Thursday, July 21, 2005
The Natalee Holloway story continues to baffle me. What's with everyone on the case taking vacations? Now the chief prosecutor is on a two-week vacation to the Netherlands! I don't know what you think... but it seems to me that if you are in charge of the only murder investigation in your country, and if the clock is winding down on holding your chief suspect, that you might want to delay that vacation a few weeks. Even some of us worked vacation days covering the story and we are not in charge of the investigation... we are simply covering it for a news organization.
I go back and forth — sometimes I think (hope?) that maybe the Aruba authorities have significant evidence and are simply not revealing it and sometimes I think they have no evidence. Most often I think they have little or no evidence. Worse, I am not always confident they are trying hard to do what should be done in an investigation. The "slow start" may have created fatal errors to an effective investigation.
It remains possible that no crime has been committed, but at this point the case remains under — or should — active investigation and it is fair to be suspicious. I am very suspicious. It is hard for me to think that Natalee simply walked away.
You can not blame a prosecutor or a police chief if a crime is perfect and not provable — but I do think it is fair to criticize them for taking a vacation mid-investigation when there is a clock running.
To change the topic:
Of course we have lots of stars and important political figures that are in our green room (waiting room) every day — that is the TV cable news business. But no guests have generated as much excitement as our guests Wednesday night in New York City. Last night staff stayed late, and so did several interns to meet Jack Hanna and his "friends." I have never seen the greenroom so crowded, or the hall outside the greenroom with rubber neckers. If you saw the show, you know we had a giant rabbit, river otter, miniature horse, hedgehog, etc. If you were lucky enough to work in the New York bureau, you were able to go to the greenroom and touch and hold several of these animals. I am a huge animal lover so I love doing these segments — plus I get to learn things from Jack.
By The Associated Press
(7/21/05 - ORANJESTAD, Aruba) — Volunteers with a search group from Texas plan to return to Aruba with high-tech equipment as they help look for a missing Alabama teen.
Authorities this week took DNA samples from a jailed Dutch youth and two of his friends as officials concentrate on physical evidence in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway.
The 18-year-old has been missing since late May during a high school graduation trip.
Also, DNA tests will be done on blond hair attached to duct tape that was found along Aruba's northeastern coast.
Members of Dickinson-based Texas Equusearch pulled out of the island over the weekend after their efforts turned up no sign of Holloway.
Now organizers say they'll dispatch three people to the Caribbean island on July 28th with ground-penetrating radar.