There IS STILL Hope!

I am going to put this story here, because I believe it proves that there is still every hope that Madeleine McCann will be found alive and returned home to her parents and family.
I am heartened when I read that Kate McCann firmly believes that Madeleine is alive, because she 'feels' it and I place great store by female intuition, especially a mother's intuition for her children, I mentioned this earlier on the Jamie thread.

I also firmly believe Madeleine is still alive because I 'feel' it, I also feel that she is near in Europe somewhere. Wishful thinking? Maybe I accept that it could be of course, but then I read something like below and realise that just perhaps, there really is something in this 'female intuition' thing! (Not excluding the males species, but women do tend to have this thing going, probably to do with the nature-nurture thing)
This story also mentions 'Stockholm Syndrome' which is something I have mentioned on here many times before, all in all this is a very interesting read and I believe it also holds a lot of hope that Joana Cipriano is also still alive somewhere!



'Something told me Shawn was still alive'


By Catherine Gray

Last updated at 8:00 PM on 11th July 2009


http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/home/you/article-1198131/Something-told-Shawn-alive.html
Pam Akers experienced every mother’s nightmare when her 11-year-old son was abducted one October weekend in 2002. But four years later he was found alive, and now he is back at home with his parents, catching up at school and planning to go to college. Pam tells their remarkable story...







Pam Akers today. She admits that her guard will never drop


Anyone looking through the kitchen window of the Akers’ picket-fenced home would observe a traditional family scene. The mother, Pam, preparing a meal while her husband Craig reads the paper. The grandfather teasing his strapping 6ft grandson, 17-year-old Shawn, who laughs off his questions about girlfriends. All in a perfect country setting, with nothing to disturb them but fields, woods, and two faraway houses.
But some things in this cosy domestic picture just don’t fit – such as the state-of-the-art security system rigged to alert not one authority, but three, in the tiny, crime-free town of Richwoods, Missouri, and the number of a ‘bodyguard agency’ scribbled on the notepad next to the phone. It’s now two years since Shawn’s safe return after four years of imprisonment by the man who abducted, abused and tried to kill him, but Pam, understandably, is still as protective as a lioness over her youngest child’s safety.
It was 6 October 2002 when 11-year-old Shawn left to cycle over to his best friend Cody’s house. He never turned up, because on his way there he was forced into a van at gunpoint by 36-year-old pizza shop manager Michael Devlin. An FBI hunt swung into action, but when the police gave up looking after a few weeks Craig quit his job as vice president of a technology firm to spearhead a team of search-and-rescue volunteers with Pam.







Shawn just before he vanished (left), and watching his parents talk to the media after their reunion four years later
It wasn’t until four years later, in January 2007, when FBI agents were tracking a second missing boy, 13-year-old Ben Ownby, that the trail led to Devlin’s house in Kirkwood, 60 miles away, and they found both boys.
Is it time to go home now?’ Shawn asked, as though it was the most natural thing in the world. But the process of piecing together his missing years was going to be long and complex.
‘When Craig and I saw Shawn again for the first time at the police station, it was surreal,’ Pam remembers. ‘I had an 11-year-old frozen in time in my head, and there was this lanky teenager with piercings.
‘At home, about 30 of our family and friends were waiting to welcome him. Shawn said he was really nervous, so I just reassured him that he was loved and safe,’ says Pam. ‘He flinched when he heard the cheering – then when he saw his room he burst out laughing because I hadn’t so much as moved a sock. It was exactly as he’d left it.’
His older sisters Jackie, 21, and Jenny, 19, hugged their brother as if he was made of glass. ‘It took a while for them to snap back into their playful rough-and-tumble,’ recalls Pam. ‘We had to remember how to be a family again rather than a search-and-rescue team. Craig and I had become more like business partners than husband and wife, so we had to get to know each other again as well as getting to know Shawn.’


'My immediate question was, "Why didn't you escape?'"
Two years on, they are still piecing together what Pam calls ‘the time he was away’. ‘A week after he came home, Shawn gave us a couple of pieces of the jigsaw, telling us how he was snatched and that he coped by sleeping and playing on the computer a lot.’
At this point Pam began to realise that Shawn had been allowed outside; he hadn’t been locked in a cellar like she’d imagined. Questions tugged at her mind, but she’d been advised by the police to let Shawn open up in his own time during their group therapy sessions. Shawn later told Pam that Devlin always had a gun, which made him feel powerless to escape. Days blurred into one another – sometimes he thought it was July, but he’d look outside and there was snow on the ground. When Devlin snatched Ben, Shawn assumed that he was going to be killed: ‘When you get a new car, what do you do with the old one?’ he said. ‘You usually get rid of it, right?’



Pam with the 'lanky teenager' who was returned to her following his discovery


The court case came up in October 2007, and during the hearing, other pieces slotted into place. The court was told of what Devlin’s prosecutor called a ‘devil’s bargain’ between captor and captive.
About a month into Shawn’s imprisonment, Devlin tried to strangle him, realising that he couldn’t keep the boy gagged and tied to a sofa bed indefinitely. He then agreed to spare him, on condition that he never tried to run away or tell anyone where he was. If he did, Devlin told him he would kill him and then hunt down his family. In return for this promise, Shawn was untied.Neighbours of Devlin’s pointed out that the boy had a mobile and a bike. Theoretically, he could have escaped. ‘My immediate question was, “Why didn’t you?”’ says Pam. Shawn’s reply was, ‘I was frozen with fear. I was more scared about what he’d do to you than me. He’s a monster.’
When the search frenzy had calmed down, Devlin relaxed further by letting Shawn have a friend, Tony. They rode their bikes together and played video games. Shawn even met his family, and Tony’s sister Kelly remarked, ‘My God, you’re the spitting image of that boy who went missing…’ Shawn apparently just shrugged and stared at the floor.



The abductor: Michael Devlin after his arrest

The neighbours were told – and continued to believe – that Shawn was Devlin’s godson, that his parents had been killed by a drunk driver and he was being home-schooled. ‘We never questioned it,’ Kelly has said since. It’s hard to believe that they didn’t realise, especially since he was still using the name Shawn. But then even the FBI, when they burst in to rescue Ben, didn’t recognise Shawn at first.

‘Some people insinuated that Shawn didn’t want to escape,’ says Pam, her eyes flashing with indignation. ‘That’s a hurtful lie. He was a frightened kid, and he feared for our safety too.’

Psychologists also suggested that he might have had Stockholm syndrome, where victims become emotionally attached to their captors. But Pam testifies that Shawn cannot bear to say Devlin’s name and has never exhibited any sympathy for him. He may not have been physically chained, but he was psychologically shackled by Devlin.
The only risk Shawn dared take was sending two anonymous e-mails to his parents in 2004. By this time, they had set up The Shawn Hornbeck Foundation, to help locate missing children (Shawn has always kept the surname of his father, Pam’s first husband, who died when he was small).
In the first he said, ‘Can I write a poem for your son?’; in the second, ‘How long will you look for your son?’ Their inbox was swamped, and neither Pam nor her husband replied to these two cryptic messages – still a huge regret on her part. It also transpired that when Devlin abducted Ben Ownby he forced Shawn to help by yet again threatening to kill his family, scaring him into submission by telling him that he was now an accomplice. ‘I hate to say it, but it’s good that Devlin got greedy,’ Pam says of Ben’s capture. ‘Otherwise I might still be searching for Shawn.’



The apartment block where Shawn lived as Devlin's 'godson'

She, Craig and Shawn all had therapy courtesy of the state for a year after his return. ‘Shawn still has top-up therapy when he needs it, and we’ve all learnt not to blame each other for what happened,’ explains Pam. ‘But I can’t bring myself to talk about some of the things that happened to him. Besides, Shawn wouldn’t want me to reveal too much.’
After Shawn was released Pam and Craig appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, and Pam was criticised by some for acknowledging in public that Shawn had been sexually abused. There’s now a definite line between what she will and won’t discuss. Devlin was given three life sentences for kidnapping, sexual assault and attempted murder. He will be in solitary confinement for the rest of his life for his own safety.
Reporters and TV crews circled like vultures for months after Shawn’s return. ‘I don’t blame them,’ says Pam. ‘After all, imagine the reaction if Madeleine McCann was deposited home. But it made it difficult for Shawn to blend back in.’

'In some ways you would never know that anything had happened to Shawn'
After a year and a half working with a private tutor, Shawn went back to school in September 2008. Glimmers of Devlin are still evident in his behaviour. ‘He’ll stomp off and slam doors,’ says Pam. ‘The girls didn’t do that as teenagers, so we suspect it’s behaviour picked up from Devlin.

But in other ways, you would never know that anything had happened – I worry that he’s doing too well. When he came back it was as if he was dead behind the eyes. Now he looks at you without flinching and laughs freely.’
And Pam no longer wakes in a cold sweat every night, as she did for the first few months after Shawn’s return. ‘It was irrational – our security system would wake the whole town if even a tiny window was broken – but I’d watch him sleeping for a while and that would calm me down.’ Now she does it only two or three times a week.



Shawn with his friend Tony, with whom he was allowed to socialise during his captivity




Attending an air balloon race in 2003, months after he was abducted

Shawn’s movements are still governed by her gut instinct. ‘Some sixth sense told me not to let him cycle over to Cody’s that day and I silenced it. Something told me Shawn was still alive when everyone told me I was wrong. So now, if he asks to go out and it doesn’t feel right, he has to stay in. If he has a new friend over that I decide feels wrong, he’ll stop seeing them of his own accord.’
He used to resent it, but now he accepts her rules. Shawn has to call when he arrives at a friend’s house and when he leaves. Pam has to meet any new friend’s family, see their home and have all their details before he’s allowed to visit. He only stays over with friends he knew before his abduction. And if he wants to go to an event such as a festival, he has to take a bodyguard.

Pam is slightly embarrassed by her rules – she must realise the chances of Shawn being abducted again are slender – but she’ll never apologise for looking out for him. What about when he goes on dates? ‘Shawn hasn’t been ready for girlfriends until now,’ Pam insists. But since his 18th birthday is this month, he will soon be able to override her.



An attorney explains the federal charges to Craig and Pam




Craig and Shawn

‘I’m dreading him turning 18,’ she admits. ‘What if he says, “Right, I’m off on a lads’ holiday”? I just have to hope he loves me enough not to do that.’ But eventually he’ll have to fly the nest. He’s planning to go to college after taking a year off. Pam is hoping he’ll stay near enough to commute from home, but if he’s accepted by a college further away he’ll have to move.
‘Shawn and I love crime dramas like Crime Scene Investigation and 24,’ she says. ‘Yes, it’s ironic – but four years of my life was consumed by manhunts and forensic evidence, and I have the foundation to run. I don’t think it fuels my paranoia, it just makes me more informed.’
Shawn has decided he wants to be a forensic analyst and nail guys like Devlin. Pam’s behind him all the way.
She admits that her guard will never drop. ‘I never dreamt any harm could come to him in our sleepy town at one o’clock in the afternoon. Now I notice every stranger who looks at Shawn. But,’ her face lights up with wonder and a smile breaks through, ‘I got him back.’

shawnhornbeckfoundation.com

wow that's amazing Rosie,

just goes to show that madeleine and other missing children and adults to could be right out there right next to us and we don't even realise because they are made to fit in well with society and are not standing out like a sore thumb with the words i have been abducted printed all over them.

a poster i saw whilst on hols of madeleine was in a news paper and read that she could be anywhere now...even right next to you, so take a look around you etc....to think that madeleine might be being missed because she is right under our noses is scary isnt it.Everyone expects her to be hidden away....she could very well be out there playing in a street with a child and going to a normal school now.The emphasis should be on that now...and not for people to keep a look out for an odd child who doesn't seem to fit in with her family.

What a fantastic and uplifting story. I wonder if they ever had to suffer from someone setting up 'The Shawn Foundation' dedicated to persecuting them, and trying to get them locked up for a crime they clearly didn't commit? Never give up, never surrender.

You pick up that point so well, this is *exactly* it. Madeleine IS alive and she IS out there somewhere and we have to find her.

Her eye is not necessarily going to identify her, especially as she gets older, other children have the same colobomas and in any case as she gets older and her physical appearance changes, then this is going to be less and less important, especially if she is playing with other children and is seemingly allowed to be free like other children, people will think, she looks a bit like Madeleine, but how can it be her, she would hardly be able to associate with other children and friends etc.

This is almost exactly the same story of Steven Stayner, if you ever get the chance read the book "I Know My First name is Steven"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Stayner

I warn you it is a very graphic book and personally I found it far too much for me and had to skip parts of it, I actually felt that it was way to graphical and need not have been this way, the message as with Shawn, is still going to get across, so I am so pleased to see that he and his parents are taking this view.

Add this to the Elizabeth Smart case and the Josef Fritzel case and my message to to Kate and Gerry McCann and Kerry Gist, is DON'T ever give up.

One day I think that Ben Needham will indeed be found, that poor lad has probably been the brainwashed into thinking his mother did not care for him and that he has been rescued, (Stockholm Syndrome) which is why he has not contacted his mother, but he will, probably when his guardians who Ben may see as his parents die, or something else in his life happens which may prompt him to contact his mother. He may already realise who he is, but too afraid to say or do anything about it just now, but he will and I hope with all my heart that this happens sooner rather than later for his mother's sake.


I firmly believe that Madeleine McCann will be found and I just feel that this day is near. Someone somewhere suspects that the little girl they see sometimes looks like Madeleine, but they keep persuading themselves that it cannot possibly be her. One day soon one such person will indeed pick up the phone and make that call. +44 845 838 4699 or email investigation@findmadeleine.com

You know Madeleine is even getting to the age where she could very well have access to a computer and she may herself make that call or send that email! (Just like Shawn did to his parents)

Madeleine maybe being fed a lot of lies and nonsense and she may also be suffering Stockholm Syndrome.

"Madeleine it is NOT true, your parents love you and they have never stopped loving you and thy have never stopped looking for you, not for one single second of any day since you were taken away from from them. They love you and want you back and they will NEVER stop looking for you, not ever!"


I know this is going to happen and for what it is worth I also think that Joana Cipriano is also still alive probably being kept under the same sort of circumstances and looking at the similarities that seem to run through these cases, how do we know they are not together somewhere? Taken by the same person and being brainwashed and kept by threats made towards their families?

Joana Cipriano is older than Madeleine and may be in the position of Steven and Shawn, hopefully Joana will do what Steven Stayner did and get them both to safety.

The similarities between these two children going missing and the length of time between each abduction is hugely significant, also they disappeared from the same area, just 7 miles apart and experts say that the chances of these two cases being linked are very high!

The fact is we do not know this and this is why we will be here backing Kate and Gerry McCann until Madeleine is back home with them where she belongs.

All I know is that in the absence of any other news, it is totally abhorrent and utterly wrong to just assume that these children are dead and stop looking for them and the people that are deliberately trying to scupper the search for Madeleine is particular should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves, they are sick in the head, sick beyond belief!

Rosiepops wrote:Vee, the thing is look at how any possible sighting of Madeleine is treated.
It is automatically assumed that this is not Madeleine, because her abductors would never allow her to be in the open, in such a position.

When all *documented* evidence points to the fact that any of these sightings could very well have been Madeleine. One only has to read the stories of Elizabeth Smart, Steven Stayner and Shawn Akers, to understand that this could very well be happening and it could very well be Madeleine right under someones nose.

Also these idiot people that rule out any sighting as real also ridicule the person that has reported what they saw, as if these people are insane, or attention seeking or something, this not only has the very real danger that this could be Madeleine, but it is deterring other people that could actual be witness to something really significant from reporting what they have seen.

And all because these people would far rather Madeleine be dead at the hands of her parents than be proved totally wrong!

Absolutely agree Rosie. That's why, for all our ridiculing, we should NEVER underestimate the potential damage that attention seeking bast*rds like gonzo and bennett can do. If even one person with that vital piece of information stumbled across bennett's website, that could spell disaster for the search.

Yes, there is still hope. Yes, we are here backing the couple McCann until sweet Madeleine is back home with them, where she belongs.

With all do respect, but, in my opinion, I don´t think Madeleine can forget her family, and by the looking of the photos I have of her, of her parents and twins, of her whole family, her whole happiness with her family, the videos I have seen, she knows who her real parents are, she knows to whom she belongs. I know she was abducted with a very young age, but, even at that age, she can remember her whole family, her whole happiness spent with her parents and family. She may start to sympathize with her abductors, but she will continue to remember her family.

ModNrodder wrote:

"Hope never abandons you; you abandon it."

George Weinberg

Wouldn't it be lovely for this to happen to the McCanns and Madeleine comes home soon?

I will never give up hope of a happy outcome.

christabel wrote:

ModNrodder wrote:

"Hope never abandons you; you abandon it."

George Weinberg

Wouldn't it be lovely for this to happen to the McCanns and Madeleine comes home soon?

Oh yes wouldn't that be the most fantastic thing. Her parents will never give up hope.

Take a good look at the cases of Shawn Hornbeck and Natascha Kampusch, we must continue to have hope.

This was an utterly explosive case when it broke, when Shawn was found. I remember tracking it on the internet over the course of the day when it started to leak out that there were two boys, that one had been abducted just a few days before, etc.

Another key part not mentioned in the article is that a friend who was the second boy who was abducted had the presence of mind to write down the license plate and get a description of the captor's car. That was a huge break for the case. Children can be a tremendous help.

What a brilliant story, and yes, a happy ending.
I too feel Madeleine is alive, strongly feel it.
I look at her pictures and think 'awe, she is so cute' never 'was' cute, always I say to myself she IS cute.
The UK Backpacker, I just knew 110% he was alive, in fact, I was at the point of ringing the police to say he is alive and keep looking, but knew I had no other real information except to say he was alive!
How did I know? No idea, just did.
Its the same with Madeleine. I just know she did not die in apartment 5a or anywhere for that matter.
I just know she is alive and out there, somewhere.

Peaceful

I too think of Madeleine in the 'present'.

I was looking at her pictures yesterday, and had a simlar thought to you,

"She IS beautiful".

i remember this story really well, i was on brians dreams and one of the readers wrote in to say that the boys had been found alive and well! brian had done rv,s on the boys and he was right in what he said..

here are the links for you to read..


http://www.briansprediction.com/warnings140.htm



http://www.briansprediction.com/warnings272.htm


minx x