EX TELLS OF SECRET VEHICLE
Pictures: ROLAND LEON clean. It had one bedroom. I’ve seen the photos and instantly recognised the big tree trunk in the middle of the room.”
The woman also told police how she and her pals suspected Brueckner of burgling homes and businesses in the area.
She said: “He was always bringing expensive things back to the house – computers, cameras, things like that. I didn’t ask where he got them from. I remember my friend and I wondering if they were stolen.
“We said we think he might be involved in some illegal business because he seems to have money but we don’t know where it comes from. Maybe selling stolen property, nothing too big. He also used to collect golf balls because his property was near the golf course and then sell them to the players.”
The woman is still living in fear Brueckner will be released and come after her.
She said: “He came to Portugal with a German girl. He said they grew up in a children’s home together. She left him for someone else. He said to me once that if he ever found her he would kill her.
“It made me think, ‘If he said that about her, what would he do to me if I left him?’
“He said he grew up in the children’s home. He said he had a sad childhood. He used to hang around with a girl from the hippy village, Barao de Sao Joao (in Lagos), who sold flowers. I don’t have any photos of him. I used to, but I hated him so much because of what he did to me I destroyed everything.
“It’s scary and weird to be embroiled in this case now. It scares me because he was obviously into things I had no idea about.
“I start to imagine what if he knows people, criminals, who could hurt me. I worry and over-think, what if he comes after me? That’s my fear and that’s why I don’t want my identity revealed.
“I just want to protect my family.”