Pictured: The teenage girlfriend Maddie McCann suspect used to beat up, who could help solve mystery
Pictured: Teenage girlfriend Madeleine suspect Christian Brueckner ‘beat black and blue’ – who police believe may know vital clues about toddler’s disappearance – as German officials say they have ‘evidence’ British girl is dead
- Nakscije Miftari was a teenage girlfriend of Christian Brueckner, the lead suspect in Maddie’s disappearance
- German and British detectives want to quiz her about her ex, who she met when she was aged 17 in Germany
- Police have interviewed a British woman who dated Brueckner, but Naskscije is understood to be laying low
- ‘All indication points in the direction that Madeleine is dead’ – German prosecutor revealed today
By Nick Fagge In Germany and Paul Thompson In Praia Da Luz For Mailonline
Published: 14:06 EDT, 8 June 2020 | Updated: 16:21 EDT, 8 June 2020
Police believe a former girlfriend of Christian Bruecker, whom it is claimed he ‘beat black and blue,’ could hold vital clues over the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
Nakscije Miftari was the teenage girlfriend of Christian Brueckner, the man widely believed to be responsible for the four-year-old’s disappearance in Portugal in 2007.
However a family friend says she has been laying low following revelations that her former boyfriend is suspected of multiple crimes.
The former girlfriend’s identity has been revealed on the same day a senior German official revealed they ‘evidence,’ that Maddie is dead.
Maddie McCann suspect Christian Brueckner with his girlfriend Nakscije Miftari, who police believe may hold vital information about the four-year-old’s disappearance
Nakscije, who is German of Albanian descent, moved to Portugal in 2014 with Brueckner, but returned the following year
Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters told Sky News: ‘After all the information we got, the girl is dead. We have no information that she is alive.
‘All indication we have got that I can’t tell you points in the direction that Madeleine is dead.
‘We got things we cannot communicate that speak for the theory that Madeleine is dead, even if I have to admit that we don’t have the body.’
German authorities have issued an Interpol Red Notice for the immediate apprehension of Nakscije Miftari who they believe may hold vital information about the Madeleine McCann case.
Detectives in Britain and Germany want to quiz her about what she knows about Brueckner’s past, in particular his time in Portugal.
Brueckner seduced Nakscije after he set up home in a run-down part of Braunschweig, a crumbling industrial city in northern Germany, and ran a kiosk selling beer, soft drinks, snacks and sweets.
He later took Nakscije, who is German of Albanian descent, to Portugal in 2014 but she was deported back to Germany less than a year later following allegations of criminality.
- Police have quizzed a British woman who was Brueckner’s partner and lived with him Prai da Luz in 2004
- Prison staff are keeping him under surveillance in the hope he may confess or share details to an inmate
- German state prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters says police have not interviewed Brueckner yet
- An unnamed Portuguese police chief has said the suspect was ‘not involved’ in Maddie’s disappearance
- Authorities believe Brueckner may be involved in the disappearance of multiple children, including six-year-old René Hasse in 1996, 16-year-old Carola Titze in 1996 and five-year-old Inga Gehricke in 2015
The couple are thought to have split up and Nakscije reported Brueckner to the police over his violence. A family friend says she has been laying low since her ex was named as a suspect in the case of Madeleine McCann last week
Brueckner seduced Nakscije after he set up home in a run-down part of Braunschweig in North Germany. The couple moved to Portugal briefly in 2014
The couple lived together in Braunschweig, in North Germany while Brueckner ran a kiosk selling beer, soft drinks, snacks and sweets
However the couple split up and Nakscije reported Brueckner to the police over his violence.
‘Nakscije reported Brueckner to the police,’ a family friend told MailOnline.
‘She was only a teenager when they got together, 17, I think. He was much older.
‘They lived in a flat together here in Braunschweig, around the corner from the kiosk he ran.
‘She is a very nice girl. But she was terrified of him. He is completely mad.
‘Brueckner took her to Portugal in the spring of 2014. But she was deported from Portugal in 2015.
‘Brueckner also came back to Germany a few months later. They continued to live together but they kept arguing and fighting.
‘They finally split up when he tried to kill her. He beat her black and blue. Brueckner disappeared and Nakscije was given counselling.
‘After he left Braunschweig he tried to keep in contact with Nakscije. Brueckner would keep phoning her, telling her that he loved her and missed her.
Detectives hope for jail confession
Prison staff are keeping Christian Brueckner under surveillance in the hope he might confess or reveal details to a fellow prisoner.
Police lack a ‘knockout blow’ despite significant evidence linking him to Madeleine’s disappearance, a source told The Sunday Times.
And former British policeman Mark Williams-Thomas told The Sun that German investigators lacked ‘a body, hard evidence, and a confession. The best chance now is for someone known to Brueckner to break cover. With evidence lacking, my worry is police won’t reach a threshold to charge him’. Brueckner is in prison in Kiel, northern Germany, for a drugs offence.
‘But he was always out of his mind on drugs. He was always drinking and taking drugs.’
The family friend revealed that Nakscije started to lay low after Brueckner was named as the prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann case on German TV last week.
Police want to speak to Nakscije after a British ex-girlfriend of Brueckner was quizzed by police.
The unnamed woman, from Berkshire, is said to have lived in Praia da Luz where she dated German paedophile Christian Brueckner for around a year from 2004 – three years before Madeleine went missing.
She is not a suspect in the case, but according to reports, has agreed to cooperate with police and has twice spoken to detectives investigating her former partner.
The mother-of-two, who is still living in Portugal, was interviewed last year by police as part of the investigation into Brueckner, and, according to The Mirror, has spoken to them again in recent days after the 43-year-old was identified as a prime suspect in the Madeleine case.
Brueckner is currently serving a jail sentence in Germany for the rape of a 72-year-old woman in Portugal.
But he is reportedly eligible for parole this weekend and one friend has since revealed to the Sun that the unnamed woman is terrified he will come after her.
The friend said: ‘She’s really nervous, she knows B is in prison but fears he could be released one day and come after her.
‘It’s true they were together.’
Meanwhile, the Mirror say the woman’s British ex-husband, a businessman who also lives in Portugal, was also spoken to by Interpol last year in connection with Brueckner.
He told The Mirror: ‘We’ve decided not to talk. The police have been in touch and we’ve spoken to them. We don’t want to be involved in this.’
Hans Christian Wolters, state prosecutor for Braunschweig, yesterday confirmed those in Germany ‘assume there are more victims’ who have not yet been identified.
He has urged potential victims to come forward, while admitting prosecutors lack the evidence to bring the suspect to trial at this stage, Sky News reports.
He also revealed the suspect’s connection to Madeleine is so-far based on ‘circumstantial suspicion’ and Brueckner hasn’t yet been questioned by police, the Telegraph reported.
Brueckner has been linked to the disappearances of six-year-old René Hasse (left) in the Algarve in 1996 and five-year-old Inga Gehricke (right) in Germany in 2015
Authorities believe Brueckner may be involved in the disappearance of multiple children, including six-year-old René Hasse in 1996 and five-year-old Inga Gehricke in 2015.
Carola Titze (left) vanished on the morning of July 5, 1996 while holidaying with her parents at a Flemish resort in De Haan, West Flanders
Belgian authorities are investigating whether the 43-year-old German sex offender was involved in the mysterious killing of 16-year-old Carola Titze in 1996.
Carola vanished on the morning of July 5 while holidaying with her parents at a Flemish resort in De Haan, West Flanders.
The German teenager was missing for six days before her body was found violently mutilated on the sand dunes.
In the days before her disappearance, she was allegedly seen at a disco with a German man, who policed tried to track down but failed.
Prosecutors in Bruges confirmed to local media they are now probing the possible connection between Titze’s death and Brueckner, following his naming as prime suspect in the McCann case.
Officers are understood to be determined to find enough evidence to link him to at least one case.
But German laws allow a suspect to access their case file as soon as they are identified, and prosecutors want to prevent Brueckner’s legal team from seeing the file until they are ready to charge him.
Christian Brueckner ‘not involved in Maddie’s disappearance’ says Portuguese police official
Christian Brueckner, who German police believe killed Madeleine McCann, was not involved in her disappearance, it was claimed by a senior Portuguese police official.
The statement was made to a respected Spanish newspaper by an unnamed Portuguese police chief.
The officer, described as a former Policia Judiciaria chief with in-depth knowledge of the Madeleine McCann probe who still works for the force, told ABC: ‘There’s no evidence Christian Brueckner is involved in her disappearance.
‘Strong enough reasons to be able to charge him were never found.
‘People talk about surprises in the Madeleine McCann case with the capture of this German man, but for me it’s no surprise.
‘This individual was already investigated around four years ago.’
Insisting the aim of German police revelations about the man, now identified as the prime Madeleine McCann suspect, was simply to put the case back into the public eye, ABC quoted the veteran PJ boss as saying: ‘At this stage of the investigation, I think they’ve done it because they think it’s needed to shake up the case and attract new witnesses.
‘They work very closely with Portugal and now they’ve wanted to turn this case around.
‘They’re not looking to solve it now, because that’s very difficult. What they’re looking to do is agitate the waters.’
It is the first time any high-ranking Portuguese police officer has been publicly quoted as saying he does not believe Brueckner is regarded as a genuine Madeleine McCann suspect, even though he appeared to hide behind the cloak of anonymity for the interview.
Portuguese police ‘have identified crooked hotel worker who tipped off Madeleine prime suspect Christian Brueckner that the McCanns’ room would be unlocked’
A crooked employee who is believed to have tipped off the Madeleine McCann suspect that the door to her apartment would be open and easy to break into has been identified, according to reports.
Portuguese and German police are said to know the name of the person who they believe told Christian Brueckner details of the movements of tourists staying at the Ocean Club complex in Praia da Luz.
The employee’s knowledge of what happened on the night of May 3rd 2007 as well as any dealings with Brueckner could be crucial in the long running investigation.
It is suspected that Brueckner received a telephone call shortly before three year old Maddie was abducted from her ground floor apartment.
Met Police officers released the telephone number as part of their major appeal for new witnesses to come forward.
Detectives have said the suspect (left) was regularly living in the Algarve from 1995. He was already convicted of sex offences against children and would have been 19 at the time René disappeared. Madeleine McCann (right) disappeared during a family holiday in Praia da Luz in May 2007
It is suspected that Brueckner received a telephone call shortly before three year old Maddie was abducted from her ground floor apartment. Pictured: The Ocean Club in Praia da Luz, where Madeleine disappeared during a family holiday in 2007
Met Police officers released the telephone number as part of their major appeal for new witnesses to come forward. Pictured: The pool and bar area of the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz
However, it is not known if the mobile number that called Brueckner’s telephone number belonged to the same employee who provided him allegedly with inside information.
Portuguese police have refused to make any comment on the claim by the Correio de Manha newspaper.
They also say that an innocent receptionist may have inadvertently led to Brueckner being tipped off about the McCann’s leaving the apartment open while dining with friends some distance away.
Details of the restaurant booking made by the McCann’s with friends known as ‘The Tapas Seven’ were written down in a staff register at the complex where they were staying.
The newspaper has claimed that a crooked member of staff who found out told Brueckner about the lapse.
The German paedophile was known to break into hotel rooms and apartments to supplement his income from drug dealing.
In her book Kate McCann made reference to the block booking being jotted down and how staff were able to read their children would be alone.
She wrote: ‘It wasn’t until a year later, when I was combing through the Portuguese files, that I discovered that the note requesting our block booking was written in a staff message book, which sat on a desk at the pool reception for most of the day.
Brueckner lived in the farmhouse above Praia da Luz (pictured) on the Algarve in Portugal and is said to have seldom mixed with his neighbours and allowed the property to fall into disrepair
‘To my horror I saw that, no doubt in all innocence and to explain why she was bending the rules a bit, the receptionist had written the reason for our request… we wanted to eat close to our apartments as we were leaving our young children alone there and checking on them intermittently.’
Police have long thought that the person who entered the apartment was intending to steal valuables but ended up abducting the three year old.
In the same 2011 book, ‘Madeleine – our daughter’s disappearance and the continuing search for her’ Kate McCann voiced her fears of foreign paedophiles.
Kate and Gerry McCann during an interview with the BBC’s Fiona Bruce at Prestwold Hall in Loughborough
The last photograph taken of Madeleine shows her smiling next to her little sister Amelie and their father Gerry at 1.30pm on May 3, 2007 in Portugal, the day she went missing
She wrote: ‘Night after night, I read of depraved individuals, British paedophiles, Portuguese paedophiles, Spanish, Dutch and German paedophiles and the horrific crimes they committed.
A spokesman for the Portuguese Police refused to comment on the newspaper claims.
Police interviewed 138 staff who worked at the Ocean Club complex as part of the inquiry into Madeleine’s McCann’s disappearance.
