The disappearance of a 3-year-old girl while vacationing with her family in 2007 captured the world's attention. Now, more than 13 years later, there is a suspect in Germany who may have answers. Correspondent Peter Van Sant and 48 HOURS investigate in "The Puzzle: Solving the Madeleine McCann Case" to be broadcast Saturday, Feb. 27 (10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
Madeleine McCann vanished from her bed one night while her family was on holiday at a beach resort in Praia da Luz, Portugal. McCann's parents, British doctors Gerry and Kate McCann, had left their children sleeping in their hotel apartment to have dinner with friends 50 yards away. The friends took turns checking on each other's children approximately every 15 minutes. When Kate McCann's turn came, she discovered Madeleine was gone.
"It's every parent's nightmare, isn't it?" BBC anchor Jane Hill tells Van Sant.
The case, which Van Sant and
48 HOURS have been covering since 2007, made international headlines and launched a massive search and multinational investigation. Years passed with no answers. And then in June 2020, German authorities announced they had a suspect, who they said was a sex offender with several previous convictions. The suspect's name is Christian Brueckner.
"He absolutely matches the profile of a person who could potentially abduct and or kill a little girl like Madeleine McCann," says Mark Hofmann, a Germany-based crime and intelligence analyst.
"His cellphone was tracked at the crime scene or at least next to the crime scene the night Maddie disappeared," Hofmann says
48 HOURS: "The Puzzle: Solving the Madeleine McCann Case" takes viewers inside the investigation and features interviews with the German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters, intelligence and crime experts, and more.
The Madeleine McCann mystery has been compared to a jigsaw puzzle with too many missing pieces to solve. Is the arrest of Christian Brueckner the key to solving the case and finally solving the mystery of what happened to Madeleine McCann?
"It's when you put those things together that you get that clear focus where the jigsaw becomes much, much more complete," says Jim Gamble, the former head of the United Kingdom's Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre.
"For the first time in 13 years, I have to say ... I actually feel here is a credible suspect," says Gamble.
48 HOURS: "The Puzzle: Solving the Madeleine McCann Case" is produced by Chris Young Ritzen, Josh Gelman, and Anthony Venditti. Anna Noryskiewicz and Paolo Marenghi are the field producers. Michael Baluzy, Gary Winter and Greg Kaplan are the editors. Lourdes Aguiar is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.
