Rob, that article is dated April 26, 2012, i.e. before PT reopened their investigation in October 2013: when "Portugal's attorney general said "new elements of evidence" justified the "continuation of the investigation", which was shelved by police in 2008.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-24655826
Coincidentally or not, that was the same month Aktenzeichen-XY (German "Crimewatch) first presented the case and got a tip off.
Maddie's disappearance was one of the cases being presented in Wednesday's edition of German TV show "Aktenzeichen XY" that regularly asks the general public for help in unsolved crimes. The McCanns had first appeared on the ZDF program in 2013, when a tip-off led police to look into this suspect. Lead investigator Christian Hoppe said that there was not enough information then for an arrest or an investigation. More solid information on the suspect apparently emerged in 2017.
A first reference to the man was received in 2013
According to Hoppe, there was already an Aktenzeichen-XY in October 2013- broadcast [that led to?] a first clue to the man.
https://www.sueddeutsche.de/panorama/maddie-mccann-ermittlungen-1.4926556
I think it has taken a long time to build a case against Brueckner and it seems that if he was known about in 2007 quite a bit of information just wasn't acted on at the time and wasn't shared at a later date.
For example ... from where did Goncalo Amaral retrieve the photographs alleged to be of the van Brueckner was driving in 2007
Gonçalo Amaral devastates German investigation and reveals new photos of Brueckner's vanPer ZAP -22 June, 2020
“It doesn't matter who the pedophile is.
In recent years a suspect, a pedophile, a figure that fits the profile has appeared. He's an almost perfect suspect , ”said Gonçalo Amaral, in an interview in Jornal das 8, on TVI . “You only need one thing to be perfect, which is to be dead.”
The former inspector stressed that in order to consider the German citizen as guilty, it is necessary to “prove first that there has been kidnapping”.
Asked if he had any knowledge of the suspect's involvement in this case, he replied that,
"at the time, it was only known that this man was a pedophile."
He stressed, however, that in 2007 he was identified.
In the same interview, Gonçalo Amaral took the opportunity to reveal new photographs in which the Volkswagen caravan van, which Brueckner used to live and move in 2007, has a personalized painting and drawings , being different from the images released by the German authorities, where it appears white and yellow.
“Would that vehicle go unnoticed in Praia da Luz or elsewhere? Certainly not, ”he said, before immediately questioning the reasons why he says they had altered“ the images of the motorhome ”, which was taken to Germany to be examined.
“The question remains: is it possible that the German authorities concluded that at the time of 2007 the vehicle was not like this, but was still painted white? Who told you that? Could it be that the authorities - or the English that I do not know who did this, as it certainly was not in Portugal - that disclosed this are trying to check information? To receive a phone saying 'oh, did I see the car on the site?' Forget it, nobody saw anything because the car was different , ”he reiterated.
Regarding the photographs he revealed during the interview, the former PJ, who led the initial investigations into Maddie's disappearance, said only that “they were taken in the Algarve”.
https://zap.aeiou.pt/amaral-arrasa-investigacao-alema-331219
