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Getting closer

SOME readers may have just turned the page every time the McCann parents appeared back in the papers, claiming it was a story with no good outcome, a waste of police resources or sadly that they though the parents had something to do with their daughter’s disappearance or even death. However, it just goes to show that perseverance can sometimes lead to the discovery of an unturned stone.

Last week German authorities identified 43-year-old Christian Brückner, a German sex offender, as the prime suspect in the little girl’s disappearance.

Brückner, currently in prison in Germany for a drug offence is also appealing a previous conviction for the rape of a 72-year-old American woman in Praia da Luz, where Madeleine was abducted

Now German police are also looking into if he was involved in the case of a 6-year-old German boy, René Hasee, who disappeared in the Algarve in 1996 and 5-year-old, Inga Gehricke, who disappeared in 2015 near his property in Stendhal, Germany.

The authorities are slowly uncovering a list of sexual assaults, child pornography and countless other crimes.

How did it take so long to find this man with so many bread crumbs left behind leading directly to him?

He was known in Praia da Luz, he was known to shower children with attention and gifts, friends and ex-girlfriends are now saying they helped him disappear, or heard him hint that he had done something, one even took ownership of his car.

Why has it finally took so long to put this puzzle together? There definitely seems to be more people to blame for hiding this high profile story and luckily for the heartbroken McCann parents it should clear them of any doubt.