After all the months of international concern over the fate of the missing four-year old child, whose parents claimed they had left their three young children alone in a Portugese hotel room while dining in a nearby restaurant (!), word is they are now the prime suspects.  Blood was found matching the DNA of their little girl in a car they rented 25 days AFTER reporting her missing.  Or maybe it's that pesky coincidence.  Maybe the real killer or killers had rented that car 25 days earlier.  Aw, you never know. 

What I would like to comprehend is how strong is the desire to cover your tracks and lead the world into trying to find an innocent person to charge for your crime after you have killed your child?  Why not step forward immediately?  Wouldn't most people assume it was an accidental killing?  Or at the very most, a "punishment" that went too far?  Not murder.  But certainly REMORSE would be the next immediate reaction.  So then how do you go through this whole masquerade of claiming someone abducted your child?  

Maybe it really is "ludicrous."  Time will tell.  But if the two of them pulled off a "Susan Smith" type scam -- "a black man kidnapped my babies and stole my car!" --  the greater the punishment should be for both mother and father. 

What's the word over in the UK on this story today?

Susan 

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

What's the word over in the UK on this story today?

The word is that absolutely nothing else can be allowed shown on the 24-hour news networks.  BBC News 24 and Sky News are tripping all over themselves, regurgitating half-baked speculation and doing well-practiced frowning non-stop, whilst crowds of holidaying Brits abroad gurn and stand smiling in the sun behind the reporters.

I don't have any insight into whether they did it, or what have you.  Most speculation is that since they are both medical professionals, if they are responsible for her death and disappearance, then they may have given their children some kind of sedatives while they went out for the night, and that Madeleine would have died as a result of this.

Opinions are very split on whether the parents should be grilled and charged.  Each side is totally disgusted by the other side.

funny - haven't heard about this story at all until today. In either case, with the news falling all over themselves, it reminded me of one of The Onion's recent videos:

THE ONION VIDEO

Jordan .

If Madeleine really has been abducted, then it is terribly sad; but, having said that, there are scores of young children who go missing every month and do not achieve the type of hysterical following her family has - which of course has been brought about by the English media.  Everywhere you go in this country, there are posters of her urging anyone who has information on her disappearance to contact the police.  Unfortunately all these posters make me think is why the hell would the "abductors" bring her back to her home country anyway?!  How stupid would they have to be to do that?  If she has been abducted, she's halfway round the world by now with a different haircut (probably a different colour too) in some obscure place.

All this backlash against the parents now has infiltrated the papers, who are asking questions such as why the Mother found it necessary to wash her daughter's favourite toy after Madeleine disappeared; why they rented a car after being out there for so long without needing to; whether they gave her too high a dose of sedative by accident and she died.  I think I would be questioning the fact they alledgedly sedated their children before going out for something to eat, and how many times they've done it before.  If the only justification the parents have for this behaviour is that they are Doctors, then I still find it appalling.  If you want to go out for dinner, HIRE A BABYSITTER.  Leaving them on their own while you dine at a restaurant that far away from them just boggles my brain.  I honestly don't get it. You're in a strange country with three very young children and you think it's fair to leave them on their own while you go out to eat? 

Alas, my suspicious brain has thought the parents might be involved from the get-go.  They were so calm after the event, seemed to be so in control of themselves in front of the media.  I suppose everyone is different and I am judging them by my own standards, but I would have been in pieces if my child had gone missing.  I think Madeleine might well be dead too.  It's a horrible thing to have to think but something just isn't sitting right about this whole situation.

My theory by A. Elk, brackets, Miss, brackets. This theory goes as follows and begins now. All brontosauruses are thin at one end, much much thicker in the middle, and then thin again at the far end. That is my theory, it is mine, and it belongs to me, and I own it, and what it is, too.

Ange's Odyssey

timeline of the night in question

Where do scores of young children go missing every month, Flangie?  In Portugal?  I don't know.  But I checked out the UK stats which include England and Wales and found this from 2002-2003. The term "children" refers to boys and girls under 18 years of age.  

Child abductions by strangers that were actually successful, rather than attempts, accounted for 9% of all offences recorded (a total of 68 victims in 2002-03).

That 68 isn't broken down by age but it refers to children under 18 missing for more than 14 days.  Anyway, the bulk of young children who "go missing" in the UK and the US are taken by family members, usually by one parent or another. 

I think this story is unique enough to warrant attention especially when the parents are suspects (as they usually are when the children are so young) and when they are such unlikely candidates for killing their child.  Photogenic qualities don't hurt.

Susan 

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

Maddy is probably too young to be in this category