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.
Cool Facts
The GSM standard for digital cell phones was established in Europe in the mid-1980s -- long before digital cellular phones became commonplace in American culture.
It is now possible to locate a person using a cellular phone down to a range of a few meters, anywhere on the globe.
3G (third-generation wireless) phones may look more like PDAs, with features such as video-conferencing, advanced personal calendar functions and multi-player gaming.
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/cell-phone14.htm
The question is not the guy they went to, the question is what was the mysterious phone call about that the Twitty's received from Aruba?
From SM:
Maybe they had received this mysterious phone call from the cellphone in Aruba. And maybe it was a ransom call which they thought might be a fake. And then right after that the chaperone calls and tells her Natalee's missing and she suddenly knows the ransom call wasn't a fake.
Re: Digicel
http://www.digicelaruba.com/products/digiroam.php?ref_page=digiselect
If you don't want to travel with your cellular phone, or if you don't have a GSM cellular, you can rent a phone in Aruba. Contact Charles Croes at 730-0001 for any rental details.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1429067/posts?page=4773#4773
Charlies Croes does not know the Twitty's - he has a friend that was helping the twitty's. This person called Charlies Croes because he owns a cell phone rental co on th island.
Repeat of Greta...
Charlies Croes: There was apparently a cell phone call made and he was calling me, betting or hoping that the phone call was made from one of our phones, so that is why he called me.
Greta: What time did he call you?
Charlies Croes: About 11:30 (I take it was 11:30 pm Monday night as Charlies Croes met up with the mystery person and the Twitty's after this conversation at a gas station in Aruba.)
Greta: What did he say to you?
Charlies Croes: He told me that he needed my help and I asked him what it was about and he told me that it had something to do with a cellphone and I didn't relate to it anything but work at that point and he said there is a possibility that a phone call was made using one of our phones and I said "ok" and he said it is very very important and I said fine and I asked him to go into further details and he did and I made arrangements to go see him.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1429067/posts?page=4781#4781
Ok... the phone call discussion comes up again in the interview Croes is at the gas station with Beth Twitty. Greta asks Croes if the phone call discussion was brought up while talking to Beth at the gas station. Croes says yes... Greta says after you listen to the call several times and hung up with the person in the states, what did you do next.
After that we spoke for awhile then we left...