As was destroying most of the evidence by allowing people in and out of the apartment before calling the police

I'm sorry but leaving 3 young children alone anywhere, is, in my book neglect. You honestly think that it is acceptable? Also, it would appear they left the door unlocked, allegedly. Why not use the baby sitting service?
Maddie had been at a kids club all day and Mr M had been off playing tennis, seemed he had had a lot of "child-free" time.
I have 2 kids (adults now) but I can honestly say they were never left alone and the thought of doing that never crossed our minds.
I agree about the OD

I've got a friend who works as a gardener at a family friendly tourist attraction.

On busy she says all staff have to regularly drop everything and reach for missing kids who's parents have lost them because they were glued to their phones.

She says the parents regularly wait more than half an hour before they say something.

You might almost have a point if;-
They actually got eyes on the children regularly - they didn’t
The apartment was locked - it wasn’t.
The apartment was not next to a road and was clearly visible from the restaurant.
It was a ‘one off’ (it wasn’t),
There was no night crèche or babysitting service. (There was - they didn’t use it).

However, at best it was lazy and irresponsible parenting. At worst it was neglect. These kids were very young. Far too young to be left alone, at night, in the circumstances detailed above but not too young to sleep in buggies or pushchairs at the dinner table. That’s what we did with ours, at that age, on holiday.

The Dogs are interesting. The series goes on to suggest an incomplete DNA match when the final results were analysed. I read somewhere that the samples matched 15 out of 19 triggers. In the UK that’s enough to convict. In Portugal it needs to be 19 out of 19. (This is what I have read but I cannot state it is correct. There’s a lot of misinformation/contradiction regarding this case),
My view is that she sadly died in an unfortunate accident and the parents made a terrible mistake in how they dealt with it, by trying to cover it up. It’s a very sad case but they do need to be investigated (properly, by the UK authorities and under UK law, also} and punished for any wrongdoing. (Including the neglect). Their friends the same, if they aided and abetted.
Society only works if, at EVERY level, there is appropriate investigation and punishment.
As an aside - look at Kate’s eyes - they look dead to me. There’s no life in them. This burden has taken its toll.

Another conspiracy theory suggests that small amounts of money keep being given to the Met to keep the investigation live, as, if it was closed then a whole raft of FOI requests could come in and the whole way the establishment has protected them would be open to public scrutiny. Interesting theory.

Edited by Helmet46 (20 Mar 2019 7.27am)

One part of the Portuguese theory that never made sense was that the Tapas 7 are supposed to have helped cover up the crime.

They were holiday friends so the McCanns only saw them occasionally why would any of them owe the McCanns anything and risk jail time. Quite frankly if any of my family came to me to help cover up a death I would call the police immediately.

Lying who was driving when your caught speeding is one thing. Covering up the death of a child for someone you barely know! I don't believe it. I don't think those people have a clue what happened if they did they would have spoken out by now.

One more point

I agree. My wife has an interesting theory (call it female intuition). We have watched the first episode she found the following strange:
Kate making a big play about Maddie having spent a tiring day at the kids club and she could not walk home I had too carry her as she was asleep...why mention this:
When Kate ran back to the restaurant she said "Maddie has been taken" why not say "Maddie is missing or where is Maddie"
She would not have washed the teddy (unless trying to hide something)
My wife believes that the friends are not involved, her theory is that Maddie had already died before they met for dinner and had been carried to the boot of the car (by Kate and that is why she mentioned the tiredness) Perhaps the parents hoped one of the friends would make the discovery.
All just theory but not beyond the realms of possibility. I doubt we will never know the truth