Girl’s abduction tugs at hearts of Britons

In Britain, an estimated 77,000 children go missing every year: kidnapped, runaway, grabbed by a former spouse, murdered, lost in the woods. But for some reason no one seems able to explain, the case of Madeleine McCann has become a national obsession.

Around many parts of Britain, images of the missing 4-year-old are ubiquitous: her soft blond curls and large blue-green eyes. So are images of her mother: quivering, quietly pleading for no one to “scare” her daughter, or staring wordlessly into some space no one else can see.

A poster with Madeleine’s picture has been downloaded more than 40,000 times. Soccer star David Beckham has made a video, somberly holding up the little girl’s picture and appealing for help in finding her. “Harry Potter” writer J.K. Rowling, soccer player Wayne Rooney and “X Factor” creator Simon Cowell are among the contributors to a reward fund that has reached $5 million.

Text messages have crisscrossed the country. “Mums of the world unite; light a candle and say a prayer for little Madeleine tonight,” says one.

The McCanns had gone on a family vacation so typical during drizzly British springs: to the sunny Praia da Luz beach resort in Portugal. Her parents, wellregarded physicians and doting parents, said they tucked her and her younger brother and sister into bed. Then they took a calculated risk, locking the apartment door and going a hundred yards down the street for a quick dinner.

Every half an half, the couple said, one of them would walk back to check on the kids. They found nothing but sleeping children until 10 p.m., when Kate McCann found the children’s bedroom window open and Madeleine inexplicably, agonizingly gone.

Now, 14 days later, police in Portugal say they are closing in on a possible suspect but remain mystified about the girl’s whereabouts.

In Parliament on Wednesday, some lawmakers wore yellow ribbons, similar to the thousands that have been tied around the village green in the central England village of Rothley, where the McCanns live.

Representatives of the family met with treasury chief Gordon Brown and Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, who explained that Prime Minister Tony Blair was in Washington and unable to deal with what had become -- though he didn’t say so -- the issue many Britons most wanted solved.

“I am sure that the thoughts of the whole house will be with them at this terrible time,” Prescott declared to the House of Commons.

The Madeleine phenomenon has reached the point that the BBC compared it to the spontaneous outpouring of national grief that followed the death of Princess Diana in 1997.

“The very nature of the story goes to the heart of all our darkest fears,” psychotherapist Lucy Beresford told the network. “This is a parent’s worst nightmare, but for all of us, that whole sense of the menace outside of us, the boogeyman in the wood, this is the stuff of Brothers Grimm fairy tales.... These kinds of emotions are quite wild, quite unruly, so we look for others to help us.”

Those emotions also include guilt shared by every parent who has ever left a child alone in a safe place for half an hour while running an errand.

“I think one reason this is striking so many people is because this happened at a holiday place. Most people think of a chilled-out, innocent holiday place where you can go and relax. But the reality is, nowhere’s safe,” said Jacquie Christopher, whose delivery company is posting photos of Madeleine on its trucks.

Valerie Armstrong, a pub proprietor in Rothley, organized a silent vigil for the missing girl last week, during which attendees left yellow ribbons tied to the railings.

“They turned up by the hundreds to just tie a yellow ribbon around the railing, and just stand and reflect. And it’s grown from that,” she said in a telephone interview. “We have, when I say thousands, I mean thousands upon thousands of yellow ribbons all around the center of the village now. People have sent them in the post to me from all over the country.”

“The shock of it has really just captured people’s hearts,” she said.

The McCanns are still in Praia da Luz, and have said they are not leaving without Madeleine.

The Portuguese police questioned a possible suspect this week. He is 33-year-old Briton Robert Murat, who lives with his mother not far from where Madeleine disappeared.

The former car salesman and real estate agent was omnipresent in the media circus that sprang up, even reportedly acting as a part-time translator for the police during the investigation. Several journalists told police they were suspicious of Murat. Offices conducted an extensive search at his house and questioned him for nearly 12 hours, but said they had insufficient evidence on which to hold him after questioning.

Murat has told reporters he is a scapegoat for a failed investigation. His friends in Portugal have rushed to his defense, saying he could never have been involved in the girl’s disappearance.

So the McCanns wait, and with them waits Britain.

“If we gave up hope, it would mean to stop looking for her,” the girl’s aunt, Philomena McCann, said outside of Parliament on Wednesday. “And to stop looking for her would be the destruction of our family.”

*

kim.murphy@latimes.com