Metropolis Reality Forums - Teen disappears during senior trip to Aruba

Sponsored by: The Fans!

Welcome, Guest. Please Login or Register.
Nov 24^th, 2024, 11:55pm

Upcoming Premiere Dates:
Survivor 23, Season premiere
Thursday, September 14 (8:00-9:30 PM, ET/PT) on CBS

Metropolis Reality Forums Ť Teen disappears during senior trip to Aruba ť

   Metropolis Reality Forums
   Off-Topic Forums
   In the News (Moderators: lakelady, yesteach, MediaScribe, Bumper, Isle_be_back)
   Teen disappears during senior trip to Aruba

Previous topic | New Topic | Next topic »

Pages: all 1 2 3 ... 5

Add Poll

Notify of replies

Send Topic

Author

Topic: Teen disappears during senior trip to Aruba (Read 1378 times)

lakelady
ForumsNet Moderator
Moderator
ForumsNet Member

Posts: 11251

Teen disappears during senior trip to Aruba
« on: Jun 3^rd, 2005, 8:15am »

Quote

Modify

Major news story here in our area. Very sad.

Teen disappears during senior trip to Aruba
Friday, June 3, 2005 Posted: 7:20 AM EDT (1120 GMT)

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (AP) -- An Alabama high school student disappeared during her graduation trip to Aruba, and officials said they have few clues after questioning and releasing three men who said they dropped the teen off at her hotel.

Natalee Holloway, 18, was among 125 graduating seniors from Mountain Brook High School, near Birmingham, on a five-day trip to the Caribbean island.

She was last seen getting into a vehicle and leaving a nightclub in the capital, Oranjestad, before dawn on Monday, deputy police chief Gerold Dompig said. She did not show up for her group's return flight later in the day.

"We went to check in for our airplane, and she wasn't there, and she's been missing since then," classmate Jay Weinacker said.

Aruba police said Wednesday that they had questioned and released three local men who said they dropped the teenager off at her hotel late Sunday night. Officials said the girl's parents were unable to spot her on a hotel surveillance tape.

Several family members traveled to Aruba to help in the search, coordinated by FBI officials, Aruba police, and Dutch authorities, who oversee the island. Aruba, with a population of about 72,000, is off the north coast of Venezuela and is part of the Netherlands Antilles.

"We can't just sit here and do nothing," said Robin Holloway, the girl's stepmother. "We don't know if she is still in Aruba ... or she's been kidnapped. We just don't know anything."

In Alabama, more than 150 people participated Tuesday in a prayer service for Holloway at Mountain Brook Community Church.

IP Logged

luci
ForumsNet Member

Gender:

Posts: 12045

Re: Teen disappears during senior trip to Aruba
« Reply #1 on: Jun 3^rd, 2005, 9:31am »

Quote

Modify

This has been on the news twice since 8:00 A.M.
It is MY opinion the most they can hope for now is to find her body
and arrest and punish the ones responsible for her disappearance and death.

A beautiful young southern girl on an island, very dangerous, indeed!
Three men dropped her off at the hotel? Very very suspicious!
Very sad!

IP Logged

"A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and
can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words."

FLORIDAGIRL
ForumsNet Member

My All Time Favorite Team

Gender:

Posts: 714

Re: Teen disappears during senior trip to Aruba
« Reply #2 on: Jun 3^rd, 2005, 4:35pm »

Quote

Modify

I hope they find her OK. Can you imagine how her parents are feeling? I am saying a prayer all of them today.

IP Logged

rcs_mum
ForumsNet Member

Proud Mom!

Gender:

Posts: 1744

Re: Teen disappears during senior trip to Aruba
« Reply #3 on: Jun 3^rd, 2005, 4:58pm »

Quote

Modify

I pray for her poor parents. And I can imagine what the adult group monitors of the students must be going through.

IP Logged

navywife65
ForumsNet Member

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

Gender:

Posts: 47

Re: Teen disappears during senior trip to Aruba
« Reply #4 on: Jun 3^rd, 2005, 5:28pm »

Quote

Modify

I pray that she is found safe and for her parents.

Was it a school sponsored trip? If so then I have problems with this. Why would a school sponsor a trip to Aruba where the legal drinking age is 18 and let them go to nightclubs? It's probably just me but I think there is something wrong with this.

IP Logged

lakelady
ForumsNet Moderator
Moderator
ForumsNet Member

Posts: 11251

Re: Teen disappears during senior trip to Aruba
« Reply #5 on: Jun 3^rd, 2005, 5:37pm »

Quote

Modify

navywife, my guess is that it was a school sponsored trip being a senior trip and all. Someone definitely failed to keep a close enough eye on them.

I feel only bad news coming.

IP Logged

lakelady
ForumsNet Moderator
Moderator
ForumsNet Member

Posts: 11251

Re: Teen disappears during senior trip to Aruba
« Reply #6 on: Jun 3^rd, 2005, 5:39pm »

Quote

Modify

Here's a more current article.

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)

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."

IP Logged

lakelady
ForumsNet Moderator
Moderator
ForumsNet Member

Posts: 11251

Re: Teen disappears during senior trip to Aruba
« Reply #7 on: Jun 5^th, 2005, 7:17am »

Quote

Modify

SAN NICOLAS, Aruba - Authorities detained two men Sunday in connection with the disappearance of an Alabama teenager, who went missing nearly a week ago in Aruba while on a high school trip, the attorney general said.

Caren Janssen called the men "suspects" in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, 18, but declined to provide further details. The men were not among the three described earlier by police as "persons of interest."

Police officers and three FBI agents, who are playing a supportive role in the investigation, took the two men into custody at two different houses in the southeastern town of San Nicolas, according to an AP photographer at the scene.

Police knocked on the door of one house, put the suspect on the floor and handcuffed him. Officers later detained a second man. They both were led to an unmarked police car and taken away.

Neighbors described the men as security guards who worked at a hotel closed down for renovation near where the 18-year-old blonde was staying at the Holiday Inn. Police and FBI agents searched the hotel Saturday.

IP Logged

Genius
ForumsNet Member

Asian engineering!

Gender:

Posts: 13605

Re: Teen disappears during senior trip to Aruba
« Reply #8 on: Jun 5^th, 2005, 9:08am »

Quote

Modify

Two men detained in Aruba missing-student case
Sunday, June 5, 2005 Posted: 9:59 AM EDT (1359 GMT)

ORANJESTAD, Aruba (CNN) -- Police have detained two men in connection with the disappearance of missing Alabama high school graduate, the Oranjestad police chief said Sunday morning.

Chief Jan van Strantan said the two men are security guards at the Hotel Allegro near the Holiday Inn where Natalee Holloway was staying.

"They have been arrested as a result of investigations against them," he said, although he would not say if they have been accused of a crime.

Aruba is a Dutch protectorate, and under Dutch law, police are not required to charge suspects immediately on arrest.

Oranjestad police and FBI agents detained the two men in separate operations at their homes about 7 a.m., police said.

The men, ages 28 and 30, were not among the three men in whose company Holloway was last seen.

Police also took three cars for "further technical investigation," chief prosecutor Karen Janssen told CNN.

Police still are interrogating the men, she added. Janssen said could not give details about the questioning because the investigation was ongoing and other people might be arrested.

The men were seen leaving their respective houses calmly and without resistance. Police were seen later carrying bags out of the house.

On Saturday, police spent much of the afternoon at Hotel Allegro, which is being renovated. They refused to say what led them to the site or what they found, if anything.

Holloway last seen Monday
Holloway, 18, was on a senior trip with classmates when she went missing nearly a week ago.

Holloway -- from the affluent Birmingham, Alabama, suburb of Mountain Brook -- was last seen leaving a nightclub called Carlos 'n' Charlie's in Oranjestad.

Witnesses said she left in a car with three local young men between the ages of 18 and 25 at about 1:30 a.m. Monday.

Friends have said they have pictures of her dancing with young men at the club.

Authorities have said they talked to the three men who left with her, and the men claim they took Holloway to Arashi Beach before dropping her off at her hotel at about 2 a.m.

The Associated Press reports her uncle, Paul Reynolds, as saying he was told security cameras did not show her return to the hotel that night. The AP says police declined to comment on that report.

"We're still looking, we're still hoping she's alive," Rudie Soemers, police night watch commander, told CNN.

In a news conference back in Birmingham, Holloway's aunt, Marcia Twitty, said Saturday that based on information police have relayed to the family, "We feel that we will have a definitive answer in 24 hours."

Rewards and yellow ribbons
Holloway's mother, Beth Holloway Twitty, who flew to Aruba to help search efforts, said about 20 to 40 of Holloway's classmates saw her leave.

"Natalee's bags were packed and ready to go," Beth Twitty told CNN on Friday. "Everything was packed. Her passport was in her purse -- she even had the remaining cash she had on her in her purse -- it was in her room, everything was zipped up. She was ready to go home."

"This is such a mystery. It's a mystery to Aruba, and it's a mystery to the United States," she said.

She said she has tried to remain focused and driven during the search because "I wanted to make sure that she would be as proud of me as I am of her in accomplishing our one goal and that is to find Natalee."

Holloway was on the trip to Aruba with about 100 Mountain Brook High School students to celebrate their graduation. Marcia Twitty said Saturday that the Holloway family "absolutely" believes the seven parent chaperones on the Aruba trip did all they could.

Holloway is a straight-A student and a member of the National Honor Society as well as the school's dance team. She has an academic scholarship to the University of Alabama.

The family has posted a $50,000 reward for any information leading to her whereabouts. A family representative said the money was donated in $10,000 increments from the Aruban Tourist Board, the family, the Aruban government, an anonymous donor and the additional $10,000 from various other sources.

The family has asked members of the Mountain Brook community to post yellow ribbons in her honor. In addition, some area youths are making bracelets. Daily prayer services are being held for Holloway.

She is described as being 5 feet 4 inches tall and 110 pounds. The FBI announced Saturday a tip line for Holloway. People with any information are encouraged to call 1-877-628-2533.

IP Logged

TAR14: Tammy and Victor
S18: Brendan, Taj, Spencer

Rhune
ForumsNet Administrator

Gender:

Posts: 292

Re: Teen disappears during senior trip to Aruba
« Reply #9 on: Jun 5^th, 2005, 7:31pm »

Quote

Modify

This doesn't sound like it's going to end well...

IP Logged

lakelady
ForumsNet Moderator
Moderator
ForumsNet Member

Posts: 11251

Re: Teen disappears during senior trip to Aruba
« Reply #10 on: Jun 5^th, 2005, 7:53pm »

Quote

Modify

I agree Rhune. I can't imagine what the family is going through. The mother has said all along she is not leaving Aruba without her daughter. I just wish they could find her body at this point. I wait anxiously for updates.

IP Logged

Rupey
ForumsNet Member

Can't top Pearl Islands!

Posts: 2147

Re: Teen disappears during senior trip to Aruba
« Reply #11 on: Jun 5^th, 2005, 8:15pm »

Quote

Modify

This is a parent's worst nightmare. Embarassed

Not knowing only makes it worse.

IP Logged

"Lord, please make me the person my dog thinks I am."

luci
ForumsNet Member

Gender:

Posts: 12045

Re: Teen disappears during senior trip to Aruba
« Reply #12 on: Jun 5^th, 2005, 8:23pm »

Quote

Modify

Senior Trips in our part of the world have ended.
I thought everyone had stopped them as well.
18 yr olds on a Carribbean Island with drinking age 18?
Trouble coming before they even got there!

Absolutely a parent's worst nightmare!
Heart wrenching for all parents who've heard about this sad news.

IP Logged

"A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and
can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words."

lakelady
ForumsNet Moderator
Moderator
ForumsNet Member

Posts: 11251

Re: Teen disappears during senior trip to Aruba
« Reply #13 on: Jun 6^th, 2005, 8:49am »

Quote

Modify

ORANJESTAD, Aruba (CNN) -- Investigators on Monday planned to send an FBI dive team into the Caribbean waters off Aruba, where an 18-year-old Alabama student vanished a week ago at the end of a graduate class trip.

IP Logged

Pocket
ForumsNet Member

Posts: 1437

Re: Teen disappears during senior trip to Aruba
« Reply #14 on: Jun 6^th, 2005, 9:06am »

Quote

Modify

A dive team? They must have some information or that would be a waste of time on an island surrounded by water.....a vast area. The family must be beside themselves.

IP Logged

Pages: all 1 2 3 ... 5

Add Poll

Notify of replies

Send Topic


Previous topic \| New Topic \| Next topic »