Indeed, I’d have had far more time for them if one of them had admitted to their wrongdoing and expressed how they regret the choice they made.
Don’t recall seeing much of that.
I feel like their stance has always been that this was ‘normal’ for parents to leave their kids in unlocked rooms and go to dinner.
Yet I don’t recall anyone I know in the UK ever agreeing with this. Sitting out on the balcony adjoining the hotel room yes. Not over at the restaurant.
I feel like the key is to detangle the lies (such as that they were regularly checking on the children) to understand just how large the window of time is that Maddy was left alone. Also this wasn’t really a family holiday. The kids were there but they were spending hardly any time as a family and the kids were mostly in the kids club. It seems like the parents wanted a child free holiday. Why not leave the kids with grandparents and then go away without them? Whilst Maddy was away from her parents in the kids club or during their time together such as at the beach were they targeted.
It seems very very unlikely that a kidnapper by chance wandered into the apartment and happened upon Maddie. If the kidnapper entered the apartment it was well planned and they had been watching them.
On the other hand we have no actual proof (as the parents narrative about the window doesn’t make any sense and they had reason to lie as unlocked apartment makes them look worse) that any kidnapper entered the apartment at all. So Maddy may have left the apartment. Now logic to me would say the chance is very low that the first person to come across Maddy was a kidnapper but perhaps. Otherwise you’d have expected the first person to come across a young child in pyjamas who clearly shouldn’t be out on their own would have tried to help by calling the police or asking where she had come from to get her back to her parents.
I therefore lean on the theory that they were targeted and the kidnap was planned and coordinated. As over the course of the holiday there is a lot more chance for Maddy to be spotted by someone with bad intention, vs if she did leave the apartment. But obviously children are kidnapped off the street. It happens and it’s bad luck but not impossible.
I also wonder if in some sick logic the kidnapper justified what they did because Maddy was not being supervised by her parents and they weren’t properly caring for her. Like did they take her in a ‘protective’ way but then did something awful.
