Natalee Holloway: Missing teen in Aruba

Brian in Mesa · June 11th, 2005, 01:43 PM

Man Says 'Something Bad Happened' to Teen
By MICHAEL NORTON, Associated Press Writer

ORANJESTAD, Aruba - One of the young men detained in the disappearance of an Alabama honors student admitted "something bad happened" to the woman after they took her to the beach, a police officer said, while prosecutors said Saturday the investigation was at a crucial point.

But prosecutors refused to comment on the statement by Deputy Police Commissioner Gerold Dompig, who told The Associated Press that the man who made that admission was leading police to the scene. He refused to identify which of the three young men who took Natalee Holloway, 18, to a northern beach the night she went missing made the statement.

Police refused Saturday morning to say whether they discovered anything overnight to solve the mystery of what happened to Holloway, who was last seen in the early hours of May 30.

Referring to Dompig's statement, prosecution spokeswoman Vivian van der Biezen said Saturday: "We neither confirm nor deny any information coming from other sources ... (about) alleged statements of suspects in this case."

"The investigation at the moment is the following: Five suspects are being held ... and we are at a very crucial, very important moment in our investigation," she said.

Police investigating Holloway's disappearance arrested a man at dawn Saturday but later said he had nothing to do with the case.

The three young men arrested Thursday — two Surinamese brothers and the 17-year-old Dutch son of a high-ranking island judicial official — appeared Saturday before a judge, who was deciding whether police have sufficient grounds to continue holding them. Authorities have refused to say on what grounds they were being held.

Police also have detained two other men — former security guards at a hotel near the one where Holloway was staying. No one has been charged in the case.

Island-wide searches by Aruban police, Dutch marines and hundreds of volunteer islanders and tourists continued Saturday, Trapenberg said.

Holloway's mother, Beth Holloway Twitty, is feeling the strain, her brother-in-law told the AP as prosecutors prepared to make a statement Saturday morning.

When asked whether she was holding up, Tom "Jar" Twitty said, "No ... She has had amazing stamina up until now, but ..."

The women in the family remained sequestered in their hotel rooms while the Twitty brothers stood in the lobby, looking stressed amid a gay scene of tourists pouring onto a brightly colored bus outside advertising "Xtreme Party Cruise."

Holloway, vanished during a five-day trip to the Dutch Caribbean island with 124 classmates and seven chaperones celebrating their graduation from Mountain Brook, Ala., High School, near Birmingham. Police found her U.S. passport and packed bags in her hotel room after she failed to show up for her return flight that day.

Holloway's family continues to believe she is alive, Tom Twitty said. Rumors that she is dead are "an aggressive interpretation" of what police are saying, he told The Associated Press.

Prime Minister Nelson Oduber said on national radio Friday night that if something happened to Holloway, it would damage the reputation of this island of 97,000 people, which depends on tourism and is considered one of the safest spots in the Caribbean.

In Holloway's hometown, her friends gathered after midnight at a church where people have been holding prayer vigils for her. Some hugged and cried; one woman left a flickering candle at the base of a wall decorated with messages to Holloway, who had earned a full scholarship to the University of Alabama, where she planned to study medicine.

Antonio Carlo, an attorney for the Dutch minor, told the AP: "My client maintains his innocence." He said the boy would appear before a judge at 2 p.m. EDT.

Carlo refused to comment on the alleged admission.

Holloway's mother and stepfather told The Birmingham News in Alabama that they discovered the Dutch boy's connection to their daughter within 24 hours of her disappearance by talking to other students on the trip. They then found surveillance videotapes showing him playing poker with other Mountain Brook teens in their hotel casino two days before she vanished.

A lawyer for one of the Surinamese — Satish Kalpoe, 18, whose brother, Deepak, 21, also is in custody — said they told police they took Holloway to Arashi Beach, on the northern part of the island, in the early hours of May 30.

According to their police statement, they did not get out of the car, defense lawyer David Kock said. Instead, Holloway and the Dutch teen, an honors student at the Aruba International School whom she had met at the casino in her hotel, "were in the back seat kissing."

They also told police that they dropped Holloway at her Holiday Inn at about 2 a.m. and last saw her being approached by a man in a security guard uniform before they drove off, Kock said.

The brothers told police the blond, blue-eyed young woman was drunk and refused to get out of the car, said Noraina Pietersz, who is representing Antonius "Mickey" John, 30, one of the two former security guards. He and Abraham Jones, 28, have been detained since Sunday.

The three young men said Holloway stumbled in the parking lot of the hotel but refused help from her Dutch escort, Kock said.

Holiday Inn employees say security cameras did not record Holloway's return. A Holiday Inn guard who worked the overnight shift that day said he did not see her, said Pietersz, who said she reviewed the guard's statement to police.

100%CardsFan · June 11th, 2005, 02:14 PM

I hope they find those peices of **** and cut their fvcking heads off. This kinda crime really pushes me over the edge with hatred.

Kate · June 11th, 2005, 02:51 PM

I'd be really surprised if she's found alive... it's already been 11 days.

I'm hoping for the best, but with each day things are looking grim and more grim.

And I too hope they find the pieces of trash who took her.

Hordispack · June 15th, 2005, 05:36 PM

The feebs are there they (Aruba govt) need to lket them take over. One judges kid (Vander Sloot) is not worth bankrupting the whole frickin country. I for one have no intention of every going to Aruba after this debacle unless it is to start a career as a serial killer.

Brian in Mesa · July 6th, 2005, 11:09 AM

It's becoming USA vs. Aruba...

Resentment Growing In Aruba
ORANJESTAD, Aruba
July 6, 2005

A latent but growing resentment here became evident for the first time when more than 200 people, some wrapped in Aruban flags, said they were incensed by statements made by the mother of a missing American teen.

Those assembled outside the colonial courthouse in this Caribbean capital Tuesday night said they fear their tiny island nation is falsely being portrayed as not doing enough to find Natalee Holloway, the Alabama girl who vanished May 30 on a graduation trip with her high school class.

Two brothers, Deepak Kalpoe, 21, and Satish Kalpoe, 18, who had been held as suspects were released Monday for lack of evidence.

In a brief and tearful statement Tuesday, Beth Holloway Twitty, Natalee's mother, accused Aruba of letting guilty people free.

"Two suspects were released yesterday who were involved in a violent crime against my daughter," she said.

"These criminals are not only being allowed to walk around among the tourists and citizens of Aruba," she said, but there were no limits on where they could go.

The protesters took umbrage with those statements.

"Respect our Dutch laws or go home," read one sign. "Innocent until proven guilty," read another. One suggested the missing girl might not be dead but partying in Brazil or nearby Venezuela.

Holloway Twitty clarified her remarks Wednesday on CBS News' The Early Show.

"There's definitely been a crime committed against Natalee. We all know that. When I say involvement, I don't know to what degree" the Kalpoe brothers were involved, she said.

"But I do have information and I know this. Those individuals have information. And I don't think until we find Natalee, we won't know the full extent of their involvement in that crime," Holloway Twitty said.

"There is information that Jug [her husband] and I have that we cannot disclose. But I do know that they have involvement," she said.

Holloway Twitty added that she and her husband "have tried to remain, so respectful and the citizens here have been nothing but respectful and courteous to Jug and I since we've been on the island. And I hope that that is not something that is growing. And we never meant for this to happen."

The protesters also complained that some American television coverage unfairly depicted the island, which depends overwhelmingly on tourism, and as being crime- and drug-ridden. Though poverty is widespread in the Caribbean, Aruba has an unemployment rate of less than 1 percent and one of the higher standards of living. And it has few worries. Tourism and a major refinery bring in the money. Diplomatic and defense needs, such as they are, are provided by the Netherlands.

"Have you been treated badly in Aruba?" asked Ramon Garcia, a burly tourist guide. "We are together with the family of Natalee, but we love Aruba too, man. We don't need these pressures. We are a friendly island."

Orlando Flanigan said his country had given "all out hearts, all out cooperation, everything," to help find Natalee. "It's time we got some respect back," he said.

"They are making us look like a banana republic, he said. "We are an educated and cultured people, many of us speak four or five languages."

John Maywether told a growing crowd that Aruba is not an island of criminals. "We have 96 (prison) cells and 53 percent of them are occupied by non-Arubans," he said.

"We are here to ask that you trust our legal system," he said, recalling that Arubans turned out in large numbers for Natalee after she vanished and that prayers were offered for her safe return in local churches.

Arubans note that local banks raised $20,000 and provided other help to a group of volunteers from Texas, who are still here, could continue their search for the girl.

But there has been no sign of her. Three F-16 jets sent by the Dutch government were to start flying grid patterns on Wednesday, taking offshore photographs hoping for clues.

On Monday the courts extended for 60 days the detention of Joran van der Sloot, 17, the son of a judge-in-training, the only person still in detention and possibly the last person to see Natalee Holloway alive.

After that time he can be released, ordered to trial or detained further.

Lincoln Gomez, an Oranjestad defense lawyer not connected to the case, said the Kalpoe brothers still could face indictment until they are formally notified that charges won't be brought.

Dback Jon · July 6th, 2005, 11:13 AM

:clearsthroat:

http://www.arizonasportsfans.com/vb/...7&postcount=14

Brian in Mesa · July 6th, 2005, 11:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dback Jon

:clearsthroat:

http://www.arizonasportsfans.com/vb/...7&postcount=14

Yeah, I'm ignoring that thread, since I started the Holloway thread here first.

Brian in Mesa · August 19th, 2005, 10:55 PM

Costas Refuses to Host Show on Holloway
By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer
Fri Aug 19, 2005

While some cable TV hosts are making their living off the Natalee Holloway case this summer, Bob Costas is having none of it.

Costas, hired by CNN as an occasional fill-in on "Larry King Live," refused to anchor Thursday's show because it was primarily about the Alabama teenager who went missing in Aruba. Chris Pixley filled in at the last minute.

"I didn't think the subject matter of Thursday's show was the kind of broadcast I should be doing," Costas said in a statement. "I suggested some alternatives but the producers preferred the topics they had chosen. I was fine with that, and respectfully declined to participate."

Costas' manager declined to elaborate on what Costas didn't like about the topic.

Thursday's guests included Beth Holloway Twitty, the girl's mother; a television reporter; and an investigator in the case. Seven of the show's 10 guests talked about the missing girl, the other segments were about the BTK killer.

The Holloway case has been a big attraction on cable news networks during a slow news period, with Fox News Channel's Greta Van Susteren getting record ratings as she's paid almost nonstop attention to it. Reports of Costas' decision first surfaced on the mediabistro.com Web site on Friday.

"There were no hard feelings at all," Costas said. "It's not a big deal. I'm sure there are countless topics that will be mutually acceptable in the future."

Wendy Walker, senior executive producer of "Larry King Live," described it as a mutual decision for Costas not to do the show because he was uncomfortable with the subject matter.

"We love having Bob ... and since `Larry King Live' covers an extremely extensive palate of subjects, there will always be shows that he will enjoy hosting," she said.

The NBC Sports personality, also host of "Costas Now" on HBO, had agreed to be host for about 20 editions of "Larry King Live" this year. He's done six, the network said.

His decision is reminiscent of Keith Olbermann, the former sportscaster who left his MSNBC news show in the late 1990s in part because he was asked to repeatedly cover the Monica Lewinsky story. Olbermann is back now for his second run at MSNBC.

Ryanwb · March 20th, 2009, 06:02 PM

They think they found her body

http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/ju...ound_aruba.php

LVG · March 21st, 2009, 08:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ryanwb

They think they found her body

http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/ju...ound_aruba.php

Correction - they think they know generally where her body is.

My wife's family is Aruban, and they all think she was dumped into the ocean off of the cliffs.