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Madeleine McCann, the latest poster child in a long line of media mystery sweethearts. The disappearance of the 3-year-old child, who happened to be the oldest of three children left alone in a hotel room in a foreign country, while her parents had dinner and drinks with several friends in a nearby restaurant which was out of sight of the room that the children were in.

This story of senseless loss provides the general public with the real-life thrill of scandal and controversy. There are few things more interesting than human suffering, except perhaps outright scandal and an unsolved riddle or mystery.

The disappearance of Madeleine McCann has all these attributes plus, as the story unfolds we have the ability to firmly take sides on the issue, and form our own conclusions as there's no resolution in sight. Madeleine's story is one for the history books, up there with Marilyn Monroe, John F. Kennedy, Jon Benet Ramsey... Most of us will never know what really happened.

Actually, for many of us, this is just another story, something to talk about for a few minutes as we analyze the things that we feel are wrong with the world.

I heard about Madeleine on the radio. It's funny how you recall exactly where you were when something traumatic or very odd comes at you unexpectedly. I was sitting at my desk and the silver boom box in the corner of our communal office was blaring away, when the news was suddenly announced. "A three-year-old child left alone in a hotel room with her two younger siblings is missing..."

I thought "What? Who would leave little kids alone in a hotel room to go out and have supper... Why didn't they have a babysitter?" As a mother of four children, my first thought was the practicalities involved in getting away from the kids, I couldn't quite get my head around the idea of two employed, well-educated people leaving a toddler and two infants alone for any significant amount of time.

So, while I personally don't think the McCann's actually killed their daughter, I do think that they were responsible for her safety and welfare. I also think that they were guilty of child neglect and endangerment because the children were much too young to be left for any period of time without an adult or at least an older child present to call for help in case of an emergency. Even a cordless Fisher Price handset monitor that would have allowed them to at least hear what was happening in the room, just in case a child started to cry or there was a sudden crash

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