Persistance continues wit expedition to Holloway

The Persistance searching the seabed for the remains of Natalee Holloway.

Amigoe.com
12/24/2007

ORANJESTAD – The decision of the Public Prosecutor to dismiss the Holloway-case has no effect on the investigation of the special ship Persistance, emphasized the crew that started to scan the seabed around Aruba on Tuesday. With the best equipment in the world, they are trying to find Holloway. Dave Holloway, Natalee’s father announced the arrival of the ship one month ago. However, the ship’s arrival was delayed by the tropical storm Olga.

The ship has modern sonological-equipment that can scan up to 4000 meters deep.

The ship can scan very deep seabeds. The ship will first determine the topographical situation of the sea around Aruba till the sea border with Venezuela. The speed of the sound under water is measured with a sound velocity profile (SVP). This is needed for the calculation of data during the scan. Strange abnormal forms on the seabed can be captured with that.

Maritime geologist Kyle Kingman, who maintains a blog about the expedition on www.nholloway.blogspot.com compares the seabed with an ‘old living creature from the end of the cretaceous period, full of stories’. “We know that this creature is making sure that he does not abandon his secrets”, writes Kingman. He expects though that when the side scan sonar is activated, the contents of each split is going to be revealed and can be seen on a monitor in the computer room. He says though that it remains difficult, like a shopping cart in an area as big as Manhattan.

The search is of course going to cost a lot. There are 18 people working with the most modern and expensive instruments on board of the ship. Project manager Tim Miller doesn’t want to confirm that millions of dollars in donations are paying for this search. “We don’t want media-attention; we only want to do our job.” He only wanted to talk to Diario. Also the office of the organization Texas Equusearch (TES), of which Miller is the founder, doesn’t want to say anything. This abundantly sponsored American organization is specialized in search actions for mainly missing fellow country persons. TES has already searched for Natalee two years ago, but only to a depth of 100 meters at that time.

The organization receives a lot of monetary- as well as emotional support on the weblog. This support is mainly from people that give the Lord’s blessing and that ask everybody to pray for the crew on the ship and the Holloway family. Criticism is not really tolerated on the website. These are not even added to the log. An anonymous informant is wondering whether the authorities are on board of the ship for if they find evidence. The lawyers of the former suspects are afraid that evidence can be planted by the crew. “They may just drop or add a purse for example.”

The OM does not cooperate with the search action, but wants to be kept informed of whatever is discovered that can be of interest. It is not known whether the crew has applied for a work permit for the search with the government.

OM’s explanation of evidence do not tally

Amigoe.com
12/22/2007

In a press conference, lawyers Hose Figaroa, Ronald Wix, and Elgin Zeppenfeldt explained the media that according to them, none of justice’s evidence tally.

ORANJESTAD – The lawyers of the three former suspects, Hose Figaroa, Ronald Wix, Elgin Zeppenfeldt, and David Kock said in a press conference, that the ‘new’ evidence that the Public Prosecutor (OM) provided after the dismissal do not tally. Their office has been swamped lately with hatred mails and threats, including death.

A girl from Surinam told the Dutch detectives in June of this year that right after the disappearance of Natalee Holloway in 2005, she had a conversation with Satish. “That can never be convincing after two years, is the opinion of Wix. “”She might have said that something was wrong, but for as far as I am aware of, she only said that Satish was sad.” Wix also has problems with the other testimony taken out of an old chat-session of Deepak’s computer. “That chat session was about two subjects: the disappearance of Natalee and the death of a tennis instructor that drowned near Conchi. The word ‘su’ that can mean ‘his’ or ‘her’ in Papiamento, was interpreted wrong in the transcript. Instead of ‘su morto’, his death, it became her death. Also the court realized the misinterpretation; Deepak would have otherwise been behind bars. Nobody has ever said that Natalee is dead, but the OM assumes that with this testimony.”

The lawyers consider the fact that Justice hinted that the former suspects of manslaughter on Natalee Holloway haven’t seen the last of them, even worse. The OM said in a press conference this week that the case has only entered a new phase, and is not closed. As soon as there are more clues, these will be investigated, and the former suspects, including Joran van der Sloot, will be arrested again. Wix says that what the OM said is indeed possible, but the evidence must be ‘very weighty and new’. “The OM keeps the delusion that the three are still suspects. Legally, they must be left alone, and due to the dismissal, Aruba has nothing to say about their innocence. Let them find the girl first and only then can they annoy our clients. They cannot even proof that there was a crime.”

Justice’s other reason for arresting the three former suspects was based on their declarations to the media that they would tell what exactly has happened in the night Holloway disappeared. They didn’t say anything though. According to Wix, everything has already been said. “They said that they won’t talk, but in the meantime they have already given at least 20 declarations. They were arrested because there was new evidence, but then it turned out that there was no new evidence, so they had nothing to say.”

Wix, together with his brother councils, will probably demand damages. They are currently considering via the court whether they can recover the costs for among others hiring a lawyer in the US. Wix won’t say what the amount is.

The firm David Kock & Wix was swamped with threats during the ‘reopening’ of the Holloway-case. They received many hatred mails and also death threats. “I received two more of such e-mails on Thursday. One of them wishes the death for me and my family. The other one said, ‘you must wish that I do not come to Aruba. Maybe, I ought to report that”, said Wix.