Robert Murat's mother to the rescue - A mystery “woman in purple” is the prime suspect British police are thought to be searching for over Madeleine McCann’s disappearance.

A mystery “woman in purple” is the prime suspect British police are thought to be searching for over Madeleine McCann’s disappearance.

Jenny Murat 79, has told how she saw the woman outside the apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, which Maddie vanished from in 2007.


Jenny, whose son Robert was the first “arguido” – official suspect – but was formally cleared of suspicion in 2008, said: “I saw the woman standing on the corner of the street.”

The woman was looking up at the apartments, “watching intently” .

Jenny said: “She caught my eye as she was dressed in purple-plum clothes.

“It struck me as strange. It’s so usual for anyone, particularly a woman, to be standing alone on the street in our resort, just watching a building.”

The next morning she heard that Maddie had gone missing and told police about the woman.


Jenny Murat saw a mystery woman outside the apartment  (Photo: BBC)


Madeleine McCann prime suspect 'is woman spotted near Algarve apartments on night'

A police insider said they were ready to “move in” and arrest the mystery women, who is not currently living in Portugal, in the latest “hugely significant line of inquiry”.

It is understood from sources close to the investigation that the woman had a connection to a worker at the Ocean Club resort – now renamed the Garden Club – where the McCanns were staying.


Jenny said the case had worn her and other locals down  (Photo: PA)

The source said: “Detectives have scoured Europe looking for this woman who is thought to hold the key to solving the entire case. They want to know exactly where she was on the night Madeleine was taken from the apartment. After months of tireless police work they will soon be in a position to move in and finally get some answers after a decade of dead ends.”

Pensioner Jenny, 79, told how the Maddie case had worn her and fellow locals down.

She said: “It’s been non-stop for 10 years and some locals have become very fed up with it. It’s not helped our lovely resort in respect of tourism but slowly people are coming back to visit in bigger numbers than ever.”

Holiday complex where the McCanns were staying in Praia da Luz  (Photo: Sunday Mirror)

Jenny vividly remembers the night three-year-old Maddie vanished while her parents were dining at a nearby tapas restaurant with pals.


She said: “Robert was at home and I’d driven to the local Baptista store to get some shopping and the local paper, the Portugal Resident, which comes out on a Thursday. When I was heading back past the Ocean Club at about 8pm I saw a woman standing on the street corner near a lamp post staring at the flat.


“It was unusual to see a woman standing alone. I didn’t recognise her and don’t have a clue who she is but it seems a bit suspicious. If she is important to the policy inquiry I hope they find her wherever she may be.

“Officers here never questioned me about her, I suppose they had other leads initially to follow up.”
Jenny said her heart went out to Maddie’s parents, saying: “It’s never ending for them and they must need some answers. All people want is for there to be a happy ending for that family. I hope after all this time there can be a resolution.”

   Jenny Murat, mother of the third arguido, is a credible witness now is she? 

She's contradicted her son and almost blown out his alibi, he claims that he was at home with his mother all night.  He may have said that one of them returned home slightly earlier than the other but there was never a mention of either of them popping out late.  And who buys a newspaper so late in the day? 

  Anyway, who do we know who was around the apartment that that nigh and almost always wore purple?   Oh, yes - Jane Tanner.   ( unless we believe the waiter who said that she never left the table) 

This is beyond scrapping the bottom of the barrel, its extreme desperation.

@sharoni - indeed!

Here's Jeremy Wilkin's rog statement:

Q. Relative to whether I know Jane Tanner;
Now I know her name, description of the clothes and photos which I have seen in the press. At that time I knew of her as a member of the group but did not know her name. I do not remember having seen her when I spoke with Gerry, but I believe I saw her when I first ventured out. She was stopped on the street in front of one of the group's apartments when I passed her down towards the exit to my apartment. I do not know if it was her apartment or not. I remember that she was wearing the colour purple.



I'm lost for words.

The source said: “Detectives have scoured Europe looking for this woman...”

She lives in Exeter doesn't she?

1. Who now points at 'the woman in purple' as the prime suspect? 

2. Jenny Murat says she saw ms Purple around 20.00 hrs. At what time did 'Jez' notice her? Do these moments match? 

3. Did Jane Tanner perhaps have a vested interest in having people believe Maddie was carried of in direction A, by a man; when she in fact was carried of in direction B, by a woman? 

4. Same question: did the time-line conjurors KNOW about (3) when they vectored in Janes' so called observations? 

5. Could it be -hopefully- that indeed OG has now whittled away all dross from their files and is gearing up for the last leg: identifying those (very) few people left standing: the untouchables under the OG remit?

Verdi wrote:

Morning Verdi! Thank you!

This is all Jenny Murat says to the PJ in her May 2007 statement:

Questioned, she says that during that night she also heard no noise or strange movements of people and also no one knocked on the door to ask or to request help to find the missing girl.


No mention of a woman dressed in purple; and she states that she saw no strange movements of people. 10 years on and the woman in purple suddenly appears on the scene.



What has prompted JM to say this to the papers now?

From Roberts statement

He said farewell to them in the VW and headed for his residence, where he arrived between 19.15 and 19.30. He parked the VW in front of the house and entered. He does not know if his mother was at home, but thinks so because it was late for her to walk the dogs, as they usually leave at 17:00 and return at 19.00. After entering, he may have taken some tea and turned on the TV or it was already on. He may also have read a newspaper. He talked with the mother, who if she was not there had arrived shortly afterwards, about Romigen. He ate a sandwich of cheese and ham sitting in the kitchen with his mother, until 22:00 or 23:00. Contrary to what he said originally, he was not with MICHAELA when she went to a Jehovah witnesses' meeting between 20:00 and 22:00, which is why he didn't phone her, because she turns her phone off. He does not know if he called her after 22:00, but accepts that possibility. He does not remember having used the computer. He was home with his mother, when at 22:30 or a little later, he heard a siren of an ambulance or police. He commented on that with his mother, however, did not leave the house to investigate.

Is this not yet one more very clear example of how all roads seem to lead to Robert Murat in this case?

CONSIDER WHAT WE ALREADY HAVE

* In the day after Sunday 29 April, someone contacts Robert Murat and asks him to come over on the next flight to Faro from Exeter
* He subsequently lies comprehensively about his movements on the next three days (Tuesday 1 May to Thursday 3 May)
* Asked if he already knows Robert Murat, Gerry McCann turns his face away from the interviewer, looks very discomfited, and grunts: "I am not going to comment on that"
* Robert Murat's mother, Jenny Murat, sets up an information stall in opposition to the police's request that people bring information to them
* Robert Murat is recommended as an interpreter to the police by the British Embassy
* While interpreting, Murat tries to sneak a look at confidential police documents and keeps suggesting new lines of enquiry to the police, and asking them what lines of enquiry they are following
* He is set up as the 'fall guy' or 'patsy', first by Jane Tanner, and then by Rachael Oldfield, Russell O'Brien and Fiona Payne - and then made an official suspect
* Martin Smith and his son Peter admit that Martin Smith 'met Murat several times' over a period of 'two years'
* Robert Murat's mother Jenny was on the local ex-pat Residents Committee with Mrs Pamela Fenn. The two women had both lived in Praia da Luz for a long time. Over three months after Madeleine was reported missing, Mrs Fenn came up with a highly dubious statement suggesting that she heard Madeleine crying for 75 minutes on Tuesday 1 May - a claim that tended to prove the McCanns' claim that they were leaving their children on their own for periods of time in the evenings
* The McCanns' Masonic lawyer Edward Smethurst and the head of their private investigation, Cheshire businessman and multi-millionaire Brian Kennedy, travelled to Portugal in November 2007 for a summit meeting with Robert Murat, his mother and his aunt and uncle.

And now we have this - a flagrantly bogus story about a 'woman in purple' allegedly seen by Jenny Murat on the night of Thursday 3 May 2007. And oh so conveniently timed on the eve of the 10th anniversary of that date!

Yet there ae still people to be found who declare: "Robert Murat is a poor, innocent victim in all of this".

They need to consider the above facts.

How is it a flagrantly bogus story when Jeremy Wilkins said in his statement that he'd seen a woman dressed in purple looking up at the apartment ?

Roidininki wrote:How is it a flagrantly bogus story when Jeremy Wilkins said in his statement that he'd seen a woman dressed in purple looking up at the apartment ?

Jenny said: “She caught my eye as she was dressed in purple-plum clothes.
“It struck me as strange. It’s so usual for anyone, particularly a woman, to be standing alone on the street in our resort, just watching a building.”
The next morning she heard that Maddie had gone missing and told police about the woman.


The source said: “Detectives have scoured Europe looking for this woman who is thought to hold the key to solving the entire case. They want to know exactly where she was on the night Madeleine was taken from the apartment. After months of tireless police work they will soon be in a position to move in and finally get some answers after a decade of dead ends.”
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Jenny told the Police about it ten years ago but it's only now, after months of tireless police work, that the Police want to know where this woman is, although they'll soon be in a position to move in.

Why didn't the Police investigate this woman who is thought to hold the key to solving the entire case ten years ago, instead of waiting til the 10th Anniversary?

The Jenny Murat was aware of Madeleine's disappearance from May 4th 2007, if not earlier. She later set up a stall to collect information from anyone who didn't want to go to the police 

Later she saw her son, Robert, arrested and made an arguido following accusations from both team McCann and the PJ.  This was all over the media and Roberts reputation was severely damaged.

Despite all of this, Mrs Murat decided to hold back her sighting of this suspicious woman for 10 years.  Why was she not screaming this from the rooftops when her son was accused?  Or if she is a decent person, when she first heard that Madeleine was missing.

This story just does not add up at all, it screams of desperation.

Edited to say that this post just crossed with get'ems - so she did report it then.  If she didn't know the tapas crew at that point, could she have seen and reported Jane Tanner?  It is plausible, giving what we know, to think that Jane could have been looking up at 5A then again, Jane pointed the finger at Robert.  Was this an attempt at revenge?

Beyond absurd. Is this the first time SHE has mentioned it? To think her son was a suspect and she did not offer this info to the police at the time? Not a credible tale, I'm afraid. That info might have cleared her son sooner and she was willing to keep it to herself? Highly implausible.
She certainly DID NOT tell the police at the time.
Utter lies.

Snipped from "The Express", May 3rd 2015:

"Jenny Murat, 78, the mother of wrongly accused Robert Murat, has potentially breakthrough evidence but no one has spoken to her. At 8pm on May 3, 2007, she went to a supermarket and then drove past Apartment 5a and saw a woman hanging around. Her notes from the time say: “There was a woman standing on the corner under a lamp post.

“I don’t remember much of her other than she was of slight build and was wearing a plum coloured jacket. She moved around the lamp post as if trying not to be noticed.”

As she turned into the driveway of her home, Casa Liliana, she was nearly hit by a car going the wrong way. “When I stopped to open the gates I could not see the car but the woman was in the road looking in my direction.”


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In this December 2012 article Jenny Murat also claims her son was with her:

" Mrs Murat said: “Robert was at my home throughout that night and thankfully that is now fully accepted as fact. He did not leave once.”

She also has this to say about Kate McCann:

"The widow and former nurse said: “Kate of all people should know what it is like to be wrongly accused, so how can she be comfortable repeating wrong allegations about my son in her book?

But also finds it in her heart to add:

"Kate’s book and the resulting publicity did not help. I do feel sympathetic towards the McCanns and obviously wish they could find their daughter. We can’t fathom the hell they must go through but they seem oblivious to the impact all this has had on our lives and the lives of others."
------------

Bit like forgiving the abductor. Must be catching.

This testimony of his mother's is at variance with Robert's own. I understand there were two versions from him also. So that's  three and counting.
---------

Mrs Murat goes on to concede there was also sympathy from Kate McCann in the book towards Murat and has this to say:

"However, later in the book she (Kate) writes: “Nothing we were told by the police indicated Murat took Madeleine or was in any way involved in her abduction.” Mrs Murat argues: “Surely it would have been wiser not to mention the allegations from the outset if there was ‘nothing relevant’.”
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Quite a symbiotic relationship between TM and the other TM wasn't there?

Felgueiras: Did you know Robert Murat?

GM: cough... I'm not going to answer that.
Exeunt All
--------
Brring brring. Hello, Martin here.

Jenny Murat: Hello dear.

Sorry to laugh but this is only fit for ridicule..


'Woman in purple' is prime suspect in Madeleine McCann disappearance after witness saw her outside apartment

The witness says she saw the woman looking up at the apartments, “watching intently” and a police insider said they were ready to “move in” and arrest the mystery women

ByTracey Kandohla

• 08:58, 2 MAY 2017
  
• Updated11:10, 2 MAY 2017
  

Our Tracey. Bless.

Mirage wrote:Mrs Murat goes on to concede there was also sympathy from Kate McCann in the book towards Murat and has this to say:

Didn't Kate write that she wanted to kill Murat?

Get'emGonçalo wrote:

Mirage wrote:Mrs Murat gkoes on to concede there was also sympathy from Kate McCann in the book towards Murat and has this to say:

Didn't Kate write that she wanted to kill Murat?

I certainly have a recollection of that GGEG. Although I don't have provenance at the moment.

worriedmum wrote:Our Tracey. Bless.

She never fails to come-up with a corker does she?  This bit really cracked me up..

The source said: “Detectives have scoured Europe looking for this woman who is thought to hold the key to solving the entire case. They want to know exactly where she was on the night Madeleine was taken from the apartment. After months of tireless police work they will soon be in a position to move in and finally get some answers after a decade of dead ends.”

So police have scoured Europe looking for a mystery woman in purple - - - - and now they're about to move in and make an arrest !?!

I'm still laughing!  I was going to say 'you couldn't make it up could you' but they have!  What a farce!

Is anybody able to tell me, having scoured Europe for the woman in purple, what the police would say to this person should they ever find her.

Errr hello did you own a garment coloured purple 10 years ago.

No officer I did not.

Oh ok - not her didn't have anything purple at the time.

For Goodness sake how can anyone scour Europe without details of possible age, hair colour, features.   Never heard anything like it.

Are the police going to release a photo fit of the purle woman - an egg shaped head with what?  A purple dress, a purple coat, a purple jumper - take your pick cos no-one would have a bleeping clue.

Mirage wrote:

Get'emGonçalo wrote:

Mirage wrote:Mrs Murat gkoes on to concede there was also sympathy from Kate McCann in the book towards Murat and has this to say:

Didn't Kate write that she wanted to kill Murat?

I certainly have a recollection of that GGEG.  Although I don't have provenance at the moment.

Kate McCann; “I had lots of hope that there would be progress in Murat’s situation. I’m sure that he is involved and I feel like killing him, but I can’t”.

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Then she forgave the abductor.

Three cheers for our Tracey 

I don't think Mrs. Murat  should be accused of "coming to the rescue" . 
Jeremy Wilkins said he saw a woman whose name he didn't know but recalled she was wearing purple ? 
 
What the article's done by saying the police have been scouring Europe for this woman is making  the Met look incompetent imo.

It's like the burglars that we were promised would be arrested in 2014.

"Brit cops know who snatched Maddie"  etc. etc.   and various other headlines about arrests.  Except they were questioned, not arrested. I wonder who started that rumour ?!   If the burglars were 'arrested' then that means the McCanns were too, what do you reckon Clarence?



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"A spokesman for Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann described the letter as “significant”, that they believe it indicates an arrest is imminent and that “it’s likely it is the three burglars.”

"They want to know exactly where she was on the night Madeleine was taken from the apartment. After months of tireless police work they will soon be in a position to move in and finally get some answers after a decade of dead ends.”

They already know exactly where Missus Purple was on the night Madeleine was taken (allegedly) from the apartment - she was standing outside looking intently at the apartment.  Mrs Murat said!

Still laughing!

Haven't they forgotten vital evidence?

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Roidininki wrote:I don't think Mrs. Murat  should be accused of "coming to the rescue" . 
Jeremy Wilkins said he saw a woman whose name he didn't know but recalled she was wearing purple ? 
 
What the article's done by saying the police have been scouring Europe for this woman is making  the Met look incompetent imo.

Wilkins recognised woman as one of McCanns friends, Jenny Murat did not recognise. 
Both saw her between 8 to 8.30pm. 
It is in the files. 

The police know who she is,MSM are belittling them and all who have investigated this case. 
If JT is the last line of inquiry, interesting where that now leads?

Verdi wrote:"They want to know exactly where she was on the night Madeleine was taken from the apartment. After months of tireless police work they will soon be in a position to move in and finally get some answers after a decade of dead ends.”

They already know exactly where Missus Purple was on the night Madeleine was taken (allegedly) from the apartment - she was standing outside looking intently at the apartment.  Mrs Murat said!

Still laughing!

Haven't they forgotten vital evidence?

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I don't see Jez Wilkins being criticised for his statement in which he said he saw a woman in purple  .
The dogs are not being forgotten . 
Couldn't she have been the lookout in  respect of something  being moved  as opposed to being taken from the apartment ?