Okay, so it's been almost two months and there's been no thread, so I figured I'd start one.

Natalee Holloway, an eighteen-year-old Alabama honors student has been missing in Aruba since early in the morning on May 30th, 2005. She was in Aruba on a graduation trip with 124 students. The morning they were going to leave, her friends noticed she was missing. They immediately informed police. Inside her hotel room, her bags were packed and passport found, but no sign of her.

Aruba is a protectorate of the Netherlands, and follows their laws. The three men who said they said Holloway last, Deepak and Satish Kalpoe and Joran van der Sloot, said they saw two black guards of the hotel talk to Holloway when they dropped her off that hotel.

The two men were brought in for questioning, but it turns out that neither they, nor Natalee, were on the hotel surveillance tapes, and they were released.

June 14th, the police arrested the two Surinamese brothers and van der Sloot. THEN, their cars, homes, cell phones and computers were searched for any trace of the teen. They were questioned and detained by Aruban police. The brothers and Joran met Natalee Holloway at Carlos 'n' Charlies restaurant, and according to friends, she stayed there with them instead of returning to the hotel.

Meanwhile, the island of Aruba had posted signs for a while about the missing teen, but had admitted to believing Holloway is dead, and did not want to tell the public for the family's sake. (A friend of mine came back from Aruba and said there were NO signs for this girl, not even at the restaurant, and none of the natives talk about it. It has not slowed tourism at all.)

Holloway's family has been in and out of Aruba, trying to keep their daughter's disappearance on the top of the list in Aruba and keep the American interest. FBI officials have been sent to supervise, but cannot make orders beacuse they have no jurisdiction in Aruba. Volunteer divers from Texas have stopped diving to find the teen, saying there has been no progress made whatsoever.

Since then, the two brothers were released when they said they dropped off Joran van der Sloot, the son of an Aruban official judge-in-training, at the beach where Joran had admitted to being alone with the missing teen. Joran's mother admits his son was alone with Holloway on the beach, but denies having harmed her. Joran can be held, under Aruban law, until Sept. 4th where unless they come up with a body or any real evidence to charge him, he will be released. Arubans protester after Holloway's mother said the brothers were 'criminals' and should not have been released. She has since apologized.


I am appalled and disgusted at Aruba's gross mishandling of this case. It's an obvious fact that any forensic investigations into missing persons have to be done within 48 hours of the disappearance. The moment they had Joran, Deepak and Satish, they should have been searched. They could have been coached, and evidence washed and destroyed.

The fact is, Natalee Holloway is more than likely shark bait. The Aruban police mishandled and were completely inept in this case, when if they had done this right the first time, they could have easily gotten SOME forensic evidence off one of those teenagers, or from their cars.

In an island roughly the size of Washington, D.C. and hundreds od police and thousands of volunteers and NO ONE can find anything? And months of detaining these teens and not one confession? This is a ****ing disgrace to their entire country and judicial system.

I'm done ranting. Any thoughts?

-----"""I just hope they nail the *******(s) who did this. Which is unlikely 'cause I could've solved this case better with my Harriet the Spy Kit."""---

LOL. Harriett the Spy. Or in dutch, the tongue of Aruba's colonial mother The Netherlands, Hjáriettardem dies Spjükulnookéldoot. Or something equally crazy.


-----"""Lol, it's getting attention because she's gorgeous and the family is loaded. Period."""---

Man so true. This one's on the more interesting side...but "missing suburban blond chick with rich perfect family" is getting to be a really annoying repeated newsstory.

Oh I am pretty certain she is dead.

quote:

Originally posted by redrepublican:

quote:

Lol, it's getting attention because she's gorgeous and the family is loaded

Exactly.

It's that, and because she was lost overseas. We like to think we can protect our own and people get mad when other countries can't protect our people.

But meh. The duct tape that washed ashore wasn't Natalee, so she's either dead or in Peru somewhere.

quote:

Lol, it's getting attention because she's gorgeous and the family is loaded

Exactly.

You know why this topic is being harped so much. It is because Beth Holloway Twitty is media savvy and she's got $$$. She knows how to keep this case going and she has the money to keep herself running back and forth between the US and Aruba.
You dont see any of these other cases getting as much media hype. Its because she knows how to keep the coverage flowing. She knows that if the media leaves, she has no chance of solving this case.

quote:

Originally posted by reactionary05:
I can't believe how much attention this is getting on tv. Honestly, its tragic, but I dont care anymore.

Lol, it's getting attention because she's gorgeous and the family is loaded. Period.

And, just so you know, Beth Holloway Twitty hasn't left Aruba since she got there in May.

I can't believe how much attention this is getting on tv. Honestly, its tragic, but I dont care anymore.

Just to update -- two new witnesses have come forward from the Aruban island. One witness claims he knows where Natalee's body is, and another claims to have seen Joran van der Sloot, and the Kalpoe brothers in the Kalpoe car at around 3:00AM, AFTER the brothers had claimed they were home.

They're not saying who these witnesses are, or if they're credible, but they did release video of an FBI re-enactment of the witness statement. And Equee-Search, the Texas-based volunteeer search group is coming back to the island to search again in the spots dictated by witnesses.

The Aruban Prime Minister has asked for the FBI given full access to all the evidence, but van der Sloot's attorney and the Kalpoe brothers' attorney are filing motions to block it. Since the FBI has no jurisdiction, there's no real legal reason for them to have any evidence in the case. They're only there in a supervisory capacity as a good will gesture from Aruba.

My thinking is that Joran's father is doing a lot of shuffling around the Aruban office considering how friendly he is with the officials there, being an official himself. If the FBI gets a hand on these, they may find new evidence.

But, whatever. The Holloway-Twitty family has a $1 million reward for the SAFE return of Natalee, and $100,000 for any tip that leads them to her whereabouts. They're still really hoping she's alive and was maybe taken to another island, or a South American country.

I'm just hoping if that duct tape is hers, that means her body is somewhere floating and the adhesive came off. Her family at least deserve a body, if not their daughter safe and sound.

quote:

Originally posted by CelticNewAger:
Supposdely a piece of duct tape was found near the beach she was last seen....it had blond hair strands.

DNA samples have been taken from the suspects and sent to the Netherlands for testing.

Also to Quantico. To add, the FBI is now just being allowed to see suspect tapes and review evidence. Also, videos of Natalee on her competitive dance team as a cheerleader have been released by the family to keep their daughter's case alive.

The tapes are fairly heartbreaking, considering her naer inevitable fate (or maybe that was just my kinda O.O thinking at 3 in the morning watching MSNBC, Scarborough Country, and CNN simultaneously.) Just makes the need for a charge made in this case all the more important.

Supposdely a piece of duct tape was found near the beach she was last seen....it had blond hair strands.

DNA samples have been taken from the suspects and sent to the Netherlands for testing.

just saw the story on larry king the other day...
she is anything but alive..like celtic said she surely must be dead.......

quote:

Originally posted by ICELAND:
Was this on the news in the US at all? I haven't watched the news or read newspapers or even watched much tv at all for 2 months so I have no idea what's going on in the world. If it was; weird, Aruba, pretty random place.

Lol, actually, yeah. Not so much now because there's very little progress and thus..very little news. Although some duct tape did wash ashore with blonde hairs on it. They're being sent to the Netherlands for DNA testing and then to Quantico.

::Shrugs.:: I just hope they nail the *******(s) who did this. Which is unlikely 'cause I could've solved this case better with my Harriet the Spy Kit.

Gotta love YN censoring. I hope they nail those asterisks. It really loses all effect.

Was this on the news in the US at all? I haven't watched the news or read newspapers or even watched much tv at all for 2 months so I have no idea what's going on in the world. If it was; weird, Aruba, pretty random place.

quote:

Originally posted by CelticNewAger:
While I'm not justifying this, I've somethings to say.

She was supposedly drinking and making out with one of the guys...late. Which is damn STUPID to do when you are in a foreign country and anyone with common sense should know that.

This has been over-publicized. So many people dissappear in the US, but they're barely talked about, because race, sex, and basically income afffect how much the media puts attention into it.

She's DEAD. She's long dead, and everyone should face that. Aruba is VERY hot, I've gone there a few times, it's hotter than Puerto Rico is and that is saying something. It's dry and too warm, she likely found little water had she survived. She can survive a week with water but 3 days without it. So, she's very very very very likely dead.

There is nothing wrong with their judicial system. Aruba has a very very low criminal rate, and the suspects aren't from Aruba. As I said, she went out drinking and basically partying with these guys rather late into the night, which is her irresponsibility.

I agree that there has been little forensic investigation, but it's appalling to think Aruba's law has anythint to do with her dissappearance.

It's obvious these three guys did it, but as it seems, they'll get out of it fine. They probably threw her body in the ocean, where it decomposes easily if she doesn't become a shark's dinner. Aruba has a few very rough beaches that she could have drowned if they threw her in alive.

i agree with u on this one

I don't know if I came off this way, but I in no way feel badly for her. I agree she put herself in an unfortunate situation, but I'm still placing a lot of the blame of that fact that her killer (or killers) will never be brought to justice on the Aruban's handling of her case. According to her friends she was not the type to drink and whore around, and that Joran van der Sloot had met them earlier at a casino, and Natalee had introduced herself. Joran said nobody goes out at that time..and then miraculously showed up at the same restaurant Natalee and her friends were. I also think it's weird how none of her friends cared enough to pry her away from this guy for her own good. Or look for her sooner than at the airport counting heads. Great friends.

And, Joran van der Sloot is a native of the island. His father is a noted official and a judge-in-training.

I feel badly for her family, and I just have a personal hatred for people who committ violent acts against women. I can't stand to see acts like that go unpunished.

Also, I don't understand why people are telling me she's dead. I understand she's dead. I hold no hope of her safe return. I'm saying that from nearly the moment the Aruban police had their hands on this case, they were more interested in getting culprits and confessions like a murder case, rather than the missing person case it was. They treated it as murder in its infant stages, which is NOT how cases should be handled.

yeah, I agree with Celtic - shes [unfortunately] dead. I feel very very sorry for her family, but they need to realize that shes gone.

I'm not defending the suspects that killed her, but why would anybody with a little bit of common sense get in a car with guys that you dont know?

I personally think that the van der Sloot boy killed her and then he told his father, and he helped him get rid of her body. Maybe I'm wrong, but thats just my guess.

While I'm not justifying this, I've somethings to say.

She was supposedly drinking and making out with one of the guys...late. Which is damn STUPID to do when you are in a foreign country and anyone with common sense should know that.

This has been over-publicized. So many people dissappear in the US, but they're barely talked about, because race, sex, and basically income afffect how much the media puts attention into it.

She's DEAD. She's long dead, and everyone should face that. Aruba is VERY hot, I've gone there a few times, it's hotter than Puerto Rico is and that is saying something. It's dry and too warm, she likely found little water had she survived. She can survive a week with water but 3 days without it. So, she's very very very very likely dead.

There is nothing wrong with their judicial system. Aruba has a very very low criminal rate, and the suspects aren't from Aruba. As I said, she went out drinking and basically partying with these guys rather late into the night, which is her irresponsibility.

I agree that there has been little forensic investigation, but it's appalling to think Aruba's law has anythint to do with her dissappearance.

It's obvious these three guys did it, but as it seems, they'll get out of it fine. They probably threw her body in the ocean, where it decomposes easily if she doesn't become a shark's dinner. Aruba has a few very rough beaches that she could have drowned if they threw her in alive.