I can't get the missing little girl in Portugal out of my head

tiff

I just thought 4 appeals in as many days seems like a lot more than usual, but it's obviously done for a reason.

stashmycash

tiff wrote: »

I am so shocked by that, mainly because I enjoy my holidays with the children. Mine are 9 and 6 now, we started taking them abroad when they were 6 and 3. They LOVE us doing things together and having fun, eating out together, staying up late etc. What a sad life for that whole family, not just the kids.

Couldn't agree with you more. It such a special time and they grow up so fast, that you have to make the most of it.

Carmina_Piranha_3

given that they didn't take a nanny with them perhaps they spent all day doing kiddie stuff. they did a stupid thing at night but weren't the only ones doing it i bet - but that doesn't mean they were crap parents during the day.

Carmina_Piranha_3

i do think leaving those babies was a terrible thing - but i don't like the accusation that they don't seem distressed enough, it's cruel. the rest of us have only had short periods of the distress of losing a child - have any of you actually had a child be missing for 12 hours, 24 hours etc? maybe a kind of numbness sets in, and if this was me i'd certainly be on something to calm me down! i'm sure that for the first few minutes or hours of their child being missing they were running around screaming like the rest of us do when we misplace our children.

perhaps there's evidence that calm appeals have more of a psychological effect on the kidnapper? their appeals are probably scripted by people who know which words will have most effect.

i'm not excusing their actions, not at all. but i don't like the way these threads are going.

balmaiden

Leaving the kids alone.
I am sure their are many familys that have done this on holiday and intended to do it again on their next holiday (and no I am not one of them )but this will surely be a wake up call and if,God forbid, the worst has happened please let it be not in vain and everyone everywhere remembers Maddie and never ever let this happen again.
Parents do make mistakes sometimes huge mistakes with tragic consequences, they have to live with that for the rest of their lives please show some compassion.
My cousin let her 4 year old daughter play in the front garden on her new bike the gate was not secured and the little girl went out on to the road and was killed by a lorry. That little girl would now be 33 she is talked about and missed every single day by all her family .
At the time of the tragedy everyone commented on how my cousin did not seem that upset etc etc but when you are in deep shock you are on auto pilot and believe you me when that shock wears of the grief begins and never goes

Carmina_Piranha_3

oh that's so sad!

my brother's best mate went missing at the age of 19 which probably sounds like an adult to everyone else but when it's a lad you've known for years it still seems like he was a kid, and my brother was my baby bruv. he was a lovely boy. not quite the same thing, he'd fallen and died but i still remember the agony of the week before he was found - checking the news constantly. he will never be forgotten, he was loved by so many people.

Rachie_B

wendym wrote: »

I guess that these holidays are outside the experience of most of us, as they are so expensive. Their main selling point is allowing adults to 'escape' from their children, and leaving them to be checked on is the norm, although the staff checking system is based on 15 minutes between visits.
My daughter has a friend who holidays only at one of these villages. She leaves her children for the day in creche/activity club according to age, where they eat both lunch and tea, then she collects them to put them to bed, and goes out for the evening leaving staff to check on them.

Of course I'm not suggesting that that is how all families behave, and the McCanns did make a particularly irresponsible/stupid decision.

Their suffering now is unimaginable. And can you imagine making the decision about when/whether to come home?

But these parents chose NOT to use the child checking service ( not that it would make it any better IMO )

instead favouring to leave them alone and checking on them once an hour ..........

mystic_trev

This was a well planed operation to abduct a child - I assume by someone who new the Apartments and area very well, and had watched the family closely. Anyone who knows the Algarve (I was there two months ago) will know that once you move north from the Coast you're in a very different environment, and are really out in the wilds.Get off any of the major roads and you won't see anybody for miles and miles. The girl was probably abducted and killed within a twelve hour period by the pervert who took her. As the abduction was planed so well, he's probably hidden or burried the body where it will never be found. A lifetime of tormant and recrimination awaits the parents, there really is no point in blaming them, I assume they've reached that conclusion already.

umami

The parents didn't use the babysitting facilities because they didn't want to unsettle the children when collecting them later to go back to the apartment.They just can't win.

Vashti

I don't know if anyone will remember this, it was also big news at the time but in the late seventies to mid eighties I worked for BA and one of our Captains was in Florida with his family of five on a long haul trip, cant remember exactly what year, and their three year old daughter was snatched when they were all in a shopping centre. One minute she was there.. the next...gone.

Their lives changed completely from that moment, he never ever went back to work and they spent the next five years in Florida searching for her and putting posters everywhere etc.

As far as I know they never found her, and the hope was that she had at least been taken by someone who looked after her and brought her up.

Oh how I hope this is the case here and this little girl is not dead.

Please God.

I hope this thread has made just one person hold more tightly to their childs hand. Trouble is, how quickly it becomes yesterdays news and we forget.