On the night of May 3rd 2007 Christian Brueckner was looking to commit more crimes in the Praia Da Luz area, but he was always open to the idea of an abduction.
Even tho he lived near the ocean club, he was in his motor vehicle. He parked nearby. He targeted the apartment being used by the McCann’s, possibly because he received a cell phone call telling him that children were unattended in that apartment.
We know that in the reservation at the restaurant the McCann’s indicated that they left their children alone.
It’s important to note that the police do not know who called Christian, he may have found that apartment just by chance.
Christian enters the apartment, the door of course is unlocked, he doesn’t need to break in, he sees the children sleeping, and decides to abduct Madeline.
He sexually assaults her, murders her, and disposes of the body quickly in a nearby desolate area.
Fast forward 2 days, and he is overwhelmed by the amount of attention being given to the case.
He realises that if the police did their job he would be connected to the disappearance, if nothing else, he only lived a mile away, and had an extensive history of committing assault. He was an obvious suspect.
He returns to Germany after trying to disguise the ownership of his vehicle, afraid that somebody may have seen it parked near the ocean club.
He was opportunistic.
If the McCann’s had not have left their children unattended, Madeline would not have been taken.