Posted on 06/02/2005 8:02:49 AM PDT by SamFromLivingston
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — FBI and Aruban officials said Wednesday that they had flew clues to the whereabouts of a Mountain Brook High School graduate who disappeared during a senior trip to the island.
FBI officials in the Caribbean were coordinating with Aruban police and Dutch authorities, who oversee Aruba, to search for Natalee Holloway, 18, The Birmingham News reported.
Holloway joined about 125 graduating seniors and adults on the five-day trip, which is an annual tradition not sponsored by the school. Other students said she never showed up for the group's return flight Monday.
"We went to check in for our airplane, and she wasn't there, and she's been missing since then," said Jay Weinacker, a member of Holloway's graduating class.
Holloway's parents, David Holloway, of Meridian, Miss., and Beth Holloway Twitty of Mountain Brook, and several family members traveled to Aruba to aid the search, said Robin Holloway, the girl's stepmother.
"It is torture," Robin Holloway said. "It is just agony."
Aruban police said Wednesday that they had questioned and released three local men who said they dropped the teenager off at her hotel late Sunday night. Officials said the girl's parents were unable to spot her on a hotel surveillance tape.
Officials said there were few leads on Natalee's whereabouts.
After hearing of her disappearance, Robin Holloway said her husband felt compelled to search for his daughter.
"We can't just sit here and do nothing," she said. "We don't know if she is still in Aruba ... or she's been kidnapped. We just don't know anything."
Officials at Mountain Brook Community Church said more than 150 people participated Tuesday in a prayer service for Holloway.
"Word just kind of got out, and parents and students just really wanted to get together and have a little prayer service for the whole situation," said Troy Gambrell, an associate in the youth ministry.
Great chaperonage. What were the parents thinking?
My children went to foreign countries on carefully planned mission trips many times with the church group.
It wasn't ridiculous or stupid.
Where the H#LL were the chaperones, that she got off on her own with NO ONE (apparently) knowing where she went, or with whom??
1 HS girl +
3 men +
She never came home =
???
How boneheaded are her parents, the chaperones and the cops involved?
Well that's the Most Stupid Post of The Day.
Boycott a country because a teenager has been running around with a bunch of boys that she doesn't know and hasn't gone home?
This 18 year-old girl is out partying with three local men from the island? Sounds like she got herself in a situation that she couldn't handle.
It's gonna take a lot of bribes before the Aruban police do much of anything, and I'm sure everyone can look at this "three men who claimed to have dropped her off" business and know they probably assaulted and and then threw her body into the ocean.
Sorry, I disagree. Living in fear is the same as being dead.
There are many reasons to travel and many ways to plan the trips. Many are good reasons and many are good plans. Some are not.
Clearly, they weren't.
Never leave people to their own devices! She should have been chaperoned at all times. And even if she wasn't being chaperoned at all times, she's 18 years old, she knows better than to wonder off without telling someone, especially in a foreign land. I pray for her safe return.
It also sounds like they raped and murdered her.
That is alot different than going for the party, night life, etc.....
I am glad to hear that your children did go on mission trips....those kinds of trips can change peoples lives and really instill a sense of pride in children.
True...the northen coast is a desolate, undeveloped area..long ago..we got snookered into taking the "shark-feeding " tour..
Alot different than going for the party, night life, etc....
Please people, we are talking about children, still in high school, going to a country where the laws are rarely enforced, especially for foreigners. Children have no business going off on trips like that.
Missionary work is different. War is different.
Are you a parent?
Good summary.
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