The prime suspect identified in the Madeleine McCann case may be linked to the murder of 16-year-old German girl Carola Titze, who was found dead on a Belgium beach in 1996.
Titze had been holidaying with her family in the Belgium municipality of De Haan when she disappeared on July 5, 1996. The 16-year-old went for a walk towards the beach in the morning, but never returned.
Her severely mutilated body was discovered among the sand dunes on July 11.
According to local newspaper reports, the public prosecutor's office in West Flanders, Bruges, has confirmed an investigation into whether Christian Brückner, 43, could be involved in Titze's death.
On Thursday (NZ time), it was revealed that Brückner had officially been deemed a suspect in the disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine McCann, who had been holidaying in Praia da Luz, Portugal with her family. The toddler vanished from the hotel apartment on May 3, 2007 while her parents ate dinner at a nearby restaurant, sparking an ongoing investigation which has gripped the world for 13 years.
In a "significant investigative update", London's Metropolitan Police confirmed the 43-year-old German man, who is currently imprisoned in Germany for the rape of a 72-year-old woman, had been identified as a "suspect" in McCann's disapperance.
Titze had reportedly been in contact with a German man in the days before her death, with the pair allegedly spotted together at a disco, the Telegraph reports.
Prosecutors have also reopened the probe into German five-year-old Inga Gehricke's missing persons' case. The child disappeared during a family outing in Saxony-Anhalt on May 2, 2015.
According to German media outlet Der Spiegel, Brückner had previously been connected to the investigation into Gehricke's disappearance. Police searched a dilapidated factory facility owned by Brückner, located about 90km away from where Inga disappeared, for information. Der Spiegel reports that child porn was found, as well as girls' clothing, despite the man having had no family. However, he was reportedly not subject to further investigation.
As reported by the Telegraph, the father of missing six-year-old René Hasee, who disappeared on June 21, 1996 while on vacation with his family in Aljezur, Portugal - roughly 40km from Praia da Luz - has also claimed his son's case has been reopened by police.
Mr Hasee reportedly told the German newspaper Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger that "there could be a connection" between his son's disappearance and Madeleine's case.
Both Belgian and German police have yet to comment on whether Titze's death has been linked to the investigation into Madeleine McCann's disappearance.
Following the announcement that Brückner has been identified as a suspect, German authorities expressed the belief that Madeleine is dead. However, British police are still treating the investigation as a missing persons' case.
According to Detective Chief Inspector Mark Cranwell, the suspect is roughly 1.8 metres tall, white and fair-haired. He was 30 years old at the time of McCann's disappearance from the Praia da Luz apartment.
He is understood to have lived "on and off" in the Algarve area, the Portuguese region where Praia da Luz is located, between 1995 and 2007.
As reported by the Associated Press, Christian Hoppe of Germany's federal police service told local broadcaster ZDF that the suspect was in prison for a sexual crime and has two previous convictions for "sexual contact with girls". Hoppe said German police won't rule out a sexual motive or that it was a spontaneous kidnapping.
Two vehicles the suspect is known to have used around the time of McCann's disappearance have also been revealed, as well as phone numbers "relevant to [the] investigation".
One of the vehicles was a VW Campervan T3 model with "distinctive colour markings" including a white upper body and yellow lower body. The man also had a Jaguar XJR 6, which was an early '90s model and burgundy in colour, registered in his name. The day after McCann's disappearance, the Jaguar was re-registered in someone else's name in Germany. This doesn't require the vehicle to be in Germany and officers believe it was still in Portugal at the time.
