High School student missing in Aruba

[neoufo51]

Missing girl's mother calls for more U.S. help

FBI, Aruba police, volunteers search for student

Friday, June 3, 2005 Posted: 1:52 PM EDT (1752 GMT)

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

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ORANJESTAD, Aruba (AP) -- The mother of missing Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway called for more help from the United States in a massive search as police and volunteers in Aruba combed beaches and scrubland for a fifth consecutive day Friday on the Dutch Caribbean island.

Volunteers put up posters throughout the island with a photo of Holloway, saying she was missing. But the wording on the posters was changed Friday to add a caption under her photo saying: "Kidnapped since 1:30 a.m. May 30."

Authorities say there is no evidence that Holloway was abducted, but police commissioner Jan van der Straaten said "after four of five days you are afraid a crime has been committed."

Holloway, 18, disappeared early Monday as she neared the end 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.

On the island remarkable for its absence of violent crime, hundreds of residents and tourists posted fliers 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 her.

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's family wants the Dutch government to officially ask the U.S. government for more direct help in the search, Holloway Twitty said later at a press conference.

"We all have a common goal to find Natalee so we can bring her home," the mother said, thanking officials, volunteers and residents. She choked up as she finished the statement and left the room in tears.

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.

Hopes were lifted briefly just before midnight Thursday when a news photographer said he had seen Holloway on the west side of the island. Police rushed to the scene but found an island girl who fit the description but had brown hair, not Holloway's long blond tresses.

Dressed in the same blue-and-green striped, low-cut blouse and denim miniskirt that she wore at the beach earlier in the day, Holloway spent Sunday evening partying at Carlos 'N Charlie's, a popular restaurant and dance spot where tourists and locals meet in the capital, Oranjestad.

She left 10 minutes before closing at 1 a.m., said the restaurant's master of ceremonies Jose Hernandez, 38. "Nothing was out of the ordinary."

Friends saw her getting into a vehicle outside the nightclub. She did not show up to catch her flight Monday. Her stepmother, Robin Holloway, said Natalee was last seen with a local resident who claimed to be a foreign exchange student.

Police questioned and released three Aruban students who said they dropped Holloway off early Monday at the Holiday Inn where she had been staying, about three miles from Oranjestad, said police assistant inspector Jules Sambo.

"We don't have any indication as to if she is alive," Sambo said. "The whole population is aware that she is missing. The police are doing everything to find her."

Several family members arrived the day after she disappeared. Her mother and her father, David Holloway of Meridian, Miss., went on television Thursday night to appeal to residents for information.

"Natalee is a well-traveled teenager. She has traveled to Europe, Canada," family spokeswoman Marcia Twitty told ABC's "Good Morning America."

She added that Holloway would not get into a car with strangers. "This is totally, totally out of character for Natalee," she said.

The island of 72,000 off the coast of Venezuela has a reputation of being all but free of crime for tourists.

There was one murder and six rapes last year and two murders and three rapes this year. But all the rapes were committed by local men against local women. The two murders involved drug addicts who died in knife fights.

"Aruba is a happy island and a safe island," said Janssen, the attorney general. "We're looking everywhere."

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/06/03/missing.s...t.ap/index.html

What kinda bothered me about this story is that these cases happen all the time but this is front page news on CNN. I guess it must be a slow news day and all.

I feel sad for the girl though. Truth is, this happens to people that go on vacations or travel too far from home. Girls like her, especially the blonde ones, are worth a lot to slave traders that specialize in dealing sex slaves overseas. Not to be a jerk, but she's likely still alive in a place like Israel or some Caribbean island, sold for thousands to a brothel, never to be seen again. :no:

[Brian Veteran]

I know this will sound callous but she is quite fine.. It would be quite easy for someone like her to get abducted

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

You never know. She may have decided to run away with some friends, or some friends. 48 hours have already passed since she was missing. It's a high possibilty that she's been killed already. And it's highly unlikely for her to be alive after 4-5 days. In most cases the abductees are dead within 1-2 days.

[Rob2687]

Must be a reeeeaaall slow day...people go missing all the time.

[betasp]

Another pretty white girl goes missing and the world stops. Any ides how many other people in america went missing in thepast 2 days? Here is some intersting info. Then National Crime Center reports 98,697 people are missing in the United States. Of this number, 55 percent are women, and 3,492 of these women are between the ages of 22 and 29. Of those, According the Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Crime Information Center (NCIC) there are 47,842 active missing adult cases, with 30,622 missing adults missing one year or more (as of 7/30/04).

Edited June 4, 2005 by betasp

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

People go missing everday. It only matters alot when someone you knew well goes missing.

[neoufo51]

Must be a reeeeaaall slow day...people go missing all the time.

586013306[/snapback]

Another pretty white girl goes missing and the world stops. Any ides how many other people in america went missing in thepast 2 days?

586013308[/snapback]

People go missing everday. It only matters alot when someone you knew well goes missing.

586013342[/snapback]

Exactly my point. Despite the tragedy, I can't believe this shocks people.

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

So.. edit it and never ever do that again. You should think before you speak, and get your facts straight. Geez. :crazy:

[golazo]

****, she's probably dead by now :(

[neoufo51]

Um why then would you start your comment out with  "not to be a jerk". You can't be that dense can you? And last time I checked google only indexed webpages. I forgot they reported on stories like that.  :rofl:  And i knew this was going to happen ah well, if you can't see the error in his original comment I don't honestly care. I was just trying to help someone not look like a wuss to passer bys.

586013435[/snapback]

1. That was on my first post and was never addressed to you or anybody

2. This newfangled thing called Google News exists.

3. You're not making it easy on yourself here. I suggest you just move on.

[Vlad]

Back on topic...

I didn't even know where Aruba was, let alone that it existed, before this story. Interesting that she's considered "well traveled" just for going to Canada and Europe, and I certainly wouldn't equate some random Caribbean island with Canada or any (Western) European countries.

I have to agree with betasp about the whole pretty white girl disappears -> media goes bezerk thing. Frankly, I don't understand the media AT ALL anymore. People are murdered/abducted/etc EVERY DAY, but it seems that only some random pretty white girl gets press. Good examples of this are the Ramsy case from back in the day, the David Westerfield trial from a few years ago, the Lacie Peterson case, that one mormon(?) girl who was abducted and made into some kind of weird love slave, and some other more local cases (but I live in a predominantly white community, so that is to be expected).

Anyways, I think one of the most interesting observations I've made of the media as a whole is who they choose to focus on. Infact, I'd say that they do nothing less than racial profiling/stereotyping. A good example of this is "the disgruntled white anti-Government terrorist", the "violent black man", the "{pretty||rich||famous} white girl". The media loves to choose "sides", where they'll glorify/idolize/etc a victim and do essentially the opposite to the accused.

Has anyone else noticed this pattern or is it just me?

[vbtweakin]

all i was saying is that it is little premature to make conclusions on what happened to her, like i said all the murders and rapes involved local residents and didn't envolve tourists.

[neoufo51]

all i was saying is that it is little premature to make conclusions on what happened to her, like i said all the murders and rapes involved local residents and didn't envolve tourists.

586013506[/snapback]

Its never too early to theorize. When somebody goes missing, every possibility is taken into account.

[Hupp]

too bad she was a hottie

[AcdShdw]

sucks cause all of my friends travle their alot