Pro or Anti - should the police have looked at the parents from the start?

Question

I think the police have made a mess of the whole thing. They should have looked at the McCanns a lot earlier - by this I am not saying that I think they are guilty - however distasteful it might seem to look towards the parents it is important to remember that justice for the missing child is paramount and all avenues should be explored initially, particularly when children are more likely to be killed by a parent than a stranger. If they had approached the investigation in this way they could either have collected any relevant forensics a lot sooner and charged them or they could have eliminated them from their enquiries and concentrated fully on other lines.
Instead we appear to be faced with the position that even if the McCanns were involved it may never be proven and if they weren't involved they will never be believed.
What do you think?

Answer 1

I think the immediate assumption that she'd been abducted was the first mistake. The Lisbon police are apparently annoyed that so many people went to the apartment immediately after Kate Mc reported Madeleine missing and that the local police did not spend the first few hours examining the room. They were also sceptical of the British police's belief that Robert Murat fitted the profile of a kidnapper (!) and that so much time was spent investigating him. If more time had been spent in the apartment initially perhaps they would have seen signs that indicated it was not necessarily an abduction.

Answer 2

I think that they were looking at the parents, but they lured them into a false sense of security by telling the media that they weren't suspects. The problem is that from the start, the McCanns were determined to put the police in a bad light by calling them incompetent (ONE day after Madeleine went missing), so now people will always question the PJ (which may have been the intention from the start.) This made it easier for them and their family to scream 'Set up!' They shouldn't forget, though, that the British police were working alongside the Portuguese, and they are basically accusing both forces of corruption. If the PJ had set them up, then there would be no need for top lawyers, because a normal lawyer would be able to pull the PJ's case apart, and that's if it even got past the prosecutor. Don't forget, all these 'leaks' have come from unnamed sources in the media, so they are probably untrue. The PJ must have something, and the McCanns know it, or there wouldn't be a new fund for their legal fees (bloody cheek!), and this case would not have reached the judge, the prosecutor would have thrown it out. I think that the PJ have been very clever, because now the McCanns are panicking.

Answer 3

You have a point (several actually) but it is a very difficult type of case to solve. It is not the logical way to go from the start that THE PARENTS OBVIOUSLY DID IT Parents obviously don't normally do that to their kids.
For me it is all simple. Are we dealing with the likely death of an innocent child ?! Yes ?! Then if the evidence more and more points to the parents and now they will be let off because millionaires like Branson step in, then all that makes a mockery of Justice For All. I recently visited a site of Missing Children In Europe and that opened my eyes and made me think.
Missing female children in England only in the last 5 years:
http://www.childfocus.org/missingkids/servlet/PubCaseSearchServlet
( the site takes 1 or 2 minutes to search for the details of the missing children )

Answer 4

Of course they should have looked at the parents from the start. This doesn't make the parents guilty but they are the obvious ones to check out first. Had they done this, there would have been hell to pay over the fact that the parents promptly destroyed the crime scene, removed Cuddle Cat and washed it, and then carted it around everywhere. It is difficult to know who is the most stupid, the McCanns or the PJ.
Not much hope for Madeleine there.

Answer 5

Yes, as an ex soldier, cadet etc I have been taught to treat all information as important to paint the complete picture.

My child was picked on by a neighbour, the police officer was bias choosing only to believe the girl making the allegation through her mother, my child found not guilty but the fact is the police officer failed to paint the complete picture and now there are two children that have been injured my child and the girl in question who incidently is still in a place of danger but the police think they are right in their belief. We think the girls mother is the culprit.

No one or evidence should be eliminated until the facts have truly been presented and the case finalised.

"Difficult things can be done now, the impossible will take a little longer"

Soz completly went on one lol .........

Answer 6

In a investigation of this scale, the parents should have been named as suspects in the beginning and taken in for questioning. This is the procedure in the country. The police has messed about since day one. They named Robert Murat as a suspect, dragged his name through the mud, then bombarded his villa, drained his pool and found nothing. In the process they have ruined the life of one man and we are still non the wiser.

The latest turn of events has come about from the british police. If it wasnt for us, the investigation would still be plodding along at the speed of a snail.

Answer 7

I think they did, but they had to balance telling anyone about it with the surge of support internationally for the McCanns. Basically they played a waiting game till the tide turned - now they are going to remember every critism from Team McCann when they get them into court.

Answer 8

I have always took it for granted the police were looking at the parents from the beginning. Under this secrecy thing at the time probably nothing was leaked as then the whole world had their eyes, empathy and sympathy for G & K and IF Madelene was abducted it could have taken much away from the search for her.

Answer 9

In my opinion anyone close to the victim (especially last ones to see her) should be a suspect, since they are quite obvious and are likely to have a lot of useful information.
However I do think that there is A LOT of pressue on the McCanns since there is nobody else to point the finger of blame at, leaving the parents as a police scapegoat.

Answer 10

It's standard procedure the world over with child abduction or murder cases. The parents and family are always the first to be examined.

They obviously either think they have found something very late on or are truly grasping at straws with the McCann case.