By: CECÍLIA PIRES
RUMOURS AND speculation about the results of the analysis being done at the Birmingham Lab in the UK are still taking over the main pages of daily newspapers in Portugal and the UK, although officials say all lines of investigation are open and that they are still waiting for the test results.
Meanwhile, national director of the Polícia Judiciária, Alípio Ribeiro, gave an interview to a Spanish newspaper last week saying that a team of investigators from the Portimão PJ office was expected to travel to the UK at any moment to re-interview some of the McCanns’ friends who were at the Ocean Club at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance on May 3.
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Ribeiro said the team will be travelling with a “representative of the Public Prosecutor from Portimão” and that they intend to obtain more detailed information “from the friends of the couple” who were at the Tapas bar with Gerry and Kate on the night Madeleine went missing.
The PJ head director also told Spanish reporters that despite all lines of the investigation being kept open, the theory that Madeleine may already be dead “has gained some credit and strength” and admitted that the beginning of the investigation had maybe focused too much on the kidnapping theory.
Gerry McCann, who is said to be negotiating his return to his previous cardiologist job at the Leicestershire hospital, stated this week that he was very pleased with the fact that the Portuguese police were going to re-interview his friends.
On his blog, at the Find Madeleine Campaign website, Gerry also says: “We do not know how many other ‘witnesses’ will be interviewed but obviously we want to be eliminated from the inquiry as soon as possible. We constantly hope that one of the other lines of investigation leads to Madeleine being found safe and well”.
This same desire is shared by Robert Murat, who was the first person to be named an “arguido” by the PJ in the Madeleine McCann case.
The expatriate, who lives at Praia da Luz with his mother Genny Murat, owner of Villa Liliana, has seen his name return to the spotlight this week after a British newspaper reported that the forensic analysis detected Madeleine’s DNA at his property.
The information was not confirmed by the police, and Robert Murat’s lawyer, Mr Francisco Pagarete, has already assured that the several searches held at Villa Lilliana by the Portuguese police have not found any evidence.
Meanwhile, a source close to Robert Murat, who has been waiting in silence to see his name cleared from the Madeleine case, said to The Resident that he is struggling with financial problems as a result of this case.
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