Woman investigated over ‘hit-and-run’ Madeleine McCann theory speaks out years later

A woman who was investigated over the disappearance of Madeleine McCan has spoken out years later.

Looked into by police seven years ago, she was involved in the theory that the missing youngster had been killed in a hit-and-run accident.

Of course, as us Brits know, there have been a large number of theories over the years of just what happened to the little three-year-old girl who went missing in Portugal back in 2007.

But, still to this day, we do not know what happened to Madeleine. The key suspect in her disappearance remains as Christian Brueckner, who is expected to be released from jail in Germany next week at the end of his sentence for raping an elderly woman in Praia da Luz (where Madeleine went missing) in 2005.

McCann went missing in 2007. (Handout/Getty Images)

But before he was declared as the official suspect by Portuguese prosecutors, one of the theories was this ‘hit-and-run’ idea.

Portuguese and British police were looking into the possibility that Madeleine had woken up, gotten out of her family’s holiday apartment through an unlocked patio door, and had been killed in a hit-and-run accident.

And a German woman who had been working in a restaurant near the beach in Praia da Luz was looked into. She wasn’t identified when the theory was recently leaked to Correio da Manha newspaper in Portugal, and has since told Sky News she wasn’t aware she’d been under suspicion.

The woman explained she had gotten home after the time it was discovered Madeleine was missing from her bed.

"I don't even know if there was a car accident, because I was working," she explained. "I came home at half ten, and my boyfriend was home already."

She added that her British boyfriend (who has since died) was a chef at the Ocean Club where the McCanns and their friends had dinner.

One theory was reportedly that she left the apartment and was killed in an accident. (VASCO CELIO/AFP via Getty Images)

Like many of the residents in the area, their home was searched by police in the days after the toddler’s disappearance.

When she was asked to empty her freezer during a second search, the woman said she got angry and asked one of the Portuguese police officers: “Do you think I've cut her up in little pieces and I'm going to have her for dinner?"

She also explained that over a decade later, she was contacted by German police to see if she knew Brueckner and if she had seen him near the McCann’s apartment.

“They wanted to know if I ever saw this German bloke around this area where I was living for a long time. Other people obviously saw his van, but I never saw it,” the woman said.

She added that she ‘didn’t even have a car’ at the time of the disappearance and that a German inspector called her several times over more than a year, asking for the SIM card from a phone she used when she was living in Portugal.

A Met Police spokesperson said: “We continue to support Madeleine’s family to understand what happened on the evening of 3 May, 2007 in Praia da Luz. This includes working with our colleagues in Germany and Portugal.

“Our thoughts remain with the family and it would be inappropriate to comment further while enquiries continue.”