Did Natalee's parents request the FBI?
Is it standard procedure for the FBI to go to a foreign country where a US citizen turns up missing?
#1 Rippersnapper, google is our friend.
Miami FBI assists in missing-woman case
Posted on Tue, Jun. 14, 2005
FBI agents from the Miami office have been in Aruba during the probe into the fate of an Alabama high school graduate, but their role has been limited.
BY LUISA YANEZ
Highly-trained agents from Miami's FBI office have been in Aruba for two weeks, but are playing a limited role in the search for Natalee Holloway, the missing Alabama woman whose case has drawn international media attention.
That's because the agents from the top federal investigative agency have been invited on the Dutch Caribbean island only as observers. Local authorities are leading the investigation.
Up to now, the Aruba government has requested minimal FBI assistance, said Judy Orihuela, the FBI spokeswoman in Miami.
''We are there at the request of the Aruban government and we'll help in anyway they ask us,'' she said.
Six Miami-based agents are on the island along with a seventh agent based in Barbados. The team of agents, along with a supervisor, watched from behind a glass the questioning of the five men implicated in the 18-year-old's disappearence.
Aruba officials also asked the FBI to analyze a DNA sample taken from the backseat of a suspect's vehicle. The sample was flown to the FBI crime lab in Quantico, Va., but came back negative for blood.
Natalee's mother, Beth Holloway Twitty, has publicly criticized the pace of the investigation.
Even if Holloway Twitty wanted the FBI more involved in the case, the Dutch government would have to approve.
''Aruba is a sovereign nation,'' Orihuela said of the island, an autonomous member of the Kingdom of the Netherlands where Dutch is the official language, but English is widely spoken.
Investigators have said they continue to pursue all leads and emphasize that no one is above the law in Aruba.
But Holloway's mother told the Associated Press Sunday she believes island authorities might be protecting the three young men believed to be the last to see her daughter on May 30.
''All three of those boys know what happened to her,'' Holloway Twitty told AP. ``They all know what they did with her that night.''
One of them -- a 17-year-old Dutch boy -- is the privileged son of a Justice Ministry official.
The teen and the Surinamese brothers said they dropped Natalee off at her hotel after they drank and danced at a local night spot and a ride to the beach. It was Natalee's last night in Aruba.
The brothers, Satish Kalpoe, 18, and Deepak Kalpoe, 21, told police that the three took Holloway to a lighthouse near Arisha Beach. There, the Dutch teen kissed and fondled Natalee in the back of the car.
The brothers said they returned Holloway to her hotel about 2 a.m. But security video from the hotel does not show her walking back into the Holiday Inn on Palm Beach, where she stayed during the five-day high school graduation trip, her mother said.
The trio pointed the finger at two hotel guards, who were also taken into custody. Holloway Twitty told the news agency she believes the security guards had nothing to do with her daughter's disappearance. Their attorneys have appealed for their release.
Attorneys for all five men maintain their clients' innocence.
For now, the agents -- members of the extra-territorial squad that deals with events in the Caribbean and South America -- will continue in their role as observers. Among them: an expert in evidence processing, a crimes against children specialist and a victim/witness coordinator. ''It's really up to the Aruban government what they want us to do,'' Orihuela said.
I think Natalee's mother would be more than justified in asking for more FBI involvement, especially in the interview process. Wonder if any of these guys have taken lie detectors?
Thanks anyway.