search for kid

[Walsingham]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/leicester/content/art...p_feature.shtml

 

Basically this kid has been snatched in Portugal from a hotel room while her parents were close by. I find this conceptually a difficult crime, and thought we might usefully explore it a bit.

 

1. Targetting: who knew the child was there? Someone had to pick her from the hundreds of others available.

2. Physically getting access to the child. How did someone get into the flat?

3. Egress. How did anyone make off with this kid? Surely an individual would have been noted taking a child wearing pyjamas. Unless the criminal brought clothing with them of some sort.

4. The parents appera to have been going back to the apartment regularly to check on their kids. The attacker obviously knew when to go in.

 

 

 

I guess on the whole we are talking about someone who had really laid the groundwork. But we also have this question of why pick on such a tough target? Predatory paedophiles are just that - predators. Surely they should have gone for easier pickings.

 

Combine the above with the difficulty of abducting the child without notice and it ocurs to me that this could have been an individual familiar witha nd to the child. Perhaps someone who came over from the UK for the express purpose of taking her. This may sound odd, but it is less so when one considers that the vast majority of abuse is perpetrated on children by those who know them, not strangers. The immediate problem with THAT is where would our hypothetical paedophile take the child when they had them? We face the problem that neither the child nor any trace of her has been found since. So we are not dealing with an immediate local attack. She must have been taken somewhere else and taken there fast.

 

Any thoughts?

[Stewdawg24]

I heard in one report that they believe this may be the work of an organized pedophile ring. The reprot stated that earlier in the week a couple was seen taking pictures of children on the beach and ran awy when approached by security. However, you do bring up a lot of good points.

 

Despite the proximity of the restaturaunt to the hotel room, I have hard time believing that parents would leave their three children alone. I can only imagine how distraught and guiltridden they must be.

[Walsingham]

Interesting. Although the thought that this is a concerted effort makes me want to be sick. I was discussing with a colleague the other day how much more use of the internet paedophiles seem to be making now. It seems as if they are swapping skills, tips, and even targets online. My feelings really go out to the police who are responsible for trying to tackle this problem.

[Gorth]

Are the parents wealthy and/or in a position of power/influence? It could be blackmailing.

 

A disgruntled patient of the cardiologist?

 

It could be an opportunistic hotel employee, trying to make a buck (selling the girl to the highest bidder). Or just someone unrelated hanging around the tourists waiting for something with a sufficient perceived market value to get his hands on.

 

It could be one of the parents. Maybe they are not happy people?

 

Too few facts at the moment to do anything but speculating wildly.

[Tale]

If there's one thing I learned in my elementary school days pickpocketing the other elementary schoolers, it doesn't take a lot of planning to lift something during a down moment, no matter how valuable the object is.

Edited May 16, 2007 by Tale

[Sand]

Anyone who is willing to harm and abduct a child like this are definite sick folks. I do hope they find the child then string up the bastard that took her.

[Walsingham]

If there's one thing I learned in my elementary school days pickpocketing the other elementary schoolers, it doesn't take a lot of planning to lift something during a down moment, no matter how valuable the object is.

 

You used to steal kindergarteners from the pockets of fellow elementary school kids? Lift many elephants?

 

 

Gorth, you have an interesting point about the possibility of it being a different crime. Particularly kidnapping. This might explain why the father is reportedly sure his daughter is still safe. On the other hand that could just be the wishful thinking of a devoted parent.

 

 

What I do find unlikely is that anyone other than a moron would try to snatch any living organism for sale without having the capability to care for them in an opportunistic fashion. In any event such a cretin would surely have been found by now.

[Tale]

If there's one thing I learned in my elementary school days pickpocketing the other elementary schoolers, it doesn't take a lot of planning to lift something during a down moment, no matter how valuable the object is.

 

You used to steal kindergarteners from the pockets of fellow elementary school kids? Lift many elephants?

 

You seem to have a rather exaggerated sense of what people take notice of. Cheating at cards, picking pockets, and kidnapping children rely on one very important and common factor about humanity. Humans don't notice jack ****.

[Darth Barth]

The child was probably targeted for sexual slavery. There are many instances of it happening everywhere all over the world. Here in Las Vegas it is particularly bad. Although here in the US it is mostly children from China/Russia/etc.. Its mostly kept hush-hush as most heinous crimes like these are. The world doesnt need a hero, it needs a Punisher. If i ever get totally down and out again, i at least know a good way to go out.

[astr0creep]

Are the parents wealthy and/or in a position of power/influence? It could be blackmailing.

 

A disgruntled patient of the cardiologist?

 

It could be an opportunistic hotel employee, trying to make a buck (selling the girl to the highest bidder). Or just someone unrelated hanging around the tourists waiting for something with a sufficient perceived market value to get his hands on.

 

It could be one of the parents. Maybe they are not happy people?

 

Too few facts at the moment to do anything but speculating wildly.

 

 

I'm pretty sure aliens abducted her and her brother Fox will do everything he can to find and expose the truth about his sister's dissapearance.

 

Jokes aside, I have a daughter coming soon and these sort of stories scare the living crap out of me.

[metadigital]

Jokes aside, I have a daughter coming soon and these sort of stories scare the living crap out of me.

She's much more likely to die in a car accident before she reaches twenty.

[Walsingham]

If there's one thing I learned in my elementary school days pickpocketing the other elementary schoolers, it doesn't take a lot of planning to lift something during a down moment, no matter how valuable the object is.

 

You used to steal kindergarteners from the pockets of fellow elementary school kids? Lift many elephants?

 

You seem to have a rather exaggerated sense of what people take notice of. Cheating at cards, picking pockets, and kidnapping children rely on one very important and common factor about humanity. Humans don't notice jack ****.

Never having tried I shall bow graciously before your superior experience.

 

I shan't distress the forum with details of what happens to persons taken for sexual slavery, but it has been my habit in the past to do so whenever some fethwit tries to tell me that the death penalty is never appropriate. I'd rather they took the money spent on keeping such people in high security jails and spend it on any surviving victims.

[metadigital]

I doubt VERY much Madeleine was abducted for sex-slavery. She is a member of a British family vacationing in the Algarve, where abduction is almost completely unknown (read: HI PROFILE).

 

Sex-slavery preys on the weakest, the defenceless of society; those that cannot fight back are easy pickings. (Driving down the cost of supplies is a cornerstone of capitalism.)

 

This is more likely a crime of opportunity, though it does seem to have been executed with considerable care (or a lot of luck).

 

Edit:

latest development

[Gorgon]

The media craze can be helpful but also potentially deadly. If every one knows what she looks like the abductors might decide that they have to kill her.

 

Don't think this one will have a happy ending considering the length of time she's been gone, but it could also be some unstable woman who wants a child, probably the best screnario to hope for.

 

Or the parents killed her somehow and made up a cover story.

Edited May 16, 2007 by Gorgon

[Diogo Ribeiro]

I was totally not in the crime scene!

[Pidesco]

I was totally not in the crime scene!

 

Yeah, that's why you haven't been caught yet.

[Walsingham]

I was totally not in the crime scene!

 

Sergeant, arrest that kitten!

[Gfted1]

Occums Razor. She probably wandered out of the room herself looking for her parents and got swallowed up by someone in the street. Her parents should be horse whipped without mercy for leaving three young children unsupervised while they left the building to go eat dinner.

[Sand]

I have to agree with Gifted1 on that. You don't leave children that young unattended and unsupervised at all.

[Aram]

But they were going back...occasionally...to check on them! In a hotel room, not their house, in a foreign country, without telling anyone to even watch the door. They're clearly great parents.

[Walsingham]

Do you three gentlemen have kids?

[Tale]

If there's one thing I learned in my elementary school days pickpocketing the other elementary schoolers, it doesn't take a lot of planning to lift something during a down moment, no matter how valuable the object is.

 

You used to steal kindergarteners from the pockets of fellow elementary school kids? Lift many elephants?

 

You seem to have a rather exaggerated sense of what people take notice of. Cheating at cards, picking pockets, and kidnapping children rely on one very important and common factor about humanity. Humans don't notice jack ****.

Never having tried I shall bow graciously before your superior experience.

 

I shan't distress the forum with details of what happens to persons taken for sexual slavery, but it has been my habit in the past to do so whenever some fethwit tries to tell me that the death penalty is never appropriate. I'd rather they took the money spent on keeping such people in high security jails and spend it on any surviving victims.

I only have experience with cheating at cards and stealing from my friend's pockets (I always give it back, it's like a party trick!). There's a show on one channel like Discovery or TLC where people set up burglaries (in exchange for installing a new alarm and general anti-intrusion system in the houses), which is always an interesting watch, as well.

[Gfted1]

Do you three gentlemen have kids?

 

 

I do, a 6yo daughter.

[Sand]

Do you three gentlemen have kids?

 

Not yet, but I do know better than let a 4 year old be by herself.

[Volourn]

Bah. 4 year old children are left alone more than you think. Don't cast stones when living in glass houses.