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Madeleine: Now alibi of Murat's girlfriend falls apart
Last updated at 07:52am on 24.11.07
'Cast out': Robert Murat's lover Michaela Walczuch
The alibi of Madeleine McCann suspect Robert Murat's girlfriend has been thrown into doubt.
Friends of Michaela Walczuch claimed she had told police she was at a Jehovah's Witness prayer meeting on the night three-year-old Madeleine vanished.
But a woman at the church said she was not at the meeting while other worshippers said she was "cast aside" by their community more than a year ago.
They claimed Portuguese police had not taken the trouble to check her alibi.
A man at the church, who refused to give his name but said he was a "brother" in the group, said: "I haven't been interviewed. The police haven't been here."
The man, identified by locals as Teofilo Castela, refused to say why Miss Walczuch, 34, was thrown out of the congregation.
But she is known to have been seeing Mr Murat for almost two years while still living with estranged husband Luis Antonio. The strange set-up was thought to have angered Jehovah's Witness elders.
Mr Castela said. "She was cast aside. It was before this year. The church has certain rules and they must not be broken."
Claims that Miss Walczuch was at the church would have given her a solid alibi for the night that Madeleine disappeared.
The Jehovah's Witness group in Lagos holds Thursday night meetings between 8.30pm and 10.15pm, and Madeleine vanished between 9pm and 10pm on the night of May 3, which was a Thursday.
If witnesses had agreed that she was there, it would have placed her five miles from Praia da Luz where Madeleine vanished.
But a woman at the church - a gloomy, badly lit room at the bottom of a rundown block of flats - denied Miss Walczuch attended the May 3 meeting.
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Suspect: Robert Murat was named an arguido early in the investigation
She said she had not seen the German-born mother-of-one all year, since she had been thrown out. Others said they could not remember if she attended in May.
Miss Walczuch has refused to reveal publicly where she was on May 3, or on the dates when two witnesses claim to have seen her with a child resembling Madeleine. She has dismissed the alleged sightings as "ridiculous and bizarre".
She and her husband, 37, were both interviewed as witnesses on the day Mr Murat was made an official suspect. Their homes were searched.
Kate and Gerry McCann's private detectives are investigating the two potential sightings of Miss Walczuch and Madeleine.
A Portuguese lorry driver claims he saw her driving a hire car on a road near Silves, 25 miles from Praia da Luz, on May 5.
He said he saw her hand over a child in a blanket to a man in a black car and said he believed the child was Madeleine.
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Madelein McCann: The little girl vanished on May 3
On June 15 a Spanish woman claims to have seen Miss Walczuch in a town in northern Morocco, moments after she saw a child resembling the missing girl with a woman in a Muslim headscarf.
Miss Walczuch, her husband and Mr Murat, 34, all deny involvement in Madeleine's disappearance. They refused to comment on Miss Walczuch's alibi.
The Jehovah's Witnesses follow what they believe is a "purer" form of Christianity, based on the First Century Church. The ultimate sanction on those who break the rules is excommunication, known as disfellowship.
Reader views (7)
Here's a sample of the latest views published. You can click view all to read all views that readers have sent in.
I can't understand it, if Murat's girlfriend's alibi doesn't hold water why didn't the police do something about it. Why didn't they even find out if she was at the church meeting. From beginning to end the whole horrible case stinks.
- Lilian Gillard, Raanana, Israel
In view of its clumsy police investigation the Portuguese prosecutors office should better have its mouth shut instead of uttering in public further nonsense and unsubstantiated speculations about life or death of poor little Madeleine.
As British police claimed from the onset, the key to this horrendous crime is to be found in Praia da Luz - and nowhere else. That is where Portuguese police have been doing their miserable job.
The whereabouts of Miss Walczuch could and certainly should have been verified within days of Madeleine’s abduction on May 3rd. Again: The McCann family is well advised to triple their private efforts to compensate for the complete failure of Portuguese authorities now looking for a face-saving way out of this total investigation disaster.
- E. Ried, Salzburg
Didn't we hear months ago that Michaela Walczuch had been investigated soon after Maddie went missing and it had been found out she had nothing to do with it. Why this now?
- Maria, UK
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