Shame everytime you google Praia Da Luz you just get loads of stuff about the McCanns case.....nothing about what a lovely place it was... 7 years ago.
I remember watching one of those T.V. programmes like Place in the sun or similar and they had PDL on at the time, and I thought what a lovely place to retire too, they showed a nice villa looking across the sea, the town and the restaurants, and I remember thinking to myself yes i could live there...it looked quiet and clean....
Little did they know how these lovely town would be ruined....
Its tainted all the time. Just when you think its all calming down they bring Scotland Yard in to dig it all up again.
How can people in PDL ever get shot of this case....I am sure ABSOLUTELY sure if anyone of them had known or suspected who had done this crime they would have dobbed them in some how.......but NOTHING, no one has come forward pointing fingers, and that is what I find so odd.
You would want it over and done with, so you could then have some peace living in the sun...not the constant reminder of what happened 7 years ago......
I feel so sorry for the people living there.......OF COURSE this case must have had an impact on their economy.
Its time this case was put to bed, nothing is ever going to come of it, its all too late now....Maybe one day when no one is looking something might be revealed...but i am not holding my breath.
I think she is Gone, baby gone.....sadly.
As has already been pointed out ... the world wide recession resulting in the continuing effect on the euro zone and the exchange rate have done little to assist the tourist economies of many countries ... not only Portugal ... and perhaps the resort of Praia Da Luz has not remained in splendid isolation from that.
The sentiment you express "It's time this case was put to bed" is one no doubt shared by the perpetrator/s of the crime against Madeleine ... and is indeed part of the problem ... the case was "put to bed" by the Portuguese authorities in 2008, perhaps in the hope it would meekly "go away".
Her parents simply refused to allow that and their campaign to find out what happened to their daughter has been the excuse for campaigns of demonisation and vilification against them ever since under the risible guise of pseudo "justice for Madeleine" sentiment.
Just as you opine "Little did they know how these lovely town would be ruined....Its tainted all the time"
I could add the rejoinder
... little did innocent holidaymakers know the dark underbelly of drugs, drug related crime, burglaries, assaults on children and the British gift of numerous itinerant paedophiles who seemed to be attracted to this apparently sleepy little town which was and is marketed as the perfect holiday venue for families with their children.
The people of PDL can "get shot of this case" when a satisfactory investigation is carried out into what happened to Madeleine McCann and the conclusion whatever that may be is duly ascertained.
I find the extraordinary ease with which Madeleine McCann has been written off by some people reprehensible and as long as there are viable avenues for investigation ... which have been deliberately ignored in the past ... she has the right, as a victim of crime and as a British citizen to have her case investigated until all those avenues have been exhausted.