-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- for the kidnap theory fans - this guy Charles Croes said he was called because he ran a rental cell phone company on the island and the Twitty's know him (I think I got that right) and they wanted info "about a cell phone call" - since clearly Natalee's cell phone was not from one of this guy's phone (and the "chaperone" had Natalee's cell phone and was using it to call her family) what phone call could CC be refering to???
He was very carefully not saying more than "a phone call" and Greta was too - sounded as if they had an agreement that she would not ask about that phone call as part of the interview - or so it sounded to me.
so --- ransom call?
they probably went to this guy because:
1. They know him
2. There is only 2 cellphone providers on the island
3. There is only 2 companies on the island that "sell and rent" cellphones. Most kids these days "use" pay as you go phones. So it could be that Joran's phone is a "rental pay as you go phone" - either way Croes may be the biggest cellphone dealer on the island and they went to him for help because they knew him.
Digicel is the main cell phone service on the island.
Where I live there is only 2 cellphone companies that cover from my home area. Most people use Verizon because it is cheaper than the other local company. If I came up missing the first place to go for my cellphone records would be to go to the local cellphone rep in my town to start seeking out information about my cellphone activity.
There is a cell tower about 1/2 mile from my house (I live out of the small city limits). If I am in my home using my cellphone, that tower is going to pick up my cell phone calls for me. Put if I go up into town (3 miles away) the tower up in town is going to pick up my call.
If I travel away from home with my cellphone being on (but on stand by) as travel my cellphone picks up a signal from each tower I pass. Once I get out of my "home" area. Then my phone switches to roaming and I will be using another provider tower if I make a call while roaming.
The point is... if Joran was moving around on the island which has at least 15 towers on it (probably a majority of them are up around the hotel strip area due to the high level of cell phone activity in that area). then each tower will pick up his signal if he had his phone on (as in on stand by). If he had his phone completely shut off then the towers will not try to pick up a signal from his phone.
Towers can be as close as 1/2 mile apart from each other. So up by the hotel strip they may have 5 towers up there with each one being 1/2 mile apart from each other.
If Joran was at the beach by the Marriott, then a tower closet to the Mariott will pick up Joran signal. Each phone has a unique ID number. So they have to go to the cell phone company and request Joran's call record and which towers picked up his cellphone calls. If he had his phone on stand by then they may know which towers he was clsoet to. Getting through that data will take some time and maybe they have the tower data by now.
I posted a link before on how cell phones work. It explains it in simple terms. The type of cell phones they use in Aruba are GSM phones. GSM phones may be harder to track than other types of cell phones. It may be harder to track the tower data to his phone. (that is while he had his phone in stand by mode) The actual phone calls and text messages are easy to track, since that cuts into his "use" time.