As would any normal parent, Kate and Gerry still hope their daughter is alive.

[Mr Gray]

This from the newspaper which called the Portuguese, and I quote, 'sardine munchers'.

Enough said.

best of luck to Kate and Gerry in their continued campaign to find Maddie

[Carana]

Possibly some sort of institutionalised  care.
Would obviously depend upon circumstances and time-scale, but one should not assume that finding Madeleine would necessarily lead to some rosy happy ever after situation.

So rescued victims such as Jaycee and her children or Natascha, or the Dutroux victims, or the latest American girls should have been swept under the carpet forever?

What if YOU disappeared one evening and were held captive? Would you accept that your family should stop looking for you? Would you accept that your family hoped that you had died? And if you were eventually found, that you should be placed in a psychiatric hospital for the rest of your life as your reappearance might disturb the new status quo?

[stephen25000]

best of luck to Kate and Gerry in their continued campaign to find Maddie

Do you condemn the mirror's xenophobia ?

[jassi]

Possibly - I might be too disturbed to care.

[Mr Gray]

Do you condemn the mirror's xenophobia ?

Xenophobia on both sides...why should I support the sardine munchers

[stephen25000]

Xenophobia on both sides...why should I support the sardine munchers

No there wasn't.

[Carana]

Possibly - I might be too disturbed to care.

What about? You as the missing person or you as the family member?

Ok. So if you'd been moved from a dungeon to a psychiatric ward forever, you'd be okay with that? Even if your dreams of finding your family again had kept you alive? And you'd find it perfectly acceptable to assume that your family had moved on and didn't actually want you back as you might have disturbed the new status quo?

I find that bizarre, to be honest. Life will never be the same for a family whose loved one has disappeared, even if it's temporary.

I feel terribly sorry for the latest major accidents over the sea as the families involved may never actually find proof that their loved ones will not come home.

That is still different from someone simply vanishing on dry land and the local police force simply assuming that your family had "dunnit".

[jassi]

What about? You as the missing person or you as the family member?

Me as the missing person, which was what you asked.

[John]

As we approach the 7-year milestone of Madeleine's disappearance I find it very hard to believe that there will ever be a good outcome in this case.   Reference is made in the opening post article to the latest news of another young girl being abused and of progress by Redwood and Scotland Yard.  What flipping progress?

All they have managed to achieve is the raking over old ground.  They have turned up feck all of any significance, that is the brutal truth.

If Madeleine is still alive she will be unique in that she will have defied the norm.  Young children who are abducted by strangers are either never found or are found dead.

I also wonder if the McCann's refusal to seek a death certificate is connected with the live libel trial in Lisbon?

[Cariad]

As we approach the 7-year milestone of Madeleine's disappearance I find it very hard to believe that there will ever be a good outcome in this case.   Reference is made in the opening post article to the latest news of another young girl being abused and of progress by Redwood and Scotland Yard.  What flipping progress?

All they have managed to achieve is the raking over old ground.  They have turned up feck all of any significance, that is the brutal truth.

If Madeleine is still alive she will be unique in that she will have defied the norm.  Young children who are abducted by strangers are either never found or are found dead.

IF she is still alive, I can't even bear to contemplate what the last 7 years have been like for her.

What's that saying? something like "give me the child tell he's 7 and I'll show you the man"

She'll have spent more than half her life and the most formative years at that in circumstances that would cripple a fully formed personality.

[John]

IF she is still alive, I can't even bear to contemplate what the last 7 years have been like for her.

What's that saying? something like "give me the child tell he's 7 and I'll show you the man"

She'll have spent more than half her life and the most formative years at that in circumstances that would cripple a fully formed personality.

There are only two possibilities that I can see in this case...

i) She is dead and her remains are still in the Algarve.

ii) She was taken out of the country and has a new identity.

[slartibartfast]

So rescued victims such as Jaycee and her children or Natascha, or the Dutroux victims, or the latest American girls should have been swept under the carpet forever?

What if YOU disappeared one evening and were held captive? Would you accept that your family should stop looking for you? Would you accept that your family hoped that you had died? And if you were eventually found, that you should be placed in a psychiatric hospital for the rest of your life as your reappearance might disturb the new status quo?

IMO most of the long term kidnapped children who are discovered are not actually rescued but either escape or are uncovered as part of another activity. As to their families actively searching for them at that time, hmmmm.

[Cornelius]

As we approach the 7-year milestone of Madeleine's disappearance I find it very hard to believe that there will ever be a good outcome in this case.   Reference is made in the opening post article to the latest news of another young girl being abused and of progress by Redwood and Scotland Yard.  What flipping progress?

All they have managed to achieve is the raking over old ground.  They have turned up feck all of any significance, that is the brutal truth.

If Madeleine is still alive she will be unique in that she will have defied the norm.  Young children who are abducted by strangers are either never found or are found dead.

I also wonder if the McCann's refusal to seek a death certificate is connected with the live libel trial in Lisbon?

On the face of it that would appear to be true but there are things that don't quite hang together. IF the Metropolitan Police Service do not believe the McCanns are suspects on a "global" basis then a reasonable extrapolation from that position is that The MPS know what crime was committed. If they know what crime was committed why do they continue to ask for public assistance on seemingly bizarre issues?. IF the prosecuting authority (note that is the CPS not MPS) has issued ILORs which is a costly exercise and can take up to 6 months to process then it would not have been on the basis of interviewing a few smelly binmen, burglars and itinerants. The CPS would only sanction an ILOR for something substantive (see their guidelines which other posters have linked). Then what are the PJ doing? as they now have made this an open case again and they have primacy. That I feel is the dilemma. We just don't know what is going on. Our options are try to guess, take the Daily Mirror to be an authoritative source on the topic or wait and see. I apologise for wandering a bit off topic.

[Mr Gray]

On the face of it that would appear to be true but there are things that don't quite hang together. IF the Metropolitan Police Service do not believe the McCanns are suspects on a "global" basis then a reasonable extrapolation from that position is that The MPS know what crime was committed. If they know what crime was committed why do they continue to ask for public assistance on seemingly bizarre issues?. IF the prosecuting authority (note that is the CPS not MPS) has issued ILORs which is a costly exercise and can take up to 6 months to process then it would not have been on the basis of interviewing a few smelly binmen, burglars and itinerants. The CPS would only sanction an ILOR for something substantive (see their guidelines which other posters have linked). Then what are the PJ doing? as they now have made this an open case again and they have primacy. That I feel is the dilemma. We just don't know what is going on. Our options are try to guess, take the Daily Mirror to be an authoritative source on the topic or wait and see. I apologise for wandering a bit off topic.

no it isn't a reasonable extrapolation...you are sating your opinion as fact...SY may have several ideas about what happened to Maddie but none that involve the parents

[Lace]

If my child disappeared I too would never give up hope that she was still alive until proved otherwise.