Hunting Madeleine McCann And Robert Murat
POLICE and two British cocker spaniels are swarming over Robert Murat’s home in Portugal.
One dog is trained to search for dead bodies. The other dog looks for live ones. In the McCanns apartment, a Portuguese dog can sense if a dead body has been in the room. It picks up the scent.
Robert Murat is chief suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
This is Robert Murat. One-eyed Murat.
File On Murat
The Sun has a “File on Murat”.
This is Murat, of whom the Sun’s Julie Moult delivered up a piece entitled “stories of a fantasist”. “He always seemed so eager to get involved in the police investigation,” said the Sun’s woman–on-the-scene. “Robert claimed he had a daughter just like Madeleine and said he felt compelled to do anything he could. But to me he seemed like classic fantasist.”
The Mail’s Neil Sears told us: “There was something more to the friendly expat who called himself ‘Rob’ than met the eye.” Murat made Sears “feel slightly uncomfortable”.
But it was the Sunday Mirror’s Lori Campbell who alerted police to Murat’s behaviour, she saw as “creepy”. She then told us, publicising her gut feeling.
Creepy Murat. But not half as creepy about the media’s voracious feeding frenzy which turned child abduction into voyeurism, a spectator sport. Madeleine McCann was turned into Maddy and Maddie, the victim of “every parent’s worst nightmare”.
“Kidnapping has weird echoes of Soham case,” said the Express’s front page. “MADDY SUSPECT BEHAVED JUST LIKE HUNTLEY.”
Paul Titcombe, Murat’s ex-boss recalled children’s parties: “Instead of mingling, he’d go straight to the bouncy castle and jump around. He got a bit of a name for himself. It seemed like a fixation.”
There were the “SEX SECRETS OF MADDY SUSPECT”. The “kinky threesome with pool cleaner and wife”.
Such is the file on Murat.
At home With Murat
And here is Murat. Creepy Murat. He is called a “liar” in a stage–managed confrontation with three of the McCanns’ travelling companions. His DNA is being examined and re-examined. Murat is being questioned by police.
And Murat? Says he: “It’s ruined my life. It’s made things very difficult for my family here and in Britain. The only way I’ll survive this is if they catch Madeleine’s abductor.”
The story of one girl’s disappearance had become the story of one man’s survival.
Murat’s Alibi
And now the Express leads with the news that Murat’s home has been taped off “as his alibi is blown wide open”.
But no trace of Madeleine McCann has been found at his home. An Irish ex-pat called Martin Smith says he saw Murat sat in bar on the night of Madeleine’s disappearance. Murat says he was at home all night.
“Madeleine: a major breakthrough,” says the Express in bold letters. Mr Smith says he saw a man carrying a child wrapped in a blanket on the night Madeleine McCann vanished. “If it had been him [Murat] carrying the child, I guarantee I would have recognised him.” So it wasn’t Murat?
Police have found nothing to link Murat with the McCann’s apartment. No DNA matches.
Who dunnit?
What now? The Express knows. “Prayers for Madeleine,” it orders. Praying will crack the case.
And over in the Mirror, the paper whose journalist informed the police of “creepy Murat, Madeleine leads. But no front-page word on Murat. The Mirror has a “SECOND SUSPECT”.
A police source tells of another man under police surveillance. Murat remains the child suspect but this other man is in the frame.
“MADDIE HUNT COPS TAIL NEW SUSPECT,” says the Sun.
Readers aren’t told who he is. The papers don’t know. They are all looking at Murat. And wondering what “THE HUNT FOR MADELEINE” will deliver up next…
Posted: 6th, August 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (202) | TrackBack | Permalink
