Two British holidaymakers involved in the search for Madeleine McCann have claimed a man they thought was Robert Murat, the first formal suspect in the case, was outside the apartment on the night the little girl disappeared. (Daily Telegraph 28th December 2007)The 33-year-old property developer has always maintained he was at home when Madeleine vanished from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on May 3 and has denied having anything to do with her disappearance.
But it has been reported that two women staying at the same resort claimed to have seen the man resembling Murat, who is an “arguido” or formal suspect in the case, smoking a cigarette only yards from the McCanns’ apartment.
They also claimed they saw two blond, tanned men acting suspiciously near the McCanns’ holiday home on the afternoon before Madeleine went missing.
Annie Wiltshire and her sister Jayne Jensen said they tried to tell Portuguese police at the time and then tried to speak to police in the UK without success.
They were not on the original police list of potential witnesses because their apartment was not in the same block as the McCanns’.
They finally spoke to the British authorities two months ago. The details were passed onto Kate and Gerry McCann’s private detective agency in Spain, Metodo 3, but have only just emerged.