Posted on 06/11/2005 11:05:50 AM PDT by kcvl
I am watching Natalee's Parents on the rerun of Geraldo.
These poor parents are not being told anything by Aruba officials.
TODD (voice-over): As police, military and rescue teams comb every inch of a small Caribbean island looking for a missing American teenager, her mother appeals directly to the girl.
BETH HOLLOWAY TWITTY, MOTHER: Natalee, you can reach me on your cell phone. I have it, and it's set up for international use now. And I also have my cell phone, and it's set up for international use. So please call me.
TODD: FBI and Aruban officials tell CNN the FBI is helping investigate the disappearance of 18-year-old Natalee Holloway. She was on a trip to Aruba with more than 100 other seniors from Mountain Brook High School near Birmingham, Alabama, celebrating graduation. The celebration took them to a local bar late Sunday into Monday.
TWITTY: She was seen leaving Carlos & Charlie's at approximately 1:30 a.m. Monday morning.
TODD: Police and family members tell CNN at least 20 other students were with Holloway at the bar. Police say some of her classmates asked her to leave with them, but she chose to get in a car with three young men, all locals.
JAN VAN DER STRAATEN, POLICE SUPERINTENDENT: We find them and we talked with them, as witnesses, three young boys that went to school, too. And we talked with them. And we proceed with the investigation, around them, too.
TODD: Police tell CNN the boys claimed to have dropped Holloway off at her hotel between 1:30 and 2:00 AM on Monday. That's the last time she was seen. Police have released the young men for now and are reluctant to characterize how they view them in the investigation. They say they hope to make an arrest soon.
Back home, friends and family are looking for any break in the case.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just want everybody to keep praying for Natalie because we know she's going to come home. She's a strong girl. And she'll get through this. And she knows that we're all praying for her. And we're here for her, waiting for her to come back.
TODD: Police say there's a slight chance Holloway could have left the island. But her passport was found in her hotel room.
And there's a key question about supervision. Family members say about 150 kids were on the trip with at least 10 chaperones. Holloway's stepfather tells CNN the chaperones bear no responsibility for what happened. But the bar owner tells CNN there were no chaperones at the establishment in the early hours of Monday morning, when Holloway and some 20 other kids were partying there. A friend who was at the bar that night has only a slightly different account.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was a chaperone there.
TODD: Holloway's parents are offering a $10,000 reward for her safe return.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TODD: We've tried repeatedly to get officials from the high school and the school system to answer questions about the chaperones. Mountain Brook High School principal Dicky Barlow did not return our phone calls. The superintendent of Mountain Brook Schools also did not return our calls, Wolf.
BLITZER: Brian Todd. We'll keep watching this story for any developments. Thanks for updating us.
I know. Thats why I say that they are only interested in their tourism business so it seems.
In related news...
...all but one graduate made it home, as did all 7 chaperones.
<< Yep. Are we cousins? >>
Of course.
That's why we're having this conversation.
Blessings -- Brian
Mark for later
Well, yes. Geraldo does in fact practice sensationalism. And I thik that's why a lot of people watch him.
And if they have arrested the three young men, why are they still holding the two former security guards?
http://www.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=14905439&Mytoken=20050612043304
For anyone interested, this is Joran's my space link. Looks unnaturally bare.
I strongly urge any parent to look at myspace.com .
See if your kid has one and what his or her classmates are posting. You'll probably be as alarmed as I was.
well it isnt that I care that they WENT to Aruba, but they were just high schoolers. If they were 20 or 21, that is one thing, but they were 17 and 18....
you have to admit there is a big difference in how you think between those ages.
yeah, unfortunately it depends on who you listen too....CNN is all over the place, Fox seems to have the most info, and LSNBC is reporting baseball scores................
he probably wants to do it himself...
how professional do you have to be to read a statement?
professional spokespeople bore the crap out of me. If you arent going to say something, then dont say anything at all.
that's my guess. Of course we will start seeing commercials for Aruba that say it is a great place to vacation....
Like Twitty, Merrill said she was comfortable with the trip. It was planned by parents and travel agents. The students had check-in times, and the chaperones were there for emergencies.
"With just seven chaperones and all those kids, we'd be nuts if they thought they could do everything," Merrill said. "We know them. We trust them. We love them."
Merrill said she prayed and trusted her son.
"He's 18 years old," she said. "I'm not perfect, he's not perfect. But he's a good, normal kid, and we have faith in him.
"To me, he deserved to be trusted to make his own mistakes and live with the consequences. That's the only way to learn," she said.
I didn't figure they had single rooms all to themselves. They should have noticed that she wasn't with them when they got back to the room and they didn't report her missing.
Nobody went to inform the adults.
Maybe for their own protection so that nobody can get to them. If they are released they could have a bad accident and then things could be blamed on them and they wouldn't be able to refute it. Someone was trying to pin Natalee's disappearance on them earlier.
Thanks for the link.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.