The 3 Arguidos Web Forum

In Expresso (paper edition) this morning:

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Investigation English dogs’ scent is the only evidence against the parents. Murat was made an arguido based on an English journalist

Murat, an arguido just because

Expresso discloses PJ’s final report

Not even the reasoning of famous detective Sherlock Holmes – after eliminating the impossible, the hypothesis that remains, no matter how unlikely, must be the truth – can be applied to the case of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, on the 3rd of May 2007. In its final report, that Expresso had access to, the Polícia Judiciária (PJ) asserts that all possibilities were exhaustively investigated: abduction, murder, accidental death and even the child having left the apartment on her own. To no avail. “Did the girl go up in smoke?” Gonçalo Amaral, the former inspector who directed the investigation for five months, asked last week.

The complete disorientation of the investigation is exposed by the constitution of Robert Murat as an arguido: denounced by an English journalist, who found his curiosity towards the press strange, the judiciária considered that he reunited all the conditions to be presumed a suspect. Reasons? A set of unspecified pieces of “information”, one of them related to Jane Turner [sic], one of the group’s elements, who reportedly stated she saw a man carrying a child, walking into the direction of Robert Murat’s house.

The PJ placed Robert Murat and other “individuals with whom he directly or indirectly interacted” under surveillance, they searched his house, excavated his garden. Result: “Despite the exhaustive and methodical investigation of Murat and the persons that are close to him, no elements were collected that would connect them to the crime that is under investigation”.

The frailty of the collected indices does not only apply to Robert Murat. Also concerning Gerry and Kate McCann, the sole evidence that was collected over 13 months, which directly connects the parents to an eventual death of their daughter, is the scent of two English «springer spaniel» dogs that were in Portugal during the investigations. “One of the dogs was trained to detect cadaver odour and the other one to detect traces of human blood”.

And what did they detect? One of them detected cadaver odour “in the couple’s bedroom, in a corner, near the wardrobe, and in the living room, behind the sofa, near the side window of the apartment” that was rented by the couple at the Ocean Club, in Aldeia da Luz. The dog that specializes in detecting the odour of blood, marked a spot in the living room, precisely coinciding with the location that had been identified with cadaver odour.

The marking of cadaver odour followed into clothing and personal items: on two pieces of clothing that belong to Kate McCann, on another piece belonging to Madeleine, and on the soft toy that was habitually used by the child (here, the dog marked cadaver odour both in the inside and the outside of the apartment). The strange odours were further detected on the key and in the trunk of the car that was rented by the McCanns on the 27th of May 2007, 24 days after the evening of the disappearance. It was based on the dogs’ performance that Gerry and Kate were made arguidos. The PJ says that, in Kate’s case, her constitution as an arguida was due to “the mere possibility of her involvement with the eventual cadaver”.

At the same time that thousands of sightings that reached the PJ, concerning supposed sightings of the minor, were being digested, the investigation elaborated a listing of the communications that were made by the mobile phones that were used in the area of the Ocean Club. The hundreds of crossings of phone calls yielded no results either. It should be pointed out, though, that the Public Ministry wanted to access the contents of 14 text messages that went through Gerry McCann’s mobile phone on the 3rd and 4th of May, but the instruction judge, Pedro Frias, impeded said diligence. The biological residues that were collected from inside the car were analysed in Portugal and in England, but the results did not allow for a conclusion to be reached.

On its way to the archive

In their final report, the PJ stresses the “magnitude” of the operation that was initially built to search for the minor. Something that “right from the outset, exceeded the dimension that is commonly applied to similar cases”. But after 13 months, there is only one conclusion: “From everything that was done, and despite the efforts that were made and all lines of investigation having been explored, it results that it is not possible to obtain a solid and objective conclusion about what truly happened on that evening, and about the present location of the missing minor”.

“This way, as we do not envision, at the moment, any diligence within the process that would be susceptible of producing a useful result for the present files”, according to the document, the judiciária places the final decision on the case in the hands of prosecutor Magalhães e Menezes. According to what Expresso was able to establish, the Republic’s General Attorney, Pinto Monteiro, asked the Public Ministry’s prosecutors that have been accompanying the case (Bilro Verão, the district prosecutor of Évora, and Magalhães e Menezes, who is directly responsible for the investigation) to produce a final decision before the end of this month.

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Excerpts from the PJ’s report

Throughout these more than 13 months, the investigation followed all the credible indicia that concerned different hypotheses and tried to analyze, to correlate and to synthesize them in an impartial form.

From the 4th onwards – the day that followed the facts – the PJ was reached by thousands of sightings and locations that covered the entire national territory, the most diversified foreign locations, from neighbouring Spain until Indonesia.

It should be stressed that the entire apartment had been searched through and rummaged by an undetermined number of persons, with the contamination that it carries and the difficulty in collecting residues.

The PJ, probably unlike in no other investigation in Portugal, did not spare any efforts in the sense of providing exceptional technical, human and financial means to discover the minor.

The persons (the parents and the couple’s friends) were inquired in a detailed and lengthy manner, on diverse occasions, with the purpose of collecting any relevant elements.

The degree of cooperation and understanding between the PJ and the Leicester Constabulary attained very high levels.

The witness Rachel Mampilly admits to having established contacts with British television station BBC at around 2 a.m. on the morning of the 4th [of May].

The forensic exams did not corroborate the canine markings, more precisely, cell material was collected that could not be identified as belonging to a determined person, and it was not even possible to establish the quality of that material.

It results that it is not possible to obtain a solid finding about what happened on that evening.

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“The life of a man was destroyed”

Robert Murat’s lawyer reveals unknown episodes, advancing that he is preparing to sue the State

After one more day participating in the searches, Robert Murat was invited by two inspectors from the Polícia Judiciária to have a drink. It was a Sunday evening, and Murat accompanied them but, “for their misfortune, Robert is an Englishman who only drinks white coffee, because on Monday morning he was taken to the PJ and if he hadn’t been sober, I don’t know what his deposition would have looked like”. The episode, one more in the last year of the Englishman’s life, was told to Expresso by Francisco Pagarete, Murat’s lawyer, who is preparing a complaint against the Portuguese state, following the more than likely archiving of the case.

“A man’s life was destroyed”. This was the Portimão lawyer’s reaction when he was confronted by Expresso with the contents of the Polícia Judiciária’s final report about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. “What was done to this man was a profound injustice. As recently as this week, we were on a terrace and a group of people nearby got up whispering his name. The damages that were suffered by my client are incalculable”, declared Francisco Pagarete, for who the archiving “is only at fault for being late”. And it cannot be said that an archiving in the middle of an investigation is unheard of. The same happened to former Environment minister Luís Nobre Guedes in the so-called Portucale process. The investigation was only halfway through and the Public Ministry decided to archive the suspicions against the former head of CDS.

“It has to be taken into account that Robert was presented to the world as a suspect, after having spent 19 hours at the Polícia Judiciária without eating or drinking. His life was laid open, as well as the life of his family in England”, Francisco Pagarete said. The lawyer said that he is only awaiting authorization to access the process files in order to start preparing the suit against the State and “against some persons who witnesses things that are not true”.

Archiving is “to be expected”

While stressing that he was not notified of any dispatch from the Public Ministry (PM), Rogério Alves, the McCann couple’s lawyer, declared that taking into account the contents of the PJ’s document, an archiving dispatch from the PM is “absolutely to be expected”. “I believe in the couple’s innocence and the investigation could not find indicia of guilt against someone who is not guilty”, Rogério Alves further commented.

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Numbers

2000 diligences in the process into Maddie’s disappearance

700 persons were inquired by the investigation

443 houses were rummaged by the inspectors on the days that followed the disappearance

300 persons participated in the mega-search operation

22 dossiers with “speculative or unlikely news, like psychic visions”

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Note from the Direction

An incredible despise

It is completely legal, and undisputable. But it is an unbelievable despise for individual rights. The PJ’s report about the Maddie case leaves no doubts – Robert Murat was made an arguido, and has been kept that way for 13 months, over… nothing. Over absolutely nothing!

An English journalist found Murat to be suspicious and the Polícia Judiciária investigated him. They turned his house, his garden upside down, rummaged through his computer, his life, his friends. They found nothing. But they didn’t say anything either, in the name of the holy ‘judicial secrecy’.

What kind of Justice is this, which allows for a man to be under public scrutiny, a suspect, earning side glances, losing opportunities and business, when against him there is not the slightest indicium, as the PJ itself reveals? Without him being related, not even minimally, with the missing child?

And what kind of Justice is this, that lets the rumor run – in the newspapers, on tv, everywhere – that the parents could be guilty of the child’s death without there being the smallest solid indicium against them?

The Maddie case is a shame for the Portuguese justice. It is necessary that all the possible lessons, in their entire extension, are taken out of this case. About the manner in which the police acted; about the ease with which arguidos were made; about the judicial secrecy. So the iniquity of a secret does never again overlay the necessary Justice.

It sounds rather negative and downbeat but isn't it generally thought to be slightly Pro-McCann biased, Astro?

Thanks Astro

// What kind of Justice is this, which allows for a man to be under public scrutiny, a suspect, earning side glances, losing opportunities and business, when against him there is not the slightest indicium, as the PJ itself reveals? Without him being related, not even minimally, with the missing child? //

The McCann group and those so-called 'reliable witnesses' the creche nannys pointed the finger at Murat....after that the PJ had no other choice in the matter.

Imagine the furore from Emma2 and Twiglet if Murat had been allowed to roam free whilst the McCanns were still arguido.

Thanks Astro

Before the usual panic....

I am still of the belief that, as the PJ have said often, the forensics are not 'conclusive' but 'indicative' and the articles we have seen in print recently do not make any mention of OTHER EVIDENCE. I think if charges do not come immediately they may order everyone back for a reconstruction, the Mcs will have to go back and I am sure one way or another the T7 will go too this time.

RM is an arguido as long as the Mcs are, I hope he gets them all good and proper in court.

Again, we have to ask ourselves whether this newspaper has really accessed the PJ's report. If what is says is true, it is hard to believe they managed to extract two extensions of secrecy from the prosecutor, or that the prosecutor needs three more weeks to make a decision, if the evidence was so minimal.

Time will tell.

Doesn't mention neglect or abandonment does it?

Looks like they are home and dry.

With only the dogs evidence - its all over.

Faced with the possibility of being sued by RM I suspect you may well be right mickey1. (Think I'll just wait for the fur to fly when the friends end up in court and the McCanns, who appear to have been careful not to go on record and accuse RM, are happily enjoying themseves as they try to rebuild their lives in Canada!)

Thanks astro.

If that was truly the extent of the evidence against Robert Murat it is a disgrace.

I predict that this article will be initally denounced as "pro McCann", and subequently spun to be "good news".

If this article is in fact close to the truth (usual journalistic caveat applies) and that is the extent of the evidence against the McCanns, then the prosectutor will have no realistic option but to close the investigation. I wonder where all the leaked evidence and "sources" have come from.

// A set of unspecified pieces of “information”, one of them related to Jane Turner [sic] //

Signs of peculiarly shoddy journalism - they can't even get Jane Tanners name right!!!

Hello Sans!

Well we've already had one respected criminologist state quite clearly that an abduction is an impossibility.

So where does that leave the McCanns?

well well....

As the onus is on the PJ to prove that they have done something wrong, if this is correct then it leaves the adult McCanns in the position of not facing charges.

It is tragedy for all concerned.

there is obviously more evidence than this, or there would not have been 14 months of investigation nor the continuing co-operation of the Leicestershire police, nor two extensions of secrecy

there may well not be enough evidence to stand up in court

if that is the end result it will be widely claimed that the McCanns are totally in the clear, but as details slowly emerge, and as researchers outwith the reach of the UK libel laws get busy, the emphasis will change

It's a tragedy for Madeleine first and foremost. Get that right.

The difference is of course that even if 'archived' the case can be improved upon as often and as frequently as the PJ wishes whereas no matter how many the changes made by the McCanns it cannot improve on the impossibility of the abduction.

Therefore one story swiflty sinks to the bottom of the sea, whilst the other puffs onwards ad infinitum.

And considerable reources have been poured into contructing a case against the McCanns, and has not found evidence. Despite the views of the criminologist, it would appear the case agaist them is weak and circumstantial. of course, it could be argued that they will forever remain suspects (a bit like the Ramseys) but as things stand, it seems the PJ may have some questions to answer - particularly as regards Robet Murat.

What about the 11000 bits of information that the Leicester police have? Not to mention the files of stuff the PJ have? there's got to be more than what is mentioned in this article

Not necessarily. This could easily be it.

I am intrigued that some posters here are reluctant to believe that expresso may have had access to the report. But seem to have less difficulty in accepting that Leicester Police have apparently leaked the entire story, including apparently conclusive and damning evidence, to a poster on this forum.

Well if the PJ has questions to answer at least we can be assured that they answer them - unlike the McCanns!

The fact remains that whatever the strength of the evidence against the McCanns there still remains the distinct possibility of it growing stronger whereas, in complete contrast, the story of the abduction gets weaker by the day - until now, whereupon it appears to have finally hit the buffers.

I'd say it is a tragedy for Madeleine alone. You surprise me there s_s.

It is of course principally a tragedy for Madeleine. That is indisputable.

But it goes further - it is a tragedy for Robert Murat. It is a tragedy for the twins, who have lost a sister.

If the McCanns are innocent of everything apart from exposing Madeleine to danger, it is a tragedy for them.

In this sort of case, there are no winners.

(edited to say)Apart from the journalists and shareholders of the gutter press.

Did you mean no abductors?

There are plenty of winners, Sans - Metodo 3, Clarence Mitchell and numerous lawyers also gainfully employed.

Before getting heated ~~ consider their source.
It'll be Angered Amaral ~~ bitter of course.