# Madeleine McCann's Mom Accused
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccanns-mom-accused/418349
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [September 7, 2007, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccanns-mom-accused/418349 "2007-09-07T13:22:50Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 5
### Author:  [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2007, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccanns-mom-accused/418349/81 "2007-09-10T10:42:29Z")
[QUOTE=Rilchiam]
Mmmmm. Think perhaps they dosed her with Benadryl or something to make her sleep, and it was unintentionally fatal?
I feel a GQ coming on…
[/QUOTE]
Some sources say both parents admit to using safe doses of a legal child painkiller to help the kids sleep.
But with the Portuguese police leaking left, right and centre to their own press and ours picking up stuff selectively it’s hard to know what is true.
I can’t see any motive for murder so IF the parents were involved i feel an accident is the most likely explanation.
I find it hard to believe, what with the UK press jackals being all over them 24/7 since Day One, they could have disposed of a body but you never know.
Maybe close friends have rallied round to help the family stay together despite the accident?
---
### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2007, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccanns-mom-accused/418349/82 "2007-09-10T10:46:11Z")
[QUOTE=chowder]
A couple of hundred meters? jeez man, kids have been snatched when their parents were much closer than that.
If it was my kid these are the options open to me..
1. Use the facilities offered
2. Take the kids with me to dinner
3. Buy food, take it back to the hotel room.
When all is said and done Maddys parents had all day to eat out, fuck the dinner with holiday pals, their kids are on holiday as well.
I wouldn’t have left her alone, never
[/QUOTE]
I’m not sure that some of this kind of reasoning isn’t based on hindsight - i.e. _of course_ it was an unacceptable level of risk - it must have been, because _a little girl went missing_.
Granted, I’d have considered the kids rather young to be left completely unattended, but if they’re older, they’re harder to keep in one place anyway.
If, for example, the kids were known by the parents to be reliably sound sleepers, the room itself was believed to be secure, and the parents intended to check back very regularly, I don’t think it’s necessarily absolutely and entirely unreasonable to think it’s OK to nip out to a location a couple of hundred yards away.
---
### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2007, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccanns-mom-accused/418349/83 "2007-09-10T10:56:49Z")
I also ought to say that my general impression - which I openly acknowledge to be dancing a merry jig at the behest of its media-pulled strings - is that the Portuguese police have dropped the ball and seem to be trying to find some way - _any_ way to wrap it up and call it a day.
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### Author:  [@Martiju](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martiju)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2007, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccanns-mom-accused/418349/84 "2007-09-10T11:43:27Z")
[QUOTE=tagos]
Some sources say both parents admit to using safe doses of a legal child painkiller to help the kids sleep.
But with the Portuguese police leaking left, right and centre to their own press and ours picking up stuff selectively it’s hard to know what is true.
I can’t see any motive for murder so IF the parents were involved i feel an accident is the most likely explanation.
I find it hard to believe, what with the UK press jackals being all over them 24/7 since Day One, they could have disposed of a body but you never know.
Maybe close friends have rallied round to help the family stay together despite the accident?
[/QUOTE]
Yes, this is my speculative theory too. There’s an interesting (albeit also wildly speculative) debate on, of all places, a Daily Mirror forum which has been running for a while now. This is the general consensus there - and outlines the slightly odd relationship between the 9 friends that they went with.
One of the issues discussed covers the fact that Madeleine had caused problems the night before by waking up and being upset at noone being about, and hotel staff had become concerned. If that’s true, I think there’s a good chance that the parents gave her a stronger dose of whatever sedative they were using the next night, perhaps with fatal consequences.
Also, personally, I can’t get over the fact that an apparent abduction took place from the same room where two other small children were sleeping without notice or any sign of forced entry. Something is definitely odd - although naturally the true facts aren’t yet known.
Have to say, I’m also slightly disturbed by the mass hysteria over here about the case - and the fact that millions of people have put money into a fund that has no aim apart from ‘finding Madeleine’. That goes hand in hand with the way in which the McCAnns have fed the media continuous stories - which again just seems like an odd approach. Not reading anything nefarious into that particularly, but there’s a lot that doesn’t add up.
---
### Author:  [@C3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C3)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2007, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccanns-mom-accused/418349/85 "2007-09-10T11:58:29Z")
[QUOTE=fessie]
What I want to know is, since the McCann’s parents are evidently back in England, who’s been watching the twins while they’re running around looking for Madeline? And meeting with the Pope? I can’t see taking a couple of 2-yr-olds to meet the Pope.
Can you imagine the threads – “Keep Your Brats Out of the Holy Water, Fercryinoutloud!”?
[/QUOTE]
Eh, they’re just leaving them in the hotel room.
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### Author:  [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2007, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccanns-mom-accused/418349/86 "2007-09-10T12:54:58Z")
[QUOTE=Layla01]
This is looking more like [the Azaria Chamberlain case](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azaria_Chamberlain_disappearance) all the time, down to the bloodstain in the car and charging the mother with the murder. Two of the children were also sleeping with the child when she disappeared. The parents were wrongfully charged and imprisoned for murder, and later released and exonerated. The police really don’t want to go down that road…
[/QUOTE]
Well, while there are no dingoes in Portugal I bet they are up to their eyeballs in Chupacabras.
Problem solved.
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### Author:  [@Slacker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slacker)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2007, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccanns-mom-accused/418349/87 "2007-09-12T19:50:05Z")
[Police seize mother’s diary](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/12/nosplit/nmaddy712.xml)
It’s still all pretty covered up, but apparently the Police are convinced that the parents are responsible. :eek:
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### Author:  [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2007, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccanns-mom-accused/418349/88 "2007-09-12T19:58:12Z")
The Guardian related a rumor (?) that they’d found some “body fluids” (but not blood) along with a fair amount of hair in the trunk of that rental car.
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### Author:  [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2007, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccanns-mom-accused/418349/89 "2007-09-12T20:08:44Z")
[QUOTE=Slacker]
[Police seize mother’s diary](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/12/nosplit/nmaddy712.xml)
It’s still all pretty covered up, but apparently the Police are convinced that the parents are responsible. :eek:
[/QUOTE]
What the hell are they expecting from the diary?
> [@My Diary by Kate McCann](#):
>
> Thursday: Bought big bottle of sleeping tablets today
>
> Friday: o0oops, ive kild Maddie. hic!
>
> Saturday: Engaged spokeswoman and started pro-active media campaign and fundraising. Note to self: touch base with Pope’s people.
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### Author:  [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2007, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccanns-mom-accused/418349/90 "2007-09-12T20:09:51Z")
[QUOTE=Struan]
What the hell are they expecting from the diary?
[/QUOTE]
:snort: 😛
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### Author:  [@Slacker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slacker)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2007, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccanns-mom-accused/418349/91 "2007-09-12T20:17:11Z")
[QUOTE=Struan]
What the hell are they expecting from the diary?
[/QUOTE]
Close.
> [@](#):
>
> Friday: o0oops, ive kild Maddie. hic!
>
> Current mood: melancholy
> Currently listening to: James Blunt - Beautiful
Or so I hear. 😃
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### Author:  [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2007, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccanns-mom-accused/418349/92 "2007-09-12T20:39:08Z")
[QUOTE=chowder]
So why didn’t the McCanns avail themselves of this service?
[/QUOTE]
It’s the difference between ending dinner by picking up your tired & cranky kids from the babysitting area and putting them to bed yourself (and thereby possibly ruining any romantic mood established during dinner), and coming back to kids already asleep and being able to continue your own activities. Not that I agree with their decision in any way, but when we’ve had a babysitter who didn’t get the kids in bed before we got back from dinner, she never got a call back from us.
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### Author:  [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2007, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccanns-mom-accused/418349/93 "2007-09-12T21:03:21Z")
[QUOTE=tagos]
Well, while there are no dingoes in Portugal I bet they are up to their eyeballs in Chupacabras.
Problem solved.
[/QUOTE]
_shiver_
You are never to talk about being up to your eyeballs in chupacabras ever again, comprende?
\*double shiver \*
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### Author:  [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2007, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccanns-mom-accused/418349/94 "2007-09-12T22:28:54Z")
> [@](#):
>
> I also ought to say that my general impression - which I openly acknowledge to be dancing a merry jig at the behest of its media-pulled strings - is that the Portuguese police have dropped the ball and seem to be trying to find some way - any way to wrap it up and call it a day.
Yeah, the way this case has been handled has been entirely bizarre. _Rumour_ has it that substantial DNA evidence has been found in the rental car, yet the parents are still in possession of it (and commissioning their own tests). I couldn’t imagine for one minute that this would be allowed to happen in the UK - surely the car should have been seized?
The police are in over their heads (bringing British experts in pretty much confirms this).
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### Author:  [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2007, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccanns-mom-accused/418349/95 "2007-09-13T02:02:02Z")
[QUOTE=tagos]
(snip) The Birmingham 5 (snip)
[/QUOTE]
I think you missed a guy… 😉
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### Author:  [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2007, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccanns-mom-accused/418349/96 "2007-09-13T02:05:41Z")
The Birmingham 5 were an r & b combo from Alabama weren’t they?
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### Author:  [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2007, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccanns-mom-accused/418349/97 "2007-09-13T23:09:45Z")
Forensics says that she did die of an overdose. [Link](http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=66061&in_page_id=34)
Is there a “disgusted with humanity” smiley?
---
### Author:  [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2007, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccanns-mom-accused/418349/98 "2007-09-13T23:24:59Z")
But Portuguese officials are still saying that DNA results from the car were inconclusive. Until someone goes on the record, I won’t buy it. The swirling rumors around this case are stifling.
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### Author:  [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2007, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccanns-mom-accused/418349/99 "2007-09-13T23:30:39Z")
This part is interesting, there’ve been all these characterizations of her as the “perfect mother”, always gentle and adoring, who never raised her voice or lost her sense of humor:
> [@](#):
>
> Correio da Manha claimed Mrs McCann wrote in the diary that her children are ‘hysterical’ and exhausted her.
>
> It also claimed her husband gave her little help with family chores.
>
> It added: 'She complains frequently that her children are “hysterical” and speaks of Madeleine as a child whose excess activity exhausts her.
>
> She tells also how Gerry doesn’t help her with the family chores and that she has to cope alone with her two youngest children.’
>
> The daily Publico claimed Mrs McCann’s worries about her children’s behaviour and her difficulties disciplining them were contained in the diary.
---
### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2007, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/madeleine-mccanns-mom-accused/418349/100 "2007-09-13T23:31:58Z")
[QUOTE=SpazCat]
Forensics says that she did die of an overdose. [Link](http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=66061&in_page_id=34)
[/QUOTE]
Well… hang on a sec… maybe that’s true, but the article you’ve linked is incredibly sketchy and speculative.
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