Madeleine McCann prosecutors ‘preparing to drop investigation’
German prosecutors investigating Madeleine McCann’s disappearance are preparing to end their investigation, according to reports.
It comes amid fears that prime suspect Christian Brueckner, a convicted German child sex offender, could be released from prison within days.
Lead prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said his team do not want to ‘drag this out unnecessarily’ as German Police decide whether to charge him ‘within months’, The Sun reports.
But Mr Wolters warned he will ‘draw a line under’ the investigation at some point.
Madeleine was just three-years-old when she was abducted from her family’s holiday apartment in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz in May 2007.
Brueckner is known to have lived on the Algarve coast and his Portuguese mobile phone received a half-hour phone call in Praia da Luz around an hour before Madeleine went missing.
He is currently serving a sentence for drugs offences and is due to start a seven-year jail term for raping a 72-year-old American woman in Portugal in 2005.
Brueckner’s lawyers have appealed the conviction at the European Court of Justice and are reportedly set to hear a verdict tomorrow.
Mr Wolters told the Sun: ‘Of course we have an interest in keeping our suspect in custody.
‘This gives us access to interrogations in the event of an indictment. We have no endeavors to drag this out unnecessarily. We’ll draw a line at some point and see.’
Mr Wolters said prosecutors have ‘concrete evidence’, but not ‘forensic evidence’ that Madeleine was killed by the suspect and may ‘know more’ than Scotland Yard, who are still treating the case as a missing person investigation.
The Metropolitan Police maintain their active investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance, Operation Grange, is a missing person inquiry as there is no ‘definitive evidence whether Madeleine is alive or dead’.
It emerged over the weekend that Portuguese authorities looking for crucial evidence had searched three wells some 10 miles from Praia da Luz.
Police and divers in the Algarve region examined the disused wells in Vila do Bispo for eight hours on Thursday, The Mirror reported.
According to the paper, Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann have not been told on what grounds authorities searched the wells.
It was also reported the search sites are near a beach where Brueckner’s camper van was photographed in 2007.
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