I'm amazed that Natalee's friends have not been able to shed more light on this mystery.
When my daughter was in H.S. and college she and her friends knew every intimate detail of each othere's lives.
Almost seems that Nat was a bit of a loner. The fact that she went off alone with Joran and the Kalpoes is odd to me. Heck, most girls, and women ,for that matter, don't even go to the restroom alone.
I've always thought that the kids on the trip were not telling the whole story. Maybe they have been more forthcoming with Natalees parents and LE.
I agree and feel you are correct...
But there are other reasons why a young girl may just want to step out away from the safety of her friends for a moment. We know enough about human behavior to speculate what her reason was, but alas we will never know for certain. I believe her friends know why and they aren't talking.
Natalee may have been a bit of a closet thrill seeker, or someone that was just tired of her friends and their conquests. A young girl away from mom and dad, in a grown up environment, wanting to act old and mature.
I have seen these young girls come in from out of town and they either "pack" together for fun and safety or one might act like the wild maverick of the herd, wanting to seek out on a cute local so that "romance" will happen. Kind of a daredevil that just has to see what she is capable of doing on her own. Alcohol or drugs takes the sanity and judgement out of play. If she succeeds, then she can say "Oh what a story I can tell the others about my trip." "Look what I did and you didn't". Or the fact that she went away without supervision leaves the whole event open for speculation. She could tell them anything.
As we know, "romance" is difficult to have when you "pack" together. So that very night she distanced herself from her friends for a reason. And IMHO, she knew exactly what she wanted to do all day long and acted it out that night.
For whatever reason, she had to take the risk.
Sadly, there are stalkers all over the world. It just takes a bit of poor judgement in some cases (or bad luck) and a sweet little girl is lost forever.
If anything comes out of her loss, I hope to God that other young women will remember her story when they go out into a strange country. This "romance" may have worked in the movie "South Pacific", but today the faces have changed and it isn't Kansas anymore, Toto.