A grandmother who was questioned by British police about Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Breuckner revealed she told cops about his ‘special place’ two years ago.
Elke Piro, 69, who alongside her husband Bernhard, 72, was acquainted with the sex offender for years, told police about Arade Dam where the paedophile would disappear ‘for a week at a time’ in 2023.
Her revelation ignited a search at the site, 30 miles from Praia da Luz where the three-year-old vanished in 2007. However, no evidence was found by specialists in the area where Brueckner would spend days in his Volkswagen camper van.
Brueckner, who was released from jail earlier this week after serving six years of a seven-year sentence for the rape of a 72-year-old pensioner, would often stay in his vehicle at the couple’s rural Algarve home.
Describing how he ‘loved the lakeside’ and would go to the location for days at a time, she told The Sun on Sunday: ‘When I found out he was a suspect in the Maddie case I told the police how much he loved it there and they were very interested.
‘He described a precise area with rocks leading down to the water and I was able to pinpoint it exactly to the police — and that’s where they searched.’
‘I was able to direct them to the exact spot he described and hoped that it might have helped them find some trace of Maddie — but it wasn’t to be.’
She also believes he may have taken the missing toddler to the location.
Elke Piro, 69, who alongside her husband Bernhard, 72, was acquainted with the sex offender for years, told police about Arade Dam where Christian Brueckner (pictured) would disappear
Her revelation ignited a search at the site, 30 miles from Praia da Luz where three-year-old Madeleine McCann (pictured) vanished in 2007
It comes after the couple, who housed the sex offender just months before Madeleine was kidnapped from the Algarve flat, were recently interviewed by British police.
The Met Police’s Operation Grange has taken a lead role in the nearly two-decade search while their German peers are at a halt.
The Piros had previously been interviewed by both Portuguese and German detectives, having first met Brueckner in 1995, and had stayed in touch with him until 2018.
The grandmother recently said she was certain the toddler was hurt by the German suspect.
Speaking of her sadness at not being able to provide police with any new information, adding: ‘It’s frustrating because I got to know Christian over many years and believe he did something bad to Maddie.
‘My hope now is the police can find a way to bring him to trial in the UK. That would be wonderful. I will be happy to co-operate and testify in court if needed.’
She thinks the paedophile likely targeted the McCann’s holiday apartment for money before coming across Madeleine sleeping.
‘I think he found her and took her and did something terrible after he panicked,’ she added.
Speaking of her deep turmoil after discovering his chilling criminal history, she said that she wished they had never met Brueckner.
Elke described Brueckner as a ‘classic sociopath’ and a ‘terrible alcoholic’, adding how he would switch between being ‘kind and gentle or crazy and raging about sex’.
She said she never felt threatened by the sex offender, who stayed with them following his fuel theft in 2006, and again in 2016 for a month while he was on the run from German police.
But she was completely unaware of the heinous crimes he committed.
‘But I always felt there was something strange about him that made me feel uncomfortable. I’d never let him stay in the house,’ she added.
‘We allowed him to live in his camper van. The longest he stayed with us was four months.’
However, his last plea to be housed by them in 2018 was firmly denied.
In 2020, Brueckner was named as the Madeleine McCann prime suspect, with his VW camper van seized by Portuguese officials from Mr Prio’s breaker’s yard the year before.
It comes as Met boss Sir Mark Rowley recently suggested if new evidence came to light Brueckner could possibly be extradited.
Regarding the likelihood of Brueckner’s extradition, Sir Mark Rowley said: ‘One of the reasons we are involved is that murder is in many situations extra-territorial and potentially a murder of a British subject can in certain circumstances be charged in the UK.
‘There’s lots of maybes, so at the moment we are taking stock with the Germans and Portuguese.’
Police officers searching countryside close to Praia da Luz, Portugal on Thursday June 5, 2025
Of the German inquiry, he added: ‘They’ve got to the point where the prosecutor doesn’t feel they’re able to prosecute.
‘Brueckner remains a suspect for us. The Germans have done everything they possibly can do within their law.’
The sex offender has maintained he was not involved in Madeleine’s disappearance and no charges relating to the toddler have been lodged against him.
Yesterday, the paedophile declared himself homeless and is currently in emergency accommodation in Neumunster, 40 miles north of Hamburg.
Christian Brueckner‘s lawyer also sensationally admitted he understood ‘concerns’ over his client’s sickening child sex and rape convictions.
His lawyer Friedrich Fulscher confirmed he had refused to take part in a programme to rehabilitate sex offenders because Brueckner felt he was ‘unrightly convicted’ of the horrific attack on a 72-year-old woman.
The sickening assault on the American pensioner took place in 2005 in Praia da Luz on Portugal’s Algarve coast just two years before then three-year-old Madeleine vanished from the same resort, and he has convictions for child abuse dating back to the 90s.
When asked if he understood people’s fears Mr Fulscher said: ‘Certainly. Fear is often a very irrational feeling. But given Christian Brueckner’s past one can certainly find rational reasons for such concern.’
