The impact of Natalee Holloway
Story of the disappearance of a young American in Aruba and her mother’s determination to keep it in the world’s attention, at our island’s expense
Bon Dia Aruba
12/31/2005

The news surprised many. A young American of 18 years of age did not return to her hotel after a night at Carlos ‘n Charlies, and missed her flight home. However, there was no reason for alarm, because no one disappears in Aruba and tourists always turn up one or two days later. Police say that they experience this regularly.

It is because of this that no one expected that this story would turn global and certainly not a nightmare for a whole country on the one hand, and various families on the other. The story of Natalee Holloway does not end in 2005, and given the attention that it has found, especially on American TV channels, it will continue strong in 2006. It is the story about Natalee, but perhaps still more about Beth Twitty, her mother, who is determined to boycott Aruba, as long as authorities do not return her daughter or punish the three youths suspected of having something to do with the disappearance of the blonde, white and pretty daughter. It is a story that has three ingredients, Natalee, Beth and the attack against Aruba.

It is a story that begins as many others. A youth enthused with the end of school and who came to Aruba in a group of approximately 140 students from the same school, Mountain Brook High from Birmingham, Alabama. According to her mother, Beth Twitty, a girl who finished school with honours and a scholarship to go to the University of Alabama. Not much else is known about Natalee. Her mother has never said much about her daughter, except for saying that her favorite movie is The Wizard of Oz. We hear about Natalee every day, but we don’t know much more about her, and no one has said who this girl really is.

JUNE:

The first week.

The group came to Aruba for 5 days, and on the last night, May 29, Natalee met Joran van der Sloot in the casino of the Holiday Inn and invited him to go to Carlos ‘n Charlies. Joran, 17 at the time, went home at 11:00 pm, where his father passed to pick him up at the McDonald’s Palm Beach. But later, he called his friend Deepak for them to go to the night spot to meet the group from Mountain Brook. Satish Kalpoe also went, and as soon as Carlos ‘n Charlies closed, Natalee got in Deepak’s car and went with the three supposedly to the Lighthouse and the area where the sharks are. This was the last time that Natalee’s companions say they saw the young woman, the suspects and Aruba. Bon Dia observed especially the first weeks, which was marked with many developments in the case.

In the morning, May 30, when it was time to go to the airport, it was noticed that Natalee wasn’t there. However, they waited until they were at the airport to advise the family and afterwards, police.

In less than 12 hours after receiving the call, Natalee’s family, Beth Twitty, was already in Aruba, with the conviction that her daughter was kidnapped. With the help of some people in Aruba, she was able to identify Joran van der Sloot and went to his house. Here, she confronted Joran’s father, Paul van der Sloot, who determined that his son was not home. Joran was once again with Deepak and when they got home, they found themselves in front of a desperate mother. Here came the version that they left Natalee in front of the lobby of the Holiday Inn. Natalee tripped, and got up. They also said that there was a man who resembled a security guard close by.

In the morning of the 31st of May, there were already ‘kidnapped’ posters, which afterwards turned into ‘missing’. And who can forget the most salient, where Beth asked Natalee to call her “Mom is really here in Aruba and I really want to talk to you”. At that time there was already a reward for people who could have more information.

Although police had not yet reacted, the Tuesday in question (something that was later followed), they were able to organize an intense search.

Wednesday 1st of June, the Royal Marines as well as local groups organized for people from Aruba and International Friends of Aruba searched especially in the area of the Lighthouse, Arashi, North of the Marriott and also in crack houses, with no results. The matter turned serious and fell under the charge of Commissioner Jan van der Straten of the Noord district, and chief prosecutor Karin Jansen was put in charge of the case. In the meantime, the FBI was already in Aruba.

The news reached the U.S. and for the 1st of June, there were already in the news of some important web sites. Thursday, the news was already on all TV channels. The first news teams from the U.S. arrived in Aruba, FOX, with NBC being the first. By the following Friday there were already CNN, CBS. ABC and various teams from FOX and NBC/MSNBC.

Minister of Justice Rudy Croes arrived in Aruba Friday June 3 and was the first to criticize the investigation openly, during a press conference that took place in Santa Cruz, in the presence of Commissioner Gerold Dompig. The Minister’s intention was to remove Jan van der Straten from the case, especially for not arresting the three who were last seen with Natalee. The same night, a tip came in that Natalee was in an apartment. An intense search led to another American, but the family was completely destroyed since it wasn’t Natalee.

Saturday, June 4 an ‘inval’ was done at the Alegro Resort, under construction. Police searched the whole hotel for a possible lead. This was the same day that CNN reported that Aruba is a trampoline for drugs and prostitution. Although the reportage was based on a State Department report published in March, and that the reported pointed out that Aruba had little crime, this was the first ‘flavour’ of all negative reporting to come. Minister Croes was furious and threatened to expel the CNN team if they did not rectify. Neither happened. CNN did not rectify, nor were they expelled.

However, in these days, SPA (Police Union) stood firmly behind Jan van der Straten, and finally he remained in charge of the case.

Sunday, June 5, two former security guards were arrested, Mikky John and Abraham Jones, under suspicion of having something to do with the disappearance. An intense search started in Grapefield and area, and a mattress with blood was found, which later resulted to be the blood of a dog. By the afternoon, Commissioner van der Straten and Chief Prosecutor Jansen held the first press conference of the investigative team, which was one of the biggest there have ever been. In the afternoon hours there was a vigil and prayers for Natalee at the Lighthouse.

Next two weeks:
Monday there was another press meeting, which announced that the Minister of Justice called for a National Day of Search for Natalee. Carlos ‘n Charlies had to go to court to prevent the government from closing their facilities.

The next day, June 7, the government closed half a day and under the supervision of Commissioner Trudy Hassell, a big search was organized. About 700 people participated with no result. Meanwhile, lawyers for Jones and John started to fight the detention of their clients. It was the first in a long series of cases in court for this entire case, which is still ongoing.

Thursday, June 9, police detained simultaneously Joran van der Sloot and brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe, exactly on the day that Joran was to receive his diploma from ISA (International School of Aruba). They also searched their rooms and confiscated a computer, a car, and other articles. Lawyers Antonio Carlo, Rudy Oomen and David Kock are their defense attorneys. According to Commissioner van der Straten, the reason they delayed the arrest of the three was a tactic, to follow their steps. The Prime Minister met with the American press to clear up the negative reports and said that the American press is putting and end to 50 years of hard work in tourism.

Friday, June 10, information came in that Joran had confessed. The news was transmitted by CNN and people came out to the street, looking for something without knowing what. Police denied this confession later. However, what did come out was that the three started to change their first version. Joran said that he left Natalee on the beach north of the Marriott. Meanwhile, prosecutor Flanegin joined the team and Joran’s mother, Anita van der Sloot spoke for the first time to say that his son was innocent.

Monday, June 13, the two security guards were set free, and Mikky John in particular became a regular that week on American television. Aruba was already being accused of ‘racial profiling’. It has to be said that already for this time, the tone of announcers in the US was very negative against police and the judicial system, especially given that the three principal suspects were not officially accused.

What followed were intense searches for any proof of culpability. Police were already looking for a body, while Beth Twitty was still talking of her daughter alive. But the tone started to change, and every time there was increasing criticism of police and she started accusing the police force and the investigative team of a ‘cover up’ and corruption. They combed the area north of the Marriott, along with the FBI and three experts from the Dutch Forensic Institute. They brought in a dog from Miami, and a Coast Guard helicopter equipped with a special machine, which made its turns on top of Aruba. It was in this week that the first call of boycott against Aruba came in, on the part of radio announcers Russ and Dee.

The case took a turn when they detained Steve Croes, who said that he saw the three suspects drop off Natalee at the Holiday Inn. Police already knew that this was a lie, according to them, to have someone he knew, Deepak, be set free. Croes was later set free, but he lost his job and his reputation.

On the 23 of June, Paul van der Sloot was detained on suspicion of helping to get rid of the body or to cover up the case. On the same day, Texas Equusearch arrived in Aruba, to start their search. They came with a dog, and more sophisticated equipment. The group found assistance from Aruba and local businesses. Banks gave the organization $20,000. In the end, Tim Miller also spoke against Aruba that authorities were “interfering with their search”. This came after Miller received a special pin from Prime Minister Nelson Oduber and had thanked Aruba for all the cooperation received.

Paul van der Sloot did not remain locked up much time. The following Sunday, the Judge Commissioner from Curacao found that there wasn’t enough motive for his detention. This took place while it was published that Joran tried to blame Deepak. Lawyers categorically deny this.

Given the supremely negative tone, the government along with AHATA and ATA, formed a Strategic Communications Commission to counteract all bad information on the case and Aruba.

JULY:
One month after her disappearance, the Strategic Commission organized a human chain to remember Natalee and pray for a solution to the case. After letting the three suspects show authorities where they finally left Natalee, not much later the Judge Commissioner set Deepak and Satish Kalpoe free. Joran’s detention was prolonged.

Beth Twitty reacted strongly, calling the Kalpoe brothers criminals and asking the rest of the world not to accept these two. This comment set off a reaction from a group of citizens worried with the manner in which the American media was covering the case. They organized a spontaneous protest, followed a day after with an apology from Beth Twitty, who in the meantime sought the services of attorney Vinda de Souza.

For the first time, Dutch Ambassador in Washington, Boudewijn van Eenennaam declared that Aruba was doing everything possible to solve the case. Meanwhile, insistent rumours started about the tension between Attorney General Theresa Croes and Chief Prosecutor Karin Jansen.
It can also be remembered that duct tape was found in Boca Tortuga and Texas Equusearch made much noise about a hole found at the Arirok National Park, which also resulted in nothing.

Authorities brought the suspects to give saliva for a DNA test, since they found someone’s DNA on Natalee’s toothbrush. In any case, it wasn’t Satish’s and later, Jug Twitty declared that perhaps it was his, since he helped Natalee pack her bags. Meanwhile Natalee’s family increased the reward to 200 thousand dollars and brought in their own private investigators. Some days later, the reward went to 1 million dollars. They didn’t want to say who made the donation.

At the end of the month, prosecutor Flanegin went to the U.S. with the interrogation tapes for analysis at the FBI, and expert interrogators were requested from Holland to speak with Joran.

At the same time, the Alabama parliament passed a resolution asking for a boycott against Aruba. Beth Twitty said that she didn’t know anything about it, and her spouse, Jug Twitty sent a letter to stop the boycott.

Meanwhile, police were looking for Joran’s show and found indications that it could be in the pond near the Racquet Club. An immense undertaking was initiated to take out the water from the pond, which lasted a few days. There were no results.

AUGUST:
Texas Equusearch went to look at the van der Sloot house and found a problem with Commissioner Dompig, who had in the meantime replaced van der Straten who took his retirement. Beth Twitty, on her side, became completely negative against Aruba in all her daily interviews with American television, especially with FOX and Headline News. Her lawyer urged Aruba for understanding for pain of a mother with a lost child.

In all this, a gardener who saw the three at the pond the night Natalee disappeared presented himself. The gardener went ‘missing’ himself on the day that he had to give a declaration to the Judge Commissioner, supposedly for fear that he was an illegal. But at the end, his declaration did not help the investigation much, given that the judge did not consider his declaration very valid. Also, police asked the community to locate a jogger who also could have seen something that night. There was no reaction.

On the other side, Beth Twitty and a cameraman from MSNBC went to Deepak’s work, where she offered him 250 thousand dollars to say what Joran did with her daughter. Deepak filed a complaint, and Beth reacted with a complaint of her own.

Another search expert, Fred Golba, came to Aruba with his special dog. But in this case, he did count with the respect of the Aruba police.

In the U.S. some more respected media, such as the New York Times and the St. Petersburg Times questioned all the attention of the case of Natalee Holloway. Even the CNN President, Jonathan Klein accused FOX of giving worth to ‘nonsense’ for the sake of ratings. When it was thought that nothing else would happen, MSNBC went to KIA for an interview with the director, Mr. Freddy Maduro, who invited them to go look where Joran was. The case resulted in a lightning treatment in court, where Joran himself described what happened. MSNBC was prohibited from airing the images and Maduro found a suspension of a few weeks.

At the end of the month, the prosecutor added rape accusations against Joran van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers, who were once again detained, along with Joran’s friend, Freddy Arambatsis. This was also the time that attorneys de Sousa, Mohamed and Rojer pulled back from Beth Twitty and remained representing only Dave Holloway. Helen Lejuez became the Twitty family attorney.

The end of August was marked also by a series of cases in court, where the detention of the suspects was challenged and vice-versa. The Judge Commissioner decided to let the three suspects confront each other in court. According to witnesses, Joran cried on this occasion and all denied the new rape charges.

SEPTEMBER:
The American press was preparing for Hurricane Katrina, which happened at the same time that they had to either prolong the detention or let the suspects go free. The Judge decided to suspend the detention conditionally, as much for Joran as for the Kalpoe brothers could leave prison the first Saturday of the month. All this happened at the moment that once again Karin Jansen ordered a new search north of the Marriott. On the same day, Beth criticized the decision but as strange as it sounds, thanked Aruba and Dutch authorities for all their cooperation.

After giving his first public declaration, where he emphasized his innocence, Joran van der Sloot traveled to Holland where he is now studying. The Public Prosecutor tried to stop the case via a court case, but was not able to. Some days later, the court determined that there was no reason for the detention of the three, and all three remained free, officially, although they are still suspects.

Beth Twitty, who in Aruba expressed gratitude for our people, but who in her interviews was speaking against our island, left Aruba after being here two months. A friend of hers, Joe Mammana, in the US threatened to bring ‘hell to Aruba’ but Beth did not want to say if she supported this view. But in the meantime, she was already planning to appear in the Dr. Phil show, who did openly ask for a boycott against Aruba. One of the reasons was an interview with Deepak, by the former FBI agent, Jamie Skeeters. Here, Deepak admitted to having sexual relations with Natalee and that it was easy. Deepak Kalpoe denied saying such a thing, and already the rumours that the tape was ‘doctored’ began.

But the damage was done and the Strategic Commission was aware of the negative impact of the Dr. Phil show, but they couldn’t do much.

And while the investigation continued in Aruba, among other things a search in the sea on the side of the Lighthouse, A Current Affair was able to obtain an interview with Joran in Holland. Here, Joran stood firm again that he didn’t do anything and that he regretted lying the first time.

OCTOBER:
The Strategic Commission urged the government for a meeting to see what would be the best way to deal with the grave accusations against Aruba. The reason was that they wanted an official person to explain the process. They were in agreement with Commissioner Dompig to take the word.

On the other side, Paul van der Sloot started a case to see if he was a suspect or not, following up with a case of damages and prejudice.

Dave Holloway on his side, asked the community of Aruba to continue to help with information and tips and spoke against the boycott given that “my mother works in a gas station. If she were working in Aruba, then she would also be affected by a boycott. I do not support a boycott against Aruba.” Further still, Holloway said that he supports the police force of Aruba, who in the meantime was able to obtain the Jamie Skeeters tape of the interview with Deepak Kalpoe and sent it to the Dutch Forensic Institute for analysis.

NOVEMBER:
After canceling her trip to Aruba, given that in her interview in which she declared to America that she was threatened and was going to be arrested, Beth Twitty returned to Aruba for two days to speak with police. Along with her, again, were some members of the American press. At first instance, it was feared that she came to disturb the ATCA conference. However, this did not happen. Beth Twitty spoke with police and also with the Strategic Commission where she promised better cooperation and communication.

But one week later, she was standing next to her husband, Jug Twitty, in the presence of Alabama Governor Bob Riley who asked for a boycott against Aruba. The accusation was made that authorities in Aruba were not doing anything to solve the case of Natalee Holloway. Prime Minister Nelson Oduber claimed that Riley did not make an attempt to get in touch before the call for a boycott and showed how many disappearance cases there are in Alabama. The State Department, on the other hand, said that there is no official boycott. Ambassador van Eenennaam in Washington condemned the call for a boycott and Minister Ben Bot attended to the matter with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

In one of two shows, Dr. Phil showed that perhaps Natalee is alive, based on a call that Beth received. But some days later, it was announced that DFI confirmed the suspicion that they ‘played’ with Skeeter’s Deepak interview. They manipulated where the tape said ‘no we didn’t’ to say only ‘we did’. In the same time period, an American citizen in California Lisa Chiafullo got in contact with Aruba because she was angry with Beth’s circus and that it was time to start a boycott against Natalee’s mother. A certain quantity of signatures was collected to support Chiafullo, but the action was never followed up. What’s more, the Strategic Commission did not agree.

After sending letters to all Governor colleagues, Bob Riley found support from Mike Huckabee of Arkansas in the call for a boycott against Aruba. Dave Holloway approached Mississippi Governor to get his opinion, but there has still not been any reaction from this state. Lawyers for Dave Holloway denied that he also asked for a boycott. On the other side, Dave Holloway also now is strongly criticizing Aruba.

Ironically, the same month that the calls for boycott were made, Aruba opened its doors to 7 American Congressmen who were denied entry at the Venezuela airport. Prime Minister Oduber said to the leader of the delegation, Mr. Henry Hyde that friends have to be treated well if they want to keep a good relationship. Hyde, on his side, complimented Aruba for supporting the U.S. in the region.

To close the month, Beth Twitty was named one of the 10 most fascinating people of 2005 by Barbara Walters.

DECEMBER:
Aruba named Steve Cohen, co-founder of Court TV and former CBS executive as Aruba spokesperson to the US, along with Arlene Ellis-Schipper. His first declaration was that “sadness is no reason to not speak the truth”, referring to Beth Twitty.

Renowned American lawyer Mark Garagos criticized Dr. Phil on the Larry King show, saying that the psychologist acted in a supremely irresponsible manner when he involved himself in the investigation.

On his side, Paul van der Sloot, who according to the Court is not a suspect in the case of the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, tended to the case of damages and prejudice personally in the other year. He wants monkey to cover lawyer expenses. The divide between the Attorney General and the Chief Prosecutor continued, and Minister of Justice reminded Mrs. Jansen that the Attorney General remains her boss. This happened at the time when he forbid Commissioner Dompig from speaking. According to information, he took the decision because he was not happy with his declarations on the American press, among others on the prestigious magazine Vanity Fair, where he said that Beth Twitty is also at fault for the investigation not going as it should have. It is ironic that SPA, after their criticism of Dompig in June, stood firmly behind the Commissioner.

There was another divide between ATA and AHATA in the thought of whether they have to send a special mission to the Alabama Congressman, Spencer Bachus. Finally, the visit turned out to be a success, since they took all documents. Bachus complimented the investigators and said that never had he seen such a complete dossier. The mission consisted of Arlene Ellis-Schipper, Commissioner Dolfi Richardson, and Steve Cohen.

However, the trip did not stop Georgia Governor George Perdue to join the boycott. However, the reaction in Atlanta, in particular was not much, and even negative against this call.

Joran returned to Aruba to spend Christmas vacation and there are indications that they want to interrogate him again, along with the Kalpoe brothers.

Current events:
Until today, no one knows where Natalee Holloway is. The suspicion remains on Joran van der Sloot, and Deepak and Satish Kalpoe. There is neither a confession, nor any admission of sexual relations in the most explicit sense. And it in this way that the investigation has no solid proof to say that the three suspects are indeed responsible for her death or disappearance. Of rape, nothing can be said still, since Natalee is not there to clear this up. However, there has still not been an official interrogation of the students who were with Natalee in Aruba. There are many questions in Aruba that have gone unanswered. That the coverage of the case of Natalee Holloway had an impact is a fact. How it will affect our island, time will tell. There is already fear that perhaps the constant and negative coverage affected the business of the Aruba airport. AHATA foresees an ‘off season’ 2006 with many challenges, especially given that they conducted research on some important markets for Aruba and the results showed that the people who were surveyed did not have much trust in our judicial system. On the other hand, every crisis creates a need to become creative.

Perhaps the story of Natalee Holloway is more of a ‘wake up call’ for Aruba, for us to procure a more secure infrastructure for our country, as much as for our people as for tourists, and most importantly, to remove an almost complete dependence on only one market and open our eyes to others.

But most important is for justice to prevail and that any person who could be involved in the disappearance or who knows more about the case be identified. Because Natalee and Aruba deserve this.