I have always been facinated with this case and troubled by it. Everything seemed so unlikley the way it supposedly went down. No apparent motive was ever established to link the parents to the childs disappearance.
Something I have thought for a long time could be a possible motive and possibly some of the dopers here might shoot it down or elaborate on it more. In the childs photos she seems to have a very wide eye set similar to what might be seen in a child with pre-natal alcohol syndrome. I believe the mother is a Dr. If in fact the child did have this affliction could this possibly be a motive to get rid of the child? I know the sympotoms generaly become apparent at about age 4 and I believe this child was about 4 yrs old when she disappeared.
WTF is Madeleine Mcann?
A two-second Google search turned this up, although it would have been nice for the OP to provide this information himself. (Or herself.)
I screwed up the spelling as usual Madeleine McCann, she was kidnapped in Portugal several years ago and the crime was never solved.
Er, it could be a motive… but it seems extremely unlikely for all kinds of reasons.
There are a lot of conspiracy theories about this case as the mccanns rubbed a lot of people up the wrong way by their publicity-grabbing (publicity they were not grabbing for no reason of course, but because they wanted to publicise their missing daughter so others would recognise her). Equally the so-called tapas seven who some of the conspiracists think were in on it too.
To be honest she was almost certainly nicked by an opportunist paedophile or went wandering and fell down a hole or something. None of the other so-called suspicious things seem suspicious to me.
It won’t take much googling to find various hundred or even thousand-page long discussions about this at various forums that still go on to this day.
Find me a single cite that FAS is linked to extra-wide eyes. I couldn’t find one.
Find me a single cite that the mother ever had drinking problems.
“To be honest she was almost certainly nicked by an opportunist paedophile or went wandering and fell down a hole or something. None of the other so-called suspicious things seem suspicious to me.”
I can see where a fair skinned blue eyed child might grab the attention of a pedofile in Portugal but it would seem much easier opportunities would be present.
I just now easily found a few sites showing pics of children with wide set eyes. As for the mother her drinking habits at the time of her pregnancy would have to be investigated if their is any reason to believe the child did indeed suffer from this.
I found a reference to widened eyes. I didn’t the first time because you also mis-labeled the condition. It is Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.
Widened (Ocular hypertelorism) eyes have been reported in FAS cases, but it is NOT a symptom of the condition. It is associated with numerous conditions.
Excuse me? Pictures of wide set eyes? So what? Some children have them, and as the links I just posted show, it is associated with a lot of things.
I haven’t followed the case but I have two questions after reading the wiki:
Why on earth did they leave the apartment unlocked?
I can’t imagine leaving a four year-old and twin two year-olds unsupervised in that manner. 120 meters isn’t all that close, and even with regular checks I wouldn’t feel comfortable. Am I being harsh or would most people feel the same?
The parents are either stupid, negligent or somehow complicit.
Children being kidnapped from their beds by strangers is extremely rare. Children being killed by their parents is less rare.
Jim, I have worked around addict and alcoholic mothers for many years and have seen many of these children. Madeliene seems to have this look. As I said earlier I am hoping a proffessional picks up this thread and gives an opinion. Any viable theory is worth looking into when doing an investigation. The age of 4 is the age when the affliction shows itself, she disappeared at age 4. The circumstances of this case are just too odd. Establishing a motive might be helpful.A professional what? Investigator? Doctor? Like I’ve already said, the child’s condition is NOT exclusively related to FAS. In fact, on the page that lists most of the conditions associated with ocular hypertelorism, FAS isn’t even mentioned.
Perhaps the child had that birth defect – I can’t say from looking at the pic whether or not the eyes are far enough apart to let some clinician make a definitive statement on this. And if it can be positively diagnosed, we already know enough to say it CAN’T be conclusively linked with FAS.
However, I wouldn’t dispute that the child might have had this or other birth defects that became too much for the parents to cope with. I would imagine there would be ample evidence of such defects in her medical records.
Did police ever ask to look at those records? I dunno. Did police have a legal right to look at those records if the parents objected? Dunno that either. Did you ever see any statements or stories leaked by the police that the parents were being uncooperative?
The police were certainly at a significant disadvantage investigating a thing like this so far from her home and across national borders. Could they afford to send a competent investigator to her home to interview friends and neighbors? Again, did they even try? There are always things that don’t make it into the press which might lead the police in one direction, or close off the paths into another.
There was a lot of controversy surrounding the parents because of a lack of cooperation and refusal to answer any questions. Some say this was upon the advice of their lawyer to simply not answer any questions. Many of the questions they refused to answer were the type of questions that could have also led them to a possible kidnapper. I am certainly not an authority on this case beyond what I have read in the daily papers but I remember the first thing I saw when I saw the girls pic was the same thing I have seen in many children of alcoholic mothers.
Coming out of lurker mode to say that Fetal Alcohol Syndrome can be diagnosed at birth based on certain facial features.
Certainly a child with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome will manifest symptoms long before age four.
It’s possible that a child with FAS might not be diagnosed until the developmental delays begin to manifest, but with both parents being doctors and living and working in an urban environment, its unlikely that a disability that noticeable wouldn’t have been diagnosed much earlier.
Going back into lurker mode…
Thats my hole point in the post, from what I have read age 4 is where the illness becomes apparent, the parents were almost certainly aware of it sooner if it in fact existed, I doubt they would want a diagnosis if she is a Dr. Thats why I was seeing this as a possible motive.
There is almost no way she could jeep evidence of birth defects out of her kid’s medical records. The medical institution is too big. There would be obstetricians, gynecologists, pediatricians involved. There would be test results that can’t be just “disappeared”.
What is her medical specialty?
According to this story, the British Police have assigned (or did assign, the chronology is not clear) more than 30 people to the case. My best guess is that they’ve looked at all the evidence they could legally get to, and I have no idea whether that would include the child’s medical records.
According to this NY Times story, the Brits re-opened the case in April of this year, and have gathered all the evidence from three separate investigations into their file. Like the Portuguese police before them, the British police have concluded the parents were not involved.
If the mother (a doctor, BTW) drank alcohol during her pregnancy she would have been well aware of the risks to her fetus and been looking for the features of the syndrome at birth. There is no way she could have hidden such an obvious syndrome from pediatricians and other health care providers for four years.
Also, as a doctor, she would know that early intervention is critical in helping her child maximize its developmental potential, and she would have (most likely) been proactive in seeking out and putting early intervention services in place.
I don’t know what the laws are where this mother delivered her child, but in many states, the delivering hospital is required to report diagnosed cases of FAS to child protective services for investigation of possible prenatal abuse, just as in children who are born drug dependent.