Your thoughts
Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 3:13 pm
This missing girl story of Madeleine McCann over in Europe has gained quite a bit of momentum here in the states. Portugal authorities are getting real close to prosecuting the parents. The parents claim to have been eating dinner just yards away while their 2 twin daughters and Madeleine were sleeping in their apartment. When they returned, Madeleine was missing. DNA tests show that a quantity of Madeleine's hair was found in the spare tire compartment of the McCann's vehicle. All 3 girls were born through in vitro fertilization.
I don't know what to make of this. There is no history of family issues and both parents are prominent doctors. Also, these were planned pregnancies which means they wanted these children and had no intention of hurting them IMO. However, the hiar found in the spare tire compartment is quite suspect, but the parents claim they are being framed.
Where is John Mark Carr when you need him.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/09 ... index.html
I don't know what to make of this. There is no history of family issues and both parents are prominent doctors. Also, these were planned pregnancies which means they wanted these children and had no intention of hurting them IMO. However, the hiar found in the spare tire compartment is quite suspect, but the parents claim they are being framed.
Where is John Mark Carr when you need him.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/09 ... index.html
PRAIA DA LUZ, Portugal (CNN) -- The Portuguese prosecutor Tuesday gave a judge the files on the case of Madeleine McCann, the missing British girl who vanished in Portugal more than four months ago, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office said.
Luisa Duarte would not say why the files were being handed to the judge. The options could include authorizing further search warrants or changing the status of the girl's parents, who last week were questioned and named "arguidos" -- suspects -- in the case.
The prosecutor handed the case to the judge hours after it was given to him to review by Portuguese police in Portimao, police Chief Inspector Olegario de Sousa told CNN.
Kate and Gerry McCann have maintained their innocence, most recently in a blog entry posted by Gerry McCann late Monday.
"We have absolute confidence that, when all of the facts are presented together, we will be able to demonstrate that we played absolutely no part in Madeleine's abduction," McCann's posting said.
"We could never possibly have imagined being put in this unbearable situation."
A family spokesman said authorities found Madeleine's blood in a car the family rented 25 days after reporting her disappearance in May.
Article Correction
An earlier version of this story quoted a prosecution spokeswoman saying there was enough evidence to bring charges. That was incorrect. The prosecutor's office said only that files on the case had been passed to a judge. And the Portuguese television station SIC, citing police sources, reported that DNA matches to the girl were found in the car.
Police put the couple through intensive questioning before declaring them "arguidos," or suspects, on Friday.
Under Portuguese law, investigators can pose certain types of questions to arguidos who, in turn, get legal protections that are not extended to witnesses.
If they are charged, the McCanns -- who left Portugal Sunday to return to their home in Rothley, England -- will have five days to present themselves to police in Portugal, de Sousa said.
Brian Kennedy, Kate McCann's uncle, told reporters Monday that the McCanns would return to Portugal if asked to do so.
In a statement Sunday to reporters at East Midlands Airport, Gerry McCann described as "deeply disturbing" the days since Portuguese authorities named them as suspects in the disappearance of their daughter.
"We have played no part in the disappearance of our lovely daughter Madeleine," he said, his voice breaking.
Portuguese authorities have not commented publicly on evidence or interviews in the case.
The parents reported Madeleine abducted May 3, saying they had left her and their two-year-old twins asleep in their resort apartment in Praia da Luz, southern Portugal, as they dined just yards away.
Philomena McCann, the sister of Madeleine's father, told the British network ITN on Friday that police "tried to get Kate to confess to having accidentally killed Madeleine by offering her a deal through her lawyer" in which she would say she killed Madeleine by accident "and then disposed of the body."
The Sunday Mirror quoted Kate McCann discussing the offer in an interview with the paper.
"They are basically saying, 'If you confess Madeleine had an accident, and that I panicked and hid the body in a bag for a month, then got rid of it in a hire car, I'd get two or three years' suspended sentence,'" she is quoted as saying, adding, "Police don't want a murder in Portugal."
On Saturday, Kate McCann's mother Susan Healy told ITN, "It's ludicrous. It's bizarre. ... Kate never raises her voice to her children. She's the most loving and gentle mother."
The McCanns and their friends and relatives say they are holding out hope that Madeleine will be found alive.
The girl's disappearance more than four months ago received prominent coverage both in the UK and internationally, with celebrities, including soccer icon David Beckham, offering their help to draw attention to the case and raise money for the search.
The parents traveled abroad to drum up support and met with Pope Benedict XVI
