Madeleine McCann: Silence And Losing Interest
MADELEINE McCann is missing. And the papers are losing interest.
This is not to say there is no news. Far from it. The Sun tells us on its front page that whenever Madeleine McCann’s face appears on the television, her twin siblings Amelie and Sean blow kisses at the screen.
It’s a tug at the heartstrings. Emotional stuff. Who cannot sympathise with the family’s loss?
But there is no news on the criminal case. The Sun says the McCanns may hire private detectives to search for their missing daughter.
Hidden Clues
There have been 97million hits on the http://www.findmadeleine.com/ website, says the Sun. But what does this number tell us? That we are a caring nation? That the internet is more popular than ever, and not everyone is using it to look for porn?
But not one email says where Madeleine is, a clue to her whereabouts. There is no-one claiming responsibility for the crime.
But there are messages of good will. Messages of love. Message of support. All valuable messages we are told in keeping the McCanns’ spirits up and their faith in the human spirit intact. But they serve little purpose, do no good in the search for Madeleine.
Who can even read so many millions of messages put up on so many websites? Might it be that among them is a clue? But who has the time to find it? Amid the feeding frenzy, clues to crack the crime could be lost amid the public spectacle, the display of grief.
The only other tabloid front page with news of Madeleine is the Mirror. As predicted by Anorak, the Mirror will stick with Madeleine McCann when others have moved on.
The Mirror - which weeks after the troops had been deployed in Iraq, continued to count the days without sightings of Saddam Hussein’s Weapons of Mass Destruction - will not turn away. How long will the paper stick with Madeleine McCann?
Can it get keep our interest in the case?
More Silence
There will a minute’s silence for Madeleine McCann at noon today. Her theft is a national event. There will be a minute’s silence for Madeleine, just as we have a minute’s silence to remember the victims of the Great War.
But why not two minutes? No, make it three. Five. Or ten – Carmelite nuns from northern Portugal are calling for people to stop at 10pm tomorrow and pray for 10 minutes.
The hope is that in this period of quiet reflection the newspapers can consider their campaigns.
Have you seen Madeleine McCann? And does any criminal involved in her theft want a big reward..?
Posted: 21st, May 2007 | In: Tabloids Comments (89) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
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September 12th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
my heart goes out to that poor child !! what she went through and what if she is still alive is going through.What i find appaulling is the fact the parents left then all home alone,sedated them and went out with friends,responsible adults just do not do such a thing,do the mccanns because they are proffessional medical people assume that they can take it upon them to sedate their children and leave them at home? what if there had been a fire or one of the children was taken ill or anything? gerry and kateshould be taken to task when this ordeal is over by socila services as any other parent of a lesser social standing would be and has been,they are no different to any one else but they obviously thin it is right to sedate there children and leave them alone,even if sedation wasnt used and you carnt always belive everything you here or read,they should have not left there beloved children alone without a responsible adult there to look after them. they have some explaining to do!! the whole thing as been turned into a mc cann circus by them to,yes they are upset and going through extreme worry and trauma with the events of recent but if this was you or i would we have handled it this way? would we have got the same world support of famous people being mr joe bloggs who works in a factory and saves up all year to go on holiday with his family?? i think not. that poor girl is the priority and i hope the mc canns can live with thereactions and the consequences of their irrisponsible actions
September 7th, 2007 at 10:23 am
Bring Madeleine home :] .. hope shes okay !
June 15th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
Madelene dose not even belong to the Mc Canns.So either the child was put back into her original family or she disipered from the kidnapper that stole her from the hotel room. However the “parents” of Madelene shouldn’t even be out of tjhe hotel room much less evwen leave kids that age alone.
June 13th, 2007 at 10:04 am
I agree the truth will come out in the end it always does. At the end of the day Kate and Gery have to grieve their loss and its looking more like a loss than a happy outcome unfortunately. I think the money in the fund should go to a childrens charity. They have to live with their mistake at the end of the day. They said leaving the kids was like having dinner in your back garden - well all I can say is - they must have some back garden! I have small ones and their is no way I would leave them in my own country for a while never mind in a strange country where there is a baby sitting service. I wonder did the Mc Canns give them sleeping tablets to get them to go asleep on their holidays at 7 O’Clock. There is no way mine would go to sleep that early on holidays
June 12th, 2007 at 9:08 pm
I agree wit Adrienne - somethin fishy
June 12th, 2007 at 9:05 pm
It is the 12th June and as each day passes the chances of finding Madeleine are getting slimmer and slimmer. there is something not right about this whole story - can’t put my finger on what it is - but definitely something. I too agree that if I lost one of my children there is no way i would put the remaining two in a creche. When they are working they put the 3 kids in a creche in UK and go on holiday and put them in a creche every day. I would imagine that if you are working parents you would only be too glad to spend some time with your children on holiday ( I know I would) Gerry is dodgy looking and too well rehersed. Kate is wasting away before our eyes so O don’t think she knows anything. I was in Portugal a week after she went missing and never saw a poster around the place etc. I think the police know more than they are letting on - just waiting for the proof
June 5th, 2007 at 7:48 pm
After reading the comments on this news article, that are affecting our company (we’re receiving hate mail) and our personal values (as persons), we felt the need to write down the following Press Release in order to state the truth about facts:
Press Release
Although Auto Rent III, Lda, located in Praia da Luz, Algarve, Portugal, is a totally independent managed company, it is part of the investments network of the Auto Rent Lda.
Because hate mailing has been sent to this company and we found on the internet negative comments about this company regarding the horrifying Madeleine McCann abduction, we felt the need to publish this Press Release.
As written in the official press interviews, the alleged suspect Robert Murat, rented a car at the Praia da Luz branch. Mrs Rocio, the sales person at Auto Rent III in Praia da Luz, commented that this person (at the time, a perfectly normal customer) was indeed in a rush to pick-up the car explaining that he needed to help the McCann family look for missing Madeleine.
Many more questions regarding the rental car were asked by reporters, who invaded the office, to which Mrs Rocio promptly replied that all other details had already been sent to the police and that those details were exclusive to the police, and no further information would be given to the press reporters by Auto Rent III. Auto Rent III Lda tried to help the police in the investigation providing all the information available.
A few days later a poster was placed in the Auto Rent III window at Praia da Luz. The intention of this poster being to help find Madeleine, as we all share the pain of the McCann family as most of the employees of the Auto Rent Group are parents or even grandparents.
Perhaps because of a language mistake this poster was misunderstood by some persons. Public and press entered the office insisting that the poster be taken down, which Mrs Rocio promptly removed, at the same time trying to explain that it was only to help find Madeleine McCann. Some press misunderstood everything and promptly published articles saying that Mrs Rocio denied taking down the poster and putting wrong words in this honest and kind employee’s mouth. This is not true.
We feel that these articles/comments are in a very bad taste and NOT true. As a result of these articles/comments, several hate e-mails and bad attitudes from foreign people were directed at Mrs Rocio, Auto Rent III and Auto Rent Lda.
Once again Auto Rent state that Mrs Rocio is a mother, as well as most of the employees and managers at the Auto Rent group and they all share sincerely the pain of the McCann family and desperately hope that Madeleine returns to her family soon, safe and sound.
Despite the bad image and publicity that these articles/comments have caused to our companies and in an effort to help spread the Madeleine McCann abduction case, Auto Rent has inserted a banner on its website homepage linking to the bringmadeleinehome.com page to help find this little girl and bring her home.
We feel that our personal and professional values have been insulted and degraded, and look forward to seeing the real truth about this unfortunate situation published, expecting a public written apology from the persons who distorted the truth.
June 4th, 2007 at 11:18 am
Good for you Bronwen. Rub their noses in it, that really helps.
Do you feel good now? That must be nice for you.
Maybe when another month passes and they are even closer to mental breakdown, maybe you can come along and rub their noses in it some more. Chuck an egg at them or something.
It must be great being you.
June 2nd, 2007 at 5:51 pm
Theyve found DNA of in the Bedroom - I dont get it - its a hotel room - Hasnt it had lots of people in it from all over the place?
May 30th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
Jane, DL, Ross and others - thank God for your common sense. The fake/pseudo ‘grief’ which the masses are exhibiting is sickening. Of course every normal person thinks the abduction of a child is tragic. But there are thousands of tragedies happening all over the world - including in your own local hospital or at the bottom of your own street, but they don’t get a mention because they aren’t soap opera material.
And to those who say it isn’t the parents’ fault - no, not directly maybe, but INDIRECTLY, of course it was. If you are a good parent, you do NOT leave children of one and three alone in an apartment in a foreign country with the door unlocked so that you can go and indulge yourself in wine and tapas. This was gross irresponsibility and child negligance, and though it might sound cruel, the harsh fact is that the parents are getting what they deserve.
Sadly, the child isn’t.
May 28th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
We had a famous baby disappearance case here in Australia, you may all remember Meryl Streep’s REALLY bad portrayal of Lindy Chamberlain who’s baby was, according to Lindy, take by a dingo at Ayers Rock, after being left alone in a tent. She was convicted of the murder then amazingly acquitted of the murder, years later. The body was never found. The reason why most people suspected her… she didn’t show any emotion over the loss of her baby. She was cold. She was uncaring. But at least she didn’t put her surviving baies in day care all day every day. My children were the most precious gifts I’ve ever been given. I would NEVER have left them alone. I NEVER used day care. And yes, Gerry is smug. Kate is unemotional and uncaring. When exactly was Maddie last seen by anyone other than the parents. Something smells totally wrong about this case, as it did with Azaria Chamberlain.
May 27th, 2007 at 11:48 am
Cherry. .you have a real bad mind. . you are trying to sexualise a little girl by saying she poses like a model!!!Is that how YOU see kids?
why is Gerry looking smug? What has he to be smug about? A missing daughter?The kids are not in the nursery ALL day . . what do you suggest the kids do ?And why are you resentful of their piles of dosh as you put it? This suggests to me that you have no dosh and are very jealous person.I wish the mccanns every best wish in the world in finding their daughter
May 26th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
I am so bored with the coverage of this story. Yes I hope this never happens to any of my or anyone elses children, but why is the media allowing itself to be manipulated like this? What do the parents hope to achieve by their attempts to keep this in the public eye? They seem to be wanting to run the whole investigation themselves! PLease just keep quiet and hope that the police do theri job
May 26th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
I think the whole situation is wierd.
Why are all the pics of Maddy posing like a model?
Why is Gerry so smug?
Why leave your kids at the nursery all day a) when one of your children has been snatched b) when you have piles of £DOSH that you could pay to a friend or relative.
The only witness is a relative…how bizarre is that. Wonder why they were not checking on the babbys too then.
I hope this little girl is found safe and well, and very very very soon.
But I cant help feeling, there is something not quite right about it all…..and Im not the only one.
May 24th, 2007 at 9:45 pm
LOST: Generic Argentine/Mexican/Brazillian youngster, about 8 years old, let\’s call him John Doe.
SUSPECTED MOTIVE: Drug trafficking/various sexual activities/slave labour/etc.
ACTIONS BEING TAKEN: Occasional mention in American series 24, passing satire in South Park mentioning Mexicans, usual set of stereotypes being thrown by Americans regarding Mexicans and tacos, parents illegally go into the United States to find their child and end up getting arrested and deported. John Doe is nowhere to be seen.
HOW (S)HE WAS TAKEN: Snatched off the street, barely metres away from parents, apparently eating tapas in their own home.
I implore the world to show as much sympathy and support to the parents of John Doe as they do for Miss McCann\’s parents. Who knows, he probably won\’t cost a couple of million pounds, but you will make his parents very happy. After all, isn\’t it a blatant insult to put a price on a life?
May 22nd, 2007 at 5:24 pm
I have jsut emailed Paulo to ask him if he knows anything about this. Will post here if I get a reply.
May 22nd, 2007 at 5:17 pm
I wonder if Paulo knows anything about the extent of the search of the local premises?
May 22nd, 2007 at 5:13 pm
I would be staggered, but in a way not surprised if they haven’t searched the local pools (using nets, poles etc). If they haven’t it is a huge huge mistake. Anyone can see where there are bodies of water or wells for that matter from the aerial photos. There’s something about the fuss that was made about searching Murat’s place that suggests they have not routinely searched every property though. I hope we are wrong and the McCanns haven’t been put through this immense stress for nothing when they could have at least known what had happened a week ago. I would have thought the number of pools Madeleine could have managed to gain access to is smallish and it wouldn’t take Sherlock Holmes to work out possible routes she might have managed to take unseen. They must have thought of this surely??
May 22nd, 2007 at 4:44 pm
I am surprised that no one has mentioned this. If you live in a climate with lots of pools, you know this is common. Maybe they have searched all the pools, but I think we would have heard about that. It really takes very little distortion to make seeing a little body very difficult.
May 22nd, 2007 at 4:34 pm
Correct DL Re: Pools
Every other house here in Perth has a pool, and yes there have been incidents of small children drowning unnoticed - hence the strict pool fence laws these days. Our pool went like pea soup when we went back to UK last Summer. Didn’t dare leave it running for fear of the Cocos palms copious seeds dropping blocking the Kreepy-Krawlie [again]
Instead of this meaningless & useless 2 minutes silence, they need everybody to do a 10 minute search… even of neighbors backyards.
it’s just too sad
May 22nd, 2007 at 4:07 pm
If someone is not in their house for the summer, have you ever seen how nasty a pool can get? It doesn’t take long for it to become murky enough that you can’t see a small body in it. Where I live, this happens at least a few times a year, usually at apartment pools that are not cleaned properly or just after pool season when kids break into pools that have not been cleaned in several weeks. Often, they are with friends and the friends don’t even know when they go under and cannot spot them because the water isn’t clear. You would be surprised at how easy it is for this to happen.
May 22nd, 2007 at 4:00 pm
I too thought about the driver knocking her down in the road if she wandered out in the night and then hiding her as you say, but surely the dogs would have found the evidence of that. They surely searched that little trail to the supermarket for any forensic trace of her which there would have to be if she was knocked down. The pool is feasible because there is less likely to be forensic evidence presumably but I can see less reason why someone in that small vicinity would take the risk of not calling the police if they found her. They would have to be on very very thin ice for that to be the reaction. More likely they would delay and hide whatever needed to be hid in anticipation of an investigation and then call the police.
May 22nd, 2007 at 3:39 pm
If indeed Madeleine was abducted, (as opposed to wandering off via an unlocked door) I believe it is absurd to think her kidnappers are giving a moment’s thought to the McCann’s emotional distress. They aren’t trying to torment them. Unless an abductor has something against the parents and is taking a child as a tool to get at the parents, the kidnapping is all about the child. The parents are nonentities to them. If they don’t care about the trauma to the child, why would the emotional distress of the parents matter to them at all? That’s giving them way too much credit.
Pedophiles have even been found to have brainwashed the child by telling them the parents did not want them. From there, P can say your parents secretly handed you over because they did not want you and they made it look like a kidnapping or P can say I took you because they took such bad care of you that they did not deserve you and I saved you from them. Pedophiles successfully brainwash kids with this even when they snatch kids who haven’t been left alone under circumstances like Madeleine. If she is still alive and is kept for years, can you imagine how easy their job will be made just by showing the news reports to that child? Not the emotional follow-up, just the facts of that evening. That’s if a just turned 4 year old even retains any memories for very long when prompted to take on a new identity.
If there are any kidnappers, they do not care at all about what the McCanns are feeling. Their goal was to get a child, and they did. If they are pedophiles of a certain type, they may even see themselves as having saved that child because in their sick minds, much of what they do is not evil, but is love.
The absolute best case scenario would be that someone who desperately wanted a child took her. That kind of person might show compassion and give her back. But let’s get real. Others have pointed out that plenty of kids are available for adoption there. Legal adoption. Kids that won’t stick out like a sore thumb and virtually scream, “I don’t fit in here. Please look at me very carefully.” And most people who want to adopt because they can’t have kids tend to want children as young as possible, either infants or toddlers such as the twins. Children who will adapt to them as parents ASAP, not children who already have a firm idea of mom and dad and who they are. One of those twins would be MUCH easier to adapt to a new family than Madeleine. So the best case scenario is beyond a long shot, more is the pity.
As I said before, it is conceivable that she wandered off and drowned in someone’s pool or was hit by a driver. If that person is already on thin ice with the police, I can see them panicking and hiding the body. How many wine cellars are there in that town? We may never know what happened to that poor child.
May 22nd, 2007 at 1:23 pm
Quite the reverse Leah. But you seem to be questioning the veracity of his story in your post above re questions to be asked about the patio door, the jemmied or not jemmied windows. I assumed that was the line that you were taking as Gerry was the last person to see her before she vanished. I was just pointing out that a bunch of garbled reports in the early days of Madeleine’s disappearance are by no means police statements. If the McCanns claime d the window was jemmied and then it turned out not to be I don’t think the police would have quickly said that they were not under suspicion or that they were convinced Madeleine was abducted.
May 22nd, 2007 at 1:07 pm
Gerry McCann would be arrested? …for a complete stuff up in reporting?
Gina, what on earth are you on about?
I sincerely hope you aren’t suggesting that anybody is doubting Gerry McCanns innocence.
Naive and thoughtless they may be but that’s where the McCann ‘blame’ begins and ends
They were obviously lulled into a false sense of security.
May 22nd, 2007 at 12:37 pm
I just got back from the shop. I live in the Med in a place so calm and peaceful I don’t want to mention its name. I don’t lock the door or windows here except maybe in high season and most of my equipment is just by the front door which a whole host of people here know. I’m not saying I would leave a chiild and go out of sight of the building myself but the McCanns clearly, mistakenly, did not anticipate a child abductor in that little village resort. A bad mistake it’s true but not a wicked one. Some kids sleep soundly and half hour checks could until this happened have seemed reasonable. Tragically they were wrong. AS for the apparent discrepancy in the early accounts of the state of the doors and windows. Probably Phil McCann made a mistake or did not say “no that’s not what happened” when a reporter asked her if this was how the little girl was taken. That is enough for it to be reported as her having given a certain factual statement which she may not have done. To be honest I think it is logical to assume that if there was a massive discrepancy in Gerry McCann’s actual account and the observable facts then he would have been arrested by now.
May 22nd, 2007 at 12:26 pm
The point here is that a little girl is missing . Whether people think it is the fault of the parents or not it doesn’t change matters and it certainly doesn’t help. Ok everyone has their own opinions of what they should or shouldn’t have done and in this case and no, I wouldn’t have left my kids alone in an apartment but everyone is different and right now I don’t think ripping these poor people to bits when their daughter is missing is the right way to go about it. Personally I blame the person(s) that obviously watched the McCann’s every move for God knows how long with the pre-meditated intention of entering that apartment, lifting little Madeleine from her bed and taking her away. It is these people that should be punished and not her parents. That little girl must be really devastated and desperate to see her family and all people seem to want to do is argue about her right to be in the papers on the news. What about our rights (you know, the people who do care) to be kept infromed of any developments in the search for her? Why can’t everyone just let it go and hope to God she is returned safely to her family?
May 22nd, 2007 at 12:13 pm
Would all the people who defend the actions of parents leaving their babies whilst dining out 100 yards away - leave their jewellry box, popping back every 30 minutes to check it’s ok?
how about just your engagement ring?
your passport?
wallet?
no?
thought not
May 22nd, 2007 at 12:08 pm
Jane, the patio door mystery has a few of us beat!
May 22nd, 2007 at 12:02 pm
Can’t see how it is logical to assume she wandered out of the apartment and still hasn’t been found. Portugal is not the Himalayas or Outer Mongolia. It is entirely possible that the search has been adequate by this time at least. If she wandered off where do you think she is? Perhaps she hitchhiked off somewhere to escape her cruel unfeeling parents.
May 22nd, 2007 at 11:34 am
Can someone please help me out? There seems to be two different camps into which people fall; those who think with some logic and beleive this child wandered out of an un-locked, un-supervised apartment on her own and has befallen an accident of some kind. Then there are those who are utterly convinced she has been abducted by a lone paedophile or an organised network. I really would like some evidence regarding the latter - why are people so convinced she was abducted? I remember when this story first broke. Did Gerry McCann not call his sister in Glasgow to say the security shutter had been prised open and the window had been ‘jemmied’? Did his sister not then take every opportunity to rely those details to the press and media? Oh sorry, a couple of days down the line it was confirmed that there was no damaged shutter, no ‘jemmied’ window, no door kicked down, but the McCann’s had left the rear patio door un-locked because of a fear of fire?