Kids who go on class trips should stay with their class and not go off with three boys for flirtations. My guess is she slipped away from the chaperones who didnt pay enough attention. This happens on a lot of class trips and now the chaperones have a guilt trip laid on them for the rest of their lives.
If the girl had behaved responsibly they wouldnt be looking for her now. I guess thats beside the point , but it still remains a factor in her dissappearance.
True.
It is also true that hindsight is 20/20.
None of know who acted "irresponsibly".
Maybe this 17 yr old son-of-a-judge who took her away in the back seat while his buddies drove, was some little jerk or a budding predator. Some reports say he regularly cruised the resorts and had met the girls, including Natalee, the night before. What teenage girl might not overly trust a real friendly, young guy she has met in the past? Except this guy could well have slipped some ecstasy into that poor girl's drink..... it appears he was standing by to take her away when she was incapacitated. This may have been an experiment in date rape that could have gone terribly awry, necessitating that he dispose of the evidence.
Also, the mom should have been as diligent and protective of her daughter BEFORE signing off on the Aruba trip as she is now after the fact. Flame if you want folks, but both mom and daughter were irresponsible. Doesn't justify a possible murder, but there is a lesson here.
"Kids" who are 18 years old, are not kids, but adults, and shouldn't need chaperones. Thanks to the nanny state mentality, however, we have raised children to become adults who lack the common sense and wisdom to care for themselves.
Sort of touching on my post at No. 28 about the seven adults on the trip not being true chapherones, my understanding is that this wasn't a "class trip" because the kids had already graduated, they were under no official sanction or control of the school.
I don't see what good could have come from this trip. These kinds of things are just accidents waiting to happen.
Unless she was slipped a date-rape or other drug, which is well within the realm of possibility.