[Jamie89]

Originally Posted by Brillopad

I honestly don't know, it's a very difficult one - you may be right that emotions can get in the way.

The public don't have a good track record on their reaction to cases like this and I find it very difficult to believe Maddie's parents would have either harmed their daughter or tried to cover up an accident or poor decision on their part i.e. Drugging her.

In this case I do prefer to give them the benefit of the doubt until concrete evidence proves me wrong.

I can only speak for myself but it was certainly the case for me.
I remember when it first made the news and before there was anything that suggested they might have been involved, my mum saying something like "hmm I bet the parents had something to do with it" because she's a 'think the worst of people' kind of person, so I think I've always felt a bit like suspicions of them had more to do with cynicism and wanting to think the worst than anything else, and I wanted to think they wouldn't have been involved. I'm not 100% either way on it though and I'm the same that I'd want concrete evidence to be convinced, so I still think the abduction theory could be true (although I think it's very unlikely), but mainly where I've changed my opinion on it is with thinking that people who are strongly convinced that the McCanns were involved in a cover up actually have a lot to reasonably back that up.