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Natalee Holloway
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peripeteia



Joined: 22 Sep 2002
Posts: 1173
Location: Nova Scotia

PostPosted: Sat Aug 27, 2005 12:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mother confronts Aruba suspect
Holloway's mother questions Kalpoe about disappearance of missing teen
FREE VIDEO


• Twitty confronts suspect
Aug. 8: Today in Aruba, Natalee Holloway's mother, Beth Holloway Twitty confronted suspect Deepak Kalpoe at the internet cafe where Deepak works. She shares her encounter with MSNBC-TV's Joe Scarborough.
MSNBC



It's been over nine weeks since Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway disappeared on the last night of her vacation in Aruba. Since then, her mother Beth Holloway Twitty, has stayed on the island to take part in the search effort.

Her relentless determination for answers brought her face-to-face with Deepak Kalpoe, one of the three suspects involved in the disappearance. Under the guise of developing film, Beth Holloway showed up at the internet cafe where he works.

She tells MSNBC-TV host Joe Scarborough that Deepak avoided her questions and avoided eye contact.

Story continues below ↓
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BETH HOLLOWAY TWITTY, MOTHER OF NATALEE HOLLOWAY: I don’t know how long I was in there. It may have been an hour. It could have been longer. We went in there to develop some pictures, just trying to give Deepak an opportunity to talk to me. We know that he has some answers. And I think one of my biggest questions that I have is that Joran committed a sexual assault against Natalee in the car and we know Deepak and Satish were there.

I just asked him, did you try to help Natalee or did you participate? He can’t even answer that. He would just either refer to it with silence or his attorney told him not to speak with me. And I just can’t imagine, given that opportunity, that he would not want to take advantage of it to clear his name, with Natalee’s mother standing right there in front of him.

JOE SCARBOROUGH, ‘SCARBOROUGH COUNTRY’ HOST: So, you went to this Internet cafe and asked him about the reports of the sexual assault or the rape in the car, and he just simply refused to answer?

HOLLOWAY: Now, I can’t refer to it as rape, but I can refer to it as sexual assault. That’s as far as I can go with it. I know that some was occurring. He would either answer me with silence, or would not look at me. I had to keep telling him over and over again, pick your head up. Look at me when I’m talking with you. I’m trying to help you. You know, look at the damage, look at what he’s doing to Aruba.

The citizens, I’m sure, are outraged at how he is just disregarding any type of respect for maintaining Aruba’s integrity. There are a lot of people that have been watching, and even from the U.S., and we all want answers and we’re giving him every opportunity to clear his name. And he can’t do it.

SCARBOROUGH: Did you, at any point in this meeting, just simply say, hey, listen, I don’t think you’re telling the truth; your story that you’ve been telling the police, or I guess I should say your stories, just don’t add up? Did you call him a liar?

HOLLOWAY: I didn’t call him a liar, but I can tell you, in that hour or hour-and-a-half I was there, I asked him repeatedly. I was very persistent. I did not stop. I kept reminding him that we’ve got a $250,000 reward for the whereabouts of Natalee. We are offering $1 million for her safe return.

We, as her family, are doing everything we can to make this worthwhile, to come forward. We’re giving him lots of choices and opportunities to come forward and do the right thing. I offered him to please come on one of the shows with me, yours tonight.

But that just shows, some huge level of guilt and involvement. He cannot even look at Natalee’s mother. He can’t even deny it.

SCARBOROUGH: Yes. I think it’s absolutely fascinating that you go in there and he can’t even make eye contact with you, that, here you are, the person that’s obviously anguished by the disappearance of your daughter and possible death of your daughter, you go try to talk to him, and you’ve got to tell him, make eye contact with me; look in my eyes.

So you sensed that he looked guilty to you? Was he obviously intimidated by your presence in there?

HOLLOWAY: I’ll tell you, he looked sick to me. He looked sick with worry.

All I saw were his eyelids the entire time, except when I would tell him he had to look at me. That’s all I saw. His head was down. He was nervous. I mean, he was just continually going back and forth to the computer, just frantically typing, just senseless typing. I could see where I was seated that it was just senseless typing. He was just that fright or flight that someone gets, but he couldn’t flight, so all he had was fright in there.

SCARBOROUGH: Now, is he following your campaign?

HOLLOWAY: Obviously, he was on duty.

SCARBOROUGH: Yes, obviously on duty, trying to stay away from your questions.

Is he aware of the campaign, the aggressive campaign that you’re going through every night on TV? Does he understand that you’re not going away, that you’re going to keep going back on TV time and time again until you get justice for your daughter?

HOLLOWAY: You know, I think he is truly aware of it. I’m encouraged by the fact that he is watching. I think he’s got a vested interest in this case, I thought it was amusing.

The one question that he did ask me, and this was probably 10 minutes before I was leaving. He told me that the media has not seen this side of you. I told him, I’d been saving it for you, Deepak.

SCARBOROUGH: What side is that?

HOLLOWAY: I think it’s just the side that, I will stop at nothing to get answers. There is nothing that I won’t do. There’s nowhere that I won’t go. I’m going to ask every question. I don’t care how painful it is. I will do it, because I’m not going to have any regrets.

There are too many people that have been supporting me and they want answers too. So, if I’m in the position to ask them, I need to take advantage of it. I had the opportunity and I did the best I could, because, it’s a tragedy for Aruba and it’s a tragedy for all of us involved. These citizens deserve better than that. They’re good people here. They do not deserve to be put through what Deepak and Satish Kalpoe and Joran Van Der Sloot and the father, Paulus, are putting them through. They’re subjecting their country to this. It’s a tragedy. It is a shame.

SCARBOROUGH: Did you ever ask him questions like, where is my daughter? Is my daughter still alive? Did you kill my daughter? Did it ever go to that level, where you were really asking just the tough, tough questions?

HOLLOWAY: Joe, I’ve got a lot more days on this island, so I’m not going anywhere. I’ve got plenty of time. I’ve got lots more pictures to be developed at the Internet cafe.

SCARBOROUGH: Here we have, again, people writing around the United States, thousands of miles away, and yet they’re taking the posters down there. Did you mention that to him? Did you mention it to anybody in the store?

HOLLOWAY: Oh, absolutely. There was a customer at the counter at the same time I was there. The man knew who I was.

I had to explain that the reward for the $1 million for a safe return and the $250,000 for her whereabouts, because, you know, the tourists that come here, they ask me, where are her posters? Why don’t you have her posters up? And, if I put them up, I can’t help it if this business owner took her poster down.

It saddened me greatly, because we are trying everything we can, as her family, to bring forth a resolution. But we’ve got to have some help. And, for the most part, they remain in these businesses on the walls and on the glass doors, and that’s where we need to get the message out. But, if I put one up and his owner, this is what Deepak told me, that his manager or boss made him take it down. So, the only thing I know to do is to go back and try again.

SCARBOROUGH: Do it again. You were with Deepak for an hour, at least an hour. You saw him avert his eyes from you. You saw him look down. You saw him type nervously. Let's go back to the first night you got to the island, You immediately figured out that Joran and Paulus Van Der Sloot were involved just by reading their body language.

After being in the presence of Deepak for an hour earlier today, are you convinced that he is involved in the disappearance of Natalee?

HOLLOWAY: Oh, absolutely. Anybody that was in there and saw him would agree 100 percent. There wouldn’t be one person that didn’t believe that he had involvement if they would have been in there and witnessed and been in his presence. There’s no one that wouldn’t believe that he has involvement.

Catch 'Scarborough Country' each weeknight at
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A vision sent me on the path of seeking justice for Chandra, nothing I've seen in print to date has diminished the vividness but only served to reaffirm the validity of this vision.
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peripeteia



Joined: 22 Sep 2002
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 27, 2005 12:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

It appears from Mrs. Holloway's statement about a sexual assault taking place in the car....that the police must have found some DNA evidence in the car?

Well perhaps the brothers are more deeply involved if they cannot even look Mrs. Halloway in the eyes. With the brothers rearrested perhaps things might start developing in this case. The Prime Minister of Aruba has stated that this case has been bloched by the police, wow it has to be bad before a country's leader would make such a statement......

Scarbourough doing the interview, how extrodinary.....
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peripeteia



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PostPosted: Sat Aug 27, 2005 12:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

News Archive
Aruban leader admits mistakes made early in Holloway probe

August 23, 2005

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ORANJESTAD, Aruba -- Aruba's prime minister believes that authorities made mistakes at the start of the investigation of the Natalee Holloway case, a government spokesman said Monday.

Beth Holloway Twitty, who has often criticized authorities on the Dutch Caribbean island since her daughter disappeared May 30, met in private with Prime Minister Nelson Oduber over the weekend.

''I think that he's in absolute agreement that the initial investigation has been so badly botched,'' Holloway Twitty said.

She said the prime minister also told her that Aruba needs to review the first stages of the investigation to find out ''who let this go wrong.''

Oduber told reporters over the weekend that during the meeting he assured the Alabama woman that investigators would not stop looking for answers about the fate of her 18-year-old daughter.

Government spokesman Ruben Trapenberg said Monday the prime minister had expressed concerns about the initial investigation, though he used more cautious language.

''The prime minister agreed that in the beginning the case could have been better handled,'' Trapenberg said. ''He didn't say it had been 'botched.' '' AP
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rd



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PostPosted: Sat Aug 27, 2005 9:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Based on what I am hearing between the lines, the Kalpoe brothers were arrested on charges stemming from other girls coming forward concerning date rape drugs, so the internet alibi is not null and void concerning Natalee.

With the arrest of the other new person, that makes sense of what is going on there to use as leverage in gaining all relevant testimony for prosecuting van Der Sloot and the Kalpoes from each of them.

As with Condit, with multiple stories of what happened during the disappearance only one can be the truth, and that isn't even one of them. So we know they are liars, a lie detector test is worthless.

It would go off the scale for these worthless prevaricators.

rd


Last edited by rd on Sat Aug 27, 2005 4:24 pm; edited 1 time in total
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rd



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PostPosted: Sat Aug 27, 2005 11:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Holy cow, speaking of pornography in another thread, not only did these boys date rape drug an underage girl, 14 reported on Geraldo tonight, but they took pictures and were selling it.

So this gang is charged with not only making child porn but drugging the girl to do it and having sex with her unconscious.

You have to wonder if they were doing the same thing to Natalee and she died. I can't believe they deliberately murdered her because her friends talked to her in the car with them.

But we are about to hear several new versions of what happened from this gang, that's for sure. They've already blamed a DJ and security guards, probably will now point at the people who say they saw them, the night jogger and gardener.

It just gets wilder, a virtual rerun of Chandra's case in the summer of 2001. You never knew what was going to happen next.

rd
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peripeteia



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PostPosted: Sun Aug 28, 2005 8:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

rd:


You seem to know allot about the brothers extrodinaire than I. Can you post the article about date rape drugs and drugging girls so they can have sex .....? Please.

Well if Natalee is dead, which I'm afraid seems evident, then the trail of evidence no matter whether this leads to a murder conviction or not, they will be in prison for a very very long time for crimes committed prior to ever meeting Natalee. God Forbide that these men did this infatima with malice of forthought; that this gang went one step higher in their game with the devil and did deliberately decide to make a snuff film, with Natalee unwittingly playing the star role.

The Police need to bring in the DOGS and sniff...near the water. On the shores and wharfts. Once a scent is found, it maybe possible to know the point of where Natalee left the land.

There is an outside possibility that Natalee remains alive, that she has been taken to another coutry, then again she would still have had to have left by boat? Private Plane? and have been sold in the sex trade. ?

I believe that Natalee is in the ocean. All these men are familar with the sea, there would be no problem to arrange passage to another country, nor a problem to dispose of a body at sea. For all we know there maybe other women who are missing and possibly dead, harmed at their same hands.


The numbers of women who are being assaulted is simply unfathomable. Our children are being murdered and prositituted and sexually assaulted and molested at rates over the world that if I didn't know better these are dark days like the days of yore of Sodom.

It makes sense that Aruba maybe a centre for Pornography, as Dutch Laws are much more liberal that Canadian or American. Postitution is permitted in Dutch Law and the pornographic materials available in Holland is right up there for a likely tie as the centre of the pornographic world, however the Dutch do not accept pedophilia and crimes of infatimas. However the poverty levels in the Carribean make it a prime place for the sale of women and children at very reduced prices. The police in Aruba aren't Scotland Yard Material, and the resources of the third world countries are less than limited, and in many cases non-existant.

Several years ago a Canadian Youth was murdered in Bermuda while on vacation, and the court case and investigation amounted to a Kangaroo Court or a Circus. The specifics of the case I cannot recall, but it remains a blemish on the judicial system of Bermuda.

Unfortunately and tragically Natalee will become a symbol in the movement to ban pornorgraphy by the association with the men/teens involved in her disappearance. The trial will point out exactly the sordid life these men have been living, and we will see how deep the evil flows.

Seizing the accounts of the suspects and their parents of those who live in Aruba might lead to somewhere, follow the money.....
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peripeteia



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PostPosted: Sun Aug 28, 2005 8:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

rd: just reread your post and saw the reference to Geraldo and the 14 years old, will go and search...

kate
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Kortnie



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PostPosted: Sun Aug 28, 2005 9:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The numbers of women who are being assaulted is simply unfathomable. Our children are being murdered and prositituted and sexually assaulted and molested at rates over the world that if I didn't know better these are dark days like the days of yore of Sodom.

Yes, Peri. I was shocked to hear Jonathan Klein, who is a president of some Network TV, describe the continuing focus on Natalee as "trivial and frivolous" news.

If that isn't misogyny, I don't know what is.

The focus SHOULD remain on every missing girl or woman until they are found, whether dead or alive. Trivial and frivolous, my a**. (Excuse me, but that jerk's remarks have smoke coming out of my ears...)
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peripeteia



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PostPosted: Sun Aug 28, 2005 10:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

K those remarks of the Media buddy are about as classy as that evangalist mouthing off on TV about taking OUT the President of Venezula!!!

It is odd that people can pretent and deny or simply choose to lie about what goes on around them, because it does not sell newspapers, it is not an "IN" topic at the cocktail or supper party or because it bores them or they have no vested interest. One wonder what is important to such a guy. An attitude like, oh lets get on with it! Perhaps, the media gentleman is concerned with what might get turned up if too much attention is paid to the story......??? Or likely the type of jerk as you refered to in code....
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A vision sent me on the path of seeking justice for Chandra, nothing I've seen in print to date has diminished the vividness but only served to reaffirm the validity of this vision.


Last edited by peripeteia on Sun Aug 28, 2005 10:49 am; edited 1 time in total
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gozgals



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PostPosted: Sun Aug 28, 2005 10:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

kate: As you state:

Quote:
Seizing the accounts of the suspects and their parents of those who live in Aruba might lead to somewhere, follow the money.


This seems to be the case in many of these crimes. Never would I have believed this would have turned out to be as twisted as it has become as we are watching the events unfold.

The rash of crimes against children/women/ and young girls is becoming a worldwide epidemic that needs to be nipped immediately. At a loss as I see what kind of animals lead Beth and her family on a wild goose chase for so long.

rd: HOLY COW Is not the description that comes to mind!

I'm sure as this continues, the cast of characters will be advised by their elders on what to say, what to do, and more cover-up stories.

It is a fact: Women just are not important. Get rid of what you don't want.
When it comes time to be responsible, lie!


G)
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rd



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PostPosted: Sun Aug 28, 2005 1:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

We have a situation that stymied me in Chandra's case and which I write about in Murder on a Horse Trail. Rita Cosby reported on a cable news show about Anne Marie Smith getting a midnight call from a payphone near Luray Caves from Congressman Condit only two weeks after Chandra disappeared.

Some people who who saw this such as hawkeye from Luray posted it, but I could find nothing on it in the press. In fact, it was only ever mentioned once, finally being quoted from Anne Marie's lawsuit against Condit in California. News organizations decided it was not something we should hear, and we didn't.

Rita, and Anne Marie, were silenced. Had it not been for Larry King interviewing Anne Marie I would have never known what hawkeye was talking about. As a result, transcripts from cable news shows are a major source of the Chandra story in Murder on a Horse Trail.

We have yet to hear the results of DNA testing on the arm that washed ashore in Venzuela. Even if mitochondrial DNA sequencing was required, enough time has passed to do that but no one knows what is going on with it.

The 17 year old being date rape drugged is thought to be still in addition to this new charge of a 14 year old drugged and raped unconscious with porn pictures made of it and sold.

So I won't have any links for any of this, I am not sure what is being printed or where, but I haven't seen anything and I have learned my lesson from Luray that the print media is unlikely to cover the most important and controversial details of a missing woman. It's just not what they consider worthy.

rd
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peripeteia



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PostPosted: Tue Aug 30, 2005 10:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

rd wrote:
We have a situation that stymied me in Chandra's case and which I write about in Murder on a Horse Trail. Rita Cosby reported on a cable news show about Anne Marie Smith getting a midnight call from a payphone near Luray Caves from Congressman Condit only two weeks after Chandra disappeared.

Some people who who saw this such as hawkeye from Luray posted it, but I could find nothing on it in the press. In fact, it was only ever mentioned once, finally being quoted from Anne Marie's lawsuit against Condit in California. News organizations decided it was not something we should hear, and we didn't.

Rita, and Anne Marie, were silenced. Had it not been for Larry King interviewing Anne Marie I would have never known what hawkeye was talking about. As a result, transcripts from cable news shows are a major source of the Chandra story in Murder on a Horse Trail.

We have yet to hear the results of DNA testing on the arm that washed ashore in Venzuela. Even if mitochondrial DNA sequencing was required, enough time has passed to do that but no one knows what is going on with it.

The 17 year old being date rape drugged is thought to be still in addition to this new charge of a 14 year old drugged and raped unconscious with porn pictures made of it and sold.

So I won't have any links for any of this, I am not sure what is being printed or where, but I haven't seen anything and I have learned my lesson from Luray that the print media is unlikely to cover the most important and controversial details of a missing woman. It's just not what they consider worthy.

rd


This is so true rd.

Checked on the net, Aruba is 20 km from Venezula, it is a tax haven for drug monies, a place to launder drug money, and a stopping off port for drugs on route to the US, from info gathered on the net.

Catching a boat ride to dump a body when you live in a port full of drug runners......... would be a simple task. For a price, Natalee could have been disposed of by professionals. A pirate would be for hire in a heart beat, simply a phone call away. Anything one's heart desires is available for money in such places. Then there is the calling in of favors, a friend of a friend of a friend might have a boat who might turn a blind eye to the type of cargo they are hauling, for the right price anything can be had........... One thing that I think runs very deep in this country, and in a port of the underword, silence! This Island would be somewhat akin to Sicily.

The suspect Van der Sloot, Father is/was a magistrate or sometype of government offical, no doubt some caribbean pirate needing a favour in law might agree to transport a parcel to the open sea.

The trail of evidence goes cold after a point (from the beach) , hopefully the police are working out a deal for the first person who talks. Perhaps, this fourth person arrested who's name has not been released will turn states evidence for a favour in sentencing, especially if this person might only be an accessory to the crime after the fact?

It is not impossible that the arm washed ashore in Venezula might be Natalee's? DNA testing can take a long time, depending on how damaged the tissue has sustained and the size of the sample. The water is very warm in this neck of the woods, human tissue in the water deteriorates at a very fast rate. Harvesting cells for DNA extraction is no easy process in somecases, it can take a number of processes to acquire an adequate sample. I read recently that extracting DNA, from a tiny blood sample took 6 weeks to analysize. Depending on how long the sample has been in the water, the tissue damage from water and dehydration affects the ability of the laboratory technical to get a proper sample.

We will see what turns up in the media....there is likely great pressure coming from the hotel owners to get this case solved, this whole affair must be very bad for the tourist business. One thing for sure, Aruba gets scrubbed from the list of places to go for a vacation for singles, and teenagers!!!!!!!

I checked on Arubian Economics, and besides the laundering of drug money and fishing the main industry of Aruba is the tourist industry. Aruba imports much more than it exports, most trading is with the US.
It is governed by Dutch Law which is similar to British Law. As noted earlier the Prime Minster of Aruba has critized the Police in their handling of this affair. With hope the Police will successfully bring charges against those responsible for Natalee's disappearance.

Given that the economy and reputation of Aruba is at stake, one would think that the Police would be offering very high incentives for states' evidence? Given the size of the reward it is surprizing that someone has not been forthcoming with information. The reward only recently was raised, so perhaps someone will come forward in the next little while.
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peripeteia



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PostPosted: Tue Aug 30, 2005 10:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

http://www.cdnn.info/news/travel/t050829.html

Cannot paste or copy this article here. The name of the fourth suspect is Freddy Zedan Arambatzis, who is allegedly involved in the sex and drug trade. The decision which lead the scuba divers to go searching about 1 mile off Aruba was someone thinking they sited bones on the radar. Nothing was found...
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gozgals



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PostPosted: Tue Aug 30, 2005 12:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

P states:

Quote:
Catching a boat ride to dump a body when you live in a port full of drug runners......... would be a simple task. For a price, Natalee could have been disposed of by professionals. A pirate would be for hire in a heart beat, simply a phone call away. Anything one's heart desires is available for money in such places. Then there is the calling in of favors, a friend of a friend of a friend might have a boat who might turn a blind eye to the type of cargo they are hauling, for the right price anything can be had........... One thing that I think runs very deep in this country, and in a port of the underword, silence! This Island would be somewhat akin to Sicily.


I do agree (P). I feel and have always felt the search for Natalee's body on land will be unfounded. In my opinion she was discarded at sea which makes it difficult for any recovery evidence. I have not heard any reports on if the arm has been announced as being identified as belonging to Natalee. **Thank you for the DNA information posted which answers theses questions on procedure, etc.

The laws that govern the islands, as well as the criminal elements that seem to roam free have made this case one that is sticky to actually horn in on what may be truth or not. In the case of one of the boys telling the truth and turning, I'm not sure if this will happen. I wonder why none of them have actually turned yet?

It is possibly that they are all equally involved, yet the media and gossip lead me to believe we will not see any true facts that can be verified till this crime is resolved.-- (and even at that juncture, the lies will be forthcoming still)

After reading and investigating the said fourth suspect, it makes me wonder what type of activities take place on the island. I certainly would not want any of my children to be taking trips there.

Thanks for the updates. I have been searching around also, but still would like to know the evidence the Arubian authorities do have.

GG)

Indifference, to me, is the epitome of evil.
Elie Wiesel
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peripeteia



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PostPosted: Tue Aug 30, 2005 1:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

From paradise to paradox in Aruba
At first, finding a missing American girl was paramount. Then the American media settled in, and attitudes have changed.
By DAVID ADAMS, Times Latin America Correspondent
Published August 22, 2005

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


ORANJESTAD, Aruba - Hurricanes almost never come this far south in the Caribbean.

It's one of the many attractions that lure hundreds of thousands of tourists each year to the sunny, slow-paced island of Aruba.

But, when an Alabama teen, Natalee Holloway, disappeared May 30, Arubans had no idea of the storm that was about to hit them.

Within days of her disappearance packs of reporters - mostly cable TV producers and crews - descended on the unsuspecting island. They were soon followed by dozens of members of U.S.-based volunteer search groups.

Audiences in the United States are used to the sight of media satellite trucks arrayed outside Los Angeles courthouses, high school shootings and even a Pinellas Park hospice. But tiny Aruba has never seen anything like it. Only 20 miles long and 6 miles across, with 97,000 inhabitants, it is less than one-third the size of Pinellas County, with one-tenth the population.

At first the Americans were met with open arms by locals. They found them free hotel rooms and meals. They washed their clothes. Arubans are proud of the island's reputation for hospitality and a low crime rate. Auto license plates boast the slogan, "One Happy Island."

But almost three months later patience with the media - and the Holloway family - is wearing thin.

"We put out the welcome mat and we were trampled upon," said Julia Renfro, the U.S.-born editor of Aruba Today , a daily English-language newspaper that rallied island support for the family. "We all wanted to help, but we never thought this would become a case against Aruba."

Arubans say they sympathize deeply with Holloway's family. But unbalanced and overblown coverage by the U.S. media has put TV ratings ahead of professional journalism, they complain.

Criticism of Americans does not come easily to Arubans. U.S. consumer culture is everywhere to be seen in Aruba, from brand names such as Marriott to Taco Bell. But, as the story grinds on with no end in sight, Arubans are learning there are aspects of U.S. culture they could do without.

* * *

Most of what we know about the case was known in the first few days.

Natalee Holloway vanished hours before she was to catch a return flight to Alabama at the end of a high school graduation trip.

Authorities detained seven people in the case, but only Joran van der Sloot, the 18-year-old son of a Dutch trainee judge, remains in custody. Holloway was last seen leaving a bar with van der Sloot.

Despite the lack of major developments, the Holloway story continues to receive prime-time coverage in the United States.

So what are all these reporters doing?

On Wednesday, cameramen and reporters staked out the courthouse for a closed-door hearing, hoping to catch a glimpse of van der Sloot entering and leaving in handcuffs. Lawyers were ambushed on the courthouse steps, but had little new to say.

With networks paying as much as $1,500-a-day for freelance cameramen, $300 to $400 for hotel rooms for producers and crew, as well as $3,000 for satellite feeds, any tidbit will do.

When a park ranger found a piece of duct tape with a strand of blond hair, it became major international news. Talk shows deemed it crucial evidence. The hair turned out to belong to a local wave-boarder out surfing.

An arm found off the coast of Venezuela was treated with similar scrutiny. The dubious testimony of two supposed witnesses - a gardener and a homeless man - is endlessly debated.

One witness led authorities to drain two salt ponds, disturbing a flock of nesting egrets. Journalists clambering for a view accidentally broke a water main, reflooding one pond. The day after the pipe was fixed, reporters broke it again.

A Texas search group of mostly middle-aged men with large waistlines held a press conference to announce they would appreciate some free food. Another group from Florida accused the Texans of overindulging at local bars, and failing to do a professional job.

A park ranger accused a Texas volunteer group of destroying a nest of endangered sea turtle eggs while searching on a beach, a charge the group denied. Environmentalists photographed the cracked eggs.

"We don't know who did it," said Edith van der Wal, secretary of the island's sea turtle foundation. "But all these years we never had any man-made destruction."

She also stopped another search team member from riding over another nesting area on an all-terrain vehicle.

"They don't do it intentionally, but they have no idea about our nature," she said. "There's a lot of reward money" - Holloway's family has offered $1-million - "It's like gold-digging."

It's a gold mine for the cable shows, too.

Ratings at CNN and Fox have soared since this story first broke, especially for the Fox show, On the Record with Greta Van Susteren, who is averaging more than 2-million viewers a night, up almost 60 percent from a year ago.

Perhaps that explains why at the end of a slow news day last Wednesday, the nightly shows on Fox and CNN still managed to find something to discuss. The spokesmen for the two search groups revisited their continuing feud, but sought to downplay the animosity.

"We feed them (the media) chum to keep them happy," said Jim Knox, a West Palm Beach businessman who is sponsoring a two-dog search team on the island. "We don't like doing it. We do it to keep the story alive."

Not everyone in the media is grateful.

Last week, Bob Costas declined to fill on Larry King Live because the show planned to cover the Holloway case.

"I didn't think the subject matter of Thursday's show was the kind of broadcast I should be doing," Costas said in a statement. "I suggested some alternatives but the producers preferred the topics they had chosen."

* * *

The Holloway case caught authorities woefully unprepared.

"They are the "Not ready for prime time island,"' said Matthew Felling of the Center for Media and Public Affairs in Washington, D.C.

Felling, and other media watchdogs, say Aruba is a victim of a network fascination with missing white women as ideal fodder for 24-hour cable TV.

"The networks realized that there is nothing more durable than the damsel-in-distress," he said, reciting a growing list of cases, going back to Chandra Levy, Elizabeth Smart and Laci Peterson.

At first, Aruban authorities handled the Holloway case as they would any other.

Like most European-based police and judicial systems, little public information was released. That smacked of a coverup in the minds of the U.S. media, which is used to a steady diet of tips from police and judicial sources.

The government tried to counter that by staging a handful of press conferences. They explained Aruba's discreet judicial system. They explained that 20 percent of the 500-man police force was working the case. Behind the scenes, FBI and Dutch authorities were also involved, they said.

But the damage was done.

The Alabama legislature passed a resolution calling for a tourism boycott of Aruba.

The family wrote a letter to Alabama Gov. Bob Riley rejecting the idea, saying it "could severely harm our relationship with the people of Aruba, who have done so much to assist us."

On TV, the family strikes a different tone.

"The level of ineptness, the level of omissions of things, blatantly orchestrated errors ... just was incredible," Holloway's mother, Beth Holloway Twitty, told CBS last week.

That kind of talk has exasperated many islanders.

"They are giving Aruba a very bad name," said Juan Chabaya Lampe, 85, a beloved Aruban musician, painter and writer, who composed the country's national anthem in 1954. "The American media should apologize."

Clearly, criticism wounded the nation's pride.

After all, hadn't islanders leaped to help the Holloway family when news first broke of the disappearance? They treated them with the famous hospitality that entices 550,000 tourists every year, nearly three-quarters of them American.

One of the first people Holloway's mother contacted when she arrived on the island was Renfro at Aruba Today .

"Beth called and said, "I've lost my daughter, can you help me?"' said Renfro, 37. It was late and the paper was set. Renfro ordered printers to stop the presses, a first in the paper's history.

"We are all mothers and have daughters and we all wanted to help them," said Angela Munzenhofer, a reporter at the paper.

More than 200 local volunteers turned up the first day. They went house-to-house with fliers. They tied yellow ribbons on trees. When they ran out of yellow ribbons, they used white ones.

They searched for 19 days. Government offices closed so workers could join the search.

Staff at the paper grew close to the Holloways, arranging interviews with cable networks. They did the search teams' laundry.

"Did we get a thank you for washing their clothes?" said Munzenhofer. "No, instead we got in trouble for mixing them up."

What they saw reported on TV made the reporters even more uncomfortable.

Suspects and witnesses were incorrectly portrayed, say the women. Holloway was described as the victim of sexual assault, though no evidence has confirmed that. The father of the main suspect was identified as a politically influential judge, when in fact he was still studying and had failed exams for the bench. The family lived in relative obscurity in a modest home.

Media analysts continually speculated about van der Sloot's guilt, suggesting he was a difficult teen with behavioral problems. Van der Sloot has admitted to lying about some of the details of his last night with Holloway. But his school teachers deny any class problems. He graduated as an honor roll student and has several offers from U.S. universities.

"CNN used to be held in high regard. Today we don't even consider them respectable media," said Aruba's government spokesman, Ruben Trapenburg. He said other broadcast networks, ABC, CBS and NBC, had been more fair. Among print media, he praised Associated Press for its balance.

* * *

Tired of the media coverage, many Arubans have already refocused on everyday life. School has restarted and national elections are scheduled Sept.23. Public finance and education are the main topics. With only two murders in the past year, crime is hardly a topic.

"We are very open to American culture," Dilma Arends, another Aruba Today reporter, said, "but we are realizing that we are still a Dutch island."

With the nightly talk shows enjoying high ratings every time the Holloway case is featured, there's no sign the TV crews intend to break camp.

Prosecutors must decide by Sept.4 whether to charge van der Sloot or release him from custody.

Even then it may not be over. The law allows a 30-day extension.

--David Adams can be reached at dadams@sptimes.com


/Quote
_________________
A vision sent me on the path of seeking justice for Chandra, nothing I've seen in print to date has diminished the vividness but only served to reaffirm the validity of this vision.


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