Very possibly...
Also, though I have no idea about Aruban law, first degree murder, if it is defined as a killing that is "willful, deliberate, and premeditated," might be stretched to include a "premeditated act" that, by its disregard for human life, "resulted" in the accidental death of a person. Like the use of a date-rape drug.
To me, that is a huge stretch but I can't imagine three (or more) people planning to rape/murder Nat unless they had some very strange reasons, such as an initiation or a snuff film or, God forbid, erotic necrophilia (which is closely linked to rape).
This whole premeditated thing throws me for a loop.
You're right. It's interesting that premeditated is included in the suspicions. Hopefully Greta or Scarborough will have someone on tonight that will be able to explain what this means in Aruba's legal system. (Just please don't let it be Tito!)
What about if Natalee were still alive at the point of her initial disappearance?
They held her against her will and something went wrong with whatever their exact plan for her was, after which she was a threat to them if they ever let her go alive, and they killed her then? Perhaps even after some time passed? (In date rape, the victim is not supposed to be a threat because she has no memory of what happened, right? What if a drug interaction changed the affect of a drug they gave her and she COULD remember, even could and did fight them?)
Or, another possibility is that they QUICKLY PLANNED AND EXECUTED HER DEATH after something unexpected happened, and I mean quickly, but it still contained all the elements of premeditation.
About the girls coming forward...just think about the risk they were under as long as Joran and Kalpoes and PVDS knew about their being "out there". Even if not able to remember exactly, because of being drugged, they had to know something went down with these perps, they just could not prove it. Yet, they could add to suspicions in Natalee's case, and the perps knew it.
Is it possible these girls received threats from the perps, or someone on behalf of the perps, that they had better keep quiet or else??? That could be used as evidence of guilt against the perps, if they could be linked to some threats against these girls.
Just thinking aloud here...