Major developments in Natalee Holloway case

[JTD]

http://drudgereport.com/flash2.htm

[MSRobi911]

That is just crap!

Mary

[Janice]

That island is only trying to cover it's butt. They just are digging in the dirt to find a way to get the boys off. What a shame.

[wx247]

How would they know if they haven't found the body? Doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Everything seems to be pointing toward some sort of force being used. Unless you have the body and the signs do not point to force then I don't see how you can say something like that.

[nholley]

Seems perfectly logical to me. The "Island" has no reason to get the boys off because there is no evidence to show they did anything wrong. There is only heresay and theories as to what happened. What the hell happened to innocent until proven guilty? Or does this only apply to US Citizens?

[fwbbreeze]

Seems perfectly logical to me. The "Island" has no reason to get the boys off because there is no evidence to show they did anything wrong. There is only heresay and theories as to what happened. What the hell happened to innocent until proven guilty? Or does this only apply to US Citizens?

I agree with you, if the evidence doesn't support the accusations of murder then obviously you cannot convict. Everyone in the US was so quick to convict these boys based on nothing more than what we were hearing from the media. Put yourself in those boys shoes...and tell me you wouldn't want a full investigation before being tried and convicted. Now if the findings eventually determine these boys guilt then I say they should be punished to the fullest extent of Aruba's law.

fwbbreeze

[beachbum_al]

I think someone is trying to cover themselves. Maybe the boys didn't do it but they know something. The family needs closure and not speculation into what happen to their daughter.

[Brent]

This whole thing has reeked of a coverup since the very first day. It's so ridiclous. While I do think this latest "theory" is plausible, I think it's more likely that the police are just covering themselves with it and by claiming they are in the "final" stages of the investigation.

[nholley]

This whole thing has reeked of a coverup since the very first day. It's so ridiclous. While I do think this latest "theory" is plausible, I think it's more likely that the police are just covering themselves with it and by claiming they are in the "final" stages of the investigation.

I don't see what they are "covering" themselves from? There is no evidence that a crime was committed, there is no body, nobody saw anything negative, so there is nothing for the cops to cover.

I think the Police on the Island were very good, letting the FBI sit in on things was above and beyond. If a young Dutch girl disappeared in the US would the government let the Dutch Investigation services sit in? Would they let the media come over from Holland and Insult the local police?

It is a tragic event of that there is no doubt but for me the obvious conclusion is the poor girl was having a good time, drank too much and ended up in the ocean.

[gtalum]

Thanks to the ridiculous wall-to-wall media coverage of the Holloway case, many have drawn preconceived conclusions without any evidence.

[Terrell]

I don't think that it's unreasonable that Natalee wasn't murdered.

Alcohol related visits to the ER or even deaths aren't that uncommon in the US for young adults that are away from their parents for the first time. Think about an 18 year old woman who is too young to drink in her home state, who goes to another country where she's of legal age, then add the fact that she's away from her parents, it's not that unreasonable that she might do something she wouldn't normally do. Saying that she may have drank too much doesn't make her a bad person, and isn't denigrating her.

The problem is societal attitudes toward intoxicants, alcohol in this case. One problem with our policy on alcohol is that the alcohol is glamorized by being forbidden to anyone under the age of 21. If we had a more rational view toward alcohol, and parents taught their children how to drink responsibily at an apropriate age, rather than a Prohibitionist view toward it, we'd probably have less alcohol related problems in our society. It would definitely take away some of alcohol's mystique, and probably in the long term reduce rates of abuse/addiction.

[nholley]

The problem is societal attitudes toward intoxicants, alcohol in this case. One problem with our policy on alcohol is that the alcohol is glamorized by being forbidden to anyone under the age of 21. If we had a more rational view toward alcohol, and parents taught their children how to drink responsibily at an apropriate age, rather than a Prohibitionist view toward it, we'd probably have less alcohol related problems in our society. It would definitely take away some of alcohol's mystique, and probably in the long term reduce rates of abuse/addiction.

I couldn't agree more with this. The view in the US towards drinking is just bizarre. I started being given watered down wine with Sunday Lunch when I was about 7. One glass, half water half wine and right there with my parents. When I got to about 16, friends of mine whose parents had not introduced their children to responsible drinking would buy alcohol and disappear into the cold night to swig whatever they had bought, in a park on their own. I never went because If I wanted to drink then I would go home to have a glass of wine in the warm with my parents.

The problem with someone raised under the US system seems to be the binge drinking. I took my in-laws out to France a year ago as they had never been out of the US. My then 15 year old brother in-law took full advantage of the fact that he was able to order any alcohol he wanted in a bar. It seems that when raised in a strict alcohol enviroment and then being exposed to somewhere that is much more relaxed (like Aruba) that people tend to take advantage of that. It really seems to me that this is much more likely than the wild murder conspiricies that are flying about.

[Brent]

and now there's an arrest in the case and it's NOT one of the earlier suspects.

Hmmmmm.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12335444/

[JTD]

and now there's an arrest in the case and it's NOT one of the earlier suspects.

Hmmmmm.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12335444/

I was just coming to post that.

[bvigal]

Hmm, well, whether fair or not, it's a known fact that any place which depends upon tourism has enormous economic and political pressure to squelch events that might even have a faint unpleasantness to visitors. This would include going to great lengths to prove that no residents are dangerous killers. This type of pressure has been known in the past to extend to press coverage and crime investigations/prosecutions.

Whether they wanted to and were following political pressure or just lacksadasical, the police didn't thoroughly look soon enough for Natalie. It may be true that some young (and many older) women have been known to "shack up in the bush" with locals while on vacation. But when dealing with a visitor, police must nevertheless make every effort, as foul play is always possible. I don't feel sorry for Aruba and the tourism they have lost. No lesson sinks in as well as the one that hits the pocket. Those businesses that suffered will see to it new politicians get in at next election, or else they will support new policy. They have learned that covering up is risky to protect tourism - sometimes it backfires.

As to those who were in custody and released, they were released for lack of evidence to charge, not because any court decided they were innocent. There is a difference. Not being charged is not exhoneration.

By the way "innocent until proven guilty" isn't a world-wide thing. One of the major lessons I've learned living (visiting didn't teach me, visitors are purposely given very different experiences than residents) in various places overseas is that we grow up in the U.S. with certain phrases and words we hear all the time. I had the mistaken idea that what was so in my little world was so over most of the planet, at least in developed countries. Was I surprised to find out that not only are their major differences in law in places as similar as Canada & Britain, but most people from other countries actually resent this typical attitude of people from the United States. We seem to look at everything through "mom & apple pie"-tinted glasses. "They" see us as very un-informed about the rest of the world, due to biased disinterest (promulgated by US media), and in some instances, and I hate to admit it, downright ignorance. Sometimes during specific events or issues, if I'm honest, I have to grudgingly agree with my foreign friends' comments about US attitudes.

From that perspective, I can imagine the wonderful people of Aruba are growing weary of the US media hubbub.

If a Dutch National disappeared while visiting the US, you can bet our police would get pressure from State Dept to allow visiting investigator (or whomever) in on the loop - ABSOLUTELY! As to world wide press, are you kidding? Nothing to stop them covering anything they want, as thoroughly as they want, in the United States, if they were interested.

This may be a bit grisly, but I can tell you that here, probably 95% of people who go into the water (dead or alive) near-shore, are recovered by 48hours. It's not that easy to fall in the ocean and just get swept away or 100% eaten by sea creatures. Lack of a body almost precludes any accidental solitary death, and smacks of foul play.

[alicia-w]

NEWEST SUSPECT RELEASED

Police have released a 19-year-old man who was arrested on suspicion of involvement in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, Aruban prosecutors said Monday.

"Today, the suspect G.v.C. has been released from police custody," said a statement from the prosecutor's office. "He has been released because the grounds for his detention are no longer there. He remains a suspect."

The man, who was arrested on April 15, has not been charged with a crime, and no one has been charged in connection with Holloway's disappearance in May of 2005.

A search of the tiny island by Dutch Marines, the FBI and hundreds of volunteers failed to find her.

The Aruban newspaper Diario identified "G.v.C." as Geoffrey van Cromvoirt, a brother of a police officer, and published photographs of him attending his sister's swearing-in ceremony.

Monday's statement from prosecutors also said that another man had been arrested in the case over the weekend, and also was released.

"On Saturday, April the 22nd, a 20-year-old man with the initials E.B. was arrested in the Holloway case. He was released after the interrogation period of 6 hours," the statement said.

In another development, Aruban Police Commissioner Gerold Dompig told The Associated Press on Sunday that police have twice questioned his 19-year-old son, Michael, as a witness in the case.

Holloway was celebrating her high school graduation with classmates and parent chaperones on Aruba, a self-governing Dutch protectorate, when she disappeared nearly a year ago.

Holloway, then 18, was last seen leaving a nightclub in Oranjestad on May 30, 2005, with three others. Those three -- Dutch national Joran van der Sloot, the son of an Aruban judge, and Surinamese brothers Deepak, 21, and Satish Kalpoe, 18 -- were arrested the following month, but released after a judge ruled there was insufficient evidence to hold them.

All three have maintained their innocence.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/04/24/holloway/index.html

[Janice]

It could have been accidential and they panicked and took her out to sea, way out. They could have been drinking and took some pills and she died.

Maybe they sold her to slavery. They could have taken her to the beach where a boat was ready to pick her up. She could still be alive.

Late at night with a boat, you will never see a body again.....

[x-y-no]

Not to downplay the tragedy of this situation, but the level of coverage this story has had on the cable news channels is just outlandish.

[alicia-w]

I AGREE. She's not the only person to ever go missing in a foreign country.

[Janice]

Yes, but these storys sadly make the news and sell papers.