Investigator ensures that Maddie's body in the backyard of Murat

I agree Sweetex. I am sure Murat will be keen to prove he has nothing to do with it and will cooperate fully.

Just thinking, if you were looking for somewhere to hide something, then somewhere that has already been given the all clear would be a good place.

uppatoffee wrote:Not sure quite how I'd be feeling if I was Murat right now. This guy is admitting that he has broken in to Murat's property repeatedly when he is out.

Did he bury Maddie's body there during one of his visits? Does he know that some dodgy detectives have buried the body there since Murat left the property? Is this why he sounds confident? This cannot be ruled out IMO.

twitter going nuts, apparently there is a video showing a path that has been built since the police search, who knows what the heck is going on, we will know is due course. I will be sick if this case has now degenerated, with this and the Horrocks piece, into rival camp spin and counter spin. So out of the blue this.......and now twitter is saying something big set to happen over next 24 hours.

uppatoffee wrote:Nobby Lobby has just posted that he has just "spoken with Eben Black in regard to alleged possible discovery of Maddie #McCann corpse."

Who is Eben Black?

I think Eben Black is part of the legal team of Stephen Birch. Under correction now, but I think its the name he mentioned in his video clip.

Even if Maddie's body is found in Murat's garden, does it follow that it was him who put it there? The SA businessman says he was able to break into the property a few times. Who else has been able to do so?

The whole webs alive with this, so weird. Watching Sky news at the moment and they are complaining the front page of the newspapers are very late.

A buried Roman village and a human burial?

Give the case to Tony, Phil and Mick of Time Team they will sort it out and as usual they will have only three days to do it.

ShuBob: So you think the PJ had the body all along. Sounds like a straw that would be grasped by a McCann Supporter.

I think it is more smoke and mirrors and a good reason to watch the other hand. Looks like something could be afoot but Madeleines corpse in Murats garden is not it. They are not that stupid!!!

Just seen that Eben Black has worked for Murdoch's NOTW. Is he for real?

Eben Black was a political correspondent for the Press Association, the Sun and then for Today newspaper. From 1996 to 1999 he was political editor of the News of the World, and then until 2004 chief political correspondent of the Sunday Times.
From 2004 he has been head of media at Global Government Relations, the strategic communications and media relations arm of DLA Piper, the second largest law firm in the world.

The pro's are now having kittens over this. They are already blaming GA saying it must be a set up by him, despite him saying he thinks it is impossible.

They have described it as mobs of terrifying intruders in stalking an old ladies garden or words to that effect.

euro news site does not mention a reopening of invesigation but mentions this Birch story, not what the French reporter said on you tube clip, and the text on the official site is different, could someone have tampered with the real story to put out false info about a reopening for whatever reason?
where is all the chat going on on twitter?

It's not going on much that I can see - mainly just a conversation between just two people.

I don't think there's anything to this.

sweetex wrote:

tigger wrote:Absolute rubbish. The PJ searched the villa and the garden very thoroughly. It's the silly season, nothing more.

South Africa seems to be amazingly rich in these 'detectives'.

I agree with Russiandoll. Silly season quite possible. Nothing in this case has ever been straight forward. We are all tired of waiting for justice. If there is the slightest possibility that the case MAY have been reopened - I'll honestly be one very happy person.

I agree Sweetex, I would be one very happy person too! BTW Silly season is ususally referred to in August, politicians on vacation etc etc, isn't it?

russiandoll wrote: euro news site does not mention a reopening of invesigation but mentions this Birch story, not what the French reporter said on you tube clip, and the text on the official site is different, could someone have tampered with the real story to put out false info about a reopening for whatever reason?
where is all the chat going on on twitter?

Yes no mention of reopening on Euro news, but the text in French report did say : reopened to verify

Most of the tweets I can see are just saying the same thing "businessman said he had found the body of Madeleine McCann". Nowhere is reporting that the case has been reopened other than that one French website.

Willo wrote:A buried Roman village and a human burial?

Give the case to Tony, Phil and Mick of Time Team they will sort it out and as usual they will have only three days to do it.

ShuBob: So you think the PJ had the body all along. Sounds like a straw that would be grasped by a McCann Supporter.

I think it is more smoke and mirrors and a good reason to watch the other hand. Looks like something could be afoot but Madeleines corpse in Murats garden is not it. They are not that stupid!!!

How on earth did you read that into my post?

on sky from M BRUNT


Police Probe Madeleine 'Grave' Theory
A self-styled investigator has sent police radar scans he says show a burial site in the Portuguese resort where she disappeared.
10:51pm UK, Thursday 05 July 2012
Madeleine McCann

Madeleine McCann disappeared five years ago


By Martin Brunt, crime correspondent

British detectives are examining an extraordinary claim that Madeleine McCann's body is buried near the holiday apartment from where she vanished.

A self-styled investigator has sent police ground radar scans he claims show a burial site.

Stephen Birch says he took the scans last week in Praia da Luz, the Portuguese holiday resort where Madeleine disappeared five years ago.

He passed them to Scotland Yard detectives who are carrying out an investigative review of the case.

They have asked him for more information to help them interpret the scan results and the "raw data" the machine collected.

He has also sent the material to Portuguese police who abandoned their search for Madeleine 15 months after she disappeared.

A self-styled investigator has sent police radar scans he says show a burial site in the Portuguese resort where she disappeared.
10:51pm UK, Thursday 05 July 2012
Madeleine McCann



British detectives are examining an extraordinary claim that Madeleine McCann's body is buried near the holiday apartment from where she vanished.

A self-styled investigator has sent police ground radar scans he claims show a burial site.

Stephen Birch says he took the scans last week in Praia da Luz, the Portuguese holiday resort where Madeleine disappeared five years ago.

He passed them to Scotland Yard detectives who are carrying out an investigative review of the case.

They have asked him for more information to help them interpret the scan results and the "raw data" the machine collected.

He has also sent the material to Portuguese police who abandoned their search for Madeleine 15 months after she disappeared.
Kate And Gerry McCann Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry McCann believe she is still alive

Mr Birch, a commercial property developer in South Africa, admits he is "obsessed" with the Madeleine mystery.

He claims to have spent £40,000 on buying the ground-penetrating scanner and being trained in its use.

He said: "All I want to do is solve the mystery and bring closure to Madeleine's family. I am convinced she lies where I have scanned.

"I've had the scans analysed and they show digging, a void and what could be human bones."

Scotland Yard said it would always consider any new potential evidence and pass it on to the Portuguese authorities.

Earlier this year the detective in charge of the review said he believed there was a chance Madeleine was still alive.

She was nearly four when she disappeared without trace from the apartment in May 2007.

Despite dozens of potential sightings around the world no credible evidence has emerged to indicate whether she is alive or dead.

Her parents Kate and Gerry McCann believe she is still alive and would not comment on Mr Birch's claims.

SEE CASE REOPENED TOPIC Martin Brunt has reported for Sky

Murat not mentioned but British detectives are looking into it Brunt claims

I note with interest that Brunt didn't mentioned Murat in his piece.

If this guy has got this wrong, the UK press will tear him apart and no doubt he will find himself in court for trespass and libel.

So no interest at all from K&G on the day it's rumoured the case might be re-opened?

Who'd have expected that?

all very strange, will be interesting to see Brunt talk about this on tv.

sweetex wrote:

EJW wrote:Really? Is this actually going to happen do you think? I don't do twitter, has anyone seen this anywhere else??

@ Russiondoll - thanks for translation. Does "new line of inquiry" actually means reopened?

@ EWJ I have not heard/read/seen it any other place but on twitter. Only the past few minutes though. Lol I don't want to get my hopes up.... ! Let's see.

And your hopes are?

Spaniel wrote:

sweetex wrote:

EJW wrote:Really? Is this actually going to happen do you think? I don't do twitter, has anyone seen this anywhere else??

@ Russiondoll - thanks for translation. Does "new line of inquiry" actually means reopened?

@ EWJ I have not heard/read/seen it any other place but on twitter. Only the past few minutes though. Lol I don't want to get my hopes up.... ! Let's see.

And your hopes are?

To find justice for Madeleine? That this bizarre McCann circus would end

my hopes are that this piece of news is looked at and dismissed as rubbish if that is what it is. I really hope this has not now descended into a farce of unbelievable theories from Horrocks first promoting the alive and well living with a new family scenario and now this guy promoting the other side of the coin. There is an interview with GA re this but the translation is quite poor

russiandoll wrote: my hopes are that this piece of news is looked at and dismissed as rubbish if that is what it is. I really hope this has not now descended into a farce of unbelievable theories from Horrocks first promoting the alive and well living with a new family scenario and now this guy promoting the other side of the coin. There is an interview with GA re this but the translation is quite poor

I saw the translation and agree its very poor. Very hard to make out what is actually said. It seems he dismisses the claims of this investigator...and said something it must have been after the PJ searched the property.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH ROBERT MURAT
Updated: 05-Jul-2012

http://www.algarveresident.com/0-47823/algarve/exclusive-interview-with-robert-murat

Once again, the Algarve resident sees his name splashed across the national and international press and all of his hopes of some form of normalcy in his life have now been dashed again.

If this story is the nonsense it appears to be, it begs the question why it has appeared and what is behind it. The following is Murat's response to it


EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

‘The whole thing is daft. I am so angry’

Robert Murat reacts to a press report claiming Madeleine McCann’s body is buried in his backyard

By INÊS LOPES ines.lopes@algarveresident.com

In an exclusive interview with the Algarve Resident today (July 5), Robert Murat says he is “very angry” that news is circulating that a South-African researcher claims Madeleine McCann’s body is buried in the backyard of the house where his mother lives in Praia da Luz.

According to Correio da Manhã (CM) daily newspaper, Stephen Birch, who says he is “passionate” about the mystery surrounding Madeleine’s disappearance, entered the property four times during the night, around two weeks ago, to search its backyard using georadar equipment.

The man claims the machine detected movement and alteration in the subsoil and collected images that he says he has passed on to the UK’s Scotland Yard and the Portuguese Polícia Judiciária.

Birch told the Correio da Manhã that images collected detected that “an object” had been buried in the backyard “60 centimetres underground”. The data was allegedly analysed by a specialist who confirmed the probable presence of something in that location.

The South-African researcher told the newspaper that he believed that Madeleine was buried there.

However, Robert Murat said: “Every single part of the house, inside and out, was checked in 2007 by more than 20 police officers, who found absolutely nothing. They used Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) equipment, which was brought by a Civil Protection team, to search the grounds of the property and the area surrounding Casa Liliana.”

Former PJ inspector Gonçalo Amaral, who was involved in the Madeleine investigation in the beginning, told CM that the PJ’s searches of the house had been “thorough”.

Murat, who hasn’t lived at the house “for years”, said his mother Jenny, who is 76 years old, is feeling very uncomfortable in her own home. “Her privacy is being invaded again,” he said. “She is distraught and I am very angry. My lawyers are dealing with this.”

Referring to the photographs published by Correio da Manhã, which show Birch in Jenny Murat’s garden, Robert said he didn’t think there was any way the man could have entered the property as his mother has two large Serra da Estrela dogs that are kept outside as guard dogs.


Murat’s lawyer, Francisco Pagarete, told the Algarve Resident: “We are unsure as to the veracity of those photographs.”

When asked if his client would be suing Stephen Birch for unlawful entry to his mother’s property or for his claims, the lawyer said: “We are currently analysing the news report.”

Robert Murat concluded: “I don’t expect anybody to be on my side, I just want the truth,”

Birch told CM that while in Praia da Luz, he monitored the property “24 hours a day”, with the help of two “collaborators”, and when the house was vacated he would enter and search the backyard with the georadar equipment.

The man says he does not want to “make accusations” as his sole objective is to find the location where the body was buried as it will be “easier to solve the case”.

Despite his alleged findings at the property, Birch is quoted in CM as saying that he doesn’t believe Murat or his relatives are involved in the disappearance of Madeleine. “Anyone could have had access to the property,” he told the newspaper.

In the CM report, Gerry and Kate McCann’s lawyer in Portugal, Rogério Alves, is said to be following the latest developments closely and admitted he may request the reopening of the case.

The police authorities have allegedly received the data collected by Stephen Birch.

The background:

Madeleine McCann disappeared from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on May 3 2007, a few days before turning four.

Robert Murat became the first arguido, or official suspect, in the investigation of the Madeleine McCann case after a British journalist reported to the police that his behaviour during the initial stages of the search was suspicious. Murat, fluent in English and Portuguese, had offered his help as translator to the Portuguese authorities.

In 2008, Murat saw his status of arguido dropped by the Portuguese authorities.

Murat has always claimed to have had no involvement whatsoever in the British toddler’s disappearance and that his life has been turned upside down by the case.

In November 2008, the former arguido was awarded undisclosed libel damages from British Sky Broadcasting Ltd following a video and article posted on the Sky News website. Prior to this, Robert Murat had received 600,000 pounds sterling following allegations in more than 100 articles in various publications in the UK.

Once again, the Algarve resident sees his name splashed across the national and international press and all of his hopes of some form of normalcy in his life have now been dashed again.

_____________

Looking messy now.

Interesting that Murat hasn't lived there in years, where has he been?