You don't have to be perfect to not be a runaway.
I am not flaming you but what is "too perfect" about her. She drinks, she flirts, she makes good grades and is going to college. Sounds like alot of kids I know.
Parents know if they have a runaway daughter at age 17. And if she were a runaway with those boys helping, they would have talked by now, believe me. The runaway scenario is their way of looking for an out so everyone will go home and years from now say "oh that runaway girl in Aruba" while they book trips to Aruba.
Obviously, if Natalee has had disappearance issues in the past, her family would likely keep them quiet since it would surely impede the investigation -- just as the Wilbanks family probably figured when they kept quiet about their daughter's past escapades.
Oddly, the longer the goes on, the more I'm inclined to think the outcome won't be as sensational as we might have thought in the beginning.