5 Aug, 2007 in Correio da Manha:
(translation: Astro)

http://www.correiomanha.pt/noticia.asp? ... al=9&p=200

Traces:English dogs find trail
Madeleine possibly killed in the apartment

Judiciaria centers its investigations on the McCanns�?close circle, and tries to eliminate clues that pointed at Robert Murat. Kidnapping theory is beginning to be put aside, after english dogs detected a trail that points to the existence of a corpse in the holiday house

Policia Judiciaria (PJ) believes that Madeleine may have been killed in the Algarve apartment where she spent her holidays with her parents and siblings, in May. The specially trained dogs from the english police, cocker spaniel, that have been sniffing for the trail of the missing child, have detected residues that point to the presence of a corpse on those premises.

Yesterday, after having searched the beach, where the body could have been thrown into the water, authorities centered their attention on Robert Murat’s house, the only arguido in the process.

The same dogs sniffed the entire garden of Casa Liliana again �?which was cleaned and cleared of shrubbery by the Civil Protection workers �?but they found nothing. They left the area around 8 p.m., having detected no residues of the girl’s presence.

The lead that is now being followed by authorities, which was revealed by ‘Sol�?yesterday and confirmed by CM, complements another piece of data that misled the PJ’s elements at the beginning of the investigation. A sniffer dog used by GNR tracked the child between the apartment where Madeleine was sleeping and another house within the same resort, which led elements from PJ to never dismiss the possibility that the girl was taken by someone who knew her.

The clue that was now detected in the McCanns�?apartment refocuses the investigation on the close circle to the girl’s parents and friends, although it sheds no light on the reasons that led to the child’s death. PJ is being especially careful in this phase, and the names of the main suspects are omitted.

Murat could be innocent

The searches that were done yesterday at Robert Murat’s house may have contributed to render the suspect innocent. Nothing relevant was found at the house of the english translator, who was constituted an arguido at the beginning of the process. This is a possibility that meets the certainty of lawyer Francisco Pagarete, who reaffirmed his client’s innocence to CM yesterday. “We only let GNR stay on the premises so we can avoid the house to be devastated�? he assured, admitting that the diligence continues today and that the purpose of the militaries�?presence is to ensure that no clues are destroyed during the night.

CM could further discover that the investigation met a turnaround over the last few weeks. The arrival of the english dogs and their presence in the holiday apartment has the purpose to confirm that possibility, given the fact that suspicions are now centered on the McCanns�?close circle, the only persons who can explain the alleged death of the child, while still at home.

The kidnapping theory, according to a source with PJ that was contacted by CM, is being increasingly dismissed, as it would only fit a scenario where the child would have been alive. Yesterday’s searches, which were duly ordered by a court, started around 7.30 a.m.

Corpse in the house for over 2 hours

The body only smells like a corpse at least two hours after dead, “until that point it remains warm and transmits a living person’s smell to the dog�? subcomissaire Paulo Brissos, a former second commander of the PSP’s sniffer dog operation team, has guaranteed to CM.

This means that for the english authorities�?cocker spaniel to have marked the death of Madeleine within the apartment where she slept, at the ‘Ocean Club�? the girl had to be dead inside the apartment for “between 2 and 4 hours�?

Paulo Brissos, who was also a military dog trainer at the Air Force, explains that “Portugal does not have dogs that are capable to search for dead people because the chemical susbtance that is used for training, and which simulates a dead body’s odor, is very expensive�?

For example, in the tragedy of the bridge that collapsed at Entre-os-Rios, “we had foreign dogs brought in to search the corpses, not because they were of a different race, but because they were trained to do that�? And they work exclusively on the detection of decomposing bodies, while “in our country, dogs are trained to search, detect and rescue the living�?

“The difference does not reside in the races, and PSP also uses a cocker spaniel, but for drug searches�? And they do this in spite of the fact that labradors have better characteristics. The difference is a chemical product that is only affordable to foreign authorities.

Searches continue today

The PJ’s searches at Robert Murat’s house will continue all day today. Yet, because they have to finish after sunset, the investigators left the residence around 8 p.m., and will return in the early morning. During all day, the cleaning work at Casa Liliana’s surroundings was intensive. The gardeners from Civil Protection clered the entire surrounding area that was practically abandoned, which made the searches more difficult. Apart from cleaning the trees, some trails were made for the dogs to smell clues more easily, but that apparently did not happen.