Madeleine McCann: The 'appalling circumstances that gave Kate and Gerry mixed emotions'

Madeleine McCann: The 'appalling circumstances that gave Kate and Gerry mixed emotions'

MADELEINE MCCANN's 2007 disappearance is still unsolved – but her mother Kate shed some light on another high-profile missing child case, whose “appalling circumstances” gave the McCann family “mixed emotions”.

By Anna Kretschmer
PUBLISHED: 18:30, Tue, May 28, 2019 | UPDATED: 19:33, Tue, May 28, 2019

Madeleine McCann disappeared in 2007 from the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz, where she was on holiday with her parents Kate and Gerry and siblings Sean and Amelie. This year, Netflix documentary “The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann” reignited interest in the case, which still remains unsolved 12 years on. The series was made without the support of the McCann family, however Kate wrote her own memoir in 2011, titled “Madeleine: Our daughter's disappearance and the continuing search for her”.

In the book, she shares the family’s response to the case of Jaycee Lee Dugard, who went missing in 1991 as she walked to her school bus stop.

Kate writes: “On August 27 (2009) we learned that an American girl called Jaycee Lee Dugard, abducted in the US at the age of eleven, had been found eighteen years after her disappearance.

“She had been taken by a sex offender and his wife and kept in an outbuilding in their garden.

"During this time she had borne her kidnapper two daughters.

“We listened to this news with very mixed emotions.

“Of course it was fantastic that Jaycee had been found and reunited with her family, but the appalling circumstances of her captivity and the suffering they had all endured for so long, the precious years cruelly stolen, were heartbreaking.

“As the hours went by, however, our feelings changed as we realised how much the joy of this reunion, even after those eighteen horrific years, would outweigh the tragedy for Jaycee and her family.

“Their experience underlines how children can be hidden for many years and still found alive.

“This was a positive day not only for Jaycee, but for Madeleine and all missing children, wherever they are, We have always said that no matter how long it takes us to find Madeleine, and whatever she has had to endure, we will get her through it.

“We just desperately need to be given that chance. None of us must give up on these children.”

Kate and Gerry also spoke to the BBC in 2014, seven years after their daughter’s disappearance.

In the interview, Gerry outlined the “best scenario” that they hoped Madeline could be found in.

Gerry said: “Very early on we got advice from NCMEC, saying that there are a whole lot of reasons children get taken, that's the first thing.

“They’ve recovered hundreds of children in unusual circumstances.

“I suppose the scenario, and its not been ruled out, Madeleine was taken by someone who wanted a child and she’s being loved and cared for, that’s the best scenario, but of course there are many others.”

The couple also spoke about the statistic on child abduction that continues to give them hope.

Kate said: “In the last five years (since the Met Police opened their enquiry in 2011), we've come a long way and there is progress and there are some very credible lines of enquiry that the police are working on and whilst there's no evidence to give us any negative news, you know, that hope is still there."

Gerry added: “No parent is going to give up on their child, unless they know for certain their child is dead, and we just don't have any evidence."

"The people who've got the most experience are the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in the United States, and one of the earliest things that stuck with me ever since then is the younger [they are] at the time a child is taken, the more likely they've been taken to be kept alive.

In their 2017 interview, Kate McCann continued: “My hope for Madeleine being out there is no less than it was almost 10 years ago, I mean apart from those first 48 hours nothing has actually changed since then."

Speaking on this year’s Netflix documentary “The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann”, former CEO of NCMEC Ernie Allen said: “There are many, many cases we can point to in which children have been found, have come home alive, after months, after years.

“There have been cases in the US in which witnesses, people who have information, haven’t come forward for decades."

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1133007/madeleine-mccann-disappearance-netflix-kate-gerry-mccann-appalling-circumstances-spt