GETTY German detectives believe they have a new suspect, known only as Silvio S, in the search for Maddy

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Detectives in Germany also want to know if the 32-year-old double killer, known only as Silvio S, took five-year-old Inga Gehricke. Since she vanished on May 2 this year after walking into woods during a family barbecue in the Saxony-Anhalt state, some 50 miles from Berlin, Inga has been known as the German Madeleine. Scotland Yard detectives seeking Madeleine, who disappeared in Portugal aged three on May 3, 2007, are following developments closely. It is expected they will ask their German counterparts to check the killer’s passport to see if he was ever in Portugal.

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He would have been 24 at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance during a family holiday. Silvio was arrested on Thursday and has since admitted two child killings after his mother gave information to police. Four-year-old Bosnian refugee Mohammed Januzi was snatched as his parents visited a government welfare office in Berlin on October 1. Last Tuesday police released CCTV footage of the child being led away from the building by a bearded man. Later Silvio’s mother called police because she was suspicious about the behaviour of her son.

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When officers searched his car last Thursday they found the decomposing body of the Bosnian boy in the boot among cat litter. Silvio admitted he took the child to his home, sexually abused him and strangled him the following day because he would not stop crying. While being interviewed by police Silvio also admitted abducting, abusing and killing a six-year-old boy called Elias, who had vanished from the town of Potsdam, near Berlin, in July. The child, who was enticed into his car, was found buried in the garden of Silvio’s home in the village of Niedergörsdorf, near Berlin. Police spokesman Stefan Redlich said: “The man confessed overnight that he had also killed Elias.”

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It is thought that the boy was also strangled. Winfrid Wenzel, head of the investigation into Mohammed’s disappearance, said officers were “in close contact” with counterparts investigating Inga’s case.

The man confessed overnight that he had also killed Elias Stefan Redlich, Police spokesman