Oduber: Case Could Have Been Better Handled

Government spokesman Ruben Trapenberg said Monday the prime minister had expressed concerns about the initial investigation, though he used more cautious language.

"The prime minister agreed that in the beginning the case could have been better handled," Trapenberg said. "He didn't say it had been 'botched.'"

Comments

[kescah]

He's right.

[goodgirl]

i think everyone can agree that they could of done a better job. maybe the fbi should lend them a how to book for dummies. and no im not calling them dummies but i know everyone has see the books for dummies they come in almost any subject.

[Bigfish]

It's nice to see an AP article that is based on factual info but as anyone can see, it will be spun in all different directions by a variety of interests. It's all spin now.

Bigfish

[HesterPrynne]

You say "tomato", I say "tomato"....

If it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck...

"Racecar" backwards is still "racecar"...

A rose by any other name, would still smell...

Did Bill Clinton's spin team move to Aruba? Geez!

[Roy]

i think everyone can agree that they could of done a better job. maybe the fbi should lend them a how to book for dummies. and no im not calling them dummies but i know everyone has see the books for dummies they come in almost any subject.

Posted by: goodgirl | Aug 22, 2005 1:06:29 PM

Expressed yourself.
Feeling good now?
Now how about reading the book: "feeling good for dummies"?
Fool!

[ustt]

my personal feeling is that island did exactly the investigation they meant to do. it wasn't botched. it wasn't shoddy. it succeded in doing just what they meant for it to do. they may not have done what people who were looking for Natalee Holloway would have done.

again, i'd like to inquire if even an incident report was done that Monday a.m. when people had figured out Natalee was not in the lobby to go to the airport?

[Milton R. Clerc]

Might NASA have any satellite photos of the location @ date & time of Natalie's disappearance?

[Dave]

ustt

Very well put! I couldn't have said it any better myself!

[ustt]

((waving under the table))) ~~ good morning puppy.

[oldtimer]

The case could have been better handled,is the understatement of the year.

[ustt]

Might NASA have any satellite photos of the location @ date & time of Natalie's disappearance?

Posted by: Milton R. Clerc | Aug 22, 2005 1:49:36 PM

___________

oops i thought this was my friend DD :)

this is what i had suggested the other day about the satellite.......for several reasons.

do you know how to contact any of these families? every web site i go to has been shut down or otherwise is a bad link. i don't know how in the world they are getting tips. do you?

Thanks.

[*flo*]

Might NASA have any satellite photos of the location @ date & time of Natalie's disappearance?

Posted by: Milton R. Clerc | Aug 22, 2005 1:49:36 PM

if this were a national security issue, you bet there would be satellite probing going on. Welllll sure, for the right price, its almost certain NASA/other gov't agency will get those satellite photos. I recall Jug mentioning something about this idea, don't know if anything was done.
IMO, this case has become too political, much media attention, Holland's elections forthcoming, a recent major DEA drug bust,including Columbia, a F16 airshow,...satellite photos wouldn't hurt, then BH and family/friends/media can go home....

[Disappointed Arubian]

So the ballhead finally admit the investigation didn't go so well.

There were so many bloggers who wanted him to admit this since the beginning. So I ask: Are you happy now? Oduber openly admits the beginning of the case went wrong. Do you feel satisfied now?

[Bruce Wayne]

NASA might not, but I am sure 'someagency' does...

There would have actually had to have been an 'Investigation' for it to have actually been 'Botched'.

[ustt]

Might NASA have any satellite photos of the location @ date & time of Natalie's disappearance?

Posted by: Milton R. Clerc | Aug 22, 2005 1:49:36 PM

if this were a national security issue, you bet there would be satellite probing going on. Welllll sure, for the right price, its almost certain NASA/other gov't agency will get those satellite photos. I recall Jug mentioning something about this idea, don't know if anything was done.
IMO, this case has become too political, much media attention, Holland's elections forthcoming, a recent major DEA drug bust,including Columbia, a F16 airshow,...satellite photos wouldn't hurt, then BH and family/friends/media can go home....

Posted by: *flo* | Aug 22, 2005 2:14:10 PM

___________________

hey flo.......hidden you in your post is the probable reason there are pictures laying around on a desk of ann operative that would have exactly the info needed here to track activity that was going on on the island up to and after her disappearance........and like with 9/11........the agencies don't have enough brain cells to realize the right hand may have what the left hand needs. we need to send them a postcard i guess.

[GrannyToad]

i'd like to inquire if even an incident report was done that Monday a.m. when people had figured out Natalee was not in the lobby to go to the airport?
Posted by: ustt | Aug 22, 2005 1:43:15 PM

You'd have to ask the Beach Patrol person the chaperone made the report with what he/she did with it. LE told Beth when she got there that they didn't get a report.

[ustt]

You'd have to ask the Beach Patrol person the chaperone made the report with what he/she did with it. LE told Beth when she got there that they didn't get a report.

Posted by: GrannyToad | Aug 22, 2005 3:10:05 PM

__________

you're kidding, right?
did LE even say they got a call?
and where is Holiday Inn sitting in all this? don't they have security guards? didn't they have to write up some sort of incident report?
just questions rambling around in my brain.

[Alee]

Bingo! I have wondered WHY didn't the police get a report from the beach patrol. This has bothered me from the beginning. Who is the guy?

[annie]

So the ballhead finally admit the investigation didn't go so well.

There were so many bloggers who wanted him to admit this since the beginning. So I ask: Are you happy now? Oduber openly admits the beginning of the case went wrong. Do you feel satisfied now?

Posted by: Disappointed Arubian | Aug 22, 2005 2:19:06 PM

Disappointed Arubian - no not really. I never really cared about them admitting to botching it. All I want them to do is to find Natalee and get answers for her family. Once she is found and her family has answers, then I would be satisfied. I could care less about what the government says or doesn't say about the investigation actually. Especially since they have no authority over the justice system or authorities.

My question is for you, do Arubians feel better he admitted that the case could have been better handled? What will satisfy the people in Aruba (not the government or authorities, but actual day to day people that have to endure this).

[question]

fox said there will be "jvs shakeup" tonight any ideas?

[ev]

My suggestion is that they get Van der Straten back and interrogate him. I am sure he knows what really happended afterall he's an old friend of the family.

[INXS]

My suggestion is that they get Van der Straten back and interrogate him. I am sure he knows what really happended afterall he's an old friend of the family.

Posted by: ev | Aug 22, 2005 4:07:43 PM

Thats the best suggestion I have heard in weeks.

[fried]

it was said early on, and is on the state departments site that the "vast majority" of people missing flights out of carribean countries turn up in a day or two, having been with a lover, drunk, or in a drug house. it sounds like that is exactly what was expected in this case by the local authorities. without proof of any crime having occured, the police in any us city would have felt the same way (waiting 24 hours before an investigation can begin). but when beth arrived,12? hours later, she was all over everyone. however, i would think that the HI, as a responsible large american corporation,would have at least notified the police.

was the beach patrol a government employee, or a HI employee? someone said the video tapes from that night were lost, erased, recorded over, or some of the cameras didn't work? is that right?

[terps]

fox said there will be "jvs shakeup" tonight any ideas?

Posted by: question
---------
I'm not sure what they mean by a shakeup. But I hope it's nothing bad. He is a fine young man who is being persecuted by this dreadful family who has the arrogance to insist on knowing what happened to their daughter. They are scaring Joran, just so they can get a straight answer about her whereabouts. I mean, who the hell do they think they are?

[*flo*]

do you know how to contact any of these families? every web site i go to has been shut down or otherwise is a bad link. i don't know how in the world they are getting tips. do you?

Thanks.

Posted by: ustt | Aug 22, 2005 2:04:30 PM

do you know how to contact any of these families? every web site i go to has been shut down or otherwise is a bad link. i don't know how in the world they are getting tips. do you?

Thanks.

Posted by: ustt | Aug 22, 2005 2:04:30 PM

do you know how to contact any of these families? every web site i go to has been shut down or otherwise is a bad link. i don't know how in the world they are getting tips. do you?

Thanks.

Posted by: ustt | Aug 22, 2005 2:04:30 PM

Hi ustt, this is one link :

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NataleeHolloway/

[DennisAOK]

There were so many bloggers who wanted him to admit this since the beginning. So I ask: Are you happy now? Oduber openly admits the beginning of the case went wrong. Do you feel satisfied now?

Posted by: Disappointed Arubian | Aug 22, 2005 2:19:06 PM

It's a start. I never held the fact that a likely murder occurred there against Aruba. That could happen anywhere. It is the lackadaisical attitude of law enforcement, and how easily they were thrown off the obvious track, that has infuriated me and so many other Americans. I would have expected that an island heavily dependent on tourism to be extremely vigilant in pursuing any acts of crime against visitors.

That’s now history, but I’d like three more things: 1) an admission from the likes of Tony Green that Natalee was a victim, and did not cause her demise; 2) a continued full investigation until the perpetrators are punished or the stature of limitations is reached; and 3) a full investigation into the actions that were initially taken to determine whether a cover up occurred or favoritism was shown. If so, punishment should be meted out, and confidence in Aruban law enforcement will be restored.

[Kelli]

Seems logical to me that someone like him would come out and say something like that.After-all,isn't it really just a preperation of sort to soften the blow when Joran walks?"Case could have been better handled"..Sounds like the most stupidest quote so far.Give that man an award...I think it's safe to say we'll hear more and more statements like this as the time runs out...
(rolling eyes)

[Roy]

That’s now history, but I’d like three more things: 1) an admission from the likes of Tony Green that Natalee was a victim, and did not cause her demise; 2) a continued full investigation until the perpetrators are punished or the stature of limitations is reached; and 3) a full investigation into the actions that were initially taken to determine whether a cover up occurred or favoritism was shown. If so, punishment should be meted out, and confidence in Aruban law enforcement will be restored.

Posted by: DennisAOK | Aug 22, 2005 4:20:01 PM

Except for point 1) I agree with you.
regarding 1) You give Tony too much importance.

[DennisAOK]

fried,

Dan had a great report on the first 24 hours after the disappearance that was posted about June 15, but now seems to be inaccessible. The chaperone who stayed behind talked to the Holiday Inn management, but I am not sure if they called the police. He called beach patrol, and thought they would contact the police, but learned the next day they had not. I believe the story about the Holiday Inn tape having broken originated with Paulus and Joran at school the next day, presumably as cover. However, people were in the lobby all night and no one saw Natalee return.

[*flo*]

wow...don't know what happen...the screen went blue...then all the duplicate post..Sorry!

RE: Oduber openly admits the beginning of the case went wrong.

I could care less about what the government says or doesn't say about the investigation actually. Especially since they have no authority over the justice system or authorities.
Posted by: annie | Aug 22, 2005 4:04:45 PM

A Prime Minister to make any type of public admission regarding NH's case, yes, Holland's gov't is involved up to their eyeballs ... There was plenty of badgering going on the behalf of Beth/supporters. Plenty of political influence in this case.

[Taylor]

My personal opinion is that PVDS influenced the ALE to not arrest JVDS until he was able to finish his final exams. Satish was not able to and will have to repeat his senior year.

[JL]

wow...the case could have been handled better...ya think? this situation is an outrage and the prime minister of aruba is a fool just like their le.

[God is Watching]

Deepak...don't you have a job to do at the Internet Cafe, or some other tourist to accost and assault?

Who the Hell do they think they are, indeed. I can't wait for you to rot in Hades.
-------------------------------------------------

I'm not sure what they mean by a shakeup. But I hope it's nothing bad. He is a fine young man who is being persecuted by this dreadful family who has the arrogance to insist on knowing what happened to their daughter. They are scaring Joran, just so they can get a straight answer about her whereabouts. I mean, who the hell do they think they are?
Posted by: terps | Aug 22, 2005 4:17:39 PM

[Kelly3]

FIND NATALEE!!!!!! Natalee was supposed to have started college today. The island had the investigation they wanted because from the beginning they just wanted this to go away. No headlines no nothing. The island was never prepared for Beth, Dave, and family. It became bigger than the island ever thought possibile. Just find Natalee please!

[Media Freak]

From paradise to paradox in Aruba
At first, finding a missing American girl was paramount. Then the American media settled in, and attitudes have changed.
By DAVID ADAMS, Times Latin America Correspondent
Published August 22, 2005

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ORANJESTAD, Aruba - Hurricanes almost never come this far south in the Caribbean.

It's one of the many attractions that lure hundreds of thousands of tourists each year to the sunny, slow-paced island of Aruba.

But, when an Alabama teen, Natalee Holloway, disappeared May 30, Arubans had no idea of the storm that was about to hit them.

Within days of her disappearance packs of reporters - mostly cable TV producers and crews - descended on the unsuspecting island. They were soon followed by dozens of members of U.S.-based volunteer search groups.

Audiences in the United States are used to the sight of media satellite trucks arrayed outside Los Angeles courthouses, high school shootings and even a Pinellas Park hospice. But tiny Aruba has never seen anything like it. Only 20 miles long and 6 miles across, with 97,000 inhabitants, it is less than one-third the size of Pinellas County, with one-tenth the population.

At first the Americans were met with open arms by locals. They found them free hotel rooms and meals. They washed their clothes. Arubans are proud of the island's reputation for hospitality and a low crime rate. Auto license plates boast the slogan, "One Happy Island."

But almost three months later patience with the media - and the Holloway family - is wearing thin.

"We put out the welcome mat and we were trampled upon," said Julia Renfro, the U.S.-born editor of Aruba Today , a daily English-language newspaper that rallied island support for the family. "We all wanted to help, but we never thought this would become a case against Aruba."

Arubans say they sympathize deeply with Holloway's family. But unbalanced and overblown coverage by the U.S. media has put TV ratings ahead of professional journalism, they complain.

Criticism of Americans does not come easily to Arubans. U.S. consumer culture is everywhere to be seen in Aruba, from brand names such as Marriott to Taco Bell. But, as the story grinds on with no end in sight, Arubans are learning there are aspects of U.S. culture they could do without.

* * *

Most of what we know about the case was known in the first few days.

Natalee Holloway vanished hours before she was to catch a return flight to Alabama at the end of a high school graduation trip.

Authorities detained seven people in the case, but only Joran van der Sloot, the 18-year-old son of a Dutch trainee judge, remains in custody. Holloway was last seen leaving a bar with van der Sloot.

Despite the lack of major developments, the Holloway story continues to receive prime-time coverage in the United States.

So what are all these reporters doing?

On Wednesday, cameramen and reporters staked out the courthouse for a closed-door hearing, hoping to catch a glimpse of van der Sloot entering and leaving in handcuffs. Lawyers were ambushed on the courthouse steps, but had little new to say.

With networks paying as much as $1,500-a-day for freelance cameramen, $300 to $400 for hotel rooms for producers and crew, as well as $3,000 for satellite feeds, any tidbit will do.

When a park ranger found a piece of duct tape with a strand of blond hair, it became major international news. Talk shows deemed it crucial evidence. The hair turned out to belong to a local wave-boarder out surfing.

An arm found off the coast of Venezuela was treated with similar scrutiny. The dubious testimony of two supposed witnesses - a gardener and a homeless man - is endlessly debated.

One witness led authorities to drain two salt ponds, disturbing a flock of nesting egrets. Journalists clambering for a view accidentally broke a water main, reflooding one pond. The day after the pipe was fixed, reporters broke it again.

A Texas search group of mostly middle-aged men with large waistlines held a press conference to announce they would appreciate some free food. Another group from Florida accused the Texans of overindulging at local bars, and failing to do a professional job.

A park ranger accused a Texas volunteer group of destroying a nest of endangered sea turtle eggs while searching on a beach, a charge the group denied. Environmentalists photographed the cracked eggs.

"We don't know who did it," said Edith van der Wal, secretary of the island's sea turtle foundation. "But all these years we never had any man-made destruction."

She also stopped another search team member from riding over another nesting area on an all-terrain vehicle.

"They don't do it intentionally, but they have no idea about our nature," she said. "There's a lot of reward money" - Holloway's family has offered $1-million - "It's like gold-digging."

It's a gold mine for the cable shows, too.

Ratings at CNN and Fox have soared since this story first broke, especially for the Fox show, On the Record with Greta Van Susteren, who is averaging more than 2-million viewers a night, up almost 60 percent from a year ago.

Perhaps that explains why at the end of a slow news day last Wednesday, the nightly shows on Fox and CNN still managed to find something to discuss. The spokesmen for the two search groups revisited their continuing feud, but sought to downplay the animosity.

"We feed them (the media) chum to keep them happy," said Jim Knox, a West Palm Beach businessman who is sponsoring a two-dog search team on the island. "We don't like doing it. We do it to keep the story alive."

Not everyone in the media is grateful.

Last week, Bob Costas declined to fill on Larry King Live because the show planned to cover the Holloway case.

"I didn't think the subject matter of Thursday's show was the kind of broadcast I should be doing," Costas said in a statement. "I suggested some alternatives but the producers preferred the topics they had chosen."

* * *

The Holloway case caught authorities woefully unprepared.

"They are the "Not ready for prime time island,"' said Matthew Felling of the Center for Media and Public Affairs in Washington, D.C.

Felling, and other media watchdogs, say Aruba is a victim of a network fascination with missing white women as ideal fodder for 24-hour cable TV.

"The networks realized that there is nothing more durable than the damsel-in-distress," he said, reciting a growing list of cases, going back to Chandra Levy, Elizabeth Smart and Laci Peterson.

At first, Aruban authorities handled the Holloway case as they would any other.

Like most European-based police and judicial systems, little public information was released. That smacked of a coverup in the minds of the U.S. media, which is used to a steady diet of tips from police and judicial sources.

The government tried to counter that by staging a handful of press conferences. They explained Aruba's discreet judicial system. They explained that 20 percent of the 500-man police force was working the case. Behind the scenes, FBI and Dutch authorities were also involved, they said.

But the damage was done.

The Alabama legislature passed a resolution calling for a tourism boycott of Aruba.

The family wrote a letter to Alabama Gov. Bob Riley rejecting the idea, saying it "could severely harm our relationship with the people of Aruba, who have done so much to assist us."

On TV, the family strikes a different tone.

"The level of ineptness, the level of omissions of things, blatantly orchestrated errors ... just was incredible," Holloway's mother, Beth Holloway Twitty, told CBS last week.

That kind of talk has exasperated many islanders.

"They are giving Aruba a very bad name," said Juan Chabaya Lampe, 85, a beloved Aruban musician, painter and writer, who composed the country's national anthem in 1954. "The American media should apologize."

Clearly, criticism wounded the nation's pride.

After all, hadn't islanders leaped to help the Holloway family when news first broke of the disappearance? They treated them with the famous hospitality that entices 550,000 tourists every year, nearly three-quarters of them American.

One of the first people Holloway's mother contacted when she arrived on the island was Renfro at Aruba Today .

"Beth called and said, "I've lost my daughter, can you help me?"' said Renfro, 37. It was late and the paper was set. Renfro ordered printers to stop the presses, a first in the paper's history.

"We are all mothers and have daughters and we all wanted to help them," said Angela Munzenhofer, a reporter at the paper.

More than 200 local volunteers turned up the first day. They went house-to-house with fliers. They tied yellow ribbons on trees. When they ran out of yellow ribbons, they used white ones.

They searched for 19 days. Government offices closed so workers could join the search.

Staff at the paper grew close to the Holloways, arranging interviews with cable networks. They did the search teams' laundry.

"Did we get a thank you for washing their clothes?" said Munzenhofer. "No, instead we got in trouble for mixing them up."

What they saw reported on TV made the reporters even more uncomfortable.

Suspects and witnesses were incorrectly portrayed, say the women. Holloway was described as the victim of sexual assault, though no evidence has confirmed that. The father of the main suspect was identified as a politically influential judge, when in fact he was still studying and had failed exams for the bench. The family lived in relative obscurity in a modest home.

Media analysts continually speculated about van der Sloot's guilt, suggesting he was a difficult teen with behavioral problems. Van der Sloot has admitted to lying about some of the details of his last night with Holloway. But his school teachers deny any class problems. He graduated as an honor roll student and has several offers from U.S. universities.

"CNN used to be held in high regard. Today we don't even consider them respectable media," said Aruba's government spokesman, Ruben Trapenburg. He said other broadcast networks, ABC, CBS and NBC, had been more fair. Among print media, he praised Associated Press for its balance.

* * *

Tired of the media coverage, many Arubans have already refocused on everyday life. School has restarted and national elections are scheduled Sept.23. Public finance and education are the main topics. With only two murders in the past year, crime is hardly a topic.

"We are very open to American culture," Dilma Arends, another Aruba Today reporter, said, "but we are realizing that we are still a Dutch island."

With the nightly talk shows enjoying high ratings every time the Holloway case is featured, there's no sign the TV crews intend to break camp.

Prosecutors must decide by Sept.4 whether to charge van der Sloot or release him from custody.

Even then it may not be over. The law allows a 30-day extension.

[Justice for Natalee]

So, the question now is: what are the authorities going to do to make up for the mishandling of the case?

How are they going to find out what happened to Natalee and punish the guilty parties--in spite of the missteps? How are they now going to work smarter and get answers?

BTW--I am not saying to pressure anyone illegally or to manufacture evidence.

[MaryBeth]

God is watching...are you suggesting that terps is Deepak? Say it isn't so.

[websleuth97]

The PM is backed into a corner, so he has to admit that the investigation was not handled well, particularly where the chief of police had a clear conflict of interest.

Apart from that, am I the only one to find Ruben Trapenberg to be offensive and not very likeable?

Trapenberg represents everything that is wrong with Aruba.

[DennisAOK]

Media Freak,

Thanks for posting that review. Conveniently missing, of course, is any mention of the failure to detain the last three people seen with Natalee for ten days; the failure to put the three boys under tight supervision while they were free (admitted by van der Straten); the arrest and detention of the security guards on flimsy evidence; the lack of aggressive follow up questioning when interrogating the boys; and the placement of the three suspects together, rather than separating them and aggressively pursuing their contradictions. I am sure more evidence of lazy and sloppy police work will surface when and if the Holloways and Twittys start talking. No, I don’t think the Arubans are victims here. Rather, I praise the US media for pursuing the case.

[Jacque]

Trapenberg said. "He (Oduber) didn't say it had been 'botched.'"

He does not have to say it has been botched, We know it was and it does not take a rocket scientist to see the mess the Aruban Polis made the first 10 days which still echoes thru this case.

The fact that Prime Minister Oduber made any statement along these lines is about time. Poor, Poor Reuben has been saying the exact opposite for three months.

[*flo*]

Apart from that, am I the only one to find Ruben Trapenberg to be offensive and not very likeable?

Trapenberg represents everything that is wrong with Aruba.

Posted by: websleuth97 | Aug 22, 2005 6:45:20 PM

Trapenberg comes on too arrogant & defensive, MO, he's unprofessional bone head!

[writingal]

It just makes me sick to think we may never know what happened to Natalee. Her poor parents. If the cops had just interrogated right away....

Sickening.

[Tem]

That's a fair article from the St. Petersburg Times, but I do not believe it of any help since a lot of people have a preconceived idea of what has happened in Aruba and the role of authorities in this matter.

Natalee is missing and I regret that to date there is no solution, not even in sight. We just don't know what has happened other than that three young men, two of which were minors, have seen her last and that one was left behind with her on the beach. Did a crime occur? We don't know. There is no crime scene. Could Joran and/or his friend have committed a crime. Yes, it's possible. A perfect crime with no traces? Very unlikely; usually there are indications and traces of a crime.

Is it possible to botch an investigation? Yes, even in Aruba, but there is no proof of that. Again with certain preconceptions only Americans are perfect, the rest of the world consist of ignorant fools, although in the last years it has been proven that in the US innocents were executed. Thanks to dna-tests they are being released after haven been innocently incarcerated for many years.

What about the role of media and press in the pending investigation? A lot of resources have been used to no avail, like the draining of the pond and the excavation of the dump. Since we are speculating: Jossy Mansur happens on a gardner, who happens to be an illegal alien and als employed (ouch) by his nephew (is he the one extradited to the US for allegedly laundering money? ouch again). Since we are all speculating, is it possible that JM thought of the pond as an ideal place to dispose of a body but did not want to drain the pond on his own initiative; rather let's have the government bear the cost. So find a "witness"! Could ulterior motives have played a role?

Let's stop speculating and bad mouthing the investigation. In due time the police and public prosecutor will have to bare themselves and tell us where they are at. I empathize with Natalee and her family but I cannot preclude the possibility that the case will go cold.

[Cindy]

I just have to mention, that Natalee is not the only Female American that has disappeared from the Carribean without a trace. Have you all heard of Amy Bradley, who has been missing in the Caribbean since 1998. She was on a Cruise ship with her family. They have been unable to find her ever since that trip. It has been known that a man did see her after she was missing. Except he had no idea she was really in trouble. The parents of Amy Bradley, did mention Carlos and Charlie's. You would have to read the entire story. Along is a link that will take you to the page where she is also announced as missing in the Carribean.... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8143921/

My heart goes out to the Holloway- Twitty families. I pray to God that you find Closure in this terrible living Nightmare.

[mc]

Posted by: terps
-----------
I'm not sure what they mean by a shakeup. But I hope it's nothing bad. He is a fine young man who is being persecuted by this dreadful family who has the arrogance to insist on knowing what happened to their daughter. They are scaring Joran, just so they can get a straight answer about her whereabouts. I mean, who the hell do they think they are?
--------
A fine young man? This large, lying, gambling, drug doing, sexual deviant and preditor who is the last know person to see this tiny female alive is a fine young man? You are either a young troll or involved. If it is you, D, come out and do the right thing. God is watching you. It is your only hope.

[mc]

TEM,

Liars lie because the truth will harm them or someone the know. There are wheels within wheels with regard to this whole incident and it started with the lies and releases of the main suspects for 10 days. Yes, there are other investigations all over the world that are botched. This is one of them.
What I hope we learn is weither or not all these, "mistakes" were intentional.

[Sky007 aka Noplans]

A.K.A. - THE CASE WAS BOTCHED!!!!!!

Absolutely true!

But the healing process has to start somewhere for both sides. If the prime minister isn't sincere I think that will become evident fairly soon. Then the Arubans and HTs can take it from there and start slugging away again.

Natalee was a rare treasure, demonstrating her investment in making lives better for others through her volunteer work and plans to go to medical school.

But it takes a great deal of energy to hold onto that rage about her disappearance forever. And that rage, which is an understandably normal reaction under the circumstances, seems to be accomplishing very little at this point.

I can't begin to imagine the heartbreak that BHT and family will feel if Natalee is never found and they finally decide it time to leave Aruba.

People talk about BHT as if she has already gone through her grief process. I don't think she has begun it at all.

Basically, underneath that rage that fuels her to spur on rescue and recovery efforts is a bottomless pit of grief. As soon as she lays down her sword (and she has been a champion fighter on her daughter's behalf)then she's got to face what is probably going to be overwhelming grief. Better to keep up the fight than connect with the powerlessness and despair! You don't "get over" that kind of grief. You cope with it, manage it, but it will always be background noise in your head. Look at John Walsh - 20 years later he still tears up on TV when he talks about the loss of his son. In those moments I'm sure the wave of grief that hits is as strong as it was at the traumatic realization of his son's death.

By the way DennisAOK - I would like to see those 3 items acted on as well!

[iwabwu]

I find it curious that Joran managed to attend his finals and graduate with honors and Satish did not. Did Satish not sit for the finals that day? I don't recall this piece of information.

[Tem]

MC

Until the investigators return without an indictment will you be able to judge the handling of the case. Not earlier. Lying is a factor one has to consider, but that does not make one a criminal. Haven't you lied ever? One can only become a criminal after it has been established that one has been committed and one is the culprit.

Be patient is the only advice I can give you and all others. Anything else is a waste of energy.

[oneyka]

"The prime minister agreed that in the beginning the case could have been better handled," Trapenberg said. "He didn't say it had been 'botched"

HEY TRAPENBERG, ITS ONLY SEMANTICS, WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE FOOLING? WE ALL KNOW!