McCanns: So do you believe this to be true?

Question

DOH! Appaently, the media 'may have scared Madeleine kidnapper'. Do you agree or not?

Police in Portugal believe that Madeleine McCann may be in the hands of a kidnapper who has not issued a ransom demand because of the intense media coverage of her disappearance.

Detectives said the abductor may have "panicked" because of the worldwide response to the case of the missing child, who was taken from her bedroom in the resort of Praia da Luz a month ago.

In the first hint that the coverage of Madeleine's disappearance may have inadvertently hampered the investigation, Olegario Sousa, a spokesman for the Judicial Police, said: "Who would ask for money for the girl when her image is running around the world?"
(Telgraph UK)

Answer 1

Not really, no. Sounds like pure speculation to me.

Anyway, the choice about publicity has to be a balance, doesn't it? If the whole thing were dealt with much more quietly there would always be the fear that she would be lost forever only because the news never reached the place where she ended up. In her parents shoes that would torture me, I'm sure.

Answer 2

I'll buy that- thats the first thing I thought after seeing her name being flashed around magazines- who is going to risk either asking for a ransom or giving her back now- if she says anything, they will be imprisoned.

I dont want this to be true, but in the eyes of kidnappers, shes a liability and I think she may already have been killed.

Answer 3

not really because a reward was offered to communicate with these people to the sum of 2.5 million...if this was about a ransom they would have done something by now...
ransoms are more common in poverty stricken countries where rich kids are kidnapped on their wayto school for ransom and the kidnappers usually are a bunch of thugs..and operate in a gang...
if there was two or more people why werent the other two children taken???
also when Madeleine comes back i hope she can tell her side of the story as to what happened..

Answer 4

This was mentioned right at the beginning. Although there is no evidence of a kidnapping/abduction, if this has happened, all the media attention is bound to have made the situation a lot more difficult for Madeleine and her kidnappers/abducters.

Answer 5

I've said all along that too much media coverage can be as bad as too little, especially it there's a chance someone might be kidnapped for ransom. There again who knows what happened to her or what motives they had, despite the amount of publicity about it they're probably no nearer to finding her now than they ever were!

Answer 6

I dont believe for one moment that Madeleine was kidnapped in the conventional sense.
The Portuguese Police are under intense pressure to solve this case - at least in a way that satisfies Gordon Brown (cryptic clue there) -
If anyone wants to know what happened on THE DAY Madeleine disappeared, go back to the group of friends - AND ASK!

Answer 7

This has more to do with an incompetant police investigation which left Portugals borders with spain open for far too long.

It was the much maligned press who revealed that even when the border was closed Portuguese cops were not stopping vehicles leaving the country becuase it was raining and they wouldnt get out of their cars.

Answer 8

Why did they never release the photos of the woman with blonde hair seen at a gas station to the media? I don't understand it or at least have a scetch?

Answer 9

That's what I always thought. From the beginning I was saying that the publicity would be more likely to get the kid killed but all I got were thumbs down for my comments.

Answer 10

I've always thought that the publicity was ott and likely to be detrimental to to a successful conclusion to this case.