Hi guys,

Those of you in the UK will be familiar with the story of the abduction of British 4-year old Madeleine McCann from her holiday appartment in Praia da Luz, the Algarve, Portugal on the evening of 3rd May.

My parents are close to a number of the McCann's good friends, who have asked everyone they know to inform as many people as possible across europe of Madeleine's abduction.



It would be great if those of you living on Continental Europe could circulate this picture to as many people as possible to raise awareness of Madeleine's plight across Europe. Police believe she has been taken out of Portugal, probably to Spain.

Thanks guys, let's all pray for her safe return.

Good of you to act on the request, Odie.. There are certainly a few posters on here based in mainland Europe.

It must be such a traumatic situation for everyone involved. Fingers crossed that this is resolved asap with her returning safe and sound.

What a striking little girl. I hope they find her.

My wife was telling me the other day that it was being discussed on the radio or television that Madeline's right pupil is very much a distinguishing feature - she is not only striking to look at, but her identity is difficult to conceal if you get a chance to see her right eye at all closely.

It's just so awful, I so hope that she has not been harmed. I cannot imagine how her parents are feeling, but this news strikes such a chord because it is possible to imagine how easily one could be in the same position with just one bit of bad luck, a lapse of concentration, or even a quick error of judgment.

It's hard to imagine that she will be found unharmed after so long,but let's hope that for once there is a happy conclusion to this awful case.Apparently the police have been questioning a British man who lives in a nearby villa.If only she could be found safe and sound as her parents hope.

Agreed - this length of time makes it far more likely that she's been taken by somebody who is sufficiently cynical not to think it worth returning her unharmed and facing the consequences.

Hope is by and large a marvellous thing, but it can also be absolute torture.

The whole thing is incredibly sad. I can not imagine the constant torture the parents face every day. The what ifs and the wondering. Hope is indeed the only thing to cling to but like you say it is looking bleak.

It is absolutely dreadful - Rothley (Row-thley please pronounce!) is about two miles from my tennis club and I have driven there a couple of times to see what it's like - there are yellow ribbons everywhere, the scene is amazing!

I saw the video for the Appeal yesterday with the Simple minds song (great band, great song) at Twickenham - was very good. The appeal efforts have been fantastic - don't give up hope!

Only thing I would say, not being wise after the event just honest, is that I can't believe you would leave someone so young alone in a foreign land, even your own apartment. My parents never ever did that, I went everywhere with them. Of course you still don't expect it to happen mind :(

I feel really sorry for Madeleine's parents having to bear this extra burden of guilt but you have to be incredibly unlucky for this to happen even if you do leave your children alone.It must be agony for them as the days pass with no news of their little girl.To think that there are people out there who are willing to put fellow human beings through such torture is so sad.

Agreed totally, you do have to be very unlucky - but there are sick people out there. Hindsight is awful sometimes, hopefully other parents will think twice in similar situations now :(

Just as sick are the people (allegedly in California) who are trying to make money out of Madeleine's official appeal by making their own donation websites using misspelt versions of her name - apparently they have made tens of thousands :angry:

Even worse, there are also people setting up their own appeal funds and using pictures of their OWN children, who aren't even lost., these people should be locked up and throw away the key

That's awful.How can people stoop so low?

There are lots of kids that go missing every day that aren't afforded so much media coverage.

That may be true, but some of these sickos are creating websites and pretending their children are lost - you can't dress it up!

Anyway back to Maddy - the official appeal has been magnificent and as I said, Rothley is some sight at the moment!

well...

update on this, experts are testing samples in the flat, having apparently found some traces of blood on the walls.

Now, please please please don't lynch me for the conspiracy in my head which I have discussed with people in the real world, but I am now starting to get ever so slightly suspicious of her parents.

I have to say their reaction from the very start looked a little too calm and calculated to the press, and they took no time at all to charge around all manner of random places in Europe, which already had searches going.
All i'm wondering is that say that they did it, intentionally or even by accident, the fact they've pushed into the media so quickly would certainly be a very good way of diverting attention. We saw it with the evil Ian Huntley, he must have given more interviews to the media in the first week or so of the girls disappearance than anyone.

I have no evidence to back this up, and obviously I, like everybody else, hope she will be found safe and well. But if the portuguese police don't have any progress in the next couple of months, they may well start looking at the parents. They would in britain.

In the meantime, let's :pray: for Maddy's safe return.

agreed!!

yes it's terrible and i hope they find her. but her parent's are beyond responsible for what happened. leaving their child in a hotel on holiday while they go dine :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

and lots of children go missing every day. but she's a cute white girl so i guess it plays well in the media...sad really :(

I know what you mean Sam, it seems so unreal to think it, but i often get suspicious of parents in these situations.

My reason for doing so is why did the intruder or intruders only take Madeline, when there was two other children in the apartment? I honestly cant believe there was people targetting one girl and following her on holiday, because that would be sick.

I hope to god that nothing comes of my suspicions, but you never know. I just hope the little girl is returned soon. Of course, suspicions aside it must be a nightmare for the parents, as it wouldbe every parent.

It's hard to imagine Maddie's parents being able to keep up the whole show of innocence in front of the world's media,but I suppose it's not impossible that the abduction story could have been a cover-up for a domestic 'accident'.I do remember thinking Mrs McCann's first words when returning to their friends after discovering her daughter's disappearance('They've taken her') as being a strange choice.Wouldn't 'She's gone or I can't find her' have been more usual?At the time I thought that she must've been under extreme stress and worded it oddly,but now I'm starting to wonder. :(

I just don't know, there's just something a little strange about it all for me with the parents - we all act in different ways to extreme circumstances of course, but whenever they have been criticised in even a minor way for leaving Maddie, they have jumped righ back down the throats of the person posing the question instead of talking of regret.

I think the other thing that's on my mind, as I said in the previous post, is that I remember when the Soha murders happened, how Ian Huntley was at the start when they'd just gone missing. He was playing the "devastated member of the community card" and almost seemed to lead the appeals to the media.

The local paper, the Leicester Mercury, has actually, would you believe, closed down their internet message boards relating to the story, which is obviously big here (I actually played a tennis match at Rothley last night in all irony), due to people allegedly "targeting the McCanns". However I hear from someone who put regular positive posts on there that nothing of the sort was happening apart from one or two people being curious or suspicious like I am being here.

Anyway, let's hope Maddie does return.