[Maddy McCann] Parents suspects. Is anyone surprised?

I quite agree with your comments about the media ignoring other kids dissapearances etc and that it has become a media circus. Could that not tie in with what I said about a PR company being involved and thus pushing it?


However, I would have had the noose out if the kid had turned up 24 hrs later without a scratch on her for the simple fact of them leaving those kids alone simply so they could go out and enjoy themselves!!

 

The first thing I thought about when I first heard the case was that it played out just like the Susan Smith one, so I was anti-parents from the beginning. I've been waiting for this day to come.

And even if they didn't actually do anything, like Carbonitekid says, they leave their kids alone in a foreign country just to have a night out? I kept asking myself why the parents hadn't been brought up on child endangerment charges?

As for the media, they play to what they can sell, they always have. Sometimes this works with semi-sane results, sometimes not. And to just play devil's advocate for a slight moment, no one wants to be depressed, and if the media reported about all the bad things happening out there all the time, that would be very very depressing. Sometimes you have to use one case to represent the lot.

Afterall, once it is revealed what and why things occured, you're going to get a lot of people sit back and take notice at their own motives and feelings regarding their children and relationships.

 

Innocent until proven guilty.

Yes, they may be acting strange or whatever, but should everybody act the same?

A thing about the blood. I'm no forensic scientist but if Maddy was killed in the room then would blood get in a car 25 days later off a dead body (as we know dead bodies dont bleed(well very little and not for long after death)? Was it dry blood in the sense like it had fallen off something, like clothing? I may be wrong.

Also the McCanns will say anyone could have hired the car as well as them and maybe play the 'coincidence' card. The hired car people will hopefully have kept good records of everyone using that car.

Plus if she did die from being over sedated then why was there blood?

Just a few things that are going around my head.

One thing I do find strange is that a woman in work says that Kate came back from checking on Maddy saying something like 'They've taken her!'. Has this been confirmed or just tabloid rubbish? If true why would anyone say 'they' instead of something like 'She's missing' or 'I cant find Maddy' as she could have wandered off?

And like someone said it would be too much hassle to lift 3 kids and get away quietly, especially if it was one person. And how could they carry 3? And not attract attention.

At the end of the day these people are innocent until proven guilty and dont get carried away with the tabloid rubbish. I suspect most is made up to sell their papers as the Portuguese police have been very tight at not giving out much. Which I assume is doing the heads in of the tabloids and then will have to make up more rubbish than usual.

 

yeah, the condemnation came pretty quickly here, huh.

there was a case of a girl in austria who got abducted and she only escaped like 8 yrs later. so, there's nothing to suspect maddy *has* to be dead apart from stats. and we don't like stats, do we.

and no logic to abduction either, gotta agree with malkie, no logic to who or how many you abduct, thank you very much.

now get back to your drinks

 

I don't see that anyone here has seen the news that the parents have been named as suspects and said "Well, I used to think it was abduction, but now it must be the parents"

Most of us have always thought there was something "not quite right" about this whole situation, and this news just adds to that feeling.

 

For me the case started sounding iffy when the parents began swanning around Europe and meeting the Pope. For awhile it sounded like Parents' Day Out - 'today we're off to Germany, tomorrow we meet the Pope, Friday we're off to Spain', etc.
Also the fact that the complex where they stayed offered a babysitting service and the parents didn't use it was a bit strange. If they were concerned enough about the kids to check back every half hour or so (as the media says) then why not just get a babysitter?

 

So much fuss over a girl 99.9999999% of the country didn't know! Of course, it's sad when someone goes missing, or an innocent kid gets shot in a seemingly civilized country, but the media hype that follows these events is blown out of all proportion.

Just my two cents, as for the mother being arrested...it doesn't suprise me!

 

Well, to be fair GG, the proliferation of guns on British streets is a mightily newsworthy story due to it affecting many more people than a child being snatched, while simultaneously highlighting a deeper problem in British society. Someone being abducted is rarely as newsworthy as this case has been. I honestly have no idea why the public seems to care more for this case than for others, or indeed why the media feel the same why. It's news stories like this that make me question becoming a journalist and not because they're sad, but because the coverage they garner is verging on obscene.

 

Not saying that anyone has changed their minds massively, I can't because I haven't seen everyones first reaction, just that it seems that many here have seemingly already marked them as guilty despite only media coverage. It just seems to go against what people have felt before about waiting for proof before guilt is assumed, especially considering when I once said something long ago, which was not something I now agree with and probably didn't agree with at the time but going though something personal of intense shock and feelings that made me comment rashly from a very vengeful and bitter level, I got jumped on quite harsh.

I agree that something has not been quite right about the whole incident, from what I gather the parents had left the children alone, and even if it isn't far away that is just plainly irresponsible, unless it was some emergency situation that left it unavoidable, a case I can't think of an example of, so it wouldn't include dinner out.

 

I think possibly that quite a few people have wanted to comment on this from day 1 but maybe thought that this was not the place to do so? We live in a Nanny state with stories of libel cases and the whole Politically Correct thing, just think that a lot of us are to scared to raise our voices over some issues.

 

moylesy you should get out and do something about this 'nanny state'

 

That's where "Vote Conservative" comes in.

 

well, i'm not terribly interested in reading old social threads or whatever to compare people's reactions now and then.

there is a fair amount of condemnation going on in this thread, about how they were irresponsible when they left their children alone and such, i'm assuming from people who don't have children. it's easy to do.

if they killed her intentionally, it's a tragedy. if she died more or less unintentionally, it's a tragedy. if she got abducted randomly to molest and kill her in the one hour that she was left to sleep with her siblings, it's a tragedy. if she was abducted to kill her, it's a tragedy. etc etc. no amount of cries about terrible parenting (which i have trouble seeing and i don't have children myself) and condemnation will undo it.

initially i thought they would look at the parents. i would have looked there myself. anyone with any sense would have. not because they were terrible parents, because it's statistically likely they were involved in this. i still find it likely they could have covered up her body in some way. i don't think these things are impossible or unlikely. i just find it discouraging how a lot of people also outside this place were very very quick to say, i've always known there was something fishy about them, what with visiting the pope and all. makes a lot of sense now, dunnit, dodgy faithful people surely would be the first to cover up a crime of that magnitude.

and so on and so forth.

 

In which case, you are doing exactly what you are accusing people in this thread of. Jumping to conclusions without looking beyond the surface.

As it happens, I AM a parent, and I consider it bad parenting to leave your children alone in a strange apartment in a foreign country, ESPECIALLY when there were babysitting facilities available (something which the parents could easily afford)

"no amount of cries about terrible parenting (which i have trouble seeing and i don't have children myself) and condemnation will undo it. "

No, of course it won't. But that shouldn't mean that the parents shouldn't be held accountable for their actions in the whole scenario (should it emerge that Madeline WAS abducted)

And there are plenty of times in the past where a guilty party has co-operated fully in investigations, made TV appeals etc as a way of covering up their tracks. Susan Smith is one example. Ian Huntley is another example closer to home.

 

My Mum just raised a pretty good point: with all the media focus that the parents have had, surely people might notice them putting a body in the trunk of their car?

 

Now, sure... but that night before the media got involved, or heck, before even the police got involved? It only takes a minute to put something the weight and size of a small child into the trunk of a car. I put more than that into my trunk when I get the monthly grocieries.

 

Yeah, but they got that car after the story broke...

 

there is such a thing as tenor... i'll quote from this thread a bit so you can get a better idea of what i'm talking about.

the thread is titled 'is anyone surprised?'

I've felt something odd about that family since the story broke

No surprises in the halibut household.

Something just seemed wrong with the whole case from the word go.

I was suspicious of these two around the time they started gallivanting around Europe.

There definitely was something fishy about their little publicity stunts.

I'm suspicious of any family who'll leave their children alone in a foreign country.

surely something would have turned up long before now if she had been kidnapped?

surely there should have been either a) a ransom demand b) a sighting or c) a body by now.

surely its logical for the guilty party (if it is an outsider) to take the eldest?

it would surely make more sense to have more?

its harder to nick (i dont know how many children there are) more than 1 child.

sorry for so much of this but i found it so wildly entertaining!

project much, do ya? glad we have so many experts here!

either way
there are plenty of times in the past where a guilty party has co-operated fully in investigations
was nothing i contradicted in any way. if you read my posts, you'll see that i'm not saying they haven't or have done it (whatever it in this case denotes). i'm merely talking about condemnation and ridiculous accusations and projections.

i can understand people are getting impatient with the case because on TV they'd have found her long ago and would have arrested the rightful criminal or molester or whatever. it might turn out to remain unsolved and they might carry a stigma of being potential murderers, it might just have been her and he wasn't involved, she might still be alive somewhere or whatever, ... i just wouldn't go so far as to present my impatience and doubts of other people's religion and personal opinions of parenting and childcare here as the only available.

 

What you call "condemnation and ridiculous accusations and projections", I call "opinion and discussion" (although I haven't seen any "ridiculous accusations"). Has anyone here actually said "I bet they did it", or have they just stated that something generally seems out of place with the whole thing. It may well be that the Portuguese please just don't give a sod about the whole case, hence the trying to get Mrs McCann to admit to accidental death and offering a "deal". Whatever the case is, a LOT of people all over the country feel that there is more going on here that meets the eye. Perhaps it's due to lack of information being released, or with how slow the investigation is going, or the seeming incompetence of the Portuguese police (it took them 2 months to find blood in the apartment, and had to use a British dog to find it). And the McCann's have acted fairly oddly. When Mrs McCann returned to her friends when she discover Madeline was gone, she said "They've taken her", whereas everyone I've asked (before telling them what she said) would say something like "She's missing" or "I can't find her". And that's just one example.

And stating that "people are getting impatient with the case because on TV they'd have found her long ago and would have arrested the rightful criminal or molester or whatever" is surely a "projection" in its own right?. I think most people (here certainly) are aware that TV and films don't necessarily reflect real life. We all like Star Wars after all

 

Star Wars isn't real?

OMG!

 

And the McCann's have acted fairly oddly.

odd in YOUR eyes. because obviously you know how you'd react if your children went missing.

nice try.

 

No need to get personal

As it happens, I HAVE lost a child at a funfair (ended up finding them 15 minutes later as one of the assistants found them and took them to the security office). I don't remember ever thinking "Someone's taken her", and even if it did at some point, it certainly wasn't the first thought that came into my mind. And a close friend of mine had a similar experience 2 weeks ago at a holiday resort, and that incident ended up with the police being contacted as well. Her thoughts were also "He's gone missing", rather than "Someone's taken him"

I'm not trying to "convince" you of anything or to sway your opinion. (This is a discussion, not a debate). But everyone is entitled to their own opinion of what's going on in this case, whether it's based on personal experience, media experience, or just plain gut instinct.

 

i simply find the number of experts that have stepped up and solved the case already a bit frustrating. opinions are fine and dandy, let's not forget that they are mere speculation and almost entirely based on our expectations of what should be.

 

Agree totally on that point