I'm trying to avoid semantics, honestly.
I appreciate you can't post any specifics you may be privy to, but it was worth a try wasn't it?
Please understand, I am not simply regurgitating what I've seen on the TV. I am trying to think through the various possibilities and weigh up the likelihood of each based on the information available to me, from reports of this case and as a student of human nature in general. All I can do is make the best of what I've got to go on.
Based on what I have to go on, I don't think it's likely that they did it - the biggest objection I have, as I said earlier, is I just can't see how they could have devised a plan for disposing of a body whilst in a foreign country - unfamiliar territory, lack of access to the usual resources (without wishing to be unduly morbid, I'm thinking of spades and bin bags), etc.
I don't buy the theory that they are covering up an accident in order to avoid child neglect charges because it doesn't add up. Even if they did hide a body, in the course of the inquiry they have still had to account for their whereabouts, so it was very quickly established that they had left their children unattended in any case. Net gain to the McCanns - nothing. I can't believe they are not intelligent enough to have realised that hiding a tragic fatal accident would get them nowhere fast.
Add to all this, it would be
extremely unlikely for parents to behave in such a way towards their children suddenly, out of the blue, without any prior attention being drawn towards them or interest from their local social services. And if there had been any such interest, you can bet it would have been reported by now. Remember no criminal procedings are active in the UK so there are no restrictions on what can be reported in the absence of an injunction (whose granting would itself have been reported).
Without any offence intended to the area of expertise of those you discuss this with at work, I still think the fact that they are in a discipline associated with police detective work means that they are affording their own theories a little more credence and authority than they are perhaps entitled to. Commenting beyond your expertise is a trap defence counsel will frequently try to draw you into and one I hope you warn your trainees against!
Incidentally, a feature on a short course in forensic techniques being offered at a local college was one of my first stories as a trainee reporter (many years ago now, and I don't even work in the Media any more, before you think I'm angling for a story) ... it is a subject I find endlessly fascinating, I may take you up on your kind offer of a chat by PM some time. For now though I am spending far too much of my working day posting on here and I reeeally need to stop ...
