While many have brought the Amy Bradley disappearance up through the course of the Natalee Holloway investigation, the 2000 disappearance of NJ resident and travel writer Claudia Kirschhoch may have even more in common with the case of the young Alabama high school student, now missing for several weeks.
Kirschhoch was reportedly last seen walking along a Jamaican beach in broad daylight in 2000 and hasn't been seen or heard from since. Her parents had her declared dead in 2002, so as to enable legal action against a wealthy resort owner in hopes of gaining additional information on what might have happened to their daughter.
Charges of a botched investigation and a possible cover up came up during and after the investigation - with fingers being pointed at both Jamaican authorities, as well as a large resort.
The FBI was brought into the investigation, but ultimately closed the case with no one being charged.
Links to sources showing the striking similarities of the two incidents are included in the quotes below.
More on the Natalee Holloway disappearance can also be found here on the RWV web log.
No one has suggested "that the police hadn't used all the resources at their disposal". What we have said based on info reported in Jamaican newspapers and known to Jamaican citizens, is that the Jamaican police lack the resources and training to properly investigate a disappearance or a crime.
Also, the FBI was only permitted to actively assist after 30 days and, after more than two months, the search and rescue dog was allowed in. In any investigation, time is of the essence. Again, this certainly was not the fault of the police but the fault of Jamaican bureaucracy, and this at a time when information and resources are readily shared among nations throughout the world.
The last major movement in Kirschhoch's case was in 2000, when the FBI sent agents to Jamaica from a Miami-based squad to help Jamaican police investigate Kirschhoch's disappearance.
Now, it's just one of those cases that everyone remembers, but it remains unsolvable, said Judy Orihuela, the FBI spokeswoman in Miami. ''It was such a big deal back then,'' Orihuela said.
``I haven't forgotten it, it still sticks.''
AMERICAN TRAVEL writer Claudia Kirschhoch's ill-fated visit to Jamaica last May was supposed to have been for only eight days, but twelve months later her mysterious disappearance is baffling even to local law en forcement officers.
On her third day at the resort, May 27, 29-year old Claudia Kirschhoch, a New York City editor for Frommer's Travel Guides, disappeared virtually into thin air and without a trace. She has since been the subject of an intensive search, which had, included agents from the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Also, a search and rescue dog handler from Oregon, U.S.A., was brought in to assist with the search. But even with all the enhanced resources, major forensic testing and also the use of a FBI polygraph machine; law enforcement officials are no where closer to solving the case than a year ago when Ms. Kirschhoch disappeared.
This post is also available at Blogger News Network.
scared monkeys has news that says the witness got a good look at the car joran was driving because the car was blocking the road and he had to drive around it. pretty stupid to block the road when you are doing something wrong and do not want to get noticed. also the guy in back leaned forward to block the right side of the back seat, so nat could have been in there. but someone in aruba right now says nothing is going on right now: no announcements or searches. so what gives?
Posted by: pamy | Monday, July 25, 2005 at 02:27 PM
Like my sixteen year old daughter says to me when I make her check in with me, "you just don't trust me!", and I tell her, it's not that I don't trust you, I don't trust the rest of the world and you are never exactly sure of who you're with or who is watching you waiting on the moment that they can hurt you. It's so sad that we live in this kind of world. My daughter travels a lot with her school choir and band, but I ALWAYS chaperone, I watch her and the other kids like they're my own. It's just no longer a safe world out there. My being there might not stop something from happening, but at least I know I tried.
Posted by: melja | Tuesday, July 26, 2005 at 11:44 AM
the point is, tons of these girls who dissapear like Claudia Kirschhoch, Amy Bradley and Natlee have done dumb things BUT-- These are the type of girls they take for white slavery also..
Posted by: tim | Thursday, July 28, 2005 at 01:08 PM
Why haven't the reporters or investergators interveued the young people in Aruba. This Jordan surely has plenty of girlfriends who would be anxious to tell what they know. This was not his first time to force a lady to have sex. THe girls and young men know something. Boys like to brag about their conquests.
Posted by: barb in texas | Monday, August 01, 2005 at 03:42 PM
I don't think she was killed or abducted. I think she is still alive.
Posted by: BOAT | Wednesday, April 18, 2007 at 05:04 PM