Published: Jun 10, 2005 ORANJESTAD, Aruba (AP) - A missing Alabama honors student went to an Aruban beach with two Surinamese men and a Dutch teen who kissed her and fondled her intimately, a defense lawyer told The Associated Press on Friday.
Posted on 06/10/2005 9:23:22 AM PDT by TheOtherOne
Arrested Dutch Student Intimately Fondled Missing Alabama Teen, Defense Lawyer Says
Published: Jun 10, 2005 ORANJESTAD, Aruba (AP) - A missing Alabama honors student went to an Aruban beach with two Surinamese men and a Dutch teen who kissed her and fondled her intimately, a defense lawyer told The Associated Press on Friday.
The three men then drove Natalee Holloway, 18, back to her hotel, where she stumbled and was approached by a man wearing a security guard uniform, another defense attorney, David Kock, told The Associated Press.
Kock's comments came after Holloway's stepfather, George "Jug" Twitty, told The AP the young woman met the Dutch student in the casino of her hotel two days before she disappeared and flirted with him.
Five people have been arrested in the disappearance of Holloway, who was last seen in the early hours of May 30. Aruba's prime minister said finding Holloway was the "No. 1 goal" on the Dutch Caribbean island, where volunteers, Aruban police and coast guard officers and Dutch soldiers continued their search Friday.
"We think she's alive," said Holloway's stepmother, Robin Holloway, who added that authorities told the family they had expanded the search to other nearby islands. "The family thinks the authorities are doing their utmost."
All five of the detainees are being held on suspicion of murder and capital kidnapping, Noraina Pietersz, a court-appointed lawyer representing one of two former security guards arrested in the case, told the AP. None has been charged formally.
An official close to the investigation said police, acting on one of the dozens of tips called in daily, on Thursday night rushed to the animal cemetery, a barren spot on the southeastern tip of the island. There, following a bad scent, they dug up a dead Rottweiler dog.
Police on Thursday arrested a 17-year-old Dutch boy and two Surinamese brothers who said they dropped Holloway at her hotel around 2 a.m. on Monday last week, when she dropped from sight.
Pietersz, reading from testimony the Surinamese brothers gave to police last week, said the three drove with Natalee to Arashi beach, on the northern tip of the island, and the Dutch teen "and Natalee were in the back seat kissing, and he was touching her intimate parts."
Twitty, Holloway's stepfather, told the AP that he met with the three detainees in the early morning hours of Tuesday, and that they told him they had been with her at Carlos' n Charlie's nightclub restaurant on Sunday night, shortly before she disappeared.
The men said Holloway had been dancing and flirting with the Dutch man, the son of a high-ranking Dutch judicial official in Aruba, before they dropped her at the hotel, Twitty said.
She was drunk and stumbled when she tried to get out of the car, the boys told him. When the Dutch man tried to help her she refused, saying "I can stand on my own," the men told Twitty. He said the meeting was arranged by the police.
Attorney Kock, who said he represents 18-year-old Satish Kalpoe, said his client and his brother, 21-year-old Deepak Kalpoe, told police that they saw a black security guard approach Holloway in the driveway leading up to the front of the hotel before they drove off.
"That's why they (two former security guards) were detained," Kock told the AP on Friday.
Prime Minister Nelson Oduber said his government was working closely with U.S. authorities, and that Holloway's disappearance had left Arubans "in a state of shock and disbelief."
"The hearts of the people of Aruba are touched by Natalee and her family," he said at a news conference Thursday. "Resolving this is Aruba's No. 1 goal."
The prime minister, who said he had met with Holloway's relatives, pledged that police would not exclude anyone from their investigation.
"On this island nobody stands above the law," he said, stressing that "hope is still alive" that Holloway will be found unharmed.
In Mountain Brook, Alabama, Holloway's hometown near Birmingham, teens who went to Aruba with her on a graduation trip were quoted as saying the Dutch man was at several places the group visited, including the restaurant-bar where the honors student was last seen.
Marcia Twitty, Holloway's aunt, said the Alabama students recognized the Dutch detainee from photos shown them by FBI agents. "They had seen him around during the trip. He was just a local guy in the bar and the casino where all the kids were just kind of hanging out," she said.
Attorney General Caren Janssen said the three men were arrested about 6 a.m. Thursday but refused to name them or say on what grounds they were being held. Authorities previously described them as students, and had detained them for questioning last week and then released them, describing them then as witnesses and "persons of interest."
"The three people have been arrested as suspects," chief government spokesman Ruben Trapenberg told the AP.
Police also impounded a gray Honda; Holloway's friends reported last seeing her leave Carlos' n Charlie's in a silver car.
The Dutch detainee, an honors student at Aruba International School, left his home in the middle-class Montana neighborhood of Oranjestad on Thursday with his head covered in a blue-and-green striped towel.
Kock said it didn't make sense to arrest the three young men and criticized the police. "It's contradictory to hold the two groups. They're putting pressure on the kids," he said in an interview. "They were amazed they were detained."
Under the Dutch judicial system, which Aruba follows as a protectorate of the Netherlands, people can be arrested on suspicion of a crime but held for up to 116 days without being formally charged.
Holloway disappeared hours before she was to take a flight home. Police found her passport and packed bags in her hotel room. Extensive searches have failed to turn up any trace of her.
Aruban police spokesman Edwin Comenencia said earlier that FBI divers had conducted searches but suspended them Wednesday because they had covered the area they set out to.
Judy Orihuela, FBI spokeswoman in Miami, said two FBI divers traveled to Aruba over the weekend and returned to the U.S. early this week. "They were asked to do some site survey," Orihuela said. "They never got in the water." Orihuela said there are five FBI agents in Aruba observing the investigation.
Oduber said Aruba has "splendid contacts" with U.S. law enforcement agencies. The prime minister also said he had been in touch with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the governor of Alabama and other officials.
Officials were investigating whether the three new detainees had any connection to two former hotel security guards, Nick John, 30, and Abraham Jones, 28, who have been detained since Sunday.
The Dutch detainee is white, while the two Surinamese men are of Indian descent. The former security guards are black.
Janssen said the investigation "has nothing to do with color of skin" and social class.
Oduber, the prime minister, noted Thursday that 40 percent of the 110,000 people in Aruba are immigrants among 52 nationalities on the island. He said the immigrant stock was "well integrated" and that most came since an oil refinery was built 70 years ago.
A black friend of Jones, 33-year-old Alvin Cornett, said it was a question of money.
"I've not had a problem with color," he said. "It's a question of rich guys and poor guys."
Holloway vanished while on a five-day trip with 124 classmates and seven chaperones celebrating their high school graduation.
Authorities have not said Holloway was a victim of foul play and have not ruled out any possibilities, including that she may have drowned.
The Aruba government and local tourism organizations have offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to Holloway's rescue, her family and benefactors in Alabama have offered an additional $30,000 and Carlos' n Charlie's donated $5,000.
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Associated Press writer Jay Reeves contributed to this story from Mountain Brook, Alabama.
AP-ES-06-10-05 1153EDT
Sad story.
By the way, my childen would never be allowed to go on a trip like this. Which reduces their risk of mysteriously disappearing on Aruba pretty substantially. Risk mitigation is a good thing.
I'm not blaming anyone but the perp or perps but I would never send my daughter out of the country for a spring break situation. Fort Lauderdale is bad enough. It doesn't seem that any real good can come from it.
bump
Nice nickname.
I think there was one murder in Aruba last year and that was a local.
that was my first thought - these are just kids, they are not ready to be turned loose in a foreign country to party with minimal adult supervision
I was wondering if he was related to Conway Twitty.
Did y'all see the guy on FOX this morning talking about his sister going missing a while back. Someone tried to talk her into going to that same bar, but she refused. Oddly, the next day she was missing. He also said the Aruban LE isn't as helpful as the media is claiming. Before hearing this guy, I suspected white slavery. Anyone else?
Um, two of my parents friends were struck and killed by a taxi a few years ago.
I wouldn't allow my kids to party in another country either. It's just asking for trouble.
I think you hit the nail on the head.
This is one strange story. The meeting of the son of the rich Dutch judicial official and Holloway was arranged by police?
It sounds to me like there may be some kind of cover up going on here. From what I hear, Aruba is not that big of an island.
Why haven't they found any clues yet?
This case just baffles me!
All you can do is train them from the beginning, so that by the time they reach 18, they have enough sense.
I have five children, and the middle one is flying out tomorrow, for two weeks in Bolivia. she will be staying with family friends, in a small town in the south central part of the country.
I have been watching the news, and Bolivia made the State Dept's list this week, of places to beware. they had approved the evacuation of non-essentials in the embassy.
We talked it over, and I told her what I felt.
She's flying out tomorrow evening to Bolivia!
She will be with someone else, the whole time! I told her "NEVER GO ANYWHERE BY HERSELF"!
(If she were still my "child", I would keep her locked in her room!)
I was in Aruba within the last 5 years. I went to that bar. I was there with my wife. I am not some huge partier or anything, but that night at Carlos & Charlie's was one of the drunkest I can remember being. They served Margaritas in 'plastic yards'. Oh yea, just to set the scene, on the way to the bar...we were approached by men offering us drugs....he said, "the pharmacy is open all night"...ps Aruba is beautiful and we had a great time.
I'd say the chaperones did not carry out their duties.
Excellent point but you armed your daughter with knowledge while most children these days are armed only with a condom and instructions on how to use it.
7 chaperones to 124 students is not enough to do much, if the students are not already inclined to be responsible, in which case the chaperones are not really necessary, anyway.
By the way, my childen would never be allowed to go on a trip like this. Which reduces their risk of mysteriously disappearing on Aruba pretty substantially. 2 posted on 06/10/2005 12:28:58 PM EDT by ClearCase_guy
Ditto.
Although kids partying at beach resorts during post-graduation season is an institutionalized feature of modern American life, there are injuries and fatalities every year. Prudential judgment is in order. Attractive blonde girls wandering off on their own in strange locations is usually a recipe for a disaster. Sounds like a lack of common sense played a BIG role in this situation. People need to take note of the relevant dangers.
Rule of thumb for young women: don't go anywhere ALONE with people you don't know. Tell friends or family WHERE you are going and with whom and what time you expect to be back. And basic Common Sense 101: don't get into a car drunk with three men you don't know.
The parents get a D- for Common Sense 101 on approving this trip.
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