[Lostie!]

Originally Posted by Jason.

She's probably dead and has been since May 2007 when she was kidnapped. Honestly, they (the media and the McCann's) just need to get over it and move on. Cynical and harsh as it may sound, it's true.

Easier said than done for a mother and father to just "get over" their daughter going missing and never having closure, though.

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by LeatherTrumpet

[LeatherTrumpet]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

ew its picking its nose

[Kizzy]

It has no nose

How does it smell


terrible!

I predicted the 'dad joke'.

[Vicky.]

Originally Posted by Jamie89

Is it really sensible for them to release this information publicly? Surely if it's true, it would be damaging to their search

Indeed..

Kinda like when you are warned by police that drawing attention to a rare eye defect could lead to your (hopefully) alive child being killed as easily identifiable..but you chose to do it anyway as its a 'good marketing ploy'

The mind boggles tbh

Anyway, this won't be Madeleine. Sadly there is no chance she will be alive and happy..living a normal life after all of this time.

[Vicky.]

Originally Posted by Livia

My take on it is this: if there is evidence, present it. if their is not... maybe you've got the wrong end of the stick.

:-)

Fair enough, but the little problem of there not being evidence to suggest ANY theory in this case is the slight problem with this. So even those who believe kates claim of abduction should not discuss the case, as there is no evidence for that line of thinking either, besides the word of the parents, who in other cases would be the prime suspects to the majority

Its not as if those who believe something more sinister went on are just ignoring all real evidence or anything, like 911 truthers and that

[T*]

daily mail

[kirklancaster]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

WTF? LOL

[GiRTh]

Originally Posted by Vicky.

Fair enough, but the little problem of there not being evidence to suggest ANY theory in this case is the slight problem with this. So even those who believe kates claim of abduction should not discuss the case, as there is no evidence for that line of thinking either, besides the word of the parents, who in other cases would be the prime suspects to the majority

Its not as if those who believe something more sinister went on are just ignoring all real evidence or anything, like 911 truthers and that

This. There is no evidence to back up the abduction theeory so why arent people allowed to speculate?

[Babayaro.]

Poor girl, and her family

[Ninastar]

Originally Posted by Livia

Who'd have thought this could be turned into a race thread?

Just when I thought this forum couldn't get any more ridiculous.

[Jack_]

Yep, just when I thought this place couldn't get any more ridiculous people choose not to read or look at presented evidence and simply cherry pick the things that sound the most commonsensical because omg how could things possibly be any different, we must accept everything at face value

Oh wait, that's what always happens

[Vicky.]

Every thread seems to turn into a race thread these days

[Jack_]

To be honest I'd say it's other people's problem if they take 'missing white girl syndrome' to be exclusively about race, even moreso after its definition has now been explained on several occasions

Just proves people don't read...

[Vicky.]

Originally Posted by Jack_

To be honest I'd say it's other people's problem if they take 'missing white girl syndrome' to be exclusively about race, even moreso after its definition has now been explained on several occasions

Just proves people don't read...

I hope this isn't at me, I knew exactly what you meant even before you had to explain it

[Jack_]

Originally Posted by Vicky.

I hope this isn't at me, I knew exactly what you meant even before you had to explain it

No LOL, I meant in response to your post that the reason this particular thread has turned into a race one is because people have latched on to the word 'white' and ignored the 'girl' despite me explaining it several times

I knew you hadn't done that

[GiRTh]

Originally Posted by Jack_

No LOL, I meant in response to your post that the reason this particular thread has turned into a race one is because people have latched on to the word 'white' and ignored the 'girl' despite me explaining it several times

I knew you hadn't done that

[kirklancaster]

Originally Posted by Alf

Just get to the point. You'll like me dead.

[T*]

If say it was her, wouldn't she have forgotten her mum and dad by now? She was like 4...

[Toy Soldier]

Originally Posted by Tom*

If say it was her, wouldn't she have forgotten her mum and dad by now? She was like 4...

There is a fairly large moral dilemma surrounding these issues. I'm sure there was a case in recent years, where a girl who was kidnapped young was discovered living with a traveller community. The community had no idea she was kidnapped, she had been dumped there by a couple who had claimed to be her parents, and she had lived there for nearly 10 years and was (when found) an early teen... With people she considered parents, family, friends... Her whole life... But obviously her biological parents wanted to take her away. People who were total strangers to her.

It's a tough one, morally. Kids (especially older kids / teens) are not the possessions of their parents and forcibly removing them from a safe, loving home that's the only home they've ever known would probably be hugely traumatic. In the best interests of the child... If you find them somewhere where they are safe, healthy and happy then approaching the situation very softly would be the only real option for me. Sadly I think many parents would feel it would be their "right" to "take" their child back, rip them away and not even consider the consequences.

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

There is a fairly large moral dilemma surrounding these issues. I'm sure there was a case in recent years, where a girl who was kidnapped young was discovered living with a traveller community. The community had no idea she was kidnapped, she had been dumped there by a couple who had claimed to be her parents, and she had lived there for nearly 10 years and was (when found) an early teen... With people she considered parents, family, friends... Her whole life... But obviously her biological parents wanted to take her away. People who were total strangers to her.

It's a tough one, morally. Kids (especially older kids / teens) are not the possessions of their parents and forcibly removing them from a safe, loving home that's the only home they've ever known would probably be hugely traumatic. In the best interests of the child... If you find them somewhere where they are safe, healthy and happy then approaching the situation very softly would be the only real option for me. Sadly I think many parents would feel it would be their "right" to "take" their child back, rip them away and not even consider the consequences.

Yeah it is a very tough one. In a situation like the one you've mentioned then I think the best option would be to start out with having visiting rights to the child and see how it goes from there........obviously not if those the child is living with were the actual abductors though

[Kizzy]

For me there would be no question of her staying with the new 'family', they wouldn't have obtained her under any legal method would they?

[Toy Soldier]

Originally Posted by Kizzy

For me there would be no question of her staying with the new 'family', they wouldn't have obtained her under any legal method would they?

You have to be careful, though, that's a kneejerk reaction. If you drag, say, a 13 year old away from the people who they consider to be their family and friends, tell them they can never see them again, potentially even take them to another country. Maybe with people speaking a completely different language? There is a (very) high chance that they will simply never forgive you, even outright hate you, for life. Taking it to an even greater extreme, with a depressed teenager you have a very real suicide risk.

Even if the people they are found with are their actual abductors, the safest thing to do would be for them to be taken into care (with the abductors kept far away from them, hopefully in jail) but still allow them access to their friends etc. and have the biological family come into the situation slowly and carefully - so that they are a 3rd party, and never the ones thought of as having "taken them away".

Edited to add: If their abductors have treated them well / raised them like their own child, you also have to accept that there's a very high likelihood that the child does - and always will - love them like parents and may well decide to have them in their life in adulthood.

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by Kizzy

For me there would be no question of her staying with the new 'family', they wouldn't have obtained her under any legal method would they?

Well there was another case (it was a film I watched actually which I think was based on a true story) where a toddler was snatched by this woman who'd lost her own baby, she got married and the boy was raised by this woman who abducted him and the "step father" who naturally just took for granted that the boy was his wife's biological child. The "mother" died and so the boy was then raised by his step dad who was completely un aware that things weren't above board and then the boy was "found" when he was about 10 years old. It goes through the heart ache from all involved and how the boy wanted to stay with his step dad etc

[Ammi]

...just to change it slightly and I know that I'm probably going to be alone in my thoughts on this, but when Madeleine first went missing and many of the public felt that Gerry and Kate should have been charged with neglect etc...I personally think that would have been the worst thing to have happened for the twins...as a parent, I will never fathom anyone leaving children of that age in an apartment alone and in unfamiliar surroundings etc...but my whole mind-set is very much also largely about the perspective of a child/children and for them/the twins..the impact of everything that was happening surrounding their family would have been huge anyway, even at their young ages/they would have absorbed so much and I feel that the one thing that they desperately needed was that one security constant off having their parents in their lives in as much as 'normal' as was possible...