Robert Murat
was born on November 20, 1973, at Queen Charlotte's Hospital, Hammersmith, West London - the elder son of John Henry Queriol Murat, a Portuguese national who worked as a company
director, and Jennifer (nee Eveleigh) from Sidmouth in Devon.
At the time of his birth, Murat's parents were living in Richmond-upon-Thames, but later moved to Portugal, where he was educated.
As a young
man, he returned to Britain, where he took a variety of jobs and enjoyed playing darts and
clay pigeon shooting.
Mr Murat, who lost an eye in a motorbike accident as a teenager
when he crashed into the wall of a railway station, worked for the turkey tycoon, Bernard Matthews, at the company factory
in Lenwade, Norfolk, between 1994 and 2000.
At 19, he began a relationship with a married woman eight years
his senior, Dawn Chapman. She already had a son, aged six, but divorced and married Murat at Gretna Green, in March 2001. Their daughter, Sofia, was born 18 months later.
He and Dawn bought a modest, semi-detached, three-bedroom house,
now worth £190,000, in The Street, Hockering - a quiet Norfolk
village near Deerham (population 230).
Mr Murat went on to become a successful car salesman with Inchcape
for four years before moving on to work at Desira car dealership in Norwich, selling Nissans, Alfa Romeos, Fiats and Citroens.
But he also earned £150 a time as a translator for Norfolk police, using his language skills to help their inquiries among the large Portuguese
community in the county.
Mr Murat had a reputation, not only in the car trade but in Hockering,
as something of a Good Samaritan.
Murat and his wife had been trying for a baby for many years
until Dawn fell pregnant in 2002 and had a girl who they named Sofia. Murat was later to describe his daughter as the 'spitting image' of Madeleine.
They embarked on a new life together in Portugal in 2005 but Dawn became unhappy and homesick. She had spent all her life in Norfolk and all her family lived there. She only stayed for three or four months before
she decided to come home with their daughter.
Murat decided to continue his work in Portugal, even though he missed his daughter desperately. At first, he tried to maintain his
relationship with Dawn and kept flying back to the UK to spend time with her and their daughter. But in the end, the relationship fizzled out.
In April 2005, he joined the Remax property company and worked
there on two separate contracts during 2005 as a sales executive. He was well liked and fondly remembered but left suddenly
stating that he had to go for personal reasons.
It was whilst working at Remax that Murat became instantly attracted
to another member of the sales staff, Michaela Walczuch, a blonde German divorcee Jehovah's Witness. She also used the name
Matias, which was believed to be from a former marriage.
About a month after handing his notice in to Remax, Murat took
a three-month contract as a Salesman with portugesehomes.com, a real estate business that has an office a few doors along
from Remax in Lagos.
He worked there from September 2005 until returning to Remax in
November that year, a month after Ms Walczuch had left. He stayed until September 2006 before leaving again to set up business
on his own as a property developer.
Around Christmas 2006, he is understood to have moved into
the apartment that Ms Walczuch shared with her ex-partner Luis Antonio, apparently with his full agreement. It is
believed Murat stayed there for a few months and that subsequently Ms Walczuch was a frequent visitor to Casa Liliana.
Just prior to May 3rd, Murat spent 10 days at his sister's
home in Exeter, whilst he did some work on a property his mother owns in nearby
Sidmouth. His sister's home is less than a mile from the house where Jane Tanner and Russell O'Brien live.
It has been speculated that there may be some connection as Tanner
and O'Brien are neighbours of James and Charlotte Gorrod, who were also at the resort at the same time as the 'Tapas
Nine'. Murat returned to Praia da Luz two days before Madeleine's disappearance.
On the evening
of May 3rd, Murat claims to have spent all evening at home with his mother, spending a large percentage of the time chatting
in the kitchen. His mother has supported his alibi and has accused those members of the Tapas group, who say they saw him
outside the McCanns' apartment, of 'lying'. Jenny Murat says she returned home at 8.00pm, after walking the dogs, and that they spent the rest of the evening together.
After initially helping police with translation duties, the
Portuguese investigators turned their attention to Murat after Lori Campbell, a Sunday Mirror journalist, rang Leicestershire
police to convey her concerns about his behaviour. Those concerns appear to have been based on her gut instinct that
he was acting suspiciously, that he would not give any details about himself and that he reminded her of Ian Huntley. After
questioning, Murat found himself named the first official suspect 'arguido' on the case, on 15 May 2007.
Casa Liliana, the villa in which Murat lives with his mother,
was initially searched on 14 May 2007. The
house and grounds were searched again over the weekend of 04/05 August 2007, with British police involvement and British
sniffer dogs. It would appear nothing of interest was found as Murat's status did not change and he has not been
recalled for any further questioning.
It was initially speculated that police were investigating whether
Murat, Antonio and Walczuch - two dark-haired men and a blonde - might be the same trio captured on CCTV footage at a
filling station shortly after Madeleine disappeared.
The "lead" was later dismissed by a senior officer when he reported that
detectives had "no suspects". But it was speculated, at the time, that police may have downplayed the evidence in order
to avoid panicking their suspects while they kept them under surveillance.
The trio came back into the news on 20 November 2007, when newspapers named them as the possible trio seen by a witness,
two days after Madeleine's disappearance, with a blonde girl matching Madeleine's description.
