Cops Suspect Parents In Missing British Girl Case

I agree with your thoughts though, Steve. It's ludicrous to assume
that these two people murdered their own child while on vacation.

We have been transfixed by the story because Madeleine is a pretty child whose parents are as removed as it is possible to be from the stereotypical image of a single mother going to the Costa Brava leaving the kids home alone. The fact that they are doctors, who save lives rather than take them, added to our fascination.

How many times in the past 127 days have you debated whether you would leave a three-year-old and two-year-old twin siblings, without adult supervision, while dining in a tapas bar a 52-second walk away?

But the other reason we have been absorbed is because we're filled with a mixture of admiration and disbelief at the way Kate McCann always appeared so immaculate in public, when most mums would have broken down long ago.

We so want to admire her. I hope at the end of this we still do.

Yes. I think most thoughful parents would not leave their children asleep in a strange environment, without an adult in earshot.
And not even in their own bedrooms either.

My personal sympathy is tempered by the fact that I think they were negligent.

Regarding Walter's quote from the Telegraph...

I've always wondered at parents that can appear calm when something like this happens. I'm facinated whenever I see a mother who is supposedly living the most horrific nightmare for a parent, appear on camera dressed tastefully, hair fixed and makeup on.
I wonder how did she open her jewelry box and choose a necklace? How did she decide what earrings to wear??

If I was in that situation, I doubt if I'd be able to dress myself, much less style my hair. Address the media? I probably wouldn't be able to form complete sentences.

Regarding Walter's quote from the Telegraph...

I've always wondered at parents that can appear calm when something like this happens. I'm facinated whenever I see a mother who is supposedly living the most horrific nightmare for a parent, appear on camera dressed tastefully, hair fixed and makeup on.
I wonder how did she open her jewelry box and choose a necklace? How did she decide what earrings to wear??

If I was in that situation, I doubt if I'd be able to dress myself, much less style my hair. Address the media? I probably wouldn't be able to form complete sentences.

Yes. I think most thoughful parents would not leave their children asleep in a strange environment, without an adult in earshot.
And not even in their own bedrooms either.

My personal sympathy is tempered by the fact that I think they were negligent.

dlowan wrote:

Miller wrote:

Checkout the abnormality observed in the iris of the child's eye:

http://www.findmadeleine.com/

What are you thinking this so called abnormality means, Miller?

If this abnormality isn't pigmentation, it looks like an iridectomy was performed on the child's iris.

"An iridectomy, also known as a surgical iridectomy or corectomy, is the surgical removal of part of the iris. These procedures are most frequently performed in the treatment of closed-angle glaucoma and iris melanoma".( see wikipedia for more info)

But The Observer can reveal that it is the DNA analysis, painstakingly conducted over a period of weeks by the Forensic Science Service in Birmingham, that prompted Portuguese police to summon first Kate, then Gerry, for extended questioning and finally to class them both as suspects. The main focus of the inquiry is a small and degraded sample of blood found on the floor of the Praia da Luz holiday flat that matches perfectly, but incompletely, Madeleine's DNA profile.

But sources close to the team handling Madeleine's disappearance say that a further reason for the Portuguese police's sudden shift of focus is that they have concerns about alleged contradictions in the accounts of her disappearance given by her parents and their friends in the first days of the investigation.

The problem for the police - and the consolation for the McCanns and their circle - is that, even with major recent advances, DNA profiling is not an exact science. Particularly with samples degraded by time, as in this case, there can be no absolute certainty of a match. More importantly, science can say nothing conclusive about how a bit of Madeleine's blood, if it is indeed hers, might have got there in the first place. But by last night, the likelihood was that, whatever the direction of the investigation in the coming weeks, the McCanns' agony will get worse before it get better. The police have made it clear privately that they will want further and more detailed answers to clear up the mystery of the DNA samples. And all that against the background of feverish, often lurid, speculation by newspapers and broadcasters worldwide, which, until just days ago, were painting a portrait of Kate and Gerry McCann not as suspects, but as grieving parents

Smart move...

This "move" by the Portuguese police is much more likely to be a backlash to them being a focus for media criticism than anything else. IMO its simplistic aim is to try to get the circus "out of their hair" by trying to get the parents to "clear off".

Miller wrote:

Smart move...

..if they want to retain their sanity!

I guess the Portuguese police could come to some extradition arrangement with the British police/government if they have grounds to lay charges against them .... or stop them from leaving the country at all.