24 Hours 2007
New team led by Paulo Rebelo tries to discover
Murat may have hidden Maddie's body
Robert Murat, a friend of the McCann couple, is the main suspect of having made the body of Madeleine disappear, on May 3. This is the belief of the Portuguese investigators that are connected to the case. But evidence that confirms this theory has not been obtained yet, as 24Horas has discovered with sources close to the investigation. Therefore, the new team led by Paulo Rebelo, a top officer at Judiciaria, is verifying in detail all the steps that were made both on the day that Maddie disappeared, and on those that followed after the authorities were alerted.
But, until yesterday, there was no concrete lead as to the girl's whereabouts. Live or dead. Therefore, Murat's house will reportedly be visited again by authorities this week.
"There is a time frame between 6 and 10 p.m. that is filled with contradictions that must be clarified. This implies that the McCanns and the friends that were having dinner with them are heard again. But that task must be performed by British authorities, given the fact that the addresses they provided for the case files are those of Leicestercity. In Great Britain we have no authority, unless our collaboration is officially requested, which has not happened yet", a judicial source explained to 24Horas.
The main theory of the PJ investigators who were connected to the investigation since the beginning is that in the McCanns' house there were all the children of the couples who participated in the dinner that was held at the Tapas - as 24Horas had advanced in its edition of October 9.
Which might explain the fact that they took turns at checking whether the children were fine. PJ only has the confirmation - obtained from residents at the resort - that the only apartment that was indeed visited by the dinner participants was that of the McCanns.
The Judiciaria believes that, while they were having dinner, little Maddie left the apartment looking for her parents and, while still sleepy, fell off the flight of stairs that exist at the apartment's exit, dying accidentally and ending up being discovered by Gerry McCann, who then asked for Murat's help.
The fact that she may have been under the effect of sedatives - according to a source at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine, the twins were asleep with sedatives - led the couple to get rid of the body, for professional reasons.
For that, they contacted Robert Murat, who advised them to return to the restaurant. During that period, the friend carried the body and took it to his house, which is approximately 200 meters away from the apartment where the McCanns were staying. What happened next is a mystery. The only clue that exists are the alleged fluids that belong to Maddie and which were discovered in the Renault Scenic van that they rented 25 days after the child's disappearance.
Who got rid of Maddie?
"The body was probably kept at Murat's house, and later, the couple or someone who had access to the vehicle got rid of it. But we are talking about conjecture. Nothing is proved. Therefore, the work of evidence revision that is being performed now, is extremely important. New people can also bring in new visions on the case. We are in a phase of internal analysis of everything that was done, but aware that everything possible was done at the time", says an officer from the PJ's Homicide Division who requested anonimity due to the order that was sent out by the Public Ministery of "absolute silence on the Maddie case".
