Madeleine suspect probed over girl, 9, snatched and then killed 19 years ago
THE prime suspect for the kidnap of Madeleine McCann is being investigated over a nine-year-old girl who vanished 19 years ago.
German prosecutors revealed the baffling case of Peggy Knobloch is now being reviewed to discover if Christian Brueckner was involved.
She went missing on her way home from school in 2001 and her remains were not discovered until 2016, when mushroom pickers found bones in a Bavarian forest.
Bayreuth’s chief prosecutor Martin Dippold confirmed that the file on Peggy’s disappearance was being checked.
But he stressed no evidence has yet been found to link her to Brueckner.
The cause of Peggy’s death has not been confirmed.
Ordeal
The latest twist in the investigation into the convicted child sex attacker emerged as his lawyers urged a German court to release him early from a 21-month sentence for drug trafficking.
Brueckner, 43, has served twothirds of his term and his lawyers say he is now eligible for release.
The monster has also been ordered to serve seven years for raping a 72-year-old woman.
But the sentence has yet to be ratified and he had already lodged an appeal against conviction.
Legal sources said it is unlikely he will be freed while he is being investigated over Madeleine’s disappearance.
It was also revealed that Interpol was called in to help track down one of Brueckner’s missing girlfriends as she may have vital information.
Nakscije Miftari, 25, was said to have been beaten “black and blue” when she was 17 by Brueckner after she confronted him about child porn she found on his laptop.
Another girlfriend Nicole Fehlinger was interviewed about Brueckner a year ago.
Her father Dieter said yesterday: “My granddaughter was an eightyear-old blonde girl at the time.
“If I had known then what I know about Christian now I would have killed him. When I first met him I was certainly suspicious of him.”
Social worker Ms Fehlinger fostered children and introduced them to Brueckner at her home in Portugal before returning to her home country.
Meanwhile, a rape victim told how she fears Brueckner attacked her in her apartment just a short distance from where Madeleine was abducted.
Hazel Behan waived her anonymity and spoke out after realising her ordeal bears chilling similarities to the rape of the 72-year-old. Both women were tied up and threatened with long knives.
She said: “My mind was blown when I read how he had attacked a woman in 2005 – both the tactics and the methods he used, the tools he had with him and how well he had planned it out.
“I puked as reading about it took me right back to my experience.”
Hazel was attacked in Praia da Rocha – a 30-minute drive from where Madeleine disappeared.
And the distraught father of trainee nurse Louise Kerton urged German police to reopen the probe into her disappearance saying Brueckner could be the culprit. Louise, 24, vanished in Aachen, in Germany in July 2001.
At the time, Brueckner had just been released from a German prison. Prosecutors in Braunschweig, the suspect’s last address in Germany, believe he was involved in three-year-old Madeleine’s disappearance from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on May 3, 2007.
Search
German authorities say they know how Madeleine died – although British investigators say it is still a missing person inquiry – but they do not have enough evidence to charge him.
They have appealed to British holidaymakers to help draw up a detailed picture of where Brueckner lived so they can target sites to search for her body.
Brueckner flitted between Germany and Portugal for decades and was living in Praia da Luz when Madeleine went missing. In recent days, Brueckner has been linked to other cases including:
● Six-year-old Rene Hasee who went missing while on a beach holiday on the Algarve in June 1996. Brueckner was living nearby
Rene’s father Andreas said: “I have no doubt Madeleine and Rene’s cases are linked.
“The evidence is just too much and the police are looking again at my son’s disappearance.”
● Carola Titze, 16, whose body was found on a beach in Belgium, in July 1996 – six days after she disappeared. Before she vanished she had been seen at a disco with a German.
● Inga Gehricke, five, vanished during a family outing in SaxonyAnhalt, north Germany, in May 2015. Brueckner lived nearby in those days.