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Arnis Zalkalns might be involved in the Alice Gross case, but European arrest warrants are an issue

Posted on by Ted Bauer

That’s Alice Gross above, singing “Out Here On My Own” from Fame. She went missing in west London at the end of August — here are the basic details — and while police have a primary suspect, a Latvian man named Arnis Zalkalns (who, by the way, previously murdered his own wife), they can’t actually arrest him if he left England. Here’s why:

On Wednesday the Met commander, Graham McNulty, said that unless police were ready to charge a suspect, they could not seek a European arrest warrant. This means that even if Zalkalns walked into a police station in Latvia, officers could not arrest him in connection with Alice’s disappearance because he is not wanted for any offence in that jurisdiction.

McNulty said: “We are not at the point of charge, which means we can not effect a European arrest warrant, which means we would not be able to arrest somebody abroad at this point in time.”

The last official sighting was August 28th at 4:26pm; she was walking along a towpath next to the Grand Union Canal (west London), in the same area where the Trumpers Way bridge crosses the canal. Police have retraced her walk with actresses, as well. Zalkalns was said to be in the same area around the time, and has a criminal background, as mentioned above. Apparently he also failed to meet a friend he normally bikes with at that time.

Here’s the CCTV video:

Here’s other CCTV, that shows the 15-minute disparity between Gross crossing and the bike rider:

I’m not sold on that second video, because let’s say it is Zalkalns, right? He’s on a bike. It’s a major world city, albeit a more desolate area from this video. What could he have possibly done with her in that time span? Then he got back on his bike and rode? Or if the theory is that he did something after this video, well, she would have been 15 minutes ahead of him. You can make that up on a bike in 4-6 minutes, but still … if CCTV has this video, there must be some type of abduction video as well, along the same towpath.

They have apparently covered a good deal of land and water in the search, though:

And now, to underscore my theory above:

https://twitter.com/RubyJepson/status/515150244225748992

Apparently talking to cyclists in the area has been a key as well, one of whom might be Zalkalns:

Now look at this footbridge and consider, again, that any abduction in broad daylight would involve screaming (you’d assume), wrestling, etc. It’s hard to do that even when the area is semi-deserted. That does give credence to some kind of “boat” or “knocked out” theory:

I have no idea what happened with this one, but Sept. 28th is this Sunday — and that will be one month of missing. It obviously doesn’t look good, and it seems like there clearly is a suspect — Arnis Zalkalns, of course — but the police just need a little more on him.

In the meantime, can anyone think of other theories? 

 

Ted Bauer

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2 Comments

  1. It’s horrible to speculate on such things, i’m praying (but very doubtful) she’s alive, but the realist in me knows these things never end well. But i’d imagine if it was zalkalns, he would probably have caught up with her around the bit behind the hospital where her bag was found, would have incapicitated her within seconds, easily without her being able to make a sound, she’s half his size and weighs nothing, dumped her in undergrowth or bushes, then returned or stayed until night then dumped her somewhere and returned home. He could of got around without being seen on CCTV, Alice was only seen a few times on camera with large gaps between so he could have easily climbed a fence or wall and taken a different route.

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