I wanted to touch on the question of "what would you do" if your child came up missing.
There's at least 2 sides to this. We have people belonging to this site who have a child missing, and years have gone by. There are people like John Walsh, who has been a very public figure, and though his son's body was eventually found, he was still missing for quite some time. Natalie Holloway's mom, Lacey Peterson's family, etc.
Then you have people like Susan Smith.
I am not completely accurate on the details, but my friend is in this situation. In 1980, in Alaska, her daughter left with her boyfriend to go to a concert. No trace of her has been found since. She has told me how she spent years physically searching for her daughter almost every single day. She is a functioning drunk, and she makes no apologies. Most of the time she believes her daughter is dead, but every now and then she hopes she ran away and doesn't want to be found, even though they were very close and there is not one shred of motive for her to have done this. She tells me to be sober would be for her to go insane. She has grieved for her daughter for the last 28 years. And just to address the whole IVF of Maddie, this daughter was adopted. I did not meet this woman until the late '90's, but knowing her as I do, I don't believe for a minute when her daughter disappeared she ever gave a about highlighting her hair, she probably didn't even care if she combed it.
I knew another woman when I was a kid and we first moved back to Texas. Her 13-year-old granddaughter was abducted, and some time later her remains were found in a rock quarry. I first met her abut 2 years later. She was a woman who had the elaborate beehive hairdo, and put her makeup on with a trowel. I was 12, and could even see then the grief she carried with her constantly. I visited her a lot, and not once could she talk to me about her granddaughter without tears.
Yes, I think the McCann's are guilty in the disappearance of their daughter. In my opinion, their words, actions, and general attitude screams "COVERUP". I think they believe they have covered their tracks well enough to never be charged and convicted, and unfortunately, I also believe they are right. To me this is the equivalant of a slap in the face to every person out there who has loved and cared for their child, and had some outside party steal that child away from them. These people, at least the ones I know of, have always from the very first found some way to twist logic to blame themselves, "If I hadn't let her go," "If I hadn't looked away", "If I had gone to the laundromat the day before", etc., while the McCann's are, "We did nothing wrong."
To all of you who think the McCann's are not guilty, you are entitled to your opinion. I concede there is no concrete evidence to prove they were involved, but point out there is also no concrete evidence to prove anyone else was involved, either, so both sides of this issue are based on supposition.
Lanie
