Vital evidence in the Madeleine McCann case may have been destroyed when a van used by suspect Christian Brueckner was crushed by police.
The blue Bedford van, which the German suspect used to sleep in on the beach near Praia da Luz, is understood to have been sold for scrap.
According to local media, he drove the never-before-mentioned vehicle just before the three-year-old's disappearance in May 2007.
Although it was seized by Portuguese authorities, it was impounded and crushed in 2009 after ending up in an Algarve breaker's yard, newspaper Expresso reports.
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