The key witness in the Madeleine case speaks for the first time
A new witness claims to have information about the kidnapping of Madeleine McCann that until now has been unknown to authorities...
The disappearance of Madeleine McCann on the night of 3 May 2007 in a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, in the Algarve region (Portugal), continues to be the subject of interest more than sixteen years later.
After the exhaustive search of the Portuguese, British, and German police officers in recent weeks at the Arade reservoir, the main witness has revealed information formally to authorities in an interview with the German newspaper Bild that could be critical in finally solving the case.
Hegel Bushing, the witness who denounced Christian Brueckner as the possible perpetrator of the little girl’s kidnapping, explained how he met the main suspect and the specific data that led him to believe his possible involvement.
First impression
It was a specific sentence uttered by Brueckner that convinced Bushing that the new suspect was connected to the event. Bushing met Brueckner in Portugal through two of his friends, and initially, he did not give leave Bushing with a poor impression...how that would change.
“It was in the parking lot in front of a pub in Portugal. My friends Micha and Manni introduced me to Christian,” recalled Bushing, adding that his first impression was that Brueckner was “a nice guy” and “personable.”
Brueckner's Dark Side
However, he ended up discovering, thanks to one of his friends, that Brueckner used to break into hotel rooms, scaling the facades and entering through the windows or balconies.
At Brueckner’s home, the witness found a video camera, several films, and a weapon. In one of these audiovisual pieces, he discovered a video of a horrific scene: an older German woman, possibly between the ages of seventy and eighty, being whipped on a bed while tied up.
"I definitely think he's capable of something like that."
Another video showed a minor, a girl possibly around the age of fourteen, who was naked and tied to a beam. Bushing ran into Brueckner again later when he was out with other friends. The two began talking, and one of the topics discussed was the recent —at that time—disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
Bushing considers what happened that night as a robbery gone wrong.
“My theory is that he was planning a burglary. It went wrong and he found the kids in the apartment. And then he took Maddie with him. It probably wasn’t planned at all. From what I know about him, I definitely believe him capable of something like that. I think he kidnapped her. I don’t know if he ended up killing her.”
With all this, Bushing commented that it was really strange that someone disappeared without a trace. A reflection to which Brueckner supposedly answered with three words that left no one indifferent: “Yes, she didn’t scream.” In addition, the suspect indicated that he did not want to set foot on Portuguese lands because “there were many agents deployed.”