Posted on 04/18/2006 8:23:39 AM PDT by floridaobserver
According to what Holloway's friends have told authorities, the blond-haired, blue-eyed van Cromvoirt was seen with their classmate after she left van der Sloot - the pals say they saw them in the Holiday Inn casino together. But when the casino's video surveillance tapes were turned over to police, investigators could find no sign of Holloway and van Cromvoirt, the source noted.
Van Cromvoirt's father is the security expert in charge of video surveillance at the hotel.
Aruban authorities are also scrutinizing a surveillance tape taken earlier on May 30 that shows Holloway arguing with a light-haired young man in a jewelry store in the Wyndham Hotel, according to the source.
They're trying to determine if the man is van Cromvoirt.
A source said police records indicate that "Natalee told her mom and others she was in love with a blond-haired, blue-eyed Dutch kid."
Holloway's mother assumed the youth was van der Sloot, though he has darker hair.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I think for some people the nexus of the case has become van der Sloot and not Natalee. They don't want to hear anything that doesn't support their idea of what happened. I really do think that has impeded the investigation.
I was really surprised the other night when they were talking about GVC being arrested and Beth was basically not interested unless it somehow implicated van der Sloot. For all she knows they could have the guy who killed her daughter and she's turning her back on that to focus on the other kid. It just doesn't make sense to me, but then I've never been in her situation.
Thanks for posting this. I missed it today (yesterday, Tuesday). How interesting.
I had stopped following the case very closely last fall, right around hurricane time here - Katrina and Rita, both. Beth was starting to get on my nerves and I wanted a break. Have only glimpsed a few things, like Joran's interviews and things like that, since then.
But I still wear my Hope for Natalee bracelet all the time, so people do ask me about the investigation.
I've seen van Cromvoirt's pix on TV the past few days and I kept thinking, "If I were Natalee, *that's* the boy I'd have been making googly eyes at, not Joran."
I need to review, but after reading this NYPost story - knowing it's the NYPost, so grainy/salty - some things kind of make a little more sense. Not the beach part or the video part, but I do recall the VCB Security shirt, among other things--and the mention of a "blonde boy" - whether Beth says it's true or not.
More than that, I'm thinking how the past few days so many "sources" thought van Cromvoirt (when they still thought he was "Godfried" and not "Geoffrey") was Dutch and lived in the Netherlands - and only visited Aruba.
Evidently, that's not true, BUT there was a story early about Natalee and her friends meeting a "Dutch exchange student" - which the posse twisted into "Joran lied about being a Dutch exchange student."
Now I'm thinking GVC may have been the one who either is/was putting himself out there as being "from" Holland or the Netherlands, rather than being a Dutchman living in Aruba all along, or just saying he was Dutch and being mistaken by the MB kids as an "exchange student."
I'm going to look back through my notes and see where GVC might have fit in (like the "older guy" Natalee had dinner with - lol, older as in 19?) other places like that. Hmmm.
Beth has decided that Joran is the perpetrator and has closed her mind to any other possibility. She also can't seem to believe that Beth would leave alone willingly from the Hotel without her being drugged.
She was on tv last night, and seemed completely out of the loop regarding the new developments.
What you say would seem to indicate that she has other knowledge that is not public. I've suspected this for some time: that she knows things that happened since before her first trip home. That's the kind of person I think she is.
I know she is irritating to some, with that nasally accent. Nevertheless, she's a lioness about her child and for that I will ALWAYS respect her. That's what 'mother' is and does.
I just don't get the whole 'in love with a blond, blue-eyed boy' thing. I don't know what to make of that.
And I still maintain: they all know each other on that pathetic tourist-eating mantrap of an island. That makes them all complicit, in my book.
I agree, too. And I'll venture to say, look at the [flimsy, but there] parallels to the Duke U. case.
Whatever judgment the females made, poor or not, they shouldn't have to pay the price of rape and/or death. Human beings as entertainment? The world is way more barbaric...the parallel universe is a scary place.
A bad place.
I take what Beth says with a grain of salt. I think she wouldn't have a problem exagerrating something or denying something else if she thought it would help implicate those she wants to see convicted--sort of like an over-zealous prosecutor. It is good in some ways, but it also blinds her to other possibilities.
I've heard that she refuses to hand over Natalee's cell phone and she refuses to hand over her camera to investigators. That is very odd in my opinion.
Given the performance, or lack thereof, of the ALE, why would you find it odd that Beth would not want to hand over her daughter's belongings? I imagine that girl's room hasn't been touched, either.
I still think she knows things that have not been made public. It would serve no purpose, nor give closure, for her to want to see and assist in convicting the wrong person. I'm sure she knows that. She's done a pretty good job of living this nightmare - I hardly think she is anywhere close to caving.
Not turning over the phone makes me wonder if there were phone calls or text messages that for some reason Beth is trying to conceal. She may think she has a good reason for hiding it, and she may think it doesn't have anything to add to the investigation, but I still think the investigators should have everything.
And not turning over the camera makes me wonder the same thing. Maybe it pictures from the late nights and early mornings hanging out at Carlos and Charlies, but there could be stuff in the background that helps the investigation.
Would you turn it over with the risk of never seeing it again, knowing those were the last minutes of your child's life?
Yes, I certainly would turn it over, after having made copies myself of the contents of the camera's memory. Perhaps photos Natalee deleted could be recovered by investigators and lead to new clues. There is just no reason to keep it from them.
One a certain level I appreciate the point you are making. The Arubans have consistently bad-mouthed NH, calling her a slut and a drunk.
Even if there were something on the phone and/or camera Beth wished to conceal, the fact of the matter is that even if the ugly picture the locals painted is true, it's no excuse for her losing her life over it. I've even read remarks that 'she got what she deserved' and that flat out makes me want to puke!
There's no excuse for that and it certainly has left me with a permanently bad opinion of the place. I'm sure there are many people who don't stand on priniciple like that, and they will save the savage island. I am NOT with them.
Sorry, I hadn't seen this one before my last response. Enjoy your trip, but I'd advise you to stay away from C&C's. Just MNSHO.
I certainly agree that regardless of what Natalee did she did not deserve any foul play that might have happened to her. And perhaps her reputation is all Beth feels like she has left, which is why she has refused to turn over the phone and camera.
I don't think I'm entirely objective, at least as much as some. I don't drink at all and I could count the number of times I've been in a bar in the past twenty years on one hand. It's difficult for me to understand sending a teen ager to a party island. I've been to the Caribbean for kayaking and hiking and camping and sight seeing but I just don't see any thrill in hanging out in a bar until two in the morning. That's one reason I come here to this forum to read the opinions of people who understand that lifestyle more than I do.
Even those of us who undertsand it are not necessarily in favor of it. I would caution against making any value judgments of people who do imbibe. Not everyone who enjoys alcohol is a bar-hopping boozehound.
IIRC, in my youth, a cocktail helping lessen the tension of dancing in front of other people. Of course, I don't think there was any such inhibition at C&C's, not that night or any other!
That said, I wouldn't mind a bit if I had been so fortunate to be as athletic as you obviously are. Shoot, I can't even hunt and fish! Might break a nail or something, ya know! ;o)
"Holloway's mother assumed the youth was van der Sloot, though he has darker hair."
The mom was on TV last night saying that these reports are absolutely false and that she never spoke with Natalie when she was in Aruba.
ping
GVC has been released. It's on the news.
Why am I not surprised? Looks as though the guy is like the DA in the Duke U. case, just looking for some publicity.
I know this is late in posting, but...I have had a problem with this case from day one. I am really tired of hearing how the Aruban officials screwed everything up when nobody knows what they know or what they are investigating. Beth has denied ever saying that Natalie had fallen in love with a blond haired blue eyed boy, but then Greta had on the lady who said Beth had said it to her, I can't remember the ladies name, but she is a blond journalist who has been on Greta quite a bit...one is lying or "distorting" who is to say which one? There have also been a lot of rumors started by the Hollaway family that have been disproved. I think that there is a good chance that this could have been solved or at least on its way if it weren't for the media and the Hollaways. Jorans lawyer has also been stating that Joran never ID'd the 2 securtity guards, he didn't change his story over and over and over like everyone is reporting...he lied about dropping her off at the hotel, and about how he got home. You can read your own reasons as to why he would do that....could be because he is guilty, could be because he didn't want to get in trouble for leaving her on the beach. I wasn't there so I don't know.
Natalies cell phone and camera are news to me, why doesn't Beth hand them over to the FBI if she doesn't want the Arubans seeing them, IF she is refusing to hand them over, that tells me she is hiding something, but could just be another rumor...
This case and the Duke case have me totally worried about my boys...what if all of the accused are innocent? Is is worth the chance of ruining an innocent persons life because you "think" they committed the crime? And what about a guilty person getting away with it because everyone becomes numb by all the constant coverage. I hadn't watched H&C or Greta for about 7-8 months and was shocked that Natalie is still on at least 4 times a week!
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