Posted on 06/02/2005 8:02:49 AM PDT by SamFromLivingston
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — FBI and Aruban officials said Wednesday that they had flew clues to the whereabouts of a Mountain Brook High School graduate who disappeared during a senior trip to the island.
FBI officials in the Caribbean were coordinating with Aruban police and Dutch authorities, who oversee Aruba, to search for Natalee Holloway, 18, The Birmingham News reported.
Holloway joined about 125 graduating seniors and adults on the five-day trip, which is an annual tradition not sponsored by the school. Other students said she never showed up for the group's return flight Monday.
"We went to check in for our airplane, and she wasn't there, and she's been missing since then," said Jay Weinacker, a member of Holloway's graduating class.
Holloway's parents, David Holloway, of Meridian, Miss., and Beth Holloway Twitty of Mountain Brook, and several family members traveled to Aruba to aid the search, said Robin Holloway, the girl's stepmother.
"It is torture," Robin Holloway said. "It is just agony."
Aruban police said Wednesday that they had questioned and released three local men who said they dropped the teenager off at her hotel late Sunday night. Officials said the girl's parents were unable to spot her on a hotel surveillance tape.
Officials said there were few leads on Natalee's whereabouts.
After hearing of her disappearance, Robin Holloway said her husband felt compelled to search for his daughter.
"We can't just sit here and do nothing," she said. "We don't know if she is still in Aruba ... or she's been kidnapped. We just don't know anything."
Officials at Mountain Brook Community Church said more than 150 people participated Tuesday in a prayer service for Holloway.
"Word just kind of got out, and parents and students just really wanted to get together and have a little prayer service for the whole situation," said Troy Gambrell, an associate in the youth ministry.
maybe you don't get to see other countries, that much, or just look for the bad parts...
I have walked the streets, paved, and dirt, visited with many of the people, and have eaten in their homes...
I just think it's waaaaaay tooooooo hot!
I suspect that Natalee, despondent thanks to years of teasing over the trendy and no doubt intentional misspelling of her given name, was so depressed that she forgot she could now legally correct it, and took her own life.
138 teens and 7 chaperones? That's one adult for every 19 kids. Totally unacceptable.
:-). Not a bad point.
Life for affluent suburban teens can be pretty deadening. Maybe she decided to try something different, and will turn up sadder but wiser, OR phone her family and tell them she's not coming back.
I hadn't done the math on that, but it supports my point from yesterday, that it was understood by all that the kids were going to be running wild, if they chose.
Yep. And she's either still running...or she ran into serious trouble already.
What about the friends she was staying with....didn't they at least have the sense to stay together in pairs! Back in college we always made sure that we always went out together....and came HOME with everyone together....we never let any of our friends leave with someone they didn't know by themselves. Just a matter of friendship and common sense.
If this girl was not drinking, there could be the possiblity that someone spiked her drink with some type of drug.
I was just about to post what you mentioned.
Someone could have put GHB in her drink at that club.
It happens in the US, it could happen anywhere. Poor kid.
"It's just a matter of zeros."
I like that. Consider it stolen.
From msnbc:
One of the 3 men in question was befriended by Natalee earlier, he is Dutch, his father is a lawyer who is representing the 3.
One adult for every three students. Do you find that as unlikely as I do? And if those 40 adults really were in Aruba, what were they doing while the teenagers were at nightclubs until 1 a.m.?
I travelled in Europe alone a couple of times when young. Good thing to know the language(s). I was followed twice. Also good to always look at crosswalks. Someone saved my life that way.
Does not seem likely to me. This from a Miami Herald article:
Holloway, dressed in the same blue and green striped low-cut blouse and jean miniskirt that she wore at the beach earlier in the day, spent the evening partying ...
She left 10 minutes before the place closed at 1 a.m., said the restaurant's master of ceremonies Jose Hernandez, 38.
The duty manager at the Holiday Inn spoke to Holloway's friends the day she disappeared. They said she was "a nice, friendly girl, who likes to party, and who has a very good relationship with her very loving family," said Brenda James, 42.
Could just be me, but when somebody says to me that someone they know likes to party, I immediately assume that means significant amounts of alcohol and/or drugs are involved.
I chaperoned a couple of student trips. Once in Mexico, I had to go yank a pretty young blonde out of a disco at 1:30. I was pissed.
Then in Europe, this idiot 18 year old sandy brown haired girl goes wandering off after saying she wouldn't, and ended up getting stuck at the end of the subways by herself on the 1st day in one of the capitals at 1:30 am. (This must be a witching hour internationally.) Some kind soul stuck her in a taxi, paid for the fare, and sent her back to the hotel, thank God. She was told in no uncertain terms that if she tried anything else, she'd be going home on the next plane. We had no more problems with her.
last time I looked they weren't going there for a PARTY either...yeesh
And no, before anyone suggests, these were not my daughters.
This from NBC in Birmingham. A bit of a discrepancy in the number of chaperones in these two accounts.
Yes, I saw that. I find the local station's numbers more believable.
Sadly..she's dead...and on an island..it ain't hard to make a body disappear.. There is only ONE way to find out who did this...because some locals do know..but incredible pressure on the whole island by boycotting tourism totally..no American goes there anymore..until the killers are arrested..
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