Message left on a voice recorder changed the course of the investigation into the Madeleine McCann case

Photo: AFP/Family archive

At the time, detectives from Scotland Yard and the German police followed the few clues available and, over the years, pointed to who is now the main suspect of having kidnapped her: Christian Brueckner

Madeleine’s disappearance is one of the world’s most shocking unsolved mysteries. It all happened on May 3, 2007, when the family made up of Kate and Gerry McCann were on vacation in Praia da Luz and the girl, who was sleeping at the hotel, disappeared without a trace. At the time, detectives from Scotland Yard and the German police followed the few leads available and, over the years, pointed to who is now the main suspect of having kidnapped her: Christian Brueckner.

“He said he had information”

Today, 17 years after the disappearance, the Braunschweig Court is investigating the case and currently trying Christian Brueckner, albeit for a previous case. The first police officer to be called to the stand was Detective Mark Draycott, who was there to answer questions about Madeleine’s disappearance because he worked on the case in the search known as Operation Grange, which began in 2011.

In his testimony, he provided a detail that could be crucial in the investigation. According to him, Helge Busching, an old friend of Brueckner who met him in the Algarve (where the family was staying) during the 2000s, contacted the British police in 2017.

“At that time, we still had a public telephone number that was publicized throughout the world. The public could call in to provide information about Operation Grange, the investigation into Madeleine McCann. One of my jobs was to check messages on the answering machine. On May 18, I checked my answering machine and there was a message,” the detective said.

He added: “He said he had information and left a Greek mobile number. I then called this number and spoke to a man who I now know is Helge Lars Busching. He referred to himself as ‘Lars’ and gave me information relating to Madeleine.” What was surprising was that, in a statement that later went viral in the media, Bursching said that Brueckner clarified, without further details, that “she did not scream.”

The detective said they spoke for two days before he traveled to give a statement. “As the investigation continued, he was happy to give a statement to the British police. He said he had a conversation with Christian at the Orgiva Festival in 2008. This conversation was related to Operation Grange,” he continued.

The judge asked if he had taken an oath and the detective replied, “We don’t make witnesses take oaths. We never pay witnesses for information. We can pay some expenses (and we do). We paid him 35 euros to travel by bus to Athens to meet us and paid his expenses back home in Greece. We also booked a cheap hotel for him to stay in the capital.”

Christian Brueckner is currently serving a seven-year sentence for raping an elderly woman in 2019 and is now being accused of a series of sexual attacks in Portugal between 2000 and 2017. On the other hand, the accused denies the accusations related to the Madeleine McCann case.

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