Posted on 05/19/2007 12:29:16 PM PDT by Gene Eric
The parents of a British toddler who has gone missing while on holiday in Portugal say they fear she has been abducted.
Three-year-old Madeline McCann disappeared last night from her parent’s rented apartment in the Western Algarve, while they dined nearby.
Madeline McCann is feared abducted in Portugal Madeline McCann was due to start school in September
Sniffer dogs have been brought in by Portuguese detectives to comb the Mark Warner resort where the girl was staying and the nearby seaside village of Praia da Luz.
A family friend said the child’s parents, Gerald and Kate McCann, were certain she had been kidnapped.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Search Telegraph.co.uk using McCann to see latest reports. Very sad story.
I don’t understand THESE parents.
Leaving a FOUR YEAR OLD little girl with her twin siblings at TWO years old behind in a hotel, UNATTENDED while they went out to dinner? If the PARENTS were there, THIS would NOT have happened.
BTW, with her face all over the place they have ensured that she is dead. She’s hot and people did their thing with her. They will probably never find her remains. A very sad story about IRRESPONSIBLE PARENTS.
BTW, it’s NOT a CULTURE ISSUE.
“Gross negligence on the parents part.”
Agreed. There are crack heads who take better care of their children.
There have been a couple of threads on this, but amazingly few. The bizarre Portuguese laws, that are severely hampering the investigation, ought to be the subject of worldwide outrage. These “confidentiality” laws are preventing the free flow of information that’s critical to these cases, especially in the first couple of days. It took a full WEEK for these morons to decide they could release the information about what she’d been wearing the night she was taken.
When the big reward coordinated by a British newspaper was first set up, the Portuguese authorities announced that it would be a crime for anybody in Portugal to call the newspaper, or anybody other than Portuguese police, with information about the case. Never mind that the Portuguese police studiously ignore important information that is provided to them. The architect and original owner of the home now occupied buy prime suspect Robert Murat and his mother, called Portuguese police multiple times to alert them to the existence of a concealed chamber underneath the living room, and kept getting ignored. At least some of these calls were made AFTER police had searched the house the first time (and not detected the hidden chamber). Now if he’d just gone to the international press immediately after his first phone call was turned away, the instant publicity at a deafening level would have forced the police to wake up and talk to him immediately, and greatly accelerated the search of this chamber . . . but of course it would have been a “crime” for him to do this.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/05/16/wmaddy216.xml
“The news comes as Expat Des Taylor, 78, a retired architect, said he tried to call police twice when he saw on television that Murat had been detained to warn them of special features in the house which may go undetected. However when he called police headquarters in Portimao he says he was told to ring back later because they could not understand English. He tried again to no avail, and finally had to ask his house maid to call two more stations before anyone took his details last night – 48 hours after the search began. Mr Taylor said today: “The Portuguese police are useless.” He revealed that the house – 100 yards from where Madeleine was snatched - had a 9ft by 5ft basement hidden under the removable tiles in the living room. It is believed police have re-entered the property and are searching it today.”
This story isn’t just a tear-jerker about an adorable little girl who got kidnapped. It’s a serious warning about how even some developed, Western nations operate their law enforcement in a way that greatly facilitates international child trafficking by pedophiles and illegal adoption procurers.
Whatever the parents’ shortcomings, the emphasis at this point needs to be on the shortcomings of the Portuguese police and legal system. See my post above.
“Whatever the parents’ shortcomings, the emphasis at this point needs to be on the shortcomings of the Portuguese police and legal system. See my post above.”
It IS the shortcomings of the parents that allowed this to happen. Selfish people!
The little girl is dead. Her face is all over the place. I doubt that they’ll even find her remains.
You seem awfully eager for the worst possible outcome. She could end up like Elizabeth Smart. We just don’t know. But if the Portuguese authorities had employed even marginally competent police work in the early hours, there would be a much better chance of a good outcome.
Both can be the issue. Had the parents not used a total lack of common sense none of this would likely have happened (or the story would be that the little girl was abducted as the parents slept in the hotel room, which is possible but much less likely). The Portugese authority angle is valid as well, however it wasn’t the first sign of stupidy.
I am still praying for the little girl to be safe and returned.
susie
“Sniffer dogs have been brought in by Portuguese detectives to comb the Mark Warner resort”
What’s that Lassie? What are you trying to say? You don’t know how to use a comb? Ay caramba!
Thank you for the detailed information. It’s unfortunate how bureaucratic pride gets in the way of saving innocence. I’m curious to know if the people of Portugal wish to be engaged when it involves situations like this and to what extent they’re willing to sacrifice their personal concerns for the concerns of others such as the little girl in this case.
>> Gross negligence on the parents part.
And perhaps the community as well. We all understand the rights of privacy, but when it involves the rights of anonymity for humans that prey on children, I’m for full and complete public disclosure of who these people are.
There was a thread but no matter. Personally if I was an investigator I’d be looking hard at these parents.
There's a lot of dark stuff going on in Europe.
No, it wasn’t the first sign of stupidity. However, aggressive criticism of the Portuguese police at this point could still possibly make the difference in whether Madeleine is ever found alive and/or in how long she’s subjected to God know what torture before she’s found. And it will almost certainly make a difference in future cases, even prevent future cases, by taking advantage of the intense scrutiny they’re under at the moment to extract commitments for permanent changes to the way they run criminal investigations.
Criticizing the parents won’t do the little girl any good, nor is it realistically likely to deter other parents from making the same mistake. The whole world knows how Madeleine happened to be available for abduction. Any parent who hasn’t already made the mental note to not EVER leave a child this age unattended, isn’t going to, no matter how much media chatter they encounter pointing out the high price this little girl and her family is paying for the parents’ stupid mistake.
You can't know that. There actually ARE many people who base their actions on what they think is acceptible to the other people. If folks speak out about it being wrong and stupid and even criminal to leave small children alone, there ARE those who will follow the crowd. Don't ever discount shame and stigma as drivers of human behavior.
susie
The ludicrous degree of secrecy imposed by the Portuguese police and legal system goes way beyond protecting the identities of suspects or witnesses, however. There is no remotely rational reason for withholding information like what a little girl was wearing when she was abducted. And information like that, distributed very widely IMMEDIATELY after the crime is discovered, can jog a lot of people’s memories re details of things they very recently say. If you saw a sleeping child being carried to a car last night, in a resort teeming with families with young children, and thought nothing of it, you just might be prompted to recall details of what you saw an report them to police, if you heard on the news this morning that a child wearing pink pajama bottoms was abducted right near the location where you saw the sleeping child being carried. If you hear this detail a week later, after all the details of what saw and thought nothing of have slipped out of your memory, and you’re back at work at your office in another country, there’s much less chance you’ll remember anything useful, or that anything you remember will still be helpful (since by that time the child could literally be anywhere on the planet).
The best way to find an abducted child is to spread information about the child’s appearance, and if available, about the appearance of the suspect and/or vehicle involved, INSTANTLY upon discovery that the child has been kidnapped. This will often result in a sighting while the child is still in the first leg of transport and still wearing the same clothes and still having the same hair color and cut. That the Portuguese police and legal authorities either fail to grasp this concept or just don’t care because they have other priorities, is an absolute outrage. It’s little wonder the country has become a haven for child traffickers.
I agree, too. If this happened in the US, these parents would have been arrested for criminal negligence, and their two younger children would have been taken away by Child Protective Services.
Looks like they have already hired a PR agent. Read this diary and see what selfcentered jerks they are:
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