A press release issued today by Occidental's Allegro Aruba Resort appears to be contradicted by a previously reported eyewitness account by an employee at MSNBC.
Today Occidental Hotels & Resorts' Allegro Aruba Resort issued a statement through Business Wire claiming that contrary to several press reports, murder and kidnapping suspects Nick John, 30, and Abraham Jones, 28, are not employees.
MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 7, 2005--The following is a statement by Allegro Aruba Resort: Reports that the two men arrested in the search for Natalee Holloway in Aruba are employees of the Allegro Aruba Resort are erroneous and false.
In fact, the resort has been closed for complete renovation since May 1, 2005, and is scheduled to reopen later this year. It is possible that these two individuals in question worked for the security company hired by the construction firm to provide security for the site. The two men were not employees of the hotel and statements attributing that are incorrect.
Our thoughts and prayers are with Natalee Holloway and her family.
Contacts rbb Public Relations, Coral Gables, Fla,
Lisa Ross, 305-962-2069 or Chad Cohen, 786-417-5769
However, that appears to directly contradict the on air statements of MSNBC's Mike Tirone, a Scarborough Country producer as televised on June 7th.
Scarborough Country senior producer Mike Tirone just came back from a vacation in Aruba and coincidentally stayed at the same hotel where one of the suspects in the Natalee Holloway case worked as a security guard.
Update: The paragraph below was previously included with the text above making it appear as if it came from the transcript at Scarborough Country. That is not the case and the quote came from a press report. I have been discussing this with a reader / attorney. He feels the story is misleading.
He has a valid point when you begin to parse the word "employee." It is quite possible that the individual in question worked at the hotel through a contract with another company and, consequently, is not an "employee" of the Allegro. Technically and legally, I believe he is correct.
However, my position is that the fine definition of the word "employee" is less material to this story, than is the fact that the individual had an association with the Hotel. The press release would give the impression that the individual in question had no connection to the property whatsoever. That would be as untrue as is, possibly, the notion that he was an employee and not a contract worker.
I can understand the Allegro's position in the event of any potential liable suit for having retained a "security guard" potentially guilty of a terrible crime. However, as I personally have no plans to pursue that matter to any degree, my interest is more in terms of perception and accuracy, as opposed to some technical truth associated with the parsing of a word.
I will concede that said individual(s) may not have been employees of the hotel. I will also stipulate that based upon reports it seems apparent that the individual(s) in question did have an association with the hotel.
And, Jay, should you bill them for this, I want a cut! ; )
The guards worked at Hotel Allegro, near the Holiday Inn where Holloway was staying. A lawyer for one of the men said neither of the men were working the night Holloway disappeared.
Mike Tirone: Joe, we were in Aruba at the Allegra resort for about 10 days. We interacted with this security guard. He was high-fiving my 7-year-old son. We had -- we saw him on a daily occurrence every day. I would take a jog and talk to him.
He was a really nice guy. He had a lot of charisma. He was a fun guy. He went out of his way to help people. And I was very surprised. I almost fell out of my chair when I saw the AP and MSNBC put his face up. It was a real surprise.
While it is possible that the release is accurate today as a result of the resorts being temporarily closed for rennovation, it is unclear if MSNBC's Tirone is simply confused, or if a major hotel chain has released a formal statement very much in line with "it all depends on what the definition of "is" is.
Through attorney Chris Lejuez, both suspects are denying any involvement with Natalee Holloway.
"They have both denied very categorically knowing Natalee Holloway or having any contact with her," Chris Lejuez told CNN. "All they know about her is what they read and saw in the paper."
A ruling today allows for the men to be held for up to four months without being charged as the investigation continues into Natalee Holloway's mysterious disapearance.
The decision means authorities may hold Nick John, 30, and Abraham Jones, 28, for nearly four months while prosecutors investigate possible murder and kidnapping charges in the disappearance of 18-year-old Natalee Holloway, defense attorneys said. Neither man has been formally charged.
As reported here, and more broadly here, the press and authorities continue to omit the names of three individuals presumably from Aruba's Dutch community also linked with Natalee's disappearance.
From an earlier press report:
Their work contracts expired the day before she disappeared, a police officer told The Associated Press.
No statement was made as to where, if anywhere, the men were working at that time.
Today seems to bring but one more bit of confusing and possibly conflicting information from the tiny island of Aruba since the disappearance of Alabama high school senior, Natalee Holloway, now missing for over a week.
If the men did work for the Allegro Resort up until its closing for rennovation - and subsequently worked for a security company guarding the site right up until the seemingly tragic event, Allegro's statement of today might be said to be disingenuious, at best - aimed more at preserving the chain's reputation, than candidly reflecting any genuine concern for Ms. Holloway and her family.
This post is also available at Blogger News Network.
Three More Suspects Arrested
Three more men
have been arrested
in connection with
the disappearance
of American tourist
Natalee Holloway
— the same three
young men who were
previously questioned
as witnesses in the
case.
Authorities
previously have
described them as
students — two
Surinamese and a native
of the Netherlands —
who told police they
dropped off Holloway
at her hotel around 2
a.m. on May 30. Hotel
employees, however,
say that security
cameras did not record
her return.
The Dutch suspect, Joran Andreas Petrus Van Der Sloot, a student at Aruba International School, came
out of his upper-class home in the northern Montana neighborhood of Oranjestad on Thursday with his head
covered in a blue-and-green towel.
Van Der Sloot’s father is a prominent offi cial in the Aruba justice system studying to be a judge. The
younger Van Der Sloot, born Aug. 6, 1987, may have been romantically involved with the 18-year-old
Holloway the night she disappeared, May 30.
The Surinamese brothers in custody are Satish Kalpoe, born July 30, 1986, and Deepak Kalpoe, born
Oct. 6, 1983. They are the sons of a local Aruban business man.
Aruba Attorney General Caren Janssen said the three were arrested at 6 a.m. She refused to say whether
they were connected to the two men already being detained in the disappearance, saying more information
would be released later Thursday.
Posted by: Angel | Friday, June 10, 2005 at 04:10 AM