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News

new sightings of maddie

32 replies

candyfluff · 12/08/2008 15:05

so what gets my back up so much is that if you saw who you thought was maddeline mc cann why the hell wouldnt you grab her and call police immediatley,im sure her parents are thinking the very same thing!!

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kerryk · 15/08/2008 14:04

bloody hell, i would commit murder if some stranger tried to snatch my 4 y.o dd from me.

when we were on holiday last july (few months after mm went missing) we were also told how dd looks like her, which she does not btw. my own dd has pure blonde hair that nearly reaches her bottom but people see a pretty little girl of the same age and want to believe they can be the one to find mm.

UniversallyChallenged · 13/08/2008 16:30

oh thanks for letting us know

Lucifera · 13/08/2008 12:26

the other thread was deleted (I started it so got an email to tell me) because it's MN policy to only have one MMcC thread up, fair enough and I guess this one will disappear as soon as they notice it.

ElfOnTheTopShelf · 12/08/2008 21:46

I dont read the papers but the headlines catch my eyes when I walk past shops / newspaper stands. Hugh headlines screaming "Maddie seen!" - even if they dont read the gutter trash, its sorta hard to avoid sometimes.

TheFifthApe · 12/08/2008 21:43

I don;t think for one moment that her parents are reading these newspapers

do you really think they get them delivered every morning?

they will avoid them like the plague they are and someone else will sift them on their behalf

ElfOnTheTopShelf · 12/08/2008 21:38

its catch 22. People were talking about this at work saying "if I thought it was her, I'd grab that child" which makes me think yes, I agree, you wouldn't just let it by, but, as a parent, the idea of somebody grabbing my DD would freak me out.

Sadly I think in 15yrs time, people will possibly still referring to Madeleine, in the way that people refer to Ben Needham.

I wish the papers would STOP though. I think that if the parents see these headlines in their day to day lives, it must be like a dagger to their hearts, especially as they are sensationalist headlines which refer to "old" news on sightings iyswim.

misdee · 12/08/2008 21:26

is such a sad case.

but having had someone question me over my own dd, and 'oh she is the same age as that little girl who was taken ' errrrrr no, 2years younger and was wearing clothes for a 1year old, was asleep in the buggy, and has black eyes, i would go mad if someone took her just in case it was madeleine. was a very strange experience being probed about my daughter by a stranger.

CuckooClockWorkOrange · 12/08/2008 21:22

In the unlikely event of MM still being alive, I think she would remember her old life. My dd is about a month older than MM. We relocated a month after MM was abducted, and my DD does often mention "when we were in England". I don't mention it myself, as I don't want to remind her. I want her to settle.

MrsGuyOfGisbourne · 12/08/2008 20:44

icecream soda and wannabe - totally agree. She was three when she was reported missing. After more than a year, if she was alive and living a 'normal' life, she would not remember her previous life. This is August, the newspapers have to fill theri front pages, they have finally given up on Diana, and so Madeleine has taken her place as a money spinner.
I have always thought she was probably dead even before she was reported missing - poor little thing - indescribably sad case.

wannaBe · 12/08/2008 20:06

I agree with you there. I've never thought she was alive beyond the night she disappeared.

But for those who believe she is alive, the reality is that even if she was, she would never be found.

CuckooClockWorkOrange · 12/08/2008 20:05

"in the not too distant future she will be able to wear a contact lense"

Heaven help her. She won't be wearing a contact lense. Ever. I just HOPE they find her body one day.

wannaBe · 12/08/2008 20:03

but you don't know her. You only know her from those pictures, which are now 18 months old.

18 months is a long time in a child's life.

She may have lost teeth, her facial features might be changing, she may look more grown-up.

And it's highly unlikely that if she were being paraded round in public, she even looks the same now. Has probably had hair cut/possibly dyed. In the not too distant future she will be able to wear a contact lense and that blemish in her eye will be irelevant because no-one will see it.

vinous · 12/08/2008 20:03

Madeleine front pages add thousands to newspaper sales, so it's convenient to re-hash some sightings from the newly released papers and throw in some new ones for good measure. It's not news or newsworthy.

expatinscotland · 12/08/2008 20:00

if i turned out to be wrong i could hold my head up high that i had just reason to.

oh, yes, i'm sure the magistrate would really applaud you in court when the parents pressed charges.

and i expect you'd be equally happy with some stranger using the pretext that your child looked like some other kid to abduct your own daughter.

CuckooClockWorkOrange · 12/08/2008 19:55

ps, my dd was out with her grandma and father last week. They are respectively black and (visibly) mixed race. My dd is not. I am now wondering if people thought they kidnapped her!

CuckooClockWorkOrange · 12/08/2008 19:54

I don't believe any of these alleged sightings. For a start, I can see that without looking too far, even my own dd looks a bit like mm. Same age HOney ish hair, blue eyes. Kind of 'neutral' features...

If I saw her (god can't believe I'm even typing it) I would know it was her. I am SO familiar with her face, if it WAS her, I'd be in no doubt. I'd recognise her like my own child now.

I don't know how anybody (from GB anyway) could say they were 60-80% sure.

expatinscotland · 12/08/2008 19:49

her name is MADELEINE, not 'Maddie', and i am so sure some stranger grabbing up a person's child is going to go over well with her parents.

it would right piss me off if some random person tried to take my daughter and run away from her and when i caught up with them, because i would, you'd better believe they would wish they hadn't.

piratecat · 12/08/2008 19:45

yes i was wondering where that thread went.

SpandexIsMyEnemy · 12/08/2008 18:30

usually (and here i'm thinking about the forced lads who are move/killed etc) the papers usually find out a few days later - after everything's been sorted, facts etc found out - to that end, it's not impossible that these sightings have been investigated prior to newspaper 'leaks'

would I take her if I thought it was her - possibly not - I don't think so - maybe. but what I would do would be to try and alert the police and keep her talking/in the area until they got there if possible.

UniversallyChallenged · 12/08/2008 17:53

Anyone know why last night's Maddie thread was deleted? Unless it went pear shaped after midnight when i stopped mnetting it was saying similar things as this one

HonoriaGlossop · 12/08/2008 16:13

agree with doublebluff. Attention seekers will 'see' her for years to come. It must be torture for her parents. Responsible papers should let police investigate first; but of course they don't do that because when the police have found it's nothing, then they have no story, do they?

icecreamsoda · 12/08/2008 15:52

But even if you found her now you couldn't just grab her. Do you think she even remembers who she is and who her parents are? She probably doesn't even know she was taken by strangers, because if she is still alive she was probably told that she had been sent to live with whoever might have her because her mummy and daddy didn't want her any more or had died or who knows what, but it would have been a believeable explanation for her, and her life would now be with those people. So if you grabbed her it would be as traumatic for her as being taken in the first place.

Even if she was found now, it wouldn't be as simple as just returning her to her parents. She would probably have to undergo months of therapy to help her deal with what has happened to her. And her family would probably have to undergo therapy to help them come to terms with the fact that she probably wouldn't remember them.

This is never going to have a happy ending.

SlartyBartFast · 12/08/2008 15:41

exactly, the Sun made the petrol station one look like a NEW sighting from their front cover = only to find out it was a year ago!!!
this is all being raked up because of the portugease police making their fihndings public. i think

DoubleBluff · 12/08/2008 15:37

These sightings are crap and it makes my blood boil.
These people who have 'seen' her are attention seekers. ANd th epress are only printing this crap to boost their sales.
It is sick.
O fcourse I would be aas thrilled as the next person if Maddie turned up safe and well, but this hysteria is not helping.

amidaiwish · 12/08/2008 15:33

if i saw a 4 year old girl, with the shading in her eye, with people who didn't look like her parents, and she said "those people took me from my holiday" then YES I WOULD GRAB HER.

if i turned out to be wrong i could hold my head up high that i had just reason to.

of course i would call the police straightaway. i am sure these petrol stations have panic buttons and fast police response.

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