Anyone watching Madeleine McCann ten years on?

[spottysuperted]

They're framing it slightly differently now.. 😧 interesting from the bbc...

A week or so after reported burglaries nearby.

As a holiday maker would you check the town's local news in the weeks running up to your holiday? I've never thought to do that. There is an element of thinking that you are safer on holiday than at home - at home you think about valuables, possible burglar entry spots, what you would do in case of an emergency, etc. On holiday you just anticipate having a good time.

(I'd never have left my child alone in those circumstances. However I lost him in a shop once, and I was also once convinced by dickhead ex to let him sleep in the car for 10 minutes while we went into a carpet shop. So I've had my "Thank fuck nothing happened" moments. Most of us have.)

Not just Mark Warner, Through. I had friends who were repping at the time and lots of companies offered that as their babysitting service.

If you've used it before, I can see how it might be easy to think you could do the same thing yourself.

I didn't see in the programme about the door being unlocked.

It focused on the window being forced.

Was the door unlocked?

Floating frog - it was dark, you can't see the apartment door from the tapas bar and not only that, according to the mccan's own statements when they were at the tapas bar they were sat facing away from the apartment

We used to holiday on a converted farm/gite site in Northern France for several years running before and after M disappeared.

In the first couple of years one of the things we enjoyed so much was the adult company we found: approx 10 families on one site, fenced pool, most parties with young children, similar ages as ours, so kids a friends to run around with during the day and us adults forged superficial holiday friendships. Many a night was spent sitting on each other's patios with half a dozen or so baby phones on the table with people periodically leaving to check on their DCs.

Then M went missing.

The next year nobody did this.
Everybody stayed in their own flat, too scared to leave their children.

IMO, the actual risk had not changed, but the perception of risk had.
And I think we all lost because of that.

My thoughts are with all of the McCann's and those close to them.

And I really wish people would fuck off with projecting how they IMAGINE they would react or how they think one OUGHT to react when in Kate or Gerry's or anybody shoes when confronted with the loss of a child. Have some humanity, people.

The woman near the end saying "enough is enough" I know what she is saying but for me, if it was my DS then it would never be enough

I hate it when people critique the emotions shown by the McCanns after their daughter went missing. Everyone reacts to devastating events in different ways. They weren't there to 'perform' in the way that the audience at home deems a suitable performance for the character of 'parent whose child has gone missing'. It wasn't a TV drama show, it was a real life situation.

I think there is a chance that Madeleine wandered off and her body is somewhere in the dense vegetation/down a man hole or well/in the sea.

Lineysrun - yes, according to the McCanns, the door was unlocked. They left three children with a combined age of under seven, alone, in the dark, out of eyesight, out of earshot, in unlocked apartment in a foreign country. And they did this night after night, for periods of at least 30 minutes at a time.

I can actually understand the mindset of the Tapas bar couples in leaving their kids the way they did that night, setting aside hindsight which is a beautiful thing.

They'd been to MW resorts before and left their kids to dine out together whilst availing themselves of the baby listening service (so I believe). They come away on holiday this time but no service so they decide to do their own DIY one. I bet there was no long thoughtful analysis about why there was no such service or a risk analysis, it would just have been no such service like, no kids club in this one, or whatever. Once kids are asleep they don't move and they cry if they need you, so wait until they are settled then go out and do periodic checks as your own listening service. The service they paid for on holiday last time worked liked that (so they thought).

Without the spectre of what actually happened to MM it doesn't seem that bad to me. In reality it was a fatal error but I can absolutely see why they did it, why they thought it would be okay and why that decision didn't seem that risky at the time.

Yes PacificDogwood.

The burglaries were covered up by the authorities as they were worried they would affect tourism.
Did people miss that part of the documentary??

Even when people have watched a programme with the facts spelt out, they still misinterpret it! or chose to ignore the bits which don't fit their agenda

I watched it. There was stuff in there I hadn't seen before, but I think the last thing I saw was the crime watch special so I'm not exactly up to date. I think the pain is etched all over Kate's face. I hope it is solved in her lifetime.

As an aside, we stayed at an aparthotel a couple of years ago, on the ground floor. The bar with entertainment was about 200 yards away and if you sat outside you could see the stage and the apartment. If you left the patio doors unlocked it would have been easy to keep popping back, going in through the patio to check. I can see how people might have thought it was a good idea before this happened.

That seems most likely to me Shiny, with the door unlocked, especially if (as PP says here) MM had a history of night waking, she might have woken and gone to find her parents, but that doesn't seem to have been a line of inquiry?

Rafals we only went on that type of holiday once, but it seemed such a normal thing to do. I'm normally too risk aware if anything when it comes to my children. Maybe it's something that because the holiday company offers it as a service it made it seem normal. I don't know, but many people did it.

I feel so so sorry for the McCanns. It could have been us.

So well said, MrsDV and 🌈 I never fail to be shocked at the sheer hatred and vitriol people spit at the McCanns. For parents to lose their child and people STILL to try to crucify them....that takes a special kind of evil.

The patio door was closed though. If she'd wandered off I doubt she would have been able to open and close it.

Also well said to you, Pacific!!! I ❤️ your posts!!!

the programme was very light on fact and very heavy on pro-McCann and anti-Portugal waffle.

The only place that gets anywhere near the facts is in the Portuguese police files which can be found very easily online. Anyone with more than a passing interest in the case, and a few spare hours, would be well advised to read through them no then make up their own mind.

I think the McCanns will have blamed themselves more than anyone else could ever blame them, for leaving the children. I can not imagine what they have been through or how they must feel now 10 whole years later, still not knowing. It is just very sad- poor little girl.

Yes, Emphasise I think this is a plausible theory for those reasons.

I also remember reading at some point that after one of the other nights when the children were left alone, Madeleine had asked one of her parents why they hadn't been there when she woke because Sean was crying and they weren't there.

Maybe this time she decided to go and find her parents.

The chief of the PJ in Lisbon said on camera that they had no evidence against the McCanns.

The dog business was debunked. They showed a video of the dog walking past the toy twice, without any interest or response.

They showed the report that debunked any DNA evidence that the child's blood was in the apartment or car.

They debunked the Portuguese police position that the shutters could not have been opened from the outside. A Portuguese criminologist demonstrated how easy it was to do.

No they should have not left their children alone. I saw them years ago say that on TV. Kate saying they had met their daughter down is seared in my memory.

Yes the press (and society) has a class bias. Does that mean we shouldn't actually care about any one child?

I am quite shocked at the entrenched determination to disregard publicly available facts and evidence because of either some sort of revenge on the parents for doing what thousands of parents (of all classes - Butlins had a famous 'listening ' service, too: chalet numbers called out during the entertainment if a baby was crying) have done, or some sort of class based bitterness.

Sometimes, I wake in the night and think how could I get back to sleep now, if I knew not where my child had gone...the Needham family, McCanns, and any other families who live like this.

Awful reaction from the locals. If it was their child or grandchild you just would never stop until you had answers.

Thanks Alec for the info

I hate speculating but I always thought of this as a course of avents even before hearing about the spate of burglaries. An attempted burglary, MM is already awake, burglar flees startled leaving door open, MM goes out to find G and K and something then happens to her abduction or swept into sea.

Soul Absolutely. Well said!