Pulling Out All Stops to Find Madeleine McCann
Back in July I got a Twitter notification that someone named Madeleine McCann wanted to be my Twitter friend . I didn’t recognize the name and decided to have a look to see who this was.
The first thing I noticed were pictures of a little girl who looked like she was only a few years old. The second thing I saw was the Twitter bio, "has been abducted in Plaia da Luz, Portugal." I made "Madeleine" my friend and read her website where I learned that, as of today, she’s been missing 116 days after being stolen from her bed.
In learning more about Madeleine’s case and wondering what I would do to help find my child if he or she were missing, I saw the impressive efforts to keep attention and help collect information about the abduction – the Bring Madeleine Home website, the Twitter site, a Live Spaces page, a MySpace page, many YouTube videos (as well as the YouTube channel Don’t You Forget About Me that aims to reunite children with their families), the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre’s Help Find Madeleine McCann page, electronic posters in multiple languages and desktop wallpapers, as well as an online store that helps raise funds to assist in her search.
While Madeleine’s father, Gerry McCann, implied that he is concerned about the case becoming too sensationalistic and may return home to the U.K. with the rest of his family, one hopes that the strong online attention will soon help lead to a break in the case.
Tags: social media, children, law, abduction
On this side of the Atlantic, the name is already well-known. Unfortunately not because of the happy end to the story. At least not yet. Let’s hope she is found soon!
BTW - before I forget
: how have YOU been lately?
Serge, yes, Madeleine is known in Europe and many people are already aware of her case, just wanted to round it out for those here who might not be as informed.
According to today’s news, Gerry should have gone home when he could have…
Following up to Allan’s comment, he’s right.
IF the parents have had anything to do with Madeleine’s death (if she is), they should drawn and quartered after the high profile publicity they’ve produced. (No matter if her death was an accident; again, IF she is.)
Disturbingly, I heard a stat that the person/people responsible in >50% of all deaths of children is a/are parent(s).
– Mike
I’ll reserve judgement until there is more information and solid facts. The way this case and the evidence have been handled (mismanaged, some would argue) to date still leave many questions open. I really hope that there is not a tragic ending to this case.
Andrea: I definitely agree with you. Assuming she is missing, hopefully, at best, it’s by some kook who’s “adopted” and treated her as his daughter. And, after a little therapy/counseling, she’ll be fine.
Mike
It is incredibly surprising to me that with all of the technology and media everyone has put towards finding Madeline that they have yet to find her. It is awesome that social media has become such a resource not only in the business world now but for these kind of matters as well. I hope and pray though that all this effort to get the word out pays off soon.
Hi - Just found your blog/twitter and this post…it is a good example of leveraging the social graph for the right reasons. Gives us the right perspective.
I’ll be stopping by more often.
Cheers,
Herb