Maddy Macanne Rewards - Bandwagon?

[milly143]

I apologise in advance if this question offends anyone, it is certainly not the intention but I just can't help but think that many of the donations for a reward for her return are turning in to some sort of bandwagon purely for self promotion. Of course I feel deeply for the family and wish her a safe return but I can't help but feel it's turning in to a bit of media that celebraties just have to see themselves involved in.

[smudge]

Part of that footage is quite encouraging enigma - let's hope to God someone is holding her & that she'll be found very soon, safe & unharmed....

[enigma]

I really sincerely hope so Smudge but it was just the comparison to the Soham murders which made my blood run cold. I realise that this is perhaps not of course what was being implied but it just made me think back to those poor little girls and as I said , I hope that her parents get a happy ending. I must admit that I wasn't wholly convinced by the paedophile ring connection and believed it to be a reaction of mass hysteria , perpetrated by the media who had concocted this idea and whipped up a massive frenzy , sparking all kinds of speculation. Indeed , there seemed to be no evidence to support this , other than the fact that little Madeleine seemed to have been snatched from her room - which according to the former detective in the video clip , may not have been the case if the apartment was left insecure and her scent was being picked at a nearby supermarket. Let's just hope that wherever the poor wee soul is , she is alive and being well looked after and will be returned to her parents soon.

[netibiza]

but if she just wandered off,a kind person would have taken her to the police, so either she's been abducted by an opportunist or has had a mishap and can't be found. We had one over here a couple of years ago, even English police and tracker dogs came over but could find nothing, a few months on, a couple of German walkers found his body down a crevasse (for want of a better word) and he'd been there all the time, and died there, for months and months and months-

[smudge]

That also crossed my mind. If she had wandered off, I'm sure someone would have spotted her walking out of the complex alone, 'specially if she was crying out for Mummy! If that was the case, I'm sure someone would have either taken her straight back there, or called the police? Who knows....

The police say her scent stopped at the local Supermarket. Now if she was taken from the room & led to the shop -surely the police must have wondered whether there had been a car waiting outside it to whisk her away, hence no more scent - mind you I'm no expert!

[netibiza]

She had been to the shop with her parents, so of course her scent was there.

[enigma]

The impression I got from watching that clip was that it was believed that she had either simply wandered off and had possibly been abducted from the nearby supermarket or that she had been led from the room which appeared to show no sign of a forced entry which would mean that either the room had been left unlocked , or the person(s) who removed her from the room , had a key. If she did wander off on her own accord , she may not neccessarily have been in a distressed state. Disorientated perhaps but not neccessarily crying. Granted , a young child wandering alone would almost certainly not go unnoticed but the former detective in that clip did say that it was a side door by which she is believed to have left and the supermarket was closed and in an area which would have had no traffic in the proximity of it so yes , it is possible that she may have been ushered into a waiting car.

I hear what you are saying Netibiza but the detective in that clip must have some inside information gathered by intelligence to make a statement like that. Bearing in mind that he has been liasing with various police sources in Portugal and is privy to information which the general public are not. Coupled with his vast experience of similar cases , he is most probably building a profile of events in trying to ascertain what has happened to this little girl and although she has visited the supermarket with her parents , there must be other indicators which are leading the police to apparently believe that she was not abducted from her room - or at least that there were no visible signs of a forced entry. My dad felt that her parents - in particular her father - knew more than they were letting on and I wonder if they HAD perhaps left the room unlocked and were frightened of a backlash or were so consumed with guilt that they didn't want to say. Whatever the case , I do hope that she returns soon and unharmed.

[NikkiB]

If a bandwagon gets her back safe and well, let's all jump on it!
Rewards are always a twin-edged sword. There are charities who "buy back" people sold for slavery in Africa. A noble cause but critics rightly point out that by paying money to the slavers, it is unwittingly encouraging the vile trade. Sometimes there is no easy solution.

[NikkiB]

Let's not forget, just because someone is a celeb or rich, it doesn't mean they are cruel, immoral and uncaring. That's just lazy, inverted snobbery. I was once told that I "don't live in the real world" simply because of my accent, which to the critic concerned, is "posh". This woman was happy to pin all kinds of unflattering sweeping assumptions upon me simply by hearing the way I speak. Yet she didn't know me, my life experiences or my character.

[chompu]

Just one small point regarding the police dog/ supermarket etc which may help to clarify some of your confusion. Police dogs cannot follow an individuals scent as portrayed in the movies. They follow a track made by a persons footprints on the ground. They pick up the scent of things such as crushed insects and plants, (even those hardly visible to the naked eye) and even minute traces of shoes. Obviously this has to be fairly fresh and not been trampled on by other people. It could be concluded that if not the girls track, it could have been her abductors. There is no way of telling.The most likely reason the dog lost the track at the supermarket is the fact that a lot of people would have been walking around that area during the day thus confusing the dog.

[netibiza]

Hopefully they are at this moment uncovering the truth, but I fear she is dead otrherwise she would have been carried out of the villa, unless she's been removed to someplace else by the alleged abductor.

[diamondrocks]

well if you think the more celebrities the more people who don't know much or nothing about this case might notice it makes it much more high profile

[milly143]

As I said in another post, I'm not sure the huge amount of media attention this case is getting is actually helping. I feel it may be more of a hinderance now. If you had commited a crime, whatever that crime may be and for whatever reasons you had done it, if the entire world took notice of your crime you would be less likely to come forward about it knowing that the world would want to see you burnt at the stake. You would be more likely to do whatever you could to keep it quiet.

[enigma]

Latest update from Sky news :

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,70131-1 265689,00.html

Could be something or nothing but I just pray that this little girl is found soon and alive and well to end the pain of her poor parents.

[feist]

If it gets people's attention (even the greedy ones) about the girl and her whereabouts, I don't see any harm in it.

[sp1814]

Everyone seems to be assuming that she's been abducted by a paedophile...but I have an alternative theory (bear with me)...isn't it possible that she's been taken by someone who's recently lost a child? Someone who's abducted Maddy to 'replace' a child of their own?

Don't know what effect a reward would have if this were the case...?

[netibiza]

sp many of us have discussed this possibily and wish it were true, but surely the reward would still be valid - whoever took her.

[Pippa68]

What eaxctly is the reward for, and who would it be payable to...the person who returns her, a person with knowledge of her whereabouts?

If this is the case, the person who returns her would obviously be entitled to the reward despite being held up on charges. The person with knowledge of Maddies whereabouts would probably be charged with aiding and abetting.

Where would the money go?

[sp1814]

I seem to recall rewards being payable to those who "provide information which directly leads to the arrest and conviction of the person who committed the crime".

Therefore, if I fingered someone, and the case collapsed, I wouldn't get the reward.

[sp1814]

netibiza

I've had a think about it, and you're probably right. A reward would still be relevent whatever the circumstances.

[Pippa68]

In the meantime innocent people may be suspected (and named) because someone is after a buck or two....? a dodgy area, I think.