McCanns investigation
 

For those of you that don't know about it. A family from England, both doctors, is on vacation in Portugal. The parents go out to eat while daughter is in unlocked apt./room. I've heard various reports of how far away they were. I've heard "meters" and "a few hundred meters". Anyway, they come home they say, and daughter is gone. This is back in May. They have remained in Portugal campaigning to find her. They have two younger daughters. This become a cause celebre in England.

Now the Portugese police have reported finding her DNA/blood in a car rented by the McCann's. The sticking point is that it was rented 25 days AFTER she was reported missing. The two parents have been questioned and are now official suspects in her disappearance.

And now suddenly they requested to leave Portugal, which is within their legal rights, and now in England they have hired a lawyer who is expert in extradition, who represented Pinochet.

Investigators in Portugal have turned over evidence to prosecutors "before finally forensic results are in" for a decision on whether to press charges or not.

Is justice circling in on two guilty parents? Or are they suddenly becoming innocent victims of a misguided investigation as well?

The difficult part about this is the idea that both parents are in on the conspiracy. I guess there must be precedent for this. (I am assuming that one parent was culpable for her death, and that the other parent acceded to the coverup).

You would think that with some solid forensic evidence, it might not be that hard to turn the less guilty parent ("who is going to raise your two remaining daughters?").

I'm interested to see what additional evidence, if any, comes out.

also, it is very difficult for two people to maintain matching alibis when questioned over hours and hours, if they are based in truth. Of course, if they are based in truth, there are still likely to be discrepancies. This is where the physical evidence comes in. It colors the statements.

This is a sad story. If the parents are indeed guilty, they should rot in hell. If they're innocent, then my heart goes out to them.

As for precedence, my opinion is that it has been set - not anywhere in Europe that I'm aware of - but here in the USA:

Can we say JonBenet Ramsey?

The general consensus now, I think, is that the Ramseys did not kill Jon Benet.

I hadn't heard that. There were so many things that I seem to remember that pointed to them being guilty, but all of it circumstantial so the investigation stopped.

I just hate to hear news about young kids being killed or even dying. That was one of the reasons I got out of the funeral business.

You've never told the story of how you got into the funeral business in the first place. My MTC companion was training to be a funeral home guy.

One of the articles I read today said the Portugal police are investigating the possibility that the mother killed her by accident, and then covered it up.

the cops reportedly offered the Mom a two-year term in exchange for her confession.

that's pretty warped if the parents did it and then went on the line up a whole bunch of euro celebs to plead for their little girls return and then meet with the pope

Ok, I'll tell it, though it will be like a hijack.....

When I was 13, my favorite uncle died. I was pretty upset about it, but when we went to the mortuary I was fascinated that to me, he didn't look dead. I asked the funeral director who was there why my uncle looked like he did and he told me about the entire process that takes place to prepare the deceased for a viewing/funeral. He took me on a little tour of the mortuary and showed me the equipment that is used. He helped me feel a lot better about my uncle's passing.

That's what sparked the interest in that field.

When I was a senior at Marist, I finally accepted that I wasn't going to play baseball for a living, so I decided to go to my other choice - a mortician. I spent my last year living off campus with a family in the ward that included the campus. They owned a mortuary in Poughkeepsie. It was beneficial because I was able to see a lot of the work that took place in that field.

So I graduated from Marist, went to So. Cal (Orange County) to go to mortuary school and returned home to Utah to work.

I did that for 12 years or so, and I loved the technical side of it - the embalming, etc. - but it got really tough for me to deal with the families. It wasn't so much that it was depressing, but more irritating. A death brings out the best or worst in people and there is always one family member that has to be a pain in the butt.

Then, we had a year in which we did funerals for 23 kids under the age of 8 (out of 400+) which was the most children's funerals that we'd ever done in a year. I decided that it was time to go when I had to pick up a little girl who died of spinal meningitis and she looked too much like my daughter and was the exact same age - she was born on the same day my daughter was.

I still keep my embalmer's license current in case of emergencies or to earn some extra money, but I'm glad I got out of it full time.

Couldn't do it.

I respect those who do though