Parents of Soham Victim: 'We can only conclude with heavy hearts that there will not be a happy ending for the McCanns'

Kate has been given a respectable job.

Gerry is doing research doing what? No public office for him at the moment.

McCanns and Dowler family comments on Leveson are published as joint comments. A respectable proven case of abducted child.

DM publishes - via respectable bereaved parents in another high profile case - the likelyhood of Maddie being dead.



I've copied the rest of this post from the topic on re-reading the book:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Jean wrote:
Oh dear, I have every respect for the Wells family but I feel that their comments about the McCanns will reinforce the idea in tabloid readers' minds that both sets of parents are equally blameless in whatever happened to their daughters.
unquote

tigger Today at 7:21 am
One of the many recorded instances of Gerry barely able to keep a straight face. The smirk is there for all to see, bereft father - no! Someone who is getting away with it - yes!

Pity they didn't field the Everton shirt photographs - people might wonder then why a three year old was a football fan.

The newspapers didn't breathe a word on Madeleine in the first article on the Soham case. Considering that Clarrie was involved in that I'd think it likely it slipped past him and this was a corrective measure to shoehorn the McCanns in. So Kate is ambassador, Gerry will be getting his kudos elsewhere out of the public eye and despite SY's fence-sitting, it's now allowed to surmise death. Coming from the mouth of people not likely to be sued and reported as such in a pro-McCann paper.

Quote from the article:
Despite many leads, Madeleine remains missing. As outsiders to this tragedy, we can only conclude with heavy hearts that there will not be a happy ending. Please do not think about criticising the McCann family.
unquote

IMO this has the Pink One's footprints all over it.
This is a corrective measure - I think it deserves a topic of its own - this is an official article by DM - allowing Madeleine to be dead. Not for a minute do I think that the red highlighted sentence was uttered by those parents.

There is a programme about the Wells family at 21.00 on ITV1 on Friday, 3rd August, so it will be interesting to see if they make any mention there of the McCanns.

An interview with them in the Radio Times about the programme does not do so.

If the Wells aren't going to be sued for saying that Madeleine is very likely to be dead and the DM doesn't seem to be in any danger of being sued, so where does this leave TB?

In the Soham case, it was the local police who took weeks to start looking at the obvious facts, the social services who let Huntley slip through the net.
I have a great regard for these two people who never even thought about making money of their dead child and quietly got on with their lives.

Has this 10 year anniversary been rigged to slip in the McCann agenda? The slowly letting it go in the company of the Wells and the Dowlers? With the added benefit of tirelessly working as a well-paid ambassador for pretty well anything missing with two legs?

The McCanns are a great embarrassment for some people, I'd love to know who exactly they are.

and here are responses to Mr Wells being simply and sadly realistic from a P Silva on JATYK2

Re: 'Please do not think about criticising Madeleine's parents'

began with a polite disagreement :

With all do respect, but, I disagree with this:

"'We can only conclude with heavy hearts that there will not be a happy ending for the McCanns'"

there are no parallels between both cases. I don´t understand the purpose of making comparisons between both cases, it is really a lack of respect for people involved in this situation. The press should learn to avoid comparisons such as these, specially when no relations between the cases. It seems that the press has not learned nothing with the Leveson inquiry.

take a look at the cases of Natascha Kampusch, Jaycee Dugard, Shawn Hornbeck, they have been found alive, so can Madeleine McCann be found alive.

and ended with the charming:

kevin wells: shut up, your despicable unproven fantasies are neither needed nor welcome, shame on you.

for simply daring to state he does not believe in a happy ending [ the most probable outcome if a child is a victim of stranger abduction].......a bereaved father who has had the goodness to empathise with parents of a missing child is treated with disrespect, contempt and disgusting insulting words.
Mr Wells is dignified,empathetic and brave.
It is Mr Silva who should be ashamed.

quote Tigger ; If the Wells aren't going to be sued for saying that Madeleine is very likely to be dead and the DM doesn't seem to be in any danger of being sued, so where does this leave TB?

That is just it Tigger, Mr Wells did not use the above words despite a clear implication given the context of his statement, that he is referring to Madeleine not being alive, it could be argued that the no happy ending meant simpy that the child would not be found and reunited with her family...

You're right of course - but imo the meaning is clear. However, I'm 100% convinced that the quotes below are not verbatim quotes from the Well couple:
as I said before - the phrasing has the Pink One's footprints all over it.

Quote:
Despite many leads, Madeleine remains missing. As outsiders to this tragedy, we can only conclude with heavy hearts that there will not be a happy ending. Please do not think about criticising the McCann family.

They have been forced to use the media of the world solely to raise awareness of their missing daughter. Some of the media comment and speculation they have had to endure, on top of dealing with their private grief, is nothing less than shameful.

Unquote

It's almost as if a merger is in progress with McCann, Dowler and Wells. Pretty soon it will have to be referred to the monopolies commission.

Read full article here:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

The person to whom Russiandoll refers - Pedro Silva - is a well known member of JATYK2 (and elsewhere I think) and is a real head case. I'm not brave enough to access JATYK2 but I would hope that the other four or five members there have some decency (don't laugh!) and do not agree with what he says about Kevin Wells.

This is also on the Where Are We Now topic.

This case - along with that of James Bulger and Sarah Payne - was truly every parent's nightmare.

tigger wrote:You're right of course - but imo the meaning is clear. However, I'm 100% convinced that the quotes below are not verbatim quotes from the Well couple:
as I said before - the phrasing has the Pink One's footprints all over it.

Quote:
Despite many leads, Madeleine remains missing. As outsiders to this tragedy, we can only conclude with heavy hearts that there will not be a happy ending. Please do not think about criticising the McCann family.

They have been forced to use the media of the world solely to raise awareness of their missing daughter. Some of the media comment and speculation they have had to endure, on top of dealing with their private grief, is nothing less than shameful.

Unquote

It's almost as if a merger is in progress with McCann, Dowler and Wells. Pretty soon it will have to be referred to the monopolies commission.

You can hear CM saying this in one of his public appearances, I can hear his voice I am hearing voices

I just hope for your sake Nina that you don't start hearing Kate's voice!

That's definitely on a level in annoyance value with chalk scraping on a blackboard, car alarms etc.

Have merged tiggers thread "Where are we now" with this one.

candyfloss wrote:Have merged tiggers thread "Where are we now" with this one.

Thanks -

Jean wrote:There is a programme about the Wells family at 21.00 on ITV1 on Friday, 3rd August, so it will be interesting to see if they make any mention there of the McCanns.

An interview with them in the Radio Times about the programme does not do so.

Just a reminder of the programme tonight. For those who can't tear themselves away from the Olympics, it will be available on the ITV player shortly afterwards.

I watched the documentary and was deeply touched by their loss, and their humility. They co-operated with the police and the family liaison guy remains a close friend.

Cristobell wrote: I watched the documentary and was deeply touched by their loss, and their humility. They co-operated with the police and the family liaison guy remains a close friend.

Unlike poor Ricardo Paiva from the PJ, who tried his best but was later branded a f***ing t*sser in Kate Healy's "truthful and scathing book".

Ashwarya wrote:

Cristobell wrote: I watched the documentary and was deeply touched by their loss, and their humility. They co-operated with the police and the family liaison guy remains a close friend.

Unlike poor Ricardo Paiva from the PJ, who tried his best but was later branded a f***ing t*sser in Kate Healy's "truthful and scathing book".

What a foul mouth she has. Her husband too, seems to be the norm in their house.

Most missing person cases don't have happy ending

By Kenneth V. Lanning, Special to CNN

Editor's note: Kenneth V. Lanning, a consultant in crimes against children, was a special agent with the FBI for more than 30 years and was assigned to the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] for 20 of those years.

(CNN) -- It is almost miraculous that three women who have been missing for a decade have turned up. The story of Amanda Berry, who screamed for help and got the attention of a neighbor who broke down a door that set her and two other women free, is riveting. Police have already arrested three suspects.

As details emerge in the coming days, many people are asking: How could something like this happen? Why did the police not find them earlier? There are far more questions than answers at this point.

Although the terms abduction and missing have become almost synonymous, they are not quite the same.

In sexually motivated abduction cases, the child is usually returned before anyone had time to note the child was even missing. The motivation is easier to evaluate, and the investigation usually focuses primarily on any sexual assault.

In long-term missing/abduction cases, the motivation is harder to evaluate, and the investigation usually focuses more on finding the "missing" child. Such cases are among the most difficult, frustrating and emotionally draining for law enforcement.

Children can be missing for a wide variety of reasons (e.g., runaway, throwaway, lost, injured, etc.) other than abduction and can be abducted for a wide variety of motivations (profit, ransom, custodial disputes, etc.) other than sex.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

What investigators are often presented with is simply the fact that a child is missing -- the child did not return home as expected. Family and friends want an immediate and aggressive response by law enforcement with the issuing of Amber Alerts.

Law enforcement, however, must consider and evaluate all possibilities. Especially in cases involving teenagers or families living a chaotic lifestyle, determining that an abduction even took place can be difficult. It is simply not possible or reasonable for law enforcement to respond to every missing child case as if it were a sexually motivated nonfamily abduction.

The vast majority of missing children are missing because they were runaways, lost, accidentally injured or gone for a variety of benign reasons (e.g., lost track of time). A runaway or lured-away child, however, can easily become an abducted child when prevented from returning home.

In sexually motivated abduction cases, a child will usually be held only long enough for the offender to engage in some amount of sexual activity. A few sex offenders, however, seem to want to believe they will live happily ever after with their abducted victim as a sex partner. In a few cases (e.g., Elizabeth Smart, Tara Burke, Jaycee Dugard, Shawn Hornbeck and Steven Stayner) victims have surfaced alive many months or years after being abducted. Many parents of long missing children understandably pray that their children are among such victims.

In cases in which the victims are held and kept alive long term, the offender must have a method of control beyond just typical threats and violence. In my experience, this has sometimes involved the assistance of one or more accomplices or the use of physical controls such as a remote location, soundproof room, underground chamber or elaborate restraining devices.

It also usually involves an evolving and changing relationship between the offender and the child victim. The offender gradually moves from being a stranger using force to an acquaintance using seduction to a father-like or domestic figure using a family-like bond.

In some cases in which I have been involved, victims have been left alone, were poorly guarded, did not try to escape or seemed almost compliant in a variety of ways in their victimization. Victims may even feel guilt, shame and embarrassment or blame themselves as a result of this. In my opinion, the victims who survived the odds did the right thing, whatever it was. The Patty Hearst case is one in which society and the criminal justice system struggled with abduction victim accountability for behavior that helped lead to survival.

Some prefer to explain this as being the result of a mysterious process called "brainwashing" or the "Stockholm Syndrome." I see it as a perfectly understandable result of adult/child interaction and influence over time. A survival and interdependency bond may develop. It is a kind of adaptation or learned helplessness. This process can vary significantly based on the personality characteristics of both the offender and victim.

The case of the three Cleveland women who have escaped their captor after so long is inspiring and offers hope for other cases. But most long-term nonfamily-child abduction cases, unfortunately, do not have such happy endings. However, that should not prevent the continuing efforts to resolve them. The greatest accomplishment of almost any law enforcement investigator would be to be able to return a missing child to his or her parents.

Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion.

Join us on Facebook/CNNOpinion.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]