Madeleine McCann Police Find Hidden Cellar During Allotment Search

Police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann discovered a hidden cellar during the search of an allotment. 

The basement was found in the foundations of a structure in the garden in Seelze, near Hannover in Germany, where suspect Christian Brueckner allegedly lived in 2007.

Neighbours in the area say the wooden shed above the basement was demolished in late 2007 or 2008, shortly after Brueckner left the area and months after Maddie went missing from the seaside town of Praia da Luz in Portugal’s Algarve region in May 2007.

A two-day search of the vegetable garden saw investigators scour the area and remove slabs of building material in an effort to find evidence. Police were accompanied by specialist search dogs trained to look for dead bodies and computer equipment.

Kossack said he only made the connection to Brueckner this week when police started digging up the allotment, and recalled how Brueckner spoke about planning his return to southern Europe.

Kossack commented:

I remembered his face from the pictures in the news. And I remember his van and his dogs. I had completely forgotten about him up until then.

He arrived in 2007 and left within a year. He told me that he was living off the grid, that he had not registered with the authorities – no one knew he was there.

He never did any gardening. He did not plant anything or try to grow anything. He just sat around drinking beer.

According to Kossack, the wooden shed consisted of a kitchen and one room to store tools. He said it ‘was not really a house’, but that it had a cellar underneath.

Kossack claimed Brueckner had a Volkswagen Transporter van that he parked next to the allotment and lived in while staying at the site.

He continued:

Sometimes a young woman would be there with him. She seemed to be his girlfriend. He had two dogs – a big one and a small one – who were quite annoying. They would come into my garden to do their business.

Brueckner said he preferred southern Europe because he liked the warm weather and said he would go back there. He did not say which country.