The mother of Madeleine McCann has admitted for the first time to having “desperate” days when she considers giving up the search for her daughter.
Kate McCann, 40, says that lack of progress in finding Madeleine has left her feeling “down, desperate and exhausted”. The couple have also received a death threat and legal sources fear the Portuguese police may charge them with neglect for leaving Madeleine alone while they dined in a nearby restaurant.
Despite all this their spirits have been lifted since they travelled to Washington last month where they met Ed Smart, whose daughter Elizabeth was taken from her bed by a homeless preacher. She was found after nine months of campaigning.
Footage of the emotional meeting between the McCanns and Smart, to be broadcast in an ITV documentary on Wednesday, was released as the couple prepared to use this week’s anniversary to reenergise the search for Madeleine.
Kate said: “You have days when you’re so down and desperate and tired, you think you’ve got to switch off and I think, okay, we’ve tried really hard and we’ve come up with nothing and now we need to make the best of what we’ve got. [But] we’re never going to hit that day. It doesn’t matter how small the possibility is [of Madeleine being found alive], the possibility is still there.”
Their young twins, Sean and Amelie, still include Madeleine in their games. “They make phone calls to her on their toy phones, then go off to find her,” she said.
“If they talk about her they will be told that Madeleine’s not here and everyone’s looking for her. It’s not brushed under the carpet.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sitesearch.do?query=madeleine&hitsperpage=10&nextOffset=0&offset=0&leftStartIndex=1&leftEndIndex=10&submitStatus=searchFormSubmitted&mode=simple§ionId=674
19 comments:
Hi there
Sorry for the delay in putting up the article. I had severe computer problems which took just over 2 hours to sort out!!! Am thinking of starting a blog - "Proud of the Typewriter"!!!
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1314229,00.html?&lid=NEWS_TAB_HAS_MADELEINE_ABDUCTOR_STRUCK_AGAIN&lpos=TABCONTENT
Just a quick visit, morning Sass.
Off out now
Hiya Christabel
Just read that before I came on. The villagers said they wary of talking about what had happened because they didn't want to frighten off tourists!
Mandz would say to this "shove their tourism"!!!
Morning All,
You cannot even begin to imagine what pain this family have gone through.
I have nothing but absolute admiration for them.
To think they have even had to deal with death threats is beyond my comprehension. What are these evil b......s trying to achieve.
For christ sake they have 2 other little children too. Will people only be happy when they have ripped this family apart.
Some justice for Madeleine that is.
The people vilifying this family are a disgrace to the human race.
Tinks
I thought that death threat was disgusting, too. Someone else acting "for Madeleine" no doubt. Sick. They should save their threats for the one who took Madeleine.
Good morning, I know you do not want me to post on here but I am honestly interested in something I have just read. Is it true someone has made a death threat to the McCanns, if so when was that, I have not heard this before. If it is true then I think it is disgusting that someone thinks this is the answer to the way forward
Looks as if no one here to answer at the mo. Never mind, I am sure I will pick up on this at sometime. I really do not know what someone hopes to achieve by making threats like this. First of all we do not know if the McCanns are guilty and even if they are the would not get a death penalty under the law would they. Maybe it would be in everybodies best interest if after the anniversary the media attention focusing on the McCanns be allowed to die down. Nothing that is happening at this moment is doing anything to get to the truth and find Madeleine IMO
Noting can be achieved by sending death threats, and I blame a lot of the content posted on these internet hate blogs for that.
These blogs manipulate their topics and posters to suit their own evil agenda. Even posters that started off reasonable have now turned into spiteful, vindictive people.
From what I have seen, a vast majority of posters on these hate blogs are unstable. If the people that run these blogs can stir someone up enough to hand deliver a letter to Mrs Healy what other damage are they doing.
These hate blogs need to take a long hard look a themselves. Because all this hatred they are stirring up could have an impact on 2 other little childrens lives.
Good morning, Sass, Christabel. What a disturbing article!! No, I'm not talking about where Kate is exhausted and has thought of giving up the search but that there are people who are sending this couple death threats.
Then I think of another blog and the disturbed people that write on that blog and I think it's quite likely. You know disturbed like Claws (who opens a blog for the most incompetent, inefficients police force I have seen in a long time).
Claws, sheath your claws - the reason for lighting candles is for hope and to help Madeleine find her way home - not because we're convinced she is dead. (Waves to Clawsie)!!
Tinkerbell I agree with a lot you have just posted and I agree that there are some very unstable people posting on many of the blogs. That does not mean however that everybody is unstable and I have personally never been incited by anyone to do anything. I do however realise that anything can be taken and posted off of any blog by an unstable person even if they do not actually ever post on the site, if you see what I mean
Gina,
Why are you happy to post along everyday with unstable people?
Do you think Viv is a stable person? Why don't you go back and have a proper read at her posts?
what about Claudia?
Look at how obssessed she is, that at her age whe she should be enjoying life she is single, full of hatred and seems to do nothing more with her life than post hatred in a nasty obscure blog.
what about notdoc? Would you let him take care of your children after all the dreadful things he has posted?
I think you need to take a good hard look at yourself and what you are doing, because you may not feel that you are unstable or that some there are, but you are keeping the unstable ones going.
You are just as guilty as they are, even more so IMO because you should know better that to go to such places.
What is your excuse?
ST
ST.
I will try to answer your question honestly but it is up to you whether you believe me.
I have little choice where I can post because I am critical of all the media circus, no point me going over that again.
Regards the names of the other posters that you have mentioned and how I feel about their comments -no comment. Do you expect me to make a list of those I think are sane, insane, etc. Well I could make a list of people on all blogs but that would leave me no where to post at all and maybe that is what you really want.
You are never going to change your opinion of me so is there any point in me saying anything more, you think I am feeding the insane, maybe I feel I am doing just the opposite to that.
Anyway no point us starting a slanging match over it, it serves no useful purpose does it. I only came on here to ask about the threat to the McCanns as I did not realise that had happened and I think that is so wrong whether you believe me or not.
I just wished someone would find Madeleine, whether she is dead, or hopefully alive. I have to go out now
Gina,
If you are critical of the media circus, why don't you just stop buying the newspapers and watching the coverage?
IMO that would be a much more normal option that having to go everyday to post on such dreadful sites such as Vile's of the defunct Alsabella's.
It is very interesting to see that you were unable to defend in your last post the posters I mentioned. You therefore know the scum you are posting alonside with and yet do it anyway.
Tell me, what does this say about you?
My opinion of you is pretty low, and you are right in that you are not going to change that. I cannot have any respect for someone who treats the case of a missing girl like idle gossip and who needs to go from blog to blog being two-faced and causing trouble to both sides.
Don't you have any respect for Madeleine?
You seem to think that you are not feeding the insane there (thanks for admitting that they are insane there BTW)but doing the opposite...
I have yet to see you asking some of the deranged ones to get help. Instead you debate with them which does feed their insanity and you also criticise the posters here.
You didn't come here to ask a simple question. You came here like you do every couple of days to s**t stir and when it doesn't work you go back to the vile blog and whine, because you enjoy the attention you get when the other jump to the chance of slagging off the posters here.
If it were the other way round you would be happily criticising them here. But because Vile is desperate for posters she puts up with the likes of you.
You come across as not very bright, lonely and very unprincipled, The fact that you behave like this using as a background the case of a missing little girl makes you pretty sick IMO.
I would suggest you do something better with your life and get some help which may enable you to see what you are doing and help you onto other causes more worthwhile.
ST
Hi All,
What kind of people would send death threats? How do these people know they are involved in their daughters disappearance & who gave them the hard core evidence because the PJ are struggling to find any and who made them judge and bloody jury? Remember Murat is also a suspect there are “3” in total. Ignorant nasty creatures who pick on this family and why?
They are concerned about Maddie however do they realise they are threatening Maddie’s brother and sister by doing this – do the other children not matter? No this really is a sick sport for a lot of unbalanced people.
As for keeping it low on her anniversary? Why should they? research from America have shown that there is still a chance she is alive and she should be kept in the Media. Keep her high profile & well done for calling on the world media – we know Maddie has always been the main focus to you both – keep strong keep going keep fighting.
Hiya Mandz and anyone else (who's nice) lurking!
People who send death threats are those weak characters who would like to exercise some power over someone. Who better to threaten than a family who is already down and who cannot fight back - as the person threatening the family won't have had the courage to write their name. Totally unstable.
Hi Sass,
Where is everyone..?
Mandz
Loads of things going on - will e-mail you.
Mandz
Have sent it - will soon explain why!
Absolutely heartbreaking to read. I feel sick for all of them.
But Mrs Healy, in a lengthy interview, has revealed that as the 12-month anniversary nears and without those initial distractions, they are struggling more than ever.
She says: "It's quite frightening to think that 12 months has almost gone by - 12 months since we were sitting in this room and just expecting the 'phone to go, and hearing they had found Madeleine.
"Maybe the way I'm feeling at the moment - and I'm feeling probably the worst I've felt for the whole year - I suppose I am a bit frightened and panicking that we still haven't got Madeleine back.
"I've found myself thinking a lot about Madeleine now; what she's doing, who she's with and is she OK. There's almost a feeling of panic and of needing to know the answers overtaking me.
"I am struggling more than I have before... I feel quite squashed and depressed."
Fighting back the tears again, she adds: "In the earlier days it was new and we were coping with our emotions because we were kept busy organising things.
"I think, now, we have done all that and, somehow, there's nothing to protect you and you are thinking constantly about Madeleine and her situation.
"And there's a fear, I suppose, that people will accept that Madeleine has gone."
Her daughter - like the whole family - is desperate to know what has happened to Madeleine because it would at least put an end to her doubts and fears about her fate, the grandmother explains.
Before trailing off as the reality of her statement hits home, she says: "I think Kate feels she needs to know what's happened to Madeleine, because her imagination . . .
Mrs Healy adds: "Kate said 'If Madeleine is dead I need to know'. That goes for us as well."
Her husband, Brian, 68, explains that the family feel they are tempting fate if they say they want some sort of resolution.
"If I was talking about any other child, I would probably think 'She's gone'. But it's Madeleine, and so we have hope."
Madeleine's grandmother stresses: "We still have a lot of hope, because we have no reason not to have.
"Sometimes when I'm having a bad time - which has been most of the time recently, I would be quite fearful of the chances of Madeleine being found alive.
"Then I'll read something or speak to someone who will say 'You will get her back, you know'. That makes me feel a bit ashamed, so I pull myself together."
Mr Healy tells how seeing Kate and Gerry's other children, twins Sean and Amelie, brings into sharp relief exactly what the family has lost.
"When you see the two of them laughing together now, it's always in your mind that there should be three of them laughing," he says.
The family are not returning to Portugal to mark the anniversary and Kate and Gerry will be spending the day at home in Rothley, Leicestershire with the twins.
A special mass will be held in Liverpool on Saturday at the church where the couple married in 1998 and people will be asked to take candles home to light at the time it is thought Madeleine vanished.
Mrs Healy says: "There will be tealights left at the back of the church and we are inviting people to light them, privately, at home at 9.15pm, the time we believe Madeleine was taken.
"Also, we know a lot of people will have storm lanterns outside their homes and will want to light up the sky for Madeleine. "I think we will come home and do that in our garden - and we hope other people will do the same at their homes. We don't want it to be a formal thing."
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