Oh no, I just had dinner.
No flames...please :)
By JAY REEVES Associated Press Writer
June 21, 2005
The nagging questions won't go away for the Alabama teenagers who accompanied Natalee Holloway on her ill-fated graduation trip to Aruba.
What happened to bright, blonde Natalee that night she left Carlos'N Charlies', a popular island bar, with a Dutch teen? Where is she? And, perhaps most haunting: Is there something they could have done differently?
Outwardly upbeat yet plainly troubled since their senior trip became an international media event, friends and former classmates from Mountain Brook High School gathered Tuesday for a cookout to raise money for Holloway's relatives, who have been in Aruba for three weeks looking for her.
In between starting the charcoal grill and passing out food, they talked about the frustrations of not knowing what happened to the 18-year-old honor student everybody called "Hooty" or "Nat."
Beau Barron, 18, said he and other classmates who went on the trip didn't know what to think when Holloway failed to show up for the flight home to Alabama on May 30. "Initially it was just disbelief," said Barron.
As the days turned into weeks following her disappearance, most everyone who was on the trip wondered whether they could have done more to make sure Holloway got back to their hotel safely, he said.
"(But) that's something you don't need to dwell on because you can't turn back time," said Barron.
Madison Whatley, one of Holloway's three roommates during the trip, is a regular at prayer vigils that have been held at Mountain Brook Community Church since the group got home. She also wears a baby blue rubber bracelet that says "Hope for Natalee."
"It's frustrating, but it helps to come to the prayer service," Whatley said.
Many of the teens wonder the most about Joran van der Sloot, 17, the son of a Dutch justice official in Aruba. He is being held along with three others in Holloway's disappearance and reportedly told authorities he left the bar that night with Holloway.
Holloway's friends saw van der Sloot both in the casino at the hotel where they were staying and at Carlos'N Charlies', and a friend of Holloway said van der Sloot - a tall, broad-shouldered athlete - got into a scuffle with some of the Mountain Brook guys at the bar.
"I broke it up," said Bryan Reynolds, 18. "It was outside the Carlos'N Charlies' the second night we were there."
Reynolds didn't elaborate, and Barron said people who went on the trip aren't publicly discussing details of what happened in Aruba at the request of Holloway's family, which fears the publicity could hamper the investigation.
The media glare itself has been a shock in itself for the kids from Mountain Brook, a wealthy, cloistered Birmingham suburb that is home to many of the state's most prominent doctors, lawyers and business leaders.
"I was talking with a friend last night about how I was so amazed that it's gotten so big and is all over the nation," said Sarah Burton, 18.
Despite all the unanswered questions, Holloway's family is taking strength from her friends.
"These kids are hopeful. We all are hopeful," said aunt Marcia Twitty.