If it happened in this country the other 2 kids would have been taken into care on issues of neglect by the parents.

Personally I think the Kate McCann (A Doctor) sedated all 3 kids to get some peace for the night to go for dinner and something went wrong with Maddie. There were reports of all 3 kids crying on previous evenings when they'd done exactly the same thing and gone down the road on their own.

I hope I'm wrong though.