German police are examining a van driven by the main suspect in the disappearance of Madeline McCann.
The white Mercedes Sprinter was photographed parked at Christian Bruckener’s “lair” after Maddie went missing, and police are examining it in the hope it may still contain DNA or crucial clues.
The Rosier dealership rented it to Bruckner between 2014 and 2015, according to an employee who took the van. Sun “They cleaned it and repaired it,” but stated that “not all the DNA would have been removed.”
The employee said there could be “hair and other traces of anyone inside” that could be found by the German federal police, the BKA.
German police examine the van driven by the main suspect in the disappearance of Madeline McCann (Christian Brueckner, pictured)
Christian Brueckner (pictured) is a suspect in the disappearance of Madeline McCann
Three-year-old Madeleine McCann (pictured), who disappeared in Praia da Luz in 2007.
A white Mercedes Sprinter 9 van (pictured), similar to the one police say Christian Brueckner owned while living in Portugal, was kept by him at the site of an abandoned factory in Germany.
It had previously been claimed that the pedophile, who was living in the Algarve when three-year-old Maddie disappeared in 2007, took a van and two cars to his home country, where he disposed of them after she disappeared.
Among them was a white Mercedes Sprinter van that was similar to one police say he had in Portugal, photos of which obtained by The Sun showed it parked in a forest in East Germany.
The exact date the vehicles were moved back to Germany is unknown, and sources claim he frequently visited a scrapyard that was close to his secret hideout, where it was discovered to have gruesome images and videos.
The owners of the scrapyard, which has since closed, claimed it was no secret that Brueckner had used the location, but police had not yet contacted them about him.
Brueckner is believed to have used the van around the time five-year-old Inga Gerhricke disappeared from a family picnic in 2015. He was investigated by police between 2016 and 2020.
He had no alibi and was involved in an accident an hour away the day before with the girl, known as ‘German Maddie’. she disappeared.
The case remains unsolved and Brueckner has not been officially ruled out as a suspect.
Inga Gehricke, blonde and blue-eyed, disappeared on May 2, 2015 during a family barbecue in a forest in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt.
Brueckner is believed to have used the van around the time five-year-old Inga Gerhricke disappeared from a family picnic in 2015. He was investigated by police between 2016 and 2020.
He had no alibi and was involved in an accident an hour away the day before with the girl, known as ‘German Maddie’. He disappeared
The case quickly drew comparisons to the 2007 disappearance of Madeline McCann, who disappeared from her family’s apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, at the age of three.
Despite extensive searches, media coverage and nationwide appeals, Inga, like Madeleine, has never been found, and mystery still hangs over Germany.
At the time of her disappearance, Brueckner was living in a caravan on the site of an abandoned factory in Neuwegersleben, about 68 miles from where Inga disappeared.
Brueckner is currently on trial for a series of crimes committed on the Portuguese Algarve coast between 2000 and 2017 that are unrelated to Madeleine’s disappearance.
These include the rape of an Irish holiday representative, a woman aged between 70 and 80 and an unknown girl aged around 14, as well as the sexual assault of a 10-year-old girl. Brueckner denies all charges against him.
The pedophile had bought an abandoned factory in the former East German settlement of Neuwegersleben and sources said he was known for storing vehicles there.
The scrapyard where he allegedly disposed of his vehicles was located in Helmstedt, a 25-minute drive from the location.
Madeleine McCann (pictured) disappeared on May 3, 2007, while on vacation in Praia da Luz.
Brueckner is the main suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance
A source told The Sun the 47-year-old’s white van was “well known locally” and he used the large rear section to make “connections” with women he met online.
They add: “He told me that he regularly took old vehicles to the scrap yard in Helmstedt, but of course no one thought about it at the time.”
Brueckner, who lived in a trailer at the factory site, was found to have disturbing videos and images on a memory card when police searched her in 2016.
The scrapyard owner told The Sun: ‘German law requires all records to be kept for at least ten years.
“But the thing is that none of the police divisions came to ask us anything, which is arguably surprising.”
Brueckner has been named as the main suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine, who disappeared from Praia da Luz on May 3, 2007.
He has not been charged with her disappearance and has denied having anything to do with it.
Brueckner is currently serving a seven-year sentence for raping an elderly American woman in the Algarve in 2005 and was jailed in 2019.
Brueckner is currently on trial in Germany accused of multiple rapes and sexual assaults.
Brueckner (pictured) was hiding his face when he arrived in a van with a police escort and was dragged inside for the start of a hearing and escorted to the courtroom flanked by guards.
He is currently on trial in Germany for a catalog of sexual crimes committed in Portugal over more than a decade, with two former friends giving evidence that helped convict him before testifying at his retrial.
The victims included holiday representative Hazel Behan, another woman aged between 70 and 80 and an unknown girl aged around 14, as well as a 10-year-old girl who was said to have been assaulted on a beach near where Madeleine and Another child disappeared.
The alleged attacks took place just minutes from where three-year-old Madeleine disappeared from the holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in May 2007, where she was staying with her parents Kate and Gerry and her siblings.