They are two families from different backgrounds, living in different corners
of the country. But this morning the McCanns and the Entwistles will be
reliving the horrors of May 3 - the day that their children disappeared.
For Gerry and Kate McCann, the 12 months since Madeleine vanished have been
the most bewildering and public of emotional rollercoasters - a year of
relentless, unprecedented police and media scrutiny.
For David and Paula Entwistle, what followed the disappearance in 2003 of
their son, Daniel, then aged 7, was a markedly different experience.
There was the neighbourly support, the national appeals, the trawl of
paedophile databases and the hurtful, malicious gossip. But by July that
year the official searches had stopped, and by August the police announced
that, although the case was not closed, officers were no longer assigned to
it as a sole responsibility.
Daniel vanished from outside his home in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. He had gone
out to get a baby's bottle for his younger brother and some sweets from the
shop across the road. Then he headed round the corner on his bike. He was
never seen again.
Speaking publicly for the first time since the weeks after Daniel's
disappearance, his father told The Times of the devastating impact on his
family over the past five years.
It has been a time of desperation, isolation, acceptance and reconciliation -
all underpinned by the harrowing uncertainty that, though they now feel it
is likely that Daniel drowned, they can never be sure.
Mr Entwistle, 46, said that he relives the final time that he saw his son at
the family home in Copperfield Avenue every day. His story, unlike that of
the McCanns and their fateful evening in Praia da Luz, faded from public
consciousness almost at once.
The rail maintenance worker had gone shopping with his wife, Paula, for
clothes to take on a family holiday to Tenerife. When they returned, Mrs
Entwistle went to bed feeling unwell.
“I said I would look after baby John, but I couldn't find his bottle, so I
asked Daniel to nip over to the shop about 20 yards away on the other side
of the road to buy a new one. I also gave him 50p to buy some sweets.
“He came back with the bottle and I made John a drink. He then said, ‘Dad, can
I play outside?' I told him, ‘Yes, but don't go away'. I expected him to be
outside or at his mate's house in our road.”
In the early evening, his elder son Anthony, now 15, returned home and Mr
Entwistle asked him to fetch his younger brother.
“He came back a short while later because he could not find him,” Mr Entwistle
said. “I went out for a general look but there was no sign of him. Then I
started to panic.”
He drove around nearby streets desperately looking for Daniel before calling
the police at 8pm. Dozens of neighbours helped in the search and one
discovered Daniel's red bicycle a few minutes away, close to the quayside
along the River Yare.
“The police took me to see the bike,” Mr Entwistle said. “The front tyre was
flat from a puncture. I had tried to repair it earlier on, but obviously had
not done it properly.
“When I saw it I just started crying and ran towards the river wall. I had to
go back and tell Paula that the bike had been found. She just broke down.”
The next day police started a nationwide search and made a public appeal for
information. Divers searched the fast-flowing river, while teams of officers
picked their way meticulously through nearby land. Meanwhile, Mr and Mrs
Entwistle were taken to separate police stations for nine hours of
interviews before holding a press conference.
Mr Entwistle made a tearful appeal on GMTV: “I have got hopes against hopes
that he's been abducted, that he's out there somewhere still alive and
somebody has got him and is looking after him. If they have got him, please,
please let us know. That's all we want.”
Four years later, the McCanns were to make a similar series of pleas. Whereas
the last photographs of Madeleine at the Ocean Club resort have become
iconic, the final images of Daniel haunt his parents alone.
“The CCTV from the shop showed [Daniel] buying the bottle at 5.02pm but never
buying any sweets. We couldn't understand why he had not bought any,” Mr
Entwistle said.
“Police found more CCTV images taken of him at 5.14pm from cameras on a garage
on the quay where his bike was found.”
Local paedophiles were questioned. Some witnesses recalled seeing Daniel with
a group of boys, while others said that he had been badly bullied at school.
“Over the following weeks I tried to keep a glimmer of hope alive,” Mr
Entwistle said. “We both just hoped that he would somehow turn up, but the
police told us to be prepared for the worst.”
Then, within days of the disappearance, rumours started - the type of
malicious gossip that has also dogged the McCanns.
“There was no way the police were pointing the finger at us, but some people
in the community wrongly assumed that we had something to do with Daniel
going missing,” Mr Entwistle said.
“One report said that Daniel had been turning up to school with bruising. That
was rubbish as well. Paula and I never laid a finger on any of our kids. If
some people there think we harmed Daniel, it's up to them. We know what
happened. We always loved our kids.”
The weeks dragged on as the police worked diligently, but failed to find any
trace of the boy. They then called off the searches. The emotion, the
pressure and the desperation quickly took its toll. “I turned to drinking
because I could not face reality,” Mr Entwistle said. “Paula and I split up
because I was not there to give her the support she needed.”
Days later, magistrates ordered Mr Entwistle not to contact his wife. He did,
and on July 7 was arrested and held in custody for 24 hours. Three weeks
later he was given a two-week prison sentence, suspended for two years, for
attempting to see his wife a second time.
As the couple's life disintegrated, Norfolk Constabulary issued a brief
statement. On August 11, it announced that it was disbanding the team
investigating Daniel's case.
“The inquiry will remain active for the monitoring of developments and
information accordingly, but there will be no officers solely dedicated to
the case,” the statement read.
Detectives had received more than 1,200 messages, carried out more than 2,500
inquiries and taken 575 witness statements. The case remains open but,
despite occasional fresh appeals, no new useful information has emerged.
While Mr and Mrs McCann have been highly critical of the efforts of Portuguese
detectives - and have had no personal contact since being made arguidos
(official suspects) last September - the Entwistles are full of praise for
the efforts of Norfolk Constabulary.
“The police were 100 per cent helpful and sympathetic,” Mr Entwistle said. “I
can honestly say the police did everything possible to look for Daniel. They
spent £300,000 looking for him and showed me the balance sheet to prove it.”
The Entwistles were eventually re-conciled and, in an attempt to escape the
painful memories, moved to Lowestoft, Suffolk.
On the anniversaries of Daniel's disappearance they tried to avoid being in
the area and last year were in Cornwall when news broke of Madeleine's
disappearance.
“When Maddie went missing, I just felt complete shock,” Mr Entwistle said. “I
remember switching on the TV news and seeing that this little girl had gone
missing in Portugal on May 3. It was just horrible. It's just fate that she
went on the same day as Daniel.”
Critics have suggested that the unprecedented media interest in Madeleine was
because she was the pretty daughter of middle-class professionals. “I have
got a lot of sympathy for Madeleine's parents because I know what they have
been through. I have been through it myself,” Mr Entwistle said. “Daniel's
story got a fair bit of exposure in the media, but with Maddie there are all
the possibilities about her being abducted and still alive.
“And you have got her parents being doctors as well, while I am an ordinary
chap on my own, although I am not saying that they have got preferential
treatment.”
Last November, Mr and Mrs Entwistle separated again, because of his heavy
drinking. “Every now and then I got emotionally drained and hit the
alcohol,” he said.
He moved out of the family home into a sparsely furnished bedsit nearby. On
Christmas Day the pain became too much. “I was by myself and I just kept
staring at the family picture of my boys on the wall,” he said. “I drank a
load of booze and [took] a load of pills. I could not take it any more.”
A friend found him unconscious and he was taken to hospital. He regained
consciousness two days later. He stopped drinking completely six weeks ago.
“I know I can never get over Daniel's disappearance,” he said. “It is always
there. You always think about it. What made it really hard is that his body
was never found. It has meant that we have never been able to bury him and
have any sort of closure.”
And, as the McCanns pray quietly in their home in Rothley, Leicestershire,
this weekend, their hopes and fears, determination and purpose will be
echoed - albeit in a form mellowed by time and subsequent distress - by
David Entwistle as he, too, wrestles with the enduring pain of loss and the
unknown.
