I spent 10 days with Kate and Gerry McCann earlier this year, and I saw at first hand how this harrowing tragedy was taking its toll on them.
Now they face the world as suspects in the death of their beautiful four-year-old daughter, Madeleine.
From my knowledge of the McCanns, some of the suspicions that have been voiced in the past 28 hours defy belief.
Like many people who came to know Kate and Gerry their passage from grieving parents to prime suspects seems unbelievable and unbearable as Portuguese police pursue the investigation.
I interviewed them for the Sunday Independent for over an hour and a half and came to know them in informal settings as I travelled with them on a two day trip to Morocco and then back to Praia da Luz.
Over this 10-day period it was possible to observe the public and private images of the couple as they moved on and off camera.
Gerry seemed more confident with the public glare in their quest to find their daughter. Kate was uneasy and quiet.
At times they were accused of showing no emotion; of being calculating in their attempts to court the media. Detractors pointed the finger and said there is something wrong.
Kate explained that when people saw them do interviews and press conferences they wondered how they could cope.
"When I had seen other stories about children who had disappeared I wondered too how anyone could cope," Kate explained, as she went on describe so many low moments in their search for Madeleine.
"Physically it is an impossibility that I had anything to do with Madeleine's disappearance," Gerry McCann told me at the time.
When I arrived in Praia da Luz already the fault lines were beginning to show in the public perception of Kate and Gerry McCann. Harsh and bitter judgements were being voiced by the members of the expat community as they huddled on the street or in a bar, angry at the intensity of the media intrusion into their lives.
When I went to meet Gerry and Kate McCann in their apartment they spoke at length about their search for Madeleine. They were relaxed and at ease in each other's company as they weaved their responses to my questions. They had been asked if they had anything to do with their daughter's disappearance.
Nothing faltered in their body language or tone as they recalled the question and its implication. Gerry openly said that they had discussed this early on and had only been surprised that this question came weeks after Madeleine's disappearance.
Nothing signalled any reluctance to talk about any suggested involvement with Madeleine's disappearance.
In this setting, Kate McCann began to open up and as she became more settled she took the lead as she filled out images of Madeleine as a dynamic little girl who was a natural born leader; her kindergarten friends, and their trip over to Donegal at Easter.
Their faces lit up as they described cameos of their times with Madeleine. There was love and a desperate hope throughout.
As I prepared to leave, Kate and I chatted alone. She talked about Ireland and Donegal and her face was full of sadness as she clutched Madeleine's favourite toy, Cuddle Cat. The private face of vulnerability and despair was given space in those moments. As we parted, we hugged and she cried lost in her pain.
Over the next week, we would meet several times both in Praia da Luz and on a twoday trip to Morocco.
By now, the public and private images of Gerry and Kate were familiar.
There were photo calls; quiet moments at Lisbon airport as they queued hand in hand for the flight to Casablanca; in the lobby of the Hilton in Rabat; before and after their last major press conference in Rabat; then back in Praia da Luz.
If Kate and Gerry McCann were somehow involved in the death of their daughter and its cover-up, they are none other than masters of deception and betrayal.
As they were both given the status of suspects in the past 48 hours, there is widespread speculation that Kate McCann will be charged with causing the accidental death of Madeleine and also with negligence.
It was alleged that blood stains which matched Madeleine's DNA were found in the couples' hired Renault Scenic by Portuguese police, which they hired 25 days after Madeleine disappeared.
However, last night it was reported that the DNA is "incomplete and not a perfect match".
It is being suggested that Kate McCann was responsible for Madeleine's death between 6.00pm and 8.30pm, as the couple prepared their three children for bed and got ready to meet friends at the nearby tapas bar.
Somehow they concealed Madeleine's body and proceeded to join friends for dinner. Both took part in the weekly quiz night that evening as the party of seven friends took turns to check on the children.
Gerry McCann last checked the apartment at 9.05pm. He was then seen returning to the tapas bar by an independent witness five minutes later.
Another member of the party saw a man carrying a child near the apartment at 9.20pm but this man has not been traced. Then, at 10.00pm, Kate McCann raised the alarm as she went back to the apartment and found Madeleine missing,
"I cannot see how the parents could have killed the child and then gone out to dinner. Accidental death normally results in the perpetrator going into a panic phase and so you would notice a difference in behaviour straight away.
"So I would expect if this were the case that one of the parents would have cried off going to dinner," Professor Mike Berry told the Sunday Independent.
Commenting further on the latest developments, he said that he found it most unlikely that Kate and Gerry Mc Cann were involved in their daughter's death -- and that Madeleine Mc Cann was mostly likely taken from the family apartment by a sexual predator in his twenties to thirties; that she was killed hours later and her body was dumped within a five mile radius of the crime scene.
As the international media and the world beyond awaits the next move by Portuguese police this week, Kate and Gerry McCann occupy one of the darkest places on earth.
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