Missing Toddler in Portugal

[Sweltered]

Just goes to prove that an education and career in the medical profession doesn't mean you have any common sense. What morons would leave three kids under the age of 4 in a hotel room in a foreign country. If they weren't Doctors, the other kids would be taken into care.... They are blaming the Police for not responding quickly enough. If they hadn't swanned off to a restuarant and left their kids alone it would never have happened

[petewick]

Aye it's very distressing, I just hope that the soul is found safe and well.
I know that the way things are these days that this is unlikely, but i do hope that she is returned unharmed.


petewick

[Sweltered]

Absolutely, I cannot imagine what he parents are going through, especially when they think about leaving the kids unattended.

Just hope she's alive....

[jester and the fool]

Got to echo those sentiments.A meal just round the corner,kid left alone in bed,NOT RIGHT.Why her?It was a large complex,shutters were forced,how did they know no-one was there! Was it chance,or something else.The more time goes by.....
No matter how it happened my thoughts are with the mum and dad. I still worry abouy my daughter and she is 17,but that is what dads do best.

[jester and the fool]

sweltered;


STILL THINK MIKEY SHOULD RUN FOR PRESIDENT.

[Sweltered]

He wouldn't be any worse than the clowns that are standing

[Sweltered]

i am baffled by the way all the media seem to be excusing the behaviour of the parents on the night of the abduction. From the picture I saw, they couldn't even see the window to the room the kids were in. We keep getting told that the children were checked regularly....so what. If having a meal is more important than being a responsible parent then don't have kids. It is NEVER ok to leave your kids unattended.

[general jack o'niell]

i agree, i know the area having holidayed several times about half a mile east of where this occured, i would never have dreamt of leaving my two alone in an apartment despite them being a good deal older than the little girl, not only that there were two babies as well, its a terrible tragedy which i can't even begin to imagine what the parents feel like?

i hope theres a good dose of guilt, afterall the place offered all manner of childsitting services that they could have used, what cost a few euros against that of the life of a child?
i don't hold out any hope for her safe recovery as the local police are useless, and as for the house to house search? imagine a child going missing in clydebank for example and the police having to search every single building, thats what it's like thousands of apartments, dozens of hotels, countless villas and complexes and thats just the holiday places, add to that the homes of all the locals in the portimao and praia da rocha area and it would take weeks. then theres all the orange groves and golf courses, the river running way inland and a motorway not five minutes drive from the scene, one she was taken over the bridge that runs along the back of the port at portimao, she could be taken anywhere, north towards lisbon, east towards faro, it does not look good.

[Kevin Mc]

I agree with the sentiments posted so far.

I frequent other forums, and am absolutely amazed by the amount of people who cannot see the problem with leaving kids that young alone without adult supervision. Obviously abduction isn't going to be the top of your worries, but what if there were a fire in the hotel and you're too busy having a meal to get the kids out? What happens if one has night terrors? Especially if they wake up in an unfamiliar place. What happens if they're messing about, jumping on beds, fall off and bang their heads? The list is endless, and may sound a bit paranoid, but I think it is common sense to not leave kids so young on their own.

The press have been very kind to the parents so far. If Madeliene is found safe and well, I think the press will turn on them for leaving the kids alone. I don't think she will be found safe and well now though

I think the Portugese Police are being unfairly criticised. They're putting everything into investigating a situation which they lack experience of. If I have a difficult task at work I've never done before - I'm going to do a worse job in more time than someone who's highly experienced at the task.

The parents were wrong in what they did, but the punishment they are receiving massively outweighs the "crime".

[Bobbie En Tejas]

This reminds me of the time my twins were 4 and were in public school preschool in the San Francisco Bay area, taking the bus to school every day with the other preschoolers and kindergarteners. I'd walk them to the bus, get them on, wave goodbye and 4 hours later I would meet the bus to bring them home. One day there was a special field trip planned. They were to take the bus, arrive at school, and from there take a bus to a farm where they could see all the animals, get on the bus back to class, and then at noon get back on the bus and come home.

That day I went to meet the bus at the normal time. My daughter got off the bus, but her brother didn't. I asked the bus driver where he was. She shrugged her shoulders and sat there! I got on the bus and looked at every seat. No son. I was in a panic, ran home, called the school, and they had no idea where he was. At that point we didn't know if he was abducted, left on the farm, nothing. I got in the car, sped through traffic to the school, ran to the office, and there was the principal with his back to me rummaging through a file cabinet. My son was there.

Turned out after the field trip they had gone out to the playground to play. When it was time to go home, the teachers rounded up the kids, took them inside, locked the door to the playground, put them on the bus and went home. The principal was rude, acted like it was my 4 year old's fault (why did he think 4 year olds needed adult supervision). Turned out a janitor for the school had found my son locked out on the playground. To make matters even more horrifying was, it was the morning after they showed Adam Walsh's story on tv. He is the little boy who had been abducted and murdered and beheaded, and his father went on to produce and host America's Most Wanted, so you can imagine what was going through my mind.

I can't imagine what the parents are going through. All I can think is how many times parents do stupid things. None of us who have ever raised kids to adulthood can claim to not have made a not-so-bright decision at one time or the other.

[mary,queen of everything]

Bobbie, I bet you would never have left those kids alone in a hotel room while you went next door to eat!

[general jack o'niell]

i wouldn't even leave the two banana loaves i'm making that long without checking up on them, nevermind three weans, and her a doctor too, i must disagree with the poster who ssaid the police were doing everything they could, if yesterdays papers were only half right then they were at best negligent and at worst downright criminal in their slowness at getting organised.

one thing about this country, everything would have been done to close the whole area down immediately.

[Kevin Mc]

i must disagree with the poster who ssaid the police were doing everything they could, if yesterdays papers were only half right then they were at best negligent and at worst downright criminal in their slowness at getting organised.

What I meant was they were working to the best of their abilities / experience. As you say the British Police would have done far more, far quicker. But then again they have the experience of this.

Must admit I thought the photo-fit sketch thing of an oval with a centre-parting was a bit ridiculous!

[general jack o'niell]

i just looked at my google earth map of the area, theres even more scrubland up on that point as i thought, i've only ever walked the beach all the way to alvor and never gone all theway along the road, theres even more villas etc than i thought too.

sorry to say but i reckon she was off up the motorway to lisbon or east to spain long before the police got their collective fingers out

[ionnsaigh]

general,
If your right, then they wont have to worry about the point, scrub land, beach, villas, or road, now would they.

I would tactfully interview all parents in UK, who have lost, through death a young girl aged between 2 and 5 years old in the last five years.