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BELGIUM IS REOPENING an investigation into the 1996 murder of a German teenager because of a possible link with the man suspected of murdering British girl Madeleine McCann.
Carola Titze (16) was found dead with her body mutilated in July 1996 in the resort town of De Haan on the Belgian coast.
The public prosecutor’s office in Bruges “is indeed reopening the file relating to this murder”, a spokesman told AFP, without giving further details.
At the time, Titze was on holiday with her parents and the investigation turned to a German suspect in his early 20s.
The man had bragged to her about his criminal past, according to the Belgian media, but he was never found.
Following the identification of the German suspect in the Madeline McCann case, Paul Gevaert, the now retired investigator in charge of the Titze case, said there was “certainly a connection to be made”.
The suspect, named as Christian B by German media, has a history of previous sex offences, including child abuse and rape.
“The description (of Christian B, now 43) fits,” Gevaert told Belgian newspaper De Standaard.
His investigation was closed unsolved in 2016.
McCann went missing from her family’s holiday apartment in Portugal on 3 May 2007, a few days before her fourth birthday, as her parents dined with friends at a nearby tapas bar.
Her disappearance sparked one of the biggest searches of its kind in recent years.
German police last week raised hopes that the case could finally be solved when they revealed they were investigating the new suspect.
Currently held at Kiel prison in the north of Germany, the suspect is serving a jail term for drug trafficking.
The man has refused to speak about the Madeline McCann case, one of his lawyers told German television yesterday.
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“McCann went missing from her family’s holiday apartment in Portugal on 3 May 2007″ . I hope its a typo and not a very sensitive way to write about a little girl.
@Carol Wade “as its not” My typo
@Carol Wade: iam sure it was a typo Carol. Would you like to add anything about the case yourself?
Seeing as these are cases that are now being reactivated, I feel the journal should close the comments section on this subject. Even if it is outside the jurisdiction of the ROI, its a case that gets EU wide coverage.
@Joe_X: what ye mean reactivated? Madeleine McCann’s case has been ongoing since she went missing. The whole world is still looking for her. Well with the exception of the Portuguese police who found the parents guilty.
You realize that Christian B was 15 in 1996 , not in his early 20’s? Amazing all european and especially German murder cases are now pinned on this guy .
He’s also not a formal suspect in the McCann case . Do better.
@Isabel Oliveira: he would of been 19 in 1996?
@Isabel Oliveira: You seem to have a real gripe with the coverage of this case, ‘Not a formal suspect’ coming up again.
@Paul Mcnevin: i reckon she has a gripe because she has probably followed this case for a few years and knows a few facts about it .you think?
‘went missing’ or more specifically ‘suspected of abducting’ but not ‘murdering’ . See @Carol Wade above re sensitivity (and also the hope that the child is alive).
Seems like this lad has left a lot of devastation behind him. Hopefully the evidence will tie him to it if guilty along with the Maddie McCann case. A credible theory been a long time coming there
have your say