[honeychile]

I agree that anyone who doesn't think that anything that happened to Natalee was ultimately her fault is terribly naive - but I do think that there are going to be a lot of people who are going to say, "If only I had stopped her," for the rest of their lives. When someone one knows is a victim of a crime, and you are even remotely involved (seeing them go off with someone, not answering their text message, etc), one can't help but feel even worse about it.

The contracts we signed at my school said that we would be at wherever the bus to the airport would be waiting, or we would be responsible for holding up the whole trip. In other words, if one person was late, the whole tour would be held up, and the guilty party would suffer the consequences. Different schools do things differently, and at this time, none of us know what was in Natalee's contract.

As for a foreign country, I could have easily said a different city. No matter what anyone thinks, only people who have worked for Mapquest or Rand McNally or such know every neighborhood, even in their own hometown. What was she there, a week? I doubt very much that she knew Aruba so freaking well that she knew where she'd be safe and where she wouldn't. Yes, her guard should have been up the entire time she was there - I find it incredible that someone would think I thought otherwise!