The sisters finished their dinner and
left to walk down into the village for a
nightcap.
"We were
on the way to the bar when we heard the
hue and cry about a missing child,"
added Mrs Jensen.
"The
Mark Warner staff were being called on
their phones and everyone thought it was
a child who had wandered out of her
room, looking for her parents.
"Apparently it had happened before and
there was a drill they carried out. I
left Annie in the bar and came back up
to the apartments to see if I could
help. It was only then I realised the
scale of the search.
"I
went straight into the creche area and
checked the play area and Wendy House
but found nothing."
It was
then that Mrs Jensen saw 34-year-old Mr
Murat for the first time. She saw a man
light a cigarette as he stood on the
street corner opposite the McCanns'
ground-floor apartment.
She
said: "I had semi-given up smoking and
was thinking I could do with a cigarette
when this bloke just along the pavement
from me lit up. I noticed him but didn't
think anything more of it."
A
middle-aged barrister, a near neighbour
of Mrs Jensen in the holiday complex,
has told police that he spoke to her at
the time and also saw Mr Murat.
The
next day, said Mrs Jensen, Mr Murat
introduced himself to her and her
sister.
"It
was hideous when we realised that the
little girl had not been found. It
really began to hit home that something
horrible had happened.
"I
thought maybe she had fallen down a
manhole, or hit her head. I didn't think
she had been taken at that point and we
helped search bins and scrubland."
As
they and the other holidaymakers combed
the area, Mrs Jensen met another member
of her tennis coaching group, TV
producer Jez Wilkins.
"Jez
told me it was Gerry's daughter we were
looking for. I hadn't realised before
that moment.
"Jez
said that he knew Gerry had checked the
children because he had met him coming
back from the apartment."
As the
hours passed without any sighting of
Madeleine, Mrs Wiltshire became
increasingly concerned about the
strangers she had seen the day before.
She
said: "I didn't know if it was
significant or not but I needed to tell
the police in case it helped.
"I got
a member of Mark Warner's staff to get a
policeman to come and see me and told
two officers about the men I had seen.
"I
told them they were blond and one had
curly hair. One was stockier than the
other and they had obviously just opened
the gate and walked up to the balcony.
"I
showed the policemen the balcony and as
I was explaining the circumstances,
Robert Murat appeared and started
translating for me."
Mr
Murat was acting as an unofficial
interpreter for the police and Mrs
Wiltshire assumed he was part of the
police force.
Later
that day, she and her sister bumped into
him again and he asked them if they
needed any more help with the police and
whether they had remembered anything
else.
Mrs
Jensen said: "He said he was helping the
police because he lived locally and he
was very helpful."
That
evening, the two sisters joined the
barrister and his wife for a glass of
wine on the balcony of their apartment.
They
were discussing Madeleine's
disappearance and the apparent failure
of the police to set up a crime scene
when Mr Murat walked past, saw them and
joined them uninvited.
Mrs
Jensen said: "He was wearing a blue
T-shirt and jeans and he said he needed
to go home and change because it had
been a long day, which was odd, because
he had already changed out of the
clothes he had been wearing earlier."
After
Mr Murat left, the barrister told the
sisters he found him "odd".
His
wife was distraught about Madeleine's
disappearance and the couple were
desperate to leave the resort. Their
names have not been revealed.
Mrs
Jensen insists she is not conducting "a
witch hunt" against Mr Murat.
"It
was only after he was made an arguido
(official suspect) that I realised any
of this information could be important."
Other
witnesses who have placed Mr Murat near
the McCann apartment that night include
Mark Warner nanny Charlotte Pennington,
two tourists who contacted Metodo 3
independently and three of the McCanns'
friends, Fiona Payne, Rachael Oldfield
and Russell O'Brien.
But
friends and family of Mr Murat insisted
he was not there. His mother Jennifer,
71, said: "People who say he was outside
Madeleine's apartment that night are
telling lies.
"I
challenge them to tell Portuguese police
what they're telling the McCanns'
investigators."
When
Mrs Jensen got home, she made a number
of calls to police and Crimestoppers.
She gave them an outline of the
sightings and was told someone would
call her back but nobody did.
In
September, the two women went back to
Praia da Luz to try to make direct
contact with the McCanns but as they
arrived, Kate and Gerry were made
official suspects and left to return to
Britain.
The
sisters admit they might have let things
go at that point but the constant
mention of Madeleine in the press kept
nagging at them.
In
desperation they finally e-mailed the
McCanns' spokesman, Clarence Mitchell
and told him what they knew.
Within
days, they were contacted by
Leicestershire police who apologised for
the delay and sent an officer round to
interview them.
"They
were there for 11 hours, finishing at
midnight and we finally got to sign a
statement," added Mrs Jensen.
"All
we wanted was to get the information to
the right people. It is just ridiculous
that no one would help us."
A
spokesman for the McCanns said: "We
remain extremely grateful to Annie and
Jayne for making the efforts they have
to get their information to us.
"They
have been trying since day one and have
only wanted to help Kate and Gerry find
Madeleine.
"They
are utterly credible witnesses and we
are very grateful to them."
? Kate
McCann hopes to return to Portugal once
she has been cleared as a suspect in her
daughter's disappearance, friends said
yesterday.
Mrs
McCann and her husband Gerry expect to
be re-interviewed by police early in the
New Year, and hope it will bring them a
step closer to being eliminated as
arguidos - official suspects.
The
couple, both 39, would then be free to
continue their campaign work and believe
Portugal could still hold the key to
finding Madeleine.
Once
the lead story on every Portuguese
television bulletin and newspaper, the
case is now attracting less attention
and an appeal by the McCanns would give
the coverage fresh impetus.
But
the couple cannot speak freely about the
case while they remain arguidos as they
are bound by the country's strict
secrecy laws, which ban witnesses or
suspects from talking about the case.
A
friend said: "If they were to go to
Portugal now it would seem like they
were trying to put pressure on the
police, and they don't want that.
"But
if they were cleared as arguidos then it
would change everything.
"They
would be cleared in the eyes of the
judicial system and technically in the
eyes of the world, although they realise
that there will always be some people
who view them with suspicion."
- Blueboy, Stockport, 28/12/2007 16:04