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Original Source:
MAIL: 19 NOVEMBER 2007 |
By
VANESSA ALLEN
Last updated at 00:46am on 19th November 2007 |
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Police searching for Madeleine McCann were last night investigating a possible
sighting of her with the girlfriend of suspect Robert Murat.
A witness has told detectives he saw Madeleine with a man and a woman in Portugal two
days after her disappearance.
The witness is believed to have identified the woman as Mr Murat's Germanborn girlfriend Michaela Walczuch.
He said the couple were behaving suspiciously and appeared to be trying to hide
the child from view.
The witness - whose identity is being kept secret - contacted the Spanish
detective agency Metodo 3, which is working for
Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry.
Detectives there are taking the report very seriously and have passed the
details to police.
They are linking it to a sighting by the McCanns' friend Jane Tanner, who saw a
man carrying a child away from the couple's apartment in Praia da Luz.
He is said to match the new witness's description of the man he saw.
The private detectives said the new sighting supported their belief that
Madeleine is still alive and the McCanns were said to be "extremely
encouraged".
Francisco Marco, the boss of Metodo 3 said: "We
are 100 per cent sure she is alive. We are sure she was abducted. We are very,
very close to finding the kidnapper."
Some details of the sighting will be revealed in a Panorama documentary on BBC
1 tonight, the 200th day since Madeleine disappeared on May 3.
It happened at an undisclosed location in central Portugal, about 100 miles from
Praia da Luz.
The witness said he saw the woman in a van with the little girl. The man was
standing nearby. Neither of them looked Portuguese, the witness said.
He is believed to have identified Miss Walczuch, 34,
from photographs.
The mother-of-one was interviewed by police after Mr Murat, 33, was named as an
official suspect in May.
Her estranged husband Luis Antonio was also questioned.
The pair still live together in Lagos, about five miles from Praia da Luz, even though Miss Walczuch
has been in a relationship with Mr Murat for almost two years.
The British expat remains an official suspect but has always denied any
involvement.
Miss Walczuch was unavailable for comment yesterday.
Her flat was empty and she failed to answer phone calls.
She met Mr Murat when they worked together for a Lagos estate agent and they set up their own
property business. Her husband, a gardener and pool cleaner, was said to have
given his approval to the affair, but it was blamed for the breakdown of Mr
Murat's 11-year marriage.
His wife Dawn returned to Britain
with their daughter Sofia, four, when she discovered the relationship.
In a video diary to be shown in tonight's documentary, Gerry McCann speaks of
his fears that an abductor had watched the family for days.
He said: "I've no doubt Madeleine was targeted and that makes us sick to
the core to think that someone was watching us and our daughter. I think the
true word is a predator."
Mr McCann said he believes he was watched when he went to check on Madeleine
and the couple's two-year-old twins, then returned to the nearby restaurant
where he and his wife were dining with friends.
The Portuguese newspaper 24 Horas reported yesterday
that detectives now believe they abandoned the abduction theory too quickly in
favour of investigating the McCanns when there was no "concrete data"
to incriminate them.
• Panorama: The Mystery of Madeleine McCann, BBC 1 tonight at 9pm. |
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