Tag: mysterious disappearances

Madeleine McCann detectives ‘fear their probe into prime suspect paedophile Christian Brueckner is close to collapsing and have just weeks to save investigation’

Detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann fear that their case against prime suspect Christian Brueckner is ‘close to collapsing’. 

German police probing convicted paedophile Christian Brueckner, who was officially named as a suspect in the three-year-old’s disappearance in April 2022, reportedly have until the new year to find a new lead before their investigation falls through. 

A source close to the investigation told The Sun: ‘The next few weeks are make or break for the detectives investigating Christian B. 

‘Publicly they are saying they remain convinced he is linked to Maddie’s disappearance… but, privately, the case is close to collapsing.’

Brueckner is yet to be formally charged by police but was named as a suspect after his campervan was reportedly spotted near the Praia da Luz resort in Portugal where Maddie vanished from in May 2007.

The police’s case is largely centred around his former friend Helge Busching’s testimony that Brueckner chillingly told him when they were discussing Madeleine’s disappearance that ‘she didn’t scream’. 

The source told The Sun that the case is now in jeopardy as there are ‘no new leads’ and their primary witness Busching ‘has totally gone offside’. 

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Jimmy Hoffa may be buried at site of demolished MLB stadium: cold case group

A nonprofit group of cold case crime investigators believes it has located a site in Milwaukee where former Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa is buried.

The Case Breakers said a “a dying police sergeant’s scribbled instructions on an ace of spades” playing card helped lead their yearslong investigation to the old site of Milwaukee County Stadium in Wisconsin, according to a Wednesday press release.

The alleged burial site is next to the current Milwaukee Brewers stadium, American Family Field, where they believe Hoffa’s body lies in a spot under where the demolished stadium’s third-base line previously stood.

Jim Zimmerman, a 13-year member of Case Breakers and a former police officer, is credited with locating the ace of spades playing card which they say was written by a dying police sergeant believed to be involved with Hoffa’s kidnapping.

“Independent sources in three states convinced the volunteer investigators that CSI forensics will reveal Hoffa’s remains at a little league field, in the shadow of Milwaukee’s MLB stadium,” the press release stated. Three credible witnesses are said to have claimed that six years before the demolition of Milwaukee County Stadium, Hoffa’s body was moved from another location and “secretly buried in 1995 under this old stadium’s 3rd base.”

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Is this the clue to unlock Madeleine McCann mystery? German prosecutors say sick online messages between suspect Christian and another paedophile about ‘MM’ could be a ‘hint’ as to what happened

A German prosecutor leading the Madeleine McCann investigation has revealed that sick online messages between suspect Christian Brueckner and another paedophile ‘could be a hint’ as to what happened to the toddler. 

Convicted sexual predator Brueckner has been named as the prime suspect in the 16-year long case due to his activities in Portugal at the time but is yet to be formally charged.

The three-year-old disappeared during a family holiday in the Algarve in May 2007, sparking a nationwide hunt – but 16 years later and the truth of what happened to her has still not been unearthed. 

However, Hans Christian Wolters, a public prosecutor in Braunschweig has told BBC‘s Panorama that it is their opinion that Madeleine was killed in Portugal by Brueckner. 

He told the programme: ‘I can only say that we have only have one suspect at the moment. [She died] in Portugal and we think maybe we know where it happened.’ 

Mr Wolters also described how an online exchange between Brueckner and another paedophile could be a ‘hint’ as to what happened due to the use of the letters ‘mm’ – which they say could be a cryptic reference to Madeleine McCann. 

The online chat, which was found on one of Brueckner’s computers shows a brief conversation with a paedophile. 

In the chat, Brueckener details explicitly his desires to abduct and kill a little girl and ‘document it.’ 

He then speaks about ‘destroying evidence’ to which the paedophile replies: ‘mm’. 

Commenting on the vile exchange, Mr Wolters said: ‘It could be a hint. 

‘Of course, it’s important for us. It could be piece for the big puzzle.’ 

Brueckner is currently serving a seven-year prison term in a high-security prison locally dubbed ‘Alcatraz of the North’ in Oldenburg, near the historic northern city of Bremen. 

Earlier this month it was reported that the suspect could face trial as early as February next year for a string of heinous crimes, which include three shocking rapes and two sex attacks on children. 

He is said to have filmed two of the rapes he is being tried for which are said to have taken place at his former residence outside Praia da Luz – the same area where Madeleine disappeared.  

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A mother reported her son missing in March. Police kept the truth from her for months.

Seven months of searching for her lost son brought Bettersten Wade to a dirt road leading into the woods, past an empty horse stable and a scrapyard.

The last time she’d seen her middle child, Dexter Wade, 37, was on the night of March 5, as he left home with a friend. She reported him missing, and Jackson police told her they’d been unable to find him, she said. 

It wasn’t until 172 excruciating days after his disappearance that Bettersten learned the truth: Dexter had been killed less than an hour after he’d left home, struck by a Jackson police car as he crossed a nearby interstate highway. Police had known Dexter’s name, and hers, but failed to contact her, instead letting his body go unclaimed for months in the county morgue. 

Now it was early October, and Bettersten had finally been told where she could find her son. 

She pulled up to the gates of the Hinds County penal farm, her sister in the passenger seat. A sheriff’s deputy and two jumpsuited inmates in a pickup told her to follow them. 

They bounced down the road and curved into the woods, crawling past clearings where rows of small signs jutted from the earth, each marked with a number.

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Blonde woman found dead face-down in Florida creek nearly 40 years ago is finally identified as wife in notorious Boston crime family after investigators match DNA from bone fragments to her daughter

A murder victim whose body was found face down in a Florida canal in 1984 has finally been identified, 40 years later. 

Lori Jane Kearsey was just 23 when she went missing after marrying into an infamous Boston crime family. 

She was found dead in a canal on the 2600 block of Southwest 130th Avenue in Davie, South Florida on February 18, 1984, having been strangled.  

Despite releasing her description, blonde, hazel eyes, 5’4 and 120 pounds, police were not able to identify the victim.

However, a breakthrough came when the use of DNA from Kearsey’s bone fragments led investigators to find a match with her daughter Maehgan Smith, who lives in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

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Amateur D.B. Cooper investigator leading new search for parachute in skyjacking case

Fifty-two years after a plane heading to Seattle was hijacked by a man known as D.B. Cooper, an amateur investigator is leading a new search for evidence — claiming more details in the unsolved case have been revealed.

Amateur investigator, Eric Ulis, claims new information was revealed by the Seattle air traffic controller who managed the skyjacked Northwest Orient Flight 305, two US Air Force F-106 chase jets, and an Oregon Air National Guard T-33 during the 1971 skyjacking.

The search comes years after no trace of DB Cooper has ever turned up — no parachute, briefcase, clothing or body.

On Oct. 26, small search team led by Ulis will search a “treacherous” tree-and blackberry-lined trench where it is believed Cooper’s parachute may have been dumped.

Ulis says the trench is near the location where money connected to the heist was found in 1980. The cash was found on the banks of the Columbia River west of downtown Vancouver by 8-year-old Brian Ingram — discovering $20 bills with serial numbers traced to Cooper’s ransom, a total of $5,800.

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Joran Van Der Sloot Admits He Crushed Natalee Holloway’s Head With A Cinderblock Before Pushing Her Out To Sea

In a revelation that finally unraveled a nearly two-decade-old mystery, court records revealed that Joran van der Sloot brutally attacked Natalee Holloway on an Aruban beach, leading to her brutal death. Van der Sloot had been long suspected in connection with Holloway’s 2005 disappearance, and he appeared in federal court to admit his guilt for extortion and wire fraud related to the case.

Initially pleading not guilty to all charges, Van der Sloot had an abrupt change of heart on Wednesday, confessing to his involvement in the extortion and the brutal murder of Natalee Holloway. U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco acknowledged the confession before sentencing him to 10 years in prison.

According to his plea agreement, Van der Sloot said that he was on an Aruban beach when Holloway rejected his advances. In response, he kicked her in the face after she kneed him in the groin, he said. After that, he used a nearby cinderblock to “smash her head in with it completely,” Van der Sloot added. Van der Sloot says he then disposed of her body in the ocean by wading in knee-deep and pushing her body out to sea.

Holloway’s mother, Beth Holloway, said after the killing, Van der Sloot went home and watched porn.

Holloway expressed her satisfaction with this confession, “As far as I’m concerned, it’s over. Joran van der Sloot is no longer a suspect in my daughter’s murder; he is the killer.”

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California just created the ‘Ebony Alert’ to find missing Black children

California’s newly enacted “Ebony Alert” law is the first of its kind in the nation to prioritize the search for Black youth gone missing. 

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 673 into law on Sunday, making California the first state to create an alert notification system — similar to an Amber Alert — to address the crisis of missing Black children and young women.  

The law, which will go into effect on Jan. 1, will allow the California Highway Patrol to activate the alert upon request from local law enforcement when a Black youth goes missing in the area. The Ebony Alert will utilize electronic highway signs and encourage use of radio, TV, social media and other systems to spread information about the missing persons’ alert. The Ebony Alert will be used for missing Black people aged 12 to 25. 

“Data shows that Black and brown, our indigenous brothers and sisters, when they go missing there’s very rarely the type of media attention, let alone AMBER alerts and police resources that we see with our white counterparts,” state Sen. Steven Bradford, also a Democrat and creator of the legislation, told NBC News earlier this year. 

He added: “We feel it’s well beyond time that we dedicate something specifically to help bring these young women and girls back home because they’re missed and loved just as much as their counterparts are.”  

About 141,000 Black children under the age of 18 went missing in 2022, and Black women over 21 accounted for nearly 16,500 missing persons cases that year, according to the most recent data from the National Crime Information Center. More than 30,000 Black people in the U.S. remained missing at the end of 2022, according to the center. Although about 38% of the people who went missing i in 2022 were Black, according to the Black and Missing Foundation, missing Black people are less likely than white people to have their stories highlighted in the media. Also, missing persons cases for Black people remain open longer than those for white people. Derrica Wilson, co-founder of the foundation, told CNN that a majority of the 6,000 cases of missing Black people in her database remain unsolved. 

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Navy sailor vanishes in San Diego, prompting investigation: ‘Very uncharacteristic’

A US Navy sailor failed to return to his ship in San Diego as his family and lieutenant claim it’s “very uncharacteristic” for him not to report back to duty.

Nija Townsend Jr., 20, was reported missing on Monday when he didn’t report for work on his ship, the USS Germantown, following his weekend leave, the sailor’s mother, Courtney Frazier, told NBC 7.

“The health and welfare of our Sailors is a top priority and we will continue to work with local authorities to help locate this service member,” Cdr. Arlo Abrahamson, Public Affairs Officer for Naval Surface Force, US Pacific Fleet, told the outlet.

The Lake Jackson, Texas native was last seen by ship personnel at around 1 p.m. on Saturday, Navy officials tell the outlet — saying they are now working closely with the San Diego Police Department and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) to locate the vanished seaman.

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In 1971, a mysterious hijacker parachuted out of a plane with $200,000 and vanished. This man is suing the FBI to get potential new clues

Eric Ulis was only 5 when a dapper man in a suit and sunglasses boarded a commercial flight in Portland, Oregon, ordered a bourbon and soda from his seat in 18E and then handed a flight attendant a handwritten note saying he had a bomb.

It was November 24, 1971, and the unidentified man, who later became known as D.B. Cooper, had a one-way ticket on the flight to Seattle.

Cooper opened his carry-on bag to reveal a jumble of wires and red sticks and demanded four parachutes and $200,000 in cash. After the plane landed in Seattle he swapped three dozen passengers for the cash and parachutes, then ordered the pilot to fly to a new destination: Mexico City.

But soon after takeoff, Cooper did something incredible: With the money strapped to his waist, he parachuted out of the rear of the plane and into the night, vanishing over the vast wilderness of the Pacific Northwest.

Cooper has not been seen or heard from since. His audacious stunt made him a folk hero, triggered an FBI investigation, led to tightened security at airports and inspired dozens of books and TV documentaries. It remains the only unsolved hijacking in US aviation history.

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