When you lose someone you love to death, it's unbearable at times. But, you get to go through the process of anger, grief, mourning. When someone disappears, well, I don't know how you cope.
I think you just go on, hoping one day you will get them back. Or at least answers. Maybe the answers you get will be more devastating then the finality of the situation, but they would be answers.
There is a possibility the family, the parents, of little Madeleine McCann will get some answers. I pray they will, and I pray they won't get details if this man that has been named a suspect is the one.