AL Teen Missing in Aruba

[WCUgirl]

Alabama teen missing for fourth day in Aruba
FBI, Aruba police, volunteers search for student
Friday, June 3, 2005 Posted: 9:10 AM EDT (1310 GMT)

Senior Natalee Holloway disappeared on the last night of a trip to Aruba.

ORANJESTAD, Aruba (AP) -- Natalee Holloway disappeared on the last night of a trip to Aruba to celebrate her graduation from high school. Four days later, the Alabama teenager is still missing, despite an extensive search of the Dutch Caribbean island.

"Honestly, at the beginning, we were hopeful the girl would come back," said police Superintendent Jan van der Straaten. "Today, we are more and more thinking about the possibility of a crime."

On the island remarkable for its absence of violent crime, hundreds of residents and tourists posted flyers to help the hunt.

FBI agents helped the Dutch military and Aruba police scour outlying scrubland with helicopters and all-terrain vehicles but found no trace of the 18-year-old.

Aruba radio and television stations broadcast a reward offer from Holloway's family, though they did not specify an amount. The family promised to reward anyone who brings her safely to a police station or hospital.

"Everybody has been quite supportive," the teenager's mother, Beth Holloway Twitty, told The Associated Press. "I am not leaving. I am going to have Natalee with me."

Holloway came to Aruba for a five-day excursion with 124 seniors and 40 chaperons from Mountain Brook High School, near Birmingham, Alabama. She was last seen around 2 a.m. Monday, Attorney General Caren Janssen said Thursday.

Police discount the possibility she left the island, because they found her passport in her hotel room, van der Straaten said.


Link

[mightymike]

linkage

I hope she is found alive, but I'm sorry...no one should ever be so stupid as to get into a cab with strangers, especially in a foreign country. Where the hell were her friends?

I don't know how many 'fights' I've gotten into with friends after leaving a club because my friends were too fucking drunk to realize that going someplace with a guy they just met that night was a bad idea.

[honeychile]

Originally posted by OTW
I hope she is found alive, but I'm sorry...no one should ever be so stupid as to get into a cab with strangers, especially in a foreign country. Where the hell were her friends?

I don't know how many 'fights' I've gotten into with friends after leaving a club because my friends were too fucking drunk to realize that going someplace with a guy they just met that night was a bad idea.

That was my first thought. I heard that the police interviewed TEN of her "friends" who saw her get into the cab with the "locals", but none of them came out and said, "Hey, you think that just might be a BAD idea?!"

With friends like that, who needs enemies?

The little bit that I saw on today's news didn't sound exactly promising, though.

[FAB*SpiceySpice]

This is so sad. I really hope that they find her, but your chances of being found alive after you've been missing like 36 hours or something dramatically decrease.

I cannot believe that with 140 classmates and 40 chaperones she still managed to go missing, that's so sad that with all those people she knew no one stopped her from leaving with strange men.

It says that police have arrested two men though so hopefully they will at least be able to tell what happened, even if the outcome is not good her family can at least get some kind of closure.

[carnation]

A few years ago, a couple of teens from here managed to sneak out to the beach in Mexico on a heavily chaperoned school trip. They drowned.

The parents didn't blame the school--how could they? You can't watch the kids 24/7! These 2 waited 'til about 3 AM to get out. Still, it kept a lot of us from wanting to take students on school trips for years.

[CutiePie2000]

Originally posted by OTW
I don't know how many 'fights' I've gotten into with friends after leaving a club because my friends were too fucking drunk to realize that going someplace with a guy they just met that night was a bad idea.

You're a good friend, S.
One of my friends, M. does the same thing, only if the friend insists on going with the guy, she MAKES the guy show her his ID and she writes down his name, address and other pertinent information. Yeah, it's funny, but he'll think twice about murdering someone and dumping the body when someone else out there knows EXACTLY who he is.

[TheEpitome1920]

This whole situation rubs me the wrong way. I don't see how all of her classmates would let her go off alone with random people. I hope she is alright but I heard something about divers being sent out.

[Eclipse]

Originally posted by FAB*SpiceySpice
This is so sad. I really hope that they find her, but your chances of being found alive after you've been missing like 36 hours or something dramatically decrease.

I agree, but I just heard a news story of a woman being "found" working in a Sam's Club in KY after being missing for 7 years! Seems she was a student at a college in Texas (A&M? A&T?), got in a fight with her mother and then left. This doesn't sound like the case here, but you never know!

[TheEpitome1920]

Originally posted by Eclipse
I agree, but I just heard a news story of a woman being "found" working in a Sam's Club in KY after being missing for 7 years! Seems she was a student at a college in Texas (A&M? A&T?), got in a fight with her mother and then left. This doesn't sound like the case here, but you never know!

Isn't that CRAZY?!?! Have everyone worked up and she's chillin' in KY!

[lifesaver]

Did Natalie not see the A&E 'City Confidential' about the girl on the trip to the Bermuda who left with a few locals and ended up dead? It was the exact same deal as this.

HS kids should have to watch that before they go to the carribiean on a trip.

[Tom Earp]

Unfortunatly she is probably dead.

Paradise can suck.

If she is not found by now, forget it, look for Her remains and hope the People Of Interest will say something meaningful to even find Her.

Now, My question is Why in the Hell would Her Parents allow an 18 yea old girl to out of the country with all of the crap that goes on?

If she was so sweet, why did she leave with someone she didnt know?

[trojangal]

Here in Birmingham, this really has a lot of the locals shaken. Some of the biggest questions that we educators have are the following:

1) Why would her friends let her leave alone? What happened to the buddy system?
2) What chaperone, in their right mind, would leave a country without one of their charges? Can you imagine the phone call to those parents? "We're back from Aruba..and by the way, your daughter is not with us.."
3) What about room checks?

Unfortunately, many are inclined to believe that she probably met a guy or two, and went to meet them someplace for a drink after curfew. Should she have left her hotel room? Not without one of her friends.

The entire city of Mountain Brook, where she is from, has ribbons on their doors, hoping and praying for her return.

[madmax]

Originally posted by Tom Earp
Unfortunatly she is probably dead.

Paradise can suck.

If she is not found by now, forget it, look for Her remains and hope the People Of Interest will say something meaningful to even find Her.

Now, My question is Why in the Hell would Her Parents allow an 18 yea old girl to out of the country with all of the crap that goes on?

If she was so sweet, why did she leave with someone she didnt know?

I think she is probably turning tricks in Mexico. I figure there is a big demand for blonds down there. She probably didn't leave voluntarily.

[Tom Earp]

Cute, Really Cute!

I agree with trojangal, why did Her Friends let Her do what she might have done to put Her self in Harms way!

Well maybe it is because The Parents Let Their Kids Go There!

Stupid isnt it?

Hello Parent Hood!