An in-depth look into the story of Madeleine McCann and when she went missing while on a family holiday in Portugal. Exploring all of the possibilities of what happened to her on that fateful night in May 2007.
British couple Gerry and Kate McCann were enjoying a holiday in Portugal with Madeleine and the twins. Having a good time with friends but one night they all decided to leave their children in the rooms and not opting to use the babysitting service provided by the holiday company Mark Warner. The group of parents taking turns to check on the rooms (so they claim).
I first need to say that I actually worked for Mark Warner during the summer of 2007 in Greece from June to September as a summer job while I was at University. I therefore became friends with people who had actually been in Portugal after this had happened as they transferred staff and a lot of guests had changed to our very secluded resort in Greece. Obviously none of this was the companies fault, the parents had failed to use the service offered!
That is the first tough thing about this case, leaving your children in a room alone while you eat and drink does not look good at all. This is the focus of the first two episodes really as it does make it a very strange thing. How come the twins were left if she was abducted? Surely someone would have seen something and the fact that the other people they were spending time with would have been aware?
Throughout the documentary were are taken through everything by many different people. A man who was trying to help and then became a suspect, police from Portugal and the investigative journalists who were determined to find something. I know that was probably to get a breaking story, but that was certainly helping the case as well.
You travel though so many emotions while watching the eight episodes to this documentary and that is something I wasn't really expecting. I had my own opinions that it was something to do with the parents before watching. I am not saying that I have so much changed that opinion but I found it extremely frustrating how unhelpful the police were in the first 48 hours after the disappearance. Surely if things had been done in a different way the evidence might have been better? Obviously the panic of a missing child meant the room was contaminated by so many different finger prints of people looking and checking everywhere.
The different evidence was pretty fascinating as I feel I missed a lot of that uncover at the time due to being in Greece for that summer. I had no idea about the blood dogs (or that they were even a thing to be honest) and that they found the different blood in different areas of the room. Including the hire car which the McCann's didn't have straight away but got it a couple of weeks after the disappearance. Some of it just doesn't really add up very well at all.
As the episodes go on though we end up more towards a paedophile ring and the dark web. Which I guess is quite crazy really when no evidence could really suggest this and that is just a possibility of what could have happened? It just creates some really awful and horrific thoughts of things that could have happened to the poor little girl, I think that is a reason why I don't want to accept that it was this scenario.
I felt extremely frustrated by around episodes 5-6 when every single time someone saw a blonde young girl they were claiming it to be Madeleine and that must have been extremely traumatic for the innocent people and families who were just enjoying their day. This was happening across so many different countries as well which was just utterly ridiculous and crazy!
With anything where money could be involved we then get the fraudsters and fake "private detectives" who wanted nothing more than to make money from such an awful situation. The McCann's did not seem to make good choices when it came to trying to get help, of no fault of their own but chancers who wanted to get money for doing well absolutely nothing. By episode 7 we are now a year since she went missing, then fast forwarding to 2011.
Something that I can conclude with his how utterly horrible the British media were towards this case, publishing any tiny little article without any facts known. So basically accusing anyone and everyone around the area. Not understanding what the police had actually found and speculating without any thought. No regard for how hurtful the fake stories could have been. Without any fact it makes it utterly horrific really as surely believing something is true is not good journalism as no research is then behind it? At least the papers and people in charge had to actually accept what they did with this was very wrong.
To this day it is still an ongoing case and people are still investigating wondering what has happened. It certainly does seem though that so many things were missed at the time and when they could have been used to actually make a difference. A little bit strange that many mediums had theories and did get in touch with regards to the investigation.
Where do I stand now after watching the 8 episodes around this case? Probably even more frustrated than before, someone really does know what happened to Madeleine and I would love to think that one day we will find out the truth. I am not really sure what would be the best or worst scenario for that poor little girl. I guess more points towards that she is dead, but with no body or signs make it hard to believe.
The fact that this documentary could just raise awareness of missing children cases could be seen as a good thing. Making you pay more attention to things going on around you. It looks at different cases were they have been found ten years later and sometimes even longer.
What are your thoughts on this truly awful case?
