# Madeleine McCann Mystery
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccann-mystery/636498
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [October 2, 2012, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccann-mystery/636498 "2012-10-02T17:36:02Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2012, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccann-mystery/636498/21 "2012-10-03T00:04:09Z")
> [@LouLou7](#):
>
> 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.
If a doctor (presumably someone who knows full well the dangers of boozing while expecting, much more than a layperson would) was enough of an alcoholic to constantly drink throughout her pregnancy, I have no faith that she would have been together enough to seek out early intervention services for her kid…
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### Author:  [@LouLou7](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouLou7)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2012, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccann-mystery/636498/22 "2012-10-03T00:10:31Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#):
>
> If a doctor (presumably someone who knows full well the dangers of boozing while expecting, much more than a layperson would) was enough of an alcoholic to constantly drink throughout her pregnancy, I have no faith that she would have been together enough to seek out early intervention services for her kid…
True that.
However, IIRC, her husband, the childs father is also a doctor, most likely a lot of their friends are doctors, and she went on to have a healthy set of twins two years later. So, the chances that she’s a closet alcoholic and nobody suspected are pretty remote.
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### Author:  [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2012, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccann-mystery/636498/23 "2012-10-03T10:24:21Z")
> **[Theory on motive](https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t5703-theory-on-motive#125444)**
>
> This case got my attention early on yet I was never aware of any discussion groups until now. When I saw the little girl I could not help but notice she had the
The resemblance here is uncanny. I feel stronger than ever now that this should be looked at.
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### Author:  [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2012, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccann-mystery/636498/24 "2012-10-03T11:26:55Z")
> [@badger5149](#):
>
> [Theory on motive](http://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t5703-theory-on-motive#125444)
> The resemblance here is uncanny. I feel stronger than ever now that this should be looked at.
What? I see no abnormality in Madeleine’s features whatsoever.
Methinks you are clutching at some very fragile straws **badger**. :dubious:
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### Author:  [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2012, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccann-mystery/636498/25 "2012-10-03T11:29:37Z")
> [@badger5149](#):
>
> [Theory on motive](http://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t5703-theory-on-motive#125444)
> The resemblance here is uncanny. I feel stronger than ever now that this should be looked at.
What, the resemblance to your user name? :dubious:
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### Author:  [@Skara\_Brae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skara_Brae)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2012, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccann-mystery/636498/26 "2012-10-03T11:35:35Z")
Did Madeline have any other symptoms of FAS besides wide set eyes? Because plenty of people have wide set eyes, it can also be genetics.
Do you think [Amanda Seyfried](http://www.peoplestylewatch.com/people/stylewatch/gallery/0,,20365968_20780218,00.html) or [Jessica Alba](http://www.instyle.com/instyle/package/general/photos/0,,20218994_20218721_20495821,00.html) has FAS too?
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### Author:  [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2012, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccann-mystery/636498/27 "2012-10-03T11:41:49Z")
I think Amanda Seyfried is an alien, to be honest. Maddie McCann, however, I think was abducted by an opportunistic paedophile.
Sadly there’s a case in the news now about a five-year-old girl abducted in Wales. A man has been arrested but the girl is still missing.
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### Author:  [@Cinnamon\_Imp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cinnamon_Imp)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2012, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccann-mystery/636498/28 "2012-10-03T12:02:42Z")
> [@LouLou7](#):
>
> True that.
>
> However, IIRC, her husband, the childs father is also a doctor, most likely a lot of their friends are doctors, and she went on to have a healthy set of twins two years later. So, the chances that she’s a closet alcoholic and nobody suspected are pretty remote.
IIRC Madeleine and the twins were all the result of IVF. I believe it’s unlikely that someone who’s gone to that extent to have kids (IVF is fairly unpleasant for the woman) would then decide to booze it up during pregnancy. I doubt you’d physically be able to drink when on the fertility drugs, and you’d be being monitored by midwifes etc who’d also notice if you were turning up hungover or with alcohol in your urine/blood samples.
And surely the “punishment” for having a kid with FAS is nothing compared to being jailed for abduction&murder.
Your theory makes no sense.
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### Author:  [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2012, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccann-mystery/636498/29 "2012-10-03T12:12:32Z")
> [@badger5149](#):
>
> 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.
Any professional giving an opinion off whether a child has FAS based off pictures on the internet would be in question - it wouldn’t be at all ethical for a professional to speculate on a real human being based off that small amount of information.
I’m not sure how you expect to be helpful on a rather obscure message board. Perhaps you’d should call the police and speculate to them. Its unlikely that anyone on this board has insight or connections into the McCann case, and if they did, it would - again - be unprofessional to discuss it here.
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### Author:  [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2012, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccann-mystery/636498/30 "2012-10-03T12:27:10Z")
If a person is in fact an alcoholic they may not even be aware of it. All the rules of logic go out the window as they have no control over taking a first drink and once they take that drink stopping at one is no longer an option. In most cases once someone realizes they are an alcoholic they may get a better handle on taking the first drink.
Most likely this would turn out not to be a motive but I think it is well worth looking at.
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### Author:  [@Enola\_Gay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Gay)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2012, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccann-mystery/636498/31 "2012-10-03T12:47:07Z")
Madeleine McCann had a benign condition called [coloboma of the iris](http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003318.htm), which might give the impression that her eye is drooping. I see no signs of FAS in her.
I’ve read extensively about this case and I believe your hypothesis is 100% wrong. Parents were both MDs. Child was conceived via IVF, which means the mother would have had blood work done throughout her pregnancy.
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### Author:  [@Enola\_Gay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Gay)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2012, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccann-mystery/636498/32 "2012-10-03T12:55:49Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#):
>
> 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.
This is a cultural difference. Europeans do things that Americans might consider negligent. For example, I have seen European women leave a baby carriage (with the baby in it) parked outside of a shop, while they go in and purchase something. Americans might consider that dangerous and negligent.
On the flip side, Americans do many things that Europeans would consider unthinkable. For example, keeping a gun in a house where children live may be considered dangerous and negligent by European standards. If a child somehow gets ahold of a gun and shoots himself, would most Americans think the it was the parents way of offing the kid or just a horrible tragedy? Again, cultural differences.
And btw, they left the door unlocked because all the parents (the McCanns & the other couples they were dining with) took turns running back to the rooms every hour to make sure the kids were still asleep.
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### Author:  [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2012, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccann-mystery/636498/33 "2012-10-03T17:17:22Z")
As I recall, one of the more popular conspiracy theories about the case was that the McCann’s had taken to giving their children sedatives (having access as MD’s to various sleeping medications, I suppose) rather than getting them a sitter when they went out for the evening, and on that night in Portugal it finally went wrong and wee Maddie OD’d in the hotel room, where her parents found her lifeless body, panicked (as they obviously knew that they would be criminally liable for drugging their children) and threw her still-warm corpse to the fearsome sea below, where evidence of their shocking crime would be forever concealed by Poseidon’s grim mercies…:dubious:
If I was a betting man, I would wager that poor Maddie was probably snatched by an opportunistic local, (maybe with a mind for a kidnap/ransom from wealthy Westerners?) and is probably long since dead.
Very sad, and I assume that her parents are tortured constantly with second-guessing their decision to go out drinking with their friends without bringing their children with them (or otherwise arranging for supervision) for the evening.
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### Author:  [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2012, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccann-mystery/636498/34 "2012-10-03T18:34:26Z")
> [@Enola\_Gay](#):
>
> This is a cultural difference. Europeans do things that Americans might consider negligent. For example, I have seen European women leave a baby carriage (with the baby in it) parked outside of a shop, while they go in and purchase something. Americans might consider that dangerous and negligent.
Outside shops, and cafes, and restaurant, and so on. And it is considered best to leave the babies sleeping outside (unsupervised) in the baby carriage also through winter. I see nothing stupid or negligent in letting the kids sleep alone in the hotel room while going in and checking on them once in a while.
I always assumed the girl had been killed by some accident by the parents, but now that the police rules that out I don’t know. If one should be a little hopeful then it is possible that she was taken and sold into adoption rather than stolen by some perverted paedophile. Unfortunately even so, her birth defect and the parents wide exposure of it would make her easily recognizable, and since she has not been found, even in such a scenario she’s probably dead.
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### Author:  [@LC\_Strawhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LC_Strawhouse)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2012, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccann-mystery/636498/35 "2012-10-03T18:43:52Z")
I don’t know much about this case but I read an article from an FBI (?) profiler who said that the crime was likely committed by a couple with trouble conceiving children of their own. Maybe someone else can find this online. The profiler’s argument did have the ring of truth about it compared to all the other lurid theories.
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### Author:  [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2012, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccann-mystery/636498/36 "2012-10-04T01:44:27Z")
Personally I’ve always thought she just wandered off and fell in a stormwater drain or somesuch and no one’s found her remains.
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### Author:  [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2012, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccann-mystery/636498/37 "2012-10-04T11:25:09Z")
From what I have read about this case no theories are based upon any kind of fact, all are pure conjecture. A child disabled because of an irresponsible act of drinking by one parent is at least a motive based on some kind of logic. The first thing to be established is wether or not the child actually has FAS. The parents have refused to release the childs medical records. If an expert in the field of FAS determined their was sufficient evidence of this affliction a judge may very well overturn the parents desire to keep this childs records hidden.
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### Author:  [@Cinnamon\_Imp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cinnamon_Imp)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2012, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccann-mystery/636498/38 "2012-10-04T11:55:49Z")
And then what? Even if the medical records suggested symptoms of FAS (which I don’t personally believe is likely), it’s not going to lead anyone to her body.
The parents would just lawyer up and say they loved their little girl, ill or not, and use the resulting publicity from any suggested diagnosis to get the case back in the media again, and run more “Find Maddie!” campaigns.
And get more donations.
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### Author:  [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2012, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccann-mystery/636498/39 "2012-10-04T12:20:02Z")
> [@badger5149](#):
>
> The parents have refused to release the childs medical records.
Cite?
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### Author:  [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2012, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccann-mystery/636498/40 "2012-10-04T12:21:15Z")
My husband has known one of the people who was on that trip since childhood (though he’s never met the McCanns, and I’ve never met any of them). Based on a variety of anecdotal evidence including the fact that this friend also had children on that trip, I’m inclined to agree with the British police: an accident or a stranger.
The complicating factors are the language barrier and the specific Portuguese police investigation at the time. It seems that balls were dropped because of these, and the Portuguese police (understandably if regrettably) don’t want to own up to that.
ETA: I’m also inclined to call “nonsense” on FAS. Americans are overly inclined to call alcoholism on British people. I know, because I’ve done it myself. Different drinking culture. If diagnosis could be done easily from photos, we’d see the insurance industry in the US doing it all the time. We don’t. Not every odd feature of a child’s appearance is pathological.
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