Madeleine McCann

[morningpaper]

Instead of starting lots of new posts about Madeleine, could I politely request that anyone who wants to post on the subject please post on this one thread? (N.B. Duplicate threads may be flamed hysterically.)

Please note that this thread is not to criticise Madeleine's parents or family, as this is not in the spirit of Mumsnet.

Please can I take the liberty to quote from this article:

"This is the real life of Kate and Gerry McCann, and it must now have become a place of agony beyond all understanding. Pity them, if you have any compassion at all, and demonstrate the minimum of grace: the ability to desist from judgment."

I hope it is too, but gorgeous though Madeleine is, she looks so similar to lots of little blonde girls of that age group.

I suppose a child of that colouring may be a little more unusual in Morocco though, so maybe they're onto something.

It could be her. Afterall 4 months have passed by and her face would have grown and changed a bit. I still have hope.

I dont know, cant tell from that picture tbh. It could be my daughter and i couldnt tell. I hope the powers that be have the technology to determine if it is or isnt her.
I hope to god it is her! Fingers crossed.

And if it isn?t Madeleine then there are other possibilities. After all, a blonde child with a group of morroccans is unusual, surely? So could it be the child of someone else that had been abducted perhaps? By an ex partner for instance? Abduction of children by ex-partners to be taken back to their countries is very common after all, so either way this sighting of a blonde child should be investigated.

I hope it's her. She doesn't look as if she belongs to that family and why would they be pushing a cart with cases along the road and someone else's small foreign child on their back?

If she is in Morocco, I think there is a very good chance that they will find her.

There are famillies in morocco who are ligt- it's an area where people go to 'drop out' BUT when we were there we don't remember seeing any blonde children at all and we were in the areas far more likely to house expats, so I do think there is hope. Also think if its true the police have been working on this case in Morrocco since the sightings back in may, they would know of any blonde girls legitimately in the area- its a place of often close knit communities.

Fingers crossed.

I have to say she looks too small to be a 4 year old. Her face looks younger too. I have a dd the same age. If I gave her a piggy back she'd be looking over my shoulder, not half way down my back. And that woman looks quite short compared to the kid in front of her.

Depends on the kid though- have a ds3 who is 4 also and he is quite petite. You'd barely see his head over my shoulder, I still carry him on my hip!

I agree with Wannabee. I thought the child in the photo looked possibly a little young to be Madeleine, looked more like a 2 YO perhaps? Then again, it's difficult to tell, as it's only really a head and shoulders shot. It's a pity it's blurred. Imagine if it is her and they track her down and get her back to her parents? How amazing would that be?

I would've got out and pretended to ask for directions and had a better look!

Surely you wouldnt just snap a picture from that far away and drive off if you thought you had a found a missing child that was feared dead??

she has that slightly 'chubby baby face' that 2 yr olds have- pic looks too young for a 4 yr old- but it does look like her

That's what I thought, kits. These tourists that have had these 'sightings' and then say "but I thought no more of it" it's quite infuriating.

Without sounding hysterical or crazy here (and im not - i dont usually come on these threads - and im just waiting for real news, and dont usually speculate BUT - its just an observaion)

dont the women look quite like men??

Someones actully said the same in the comments bit at the bottom,

I thought it was a man, Moroccan dress for a man after all is a flowing garment similar to a dress

But hell, what would I know

I thought it was a man carrying the child too.

they do look like men actually

i do hope it is her but with all the publicity surrounding her would the abductees actually take her out in broad day light

unless the people she is with don't know who she is and think they are just looking after her for a friend

They do have boobs tho,

perhaps just grufty ladies?

the played an interview with the woman on GMTV this morning. I didn't catch all of it but from what I heard it sounded as if the woman was just taking pictures, and although the blonde child looked unusual to her, she didn't equate it with being madeleine until news of other sightings was published over the weekend.

I guess a group of nomads or gypsies or whatever they were might seem photogenic to a passing tourist, so she may have been photographing the group rather than the child iyswim.

Ah I see,

the more i think about the more likely it is she may be over there, i think morrocco is quite close to portugal - a ferry ride away i believe?

and they say the borders were not closed on the night she dissapeared.. so if they made a dash for it then they couldve easily made it there as the portugease police were very slow to act and didnt stop cars passing through till a few days later i think.

kitsandbits

The woman taking the picture was on a tour bus was'nt she, I doubt they would of stopped if she had asked.

i dont know if she was.

but once in North Africa the chances of being found would be almost impossible. Lots of desert, lots of little villages cut off from the more modern parts, nomadic communities etc, if you wanted to disappear, you could do so quite easily.

And with a child you'd only have to live like that for a short period, a year, maybe two, because in that time a child's appearance would change, she would learn the new language of the people she was living with, in two years they could integrate quite happily into a society and no-one would ever know.

But people would notice her

especially because of her eye - chances are, if she is alive and been taken by another family, that someone will recognise her at some point.