I know I'm not the only blogger to post about this ghastly situation involving Madeline McCann, the four year old all of Europe has been looking for since May. The kidnapping of a child is a parent's worst nightmare.
As an ex-police officer, I knew immediately that the Portuguese police would be looking at her parents in regards to her disappearance. Parents and close family are always the first suspects in a family members disappearance. They're normally grilled for hours - right away - and the only explanation I can think of for the McCann's not making it into the interrogation room before this past weekend, is that the police had their suspicions but no hard evidence. They obviously do things differently in Europe, or the McCanns would have been held for a bail hearing and not allowed to return to England. And I think the McCann's will find out that the DNA evidence is damning at best. But for the police and prosecutors, knowing something is true, and proving it to be true, are two different things.
Their pitiful story about leaving Madeline and their 2 yr. old twins asleep in their hotel room while they went to dinner, would earn them a "child endangerment/abandonment" charge in Canada. People do all kinds of stupid things, but leaving three children four and under alone in a strange hotel, has to be #1 on David Letterman's Top Ten List of "Reasons Some People Shouldn't Be Parents".
I've heard people on the news say that "no mother could have pleaded so convincingly" for her child to be returned. Ridiculous. Susan Smith did it, and she'd pushed a car containing her 3 yr old and 1 yr old boys into a lake and watched their frantic little faces screaming at her as they went under the surface. Diane Downs, a famous US killer, murdered one daughter, paralyzed another, and traumatized her 4 yr old son when she pulled over on a dark, back road, and shot them point blank in the rear seat of their car. Her story was that a black man had tried to car-jack them (on an unlit and untraveled road), and shot her in the forearm (it was later proven she shot herself, giving herself a flesh wound) while she was trying to protect her kids. Strangely, he disappeared in to the bush and didn't take her car after all.
So, is it so bizarre that these parents would try to palm off the story that an u/k kidnapper took their four year old out of a locked hotel room, and she hasn't been found in the past four months?
I only wish the "kidnapping" had happened in Britain, Canada, or the US, where our laws would prevent them from being out on bail, and they'd face the investigation they undoubtedly deserve. Whether Madeline died "accidently" or not, these two doctors have had a part in conspiring to hide her body, have hid her body, and at the worst, have murdered her.
It's Jon-Benet Ramsay all over again. And in the justice system, it's unfortunately true that some people can get away with murder. If in later months, I'm proven wrong, I'll gladly say the same on this blog.
3 comments:
I have to respectfully disagree with your post. Absolutely parents are the first suspects and for good reason. But it doesn't mean all parents of missing children have killed their babies. Imagine if it were you?
As to leaving the kids in the hotel room--again, I know many people (Brits) who do it when they go on holiday--or put them on the babysitting monitor. It isn't right, but it is much more common than you think.
The evidence? The DNA was found in a hire car the Mccann's hired 25 days after the little girl went missing? So they managed to hide the body and then dispose of it in secret despite the media and police attention? If they were truly suspects at that time the Portuguese police screwed up didn't they? As a writer I know how easy it would be for DNA to be planted, and what about eliminating the twins DNA? How do you do that with 100% certainty?
Really I'm not saying they didn't do it, but I am more than willing to look at other avenues, and until that little girl's body is found they shouldn't stop looking for her. I want these parents to be innocent.
I'm trying to reserve judgment, although I've had my suspicions about the parents from the beginning. I must, respectfully, state that it may be common for parents to leave children unsupervised and alone on holiday, but that doesn't mean it isn't wrong, and it does raise an issue of negligence in my mind.
The McCann's have played the media from the beginning, become virtual celebrities, and the level of support for this case is disturbing in itself. Famous people donating money. Meanwhile, there's a girl missing in our own country the rest of the world doesn't give a damn about. There's something off about the whole scenario, and there's an interesting take on it all here, if you're interested.
My husband definitely disagrees with me, and is completely sympathetic to the parents. He agrees with you, Toni, that to become suspects in the disappearance of one of our two children would be beyond a nightmare and hellish experience. It's terrible enough to have something this horrible happen to you, without the media - who formerly idolized you, now tracking your every move.
If this beautiful child isn't dead, then she's undoubtedly had her appearance changed, and could be on an internet porn site - having been sold to one or more pedophiles who run these child porn rings. I'm sure the police have been combing these sites looking for her as "one of the areas" of investigation.
I agree with both of you: a) we shouldn't stop looking for her until her body/bones are found, and b) the level of public interest in turning it into a soap opera worthy of Princess Diana is sick and subversive.
Post a Comment