As I said in another thread, I would not leave my jewellery lying around unattended in an apartment in Portugal. Paedophile rings etc. seemed to be the immediate reaction from the press but perhaps not from the police. It's almost as if people are afraid to ask how thoroughly the parents were questioned. I would have thought a GP would be well aware of the danger of leaving small children unattended. 'Accidents' like those mentioned in this thread occur all the time. However, the lady mentioned above, who fell asleep while breast feeding, did so through exhaustion, not because she decided she'd had enough and deliberately put the baby at risk. Madeleine was left in the apartment at 7 and reported missing at 10! Anyone who has small children knows that a child of four is perfectly capable of waking up and wandering out of either a door or a window in search of his/her parents. This apartment was on the ground floor with a window onto the road outside. What on earth were they thinking? As GPs they must come across all sorts of horror stories relating to children. If not from personal experience, then reading medical reviews etc.
There would be an awful lot of DNA in a rented apartment....the parents, children, the cleaners and, depending on how well the place was cleaned, previous occupants. DNA samples are useless unless you have something to compare them to. The 'flaw' in Maddie's eye was well reported. Her pupil appears to 'bleed' into the iris in the shape of a spy glass, or magnifying glass. The family produced a video which begins with a picture of Maddie with a spy glass in her eye. It's very clever and certainly draws attention to this fact. Once one has had it pointed out, it'd be very easily spotted. I, too, unfortunately think that this is now a cold case.