleine.
Kate arrived at the house to check on Maddie and her siblings around 10 p.m.
The disappearance was reported immediately and a search party launched the same evening including officers from the Guarda Nacional Republicana and the Polícia Judiciária, which launched an investigation.
Amaral was appointed to direct the investigation. She supervised it over several months and famously identified Kate and Gerry both as suspects.
Shortly after his public attack on British detectives, he was fired. He accused them of following only McCanns’ investigative guidelines.
In a documentary entitled “The Truth of the Liar”, in which he repeated the McCanns’ claims, he published a book.
The family won a libel suit against him in 2015, and were awarded £500,000 in damages.
MailOnline received last night from the Met a statement by its spokeswoman: “The investigation into Madeleine McCann’s disappearance continues.”
A Home Office spokeswoman added: ‘The Government has provided up to £350,000 for Operation Grange in 2021-22.’
MailOnline was informed by Mr Wolters that the investigation is continuing. Our preliminary investigation, which is conducted by the BKA in Germany, is, as you all know.
“But there is still good and close cooperation between the Metropolitan Police.