Nearly two decades after Madeleine McCann disappeared from a holiday resort in Portugal, British police are continuing to investigate the case, with German national Christian Brückner remaining a key suspect. A significant development came in September 2025 when British authorities confirmed that Brückner had refused a request to be interviewed by detectives investigating Madeleine’s disappearance.

The request was made by London’s Metropolitan Police as part of Operation Grange, the investigation established to support the search for Madeleine. British officers wanted to question Brückner about the case, but he declined to participate. Police nevertheless said they would continue pursuing other credible lines of inquiry.

Madeleine was three years old when she disappeared from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on May 3, 2007. Her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, had been dining with friends at a nearby restaurant while Madeleine and her younger twin siblings were asleep in the apartment. When her parents checked on the children, Madeleine was gone.

Despite an enormous international search, Madeleine has never been found.

Brückner became a major focus of the investigation in 2020, when German prosecutors publicly identified him as a suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance. Authorities said they believed the evidence indicated that Madeleine was ᴅᴇᴀᴅ, although they did not publicly disclose sufficient evidence to charge him with murder.

Brückner has consistently denied any involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance.

His connection to Portugal was one of the reasons investigators focused on him. He had lived in the Algarve region for periods of time and had connections to Praia da Luz around the period when Madeleine disappeared. He was also convicted in Germany of raping an elderly woman in Praia da Luz in 2005, although that conviction was unrelated to the McCann case.

Portuguese authorities formally declared Brückner an arguido, or named suspect, in 2022. That legal status did not mean that he had been charged or found guilty of any offense involving Madeleine.

The investigation has continued through multiple searches and forensic operations. German and Portuguese authorities conducted searches in the Algarve in 2023 and again in 2025, looking for evidence that could help determine what happened to Madeleine. None of those operations has publicly produced evidence that has resolved the case.

Brückner’s refusal to speak with British police came as he was nearing the end of a prison sentence in Germany for an unrelated crime. He was subsequently released in September 2025.

His release did not remove him from the Madeleine investigation. British police confirmed that he remained a suspect, while investigators continued examining evidence and following potential leads.

The case remains difficult because Madeleine has never been located and there has been no public prosecution connecting Brückner to her disappearance. Investigators therefore continue to face the challenge of establishing exactly what happened after Madeleine vanished from the apartment that night.

For Kate and Gerry McCann, the search has continued for almost 20 years. They have repeatedly appealed for information and have maintained hope that investigators will eventually discover what happened to their daughter.

Brückner’s refusal to participate in an interview may have denied detectives an opportunity to obtain answers directly from him, but authorities have made clear that the investigation remains active.

For now, there is still no final answer about Madeleine’s fate. Brückner remains a suspect, not a convicted offender in the case, and investigators continue searching for evidence that could finally explain what happened to the three-year-old girl who disappeared in Praia da Luz in 2007.

Sources: https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-police-say-49-year-old-german-refused-interview-over-madeleine-mccann-2025-09-15/