A new development in the Madeleine McCann investigation is drawing attention not because authorities have announced a forensic breakthrough, but because Christian Brueckner has publicly given the most detailed account yet of where he says he was on the night Madeleine disappeared.

Brueckner says he was roughly 150 yards from the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz on May 3, 2007, claiming he was on a nearby beach selling marijuana he had brought into Portugal from Spain. It is the first time he has publicly described his movements that night in this level of detail. He continues to deny any involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance.

The most striking part of his account is his claim that Portuguese police stopped him three separate times while officers were searching the area after Madeleine was reported missing. Brueckner says police did not search his vehicle, which he claims contained drugs, and that he was trying to leave the area quickly to avoid being caught with them.

But that detail now comes with an important caveat: there is still no public official confirmation that those three police stops actually happened. Recent reporting that reviewed the claim found no publicly available police record verifying that Brueckner was stopped three times that night.

The statement could still matter because investigators have long scrutinized a cellphone associated with Brueckner in the Praia da Luz area around the time Madeleine vanished. His new version of events gives investigators a specific narrative that can be checked against phone records, old police logs, witness statements and checkpoint documentation accumulated over nearly two decades.

British, German and Portuguese authorities continue working on the case. Brueckner remains the principal suspect identified by German investigators, but he has never been charged in connection with Madeleine’s disappearance, and British authorities continue to treat Operation Grange as a missing-person investigation.

Madeleine was three years old when she disappeared from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz. Despite numerous searches, international investigations and years of renewed leads, she has never been found.