Shannon Matthews

[NAB3wishesfor2008]

It has just been announced the police are going to search 2000 homes in Dewsbury. While I am obviously pleased they are working so hard, it did cross my mind that if someone has taken Shannon the police have just given them warning about what is going to happen.

shabster - how terrible for you - I can quite understand that you would want to protect your sons
Personally - I make efforts to fight the fear, to expand my children's horizons and give them indepedance - but it is very,very hard. Every story like this - I put myself in those parents place and it is utterly terrifying - and if you've actually lost a child - well it must be very, very hard to live with the fear it could happen again.
Abduction is rare, accidents aren't. I suppose the only thing to do is to teach our children as best we can, how to be safe and brave and free and let them go.

mildmannered - why do you think there is no news? There are 747 news articles on her if you google it.

I have just had a chat with hubby about Ds1 going on a school trip. I am nervous. He will be going on a coach. He doesn't want me to wrap DS1 in cotton wool or get teased cos mummy doesn't let him go on trips. I'm afraid I would rather wrap him up then have him in a morgue. I know I am being unreasonable and daft but with the boy dying on a school trip, and a girl dying today on a school bus, I am feeling a bit wobbly.

NAB - you have to let him go you know. Both those events you mention are very sad but they were also accidents - and they happen anytime, anywhere. I do sympathise and I am scared too - but part of being a good parent is letting them grow away from you and trusting they will be ok. It's very tough though. How old is ds1?

He is almost 7 and he will go but I hate the having to let go because I want to keep him safe and what if the coach crashes. Not right in the head today, me thinks about me.

The thing is, if anything happened and he was with me, I would have to live with it. If he was with someone else and he was hurt/died I am not sure I could forgive them. I realise that makes me sound really awful but it is how I feel.

I would feel the same - and blame myself for letting them go - but I can't let my fear of how bad that would be, rule their lives or mine.

I'm sure he will have a wonderful time. Why dont you see if you can get together with some other school mums that day - you can distract each other

The trip is during normal school hours so I will have DS2 to keep me busy. Thanks for not thinking I was a total loon.

Shannon's step dad has to deny he is involved.

What has happened to her?

All I'm going to add to this is that there is still no news.

I can't believe how low key this case has been. There has been not mention of Shannon for days now .

I saw the appeal the mum made on Mothers Day. That poor woman.
But its barely making news anymore

why is her disappearance had such a low profile? Madelaine was in the news for ages. I hope they find both of them soon

There was a guy comparing the two cases on the radio the other day and he said that sadly the 'photogenic' aspect of Madeleine McCanns disappearance was part - that pictures ofthe McCanns on the beach in Portugal are better for most tabloids than a grief sticken woman in a grim looking UK street.
I think the age of madeleine was also significant because there are fewer options about what could have happened to her whereas a 9 year old is more capeable of having headed off on their own.

It is one of those situations that is hard to examine isn't it. It doesn't really reflect very well on anyone does it?

I heard that too pagwatch.

I do wonder though whether there is more to this that the media are not able to tell us, or even that the police are not able to tell the media.

The other day when Shannon's mother made an appeal she said that someone who knows shannon, knows where she is, and I found that slightly unnerving, because usually parents of missing children are quicker to assume that a stranger is responsible - it's very hard to admit that it could be someone known to your child, iyswim? I wonder whether there is evidence, a motive for Shannon's disappearance that is known to her family and which they have passed on to the police, but which they are obviously not able to tell the wider public?

personally i do feel there is more to this than an abduction in the realms of madeleine mccann or the soham case.

it has been kept quite low profile in comparision and the details that have been released eg her wanted to run away and writing on her wall about wanting to leave and also what her mother said in the press conference point to there being other information which we the general public are not being told.

i know it seems that the media is not interested in keeping secrets but look at harry in afghanistan in the right circumstances they can still behave fairly ehtically some of the time.

in regards to the stephanie slater case, she was kidnapped from a house in my area but only my friends who were within doorstep distance of the house she was taken from were aware (because the police did door to door enquiries). i can still remember sitting at school being completely confused as to what they were talking about. there had been a media blackout and the details were not released until a day or two afterwards

I heard on the news today that a school friend saw her crying on the school wall about 3.20pm on the day she went missing. Just fills me with fear for when I have children at two different schools.

I just hope they find this little lass safe somewhere.
Something just seems so sad and wrong I hthink someone is maybe keeping her to punish parents who took their eye off the ball and that she is returned.
Not condoning such behaviour obv. and admit I am shitty in the extreme even posting that
She just looks like such a sweet happy normal kid bless her.

The thing is, as Pagwatch pointed out, the case is less s photogenic. You've got a family in a low income, almost 'deprived'area (i live very near, so i mean this in a descriptive, not judgemental fashion!) where the mum has children to different fathers (so what?) Butm, when you compare this to a more 'clean cut' 2.4 kids family as soon as the shock impact of the story or any big updates are gone, then media won't have as miuch sympathy for the 'case' or 'story', although i don't doubt they will sympathise fr the girl. plus, there is the added question of whether this is an abduction or a run away who may turn up, hence a run away who turns up isn't as 'shocking' or sells papers like an abduction.. this will surge up if there's anything really dodgy, and again, newsworthy, lurking in any of the family or friends that have already been mentioned by the media.. it's shit, but it's what happens in media. A while agoin one of the papers a stuidy had been done and the factors determining how much 'coverage' missing kids gotr was determined by things like the class, colour, had they run away before, what were the immeduiate families like. Oh, i wish i could remember when it was that i saw it, because it was an eye opener. Crap isn't it? The priest at out=r church asked everyone to check there houses, garages, shed etc to look gfor her in caee she was hiding.

As her auntie, please can I ask you not to make assumutions as to whether its something to do with the family. THIS IS NOT THE PLACE.

This is horrible, but there were lots of really adorable pictures of Madeleine McCann that tugged at our heartstrings & they sold newspapers.

I have only seen one photo of Shannon Matthews - whether that is because 9 year olds just don't get photographed so much as toddlers, or it is felt that, in this case, there is nothing to be gained by releasing more pictures I don't know.

Also, it has to be bourne in mind that we might never know what happened to these children. This is not some tv serial, & children and adults do, very occasionally, just dissapear. And have always done so.

It does not mean everyone should suddenly panic about their own dc.

upwind sorry but that is not true there are more than 1 picture of her around.

this is a sad story & i pray to god she turns up safe & unhurt, bless her heart x

Immaculateconception, i am not in any way assumong t is anything to do with your family: i was pointing out that the press have tried to make a point of certain incidents involving family members and as other mumsnetter have ointed out, coverage of shannon's dissapearnce is low at the moment, and sadly the press tend to go for shock stories, and an example is if the find stores involving families, that is an example of whjen they pay more attention: eg when the mccanns where implicated by the press fotr being involved in madelaines disspaearnce, then it went quite again when no charges were brought. Dear god, i am in no position to make assumptions about shannons family: please, we are feeling a lot for you, and want shannion to be found: it's just crap that when comparing to an incident such as madelaine mcann, shannon should have more coverage, esp nationally, as there are a huge amount of missing posters to keep up public involvement locally.

yousaidit - why should she have more coverage just because the of the MM media frenzy? What good did that do?

Several people were subject to all kinds of nasty insinuations and might never be able to clear their names. It stirred up all kinds of fear, anxiety and misery in parents everywhere and they are no closer to finding out what happened.

Lots of older children go missing every year without much furore - a 12 year old boy is mentioned on this thread. But the risk of it happening to one of our own is miniscule.

Er, just thinking if a child whio is missing is in nationwide papers more often , then god forbid, if shannon has been abducted, then if shannon is somewhere like, oh somewher out of the blue,south wales, devon, blackpool, or somewher, a stranger is possibly a bit more likely to recongnise a missing child because their photo is plastered in the national press than it only being in local papers and hence not been diplsayed to a ntion to remindf them of what the missingf child looks like so they can be spotted. Its not the media frenzy on the families thats a good thing, it';s getting the childs picture out all the time so every man and his dog knows who sghe is and could be more likely to recognie her and find her. Every missing child should maximum puvblicity to help find them, i know thtere are many kids missing who don't have their cases mentioned by the press at all, or at best a little mention in the side collums, but if shannons story is in the news why shouldn't it saty there, irrelevant if there hasn't been much 'update' purely so peopel are constantly being reminded of her to help find her, rather than having kess coverage when there's no new news?