Leave it to the Police

Call me cynical, but the lastest development in the Madeleine McCann story strikes me as, how do i say it, alittle hopeful. If sightings are the only leads available to the Portuguese police, perhaps the McCanns should call an end to this mass search for there daughter.

The new development is, the McCanns private detective says he is just a couple of days away from finding young Madeleine alive and well. This annoucement made on American TV is based on a alleged sighting of Maddy in central Portugal two days after she disappeared.

I hope as much as the next person she is found alive and well but the reality is she won't be. Five months is a long time to conceal a living child from the many organisations activily searching for the young girl. My question is at what point do sightings and the implication of guilt on those pictured become intrusive to families who happen to have a blonde five year old daughter in the region?

Granted the McCanns have the right to look for Madeleine, i wouldn't have it any other way. And nobody has yet kicked up a fuss when accussed, by a stranger, of being a child kidknapper, but when does it all stop. Knowing only alittle media law is it not defamation to suggest somebody is a kidknapper without real proof? I suggest, getting the public involved in finding Madeleine is now a dated and random method of investigation and the McCanns should openly disuade people from looking for Madeleine.

She has now been missing for over 5 months after all and for all we know she could now have brown hair, no eyes and wooden leg. This should now be a strictly police matter and based upon the facts taken from the scene and not random sightings from the public.

Cynical perhaps, but how many kids and there parents are recieving strange stares and having there privacy invaded by people acting on a hunch? I speak primarily of the young Moroccan girl, who would had her face plastered on every newspaper in this land and probably had her entire family history researched only to for people to discover she looked nothing like Madeleine.

This new sighting/ lead will hopefully bring the issue to a successful and happy conclusion, but after so many people have had there privacy invaded with no end result surely a more scientific method of finding Madeleine should be used. Well wishers and a observations aren't to be dismissed but surely the public should be told to step down as the first line of information.