Aruba Today

Later that day I went back into Oranjestad, with the hope that I would be able to find Aruba Today and surprise Julia Renfro with a visit. It was not easy. I made several inquiries about where Aruba Today was located. People kept thinking I met where could I get a newspaper, Aruba Today. I finally seemed to make it clear to a nice parking lot attendant that I wanted to actually visit the offices of Aruba Today. With luck, he told me it was actually right down the street. I found it, walked in and told the nice lady behind the front desk that I hoped to be able to meet with Julia Renfro. She said, who should I tell her is here, and I said, "tell her Medleyrelay is here!" I thought that was rather amusing, but it sure did get Julia out to the lobby rather quickly. Another big hug, and we went back to her office.

Not surprising Julia's office seemed to have a lot of Natalee Holloway signs visible. She showed me a huge stack of Aruba Todays that had covered the story. She also had a huge computer monitor right there on her desk and many links to many sites related to this case. We had an interesting discussion. She shared with me exactly the same story that was finally released to the Dutch media in July of 2007. It had taken Julia a whole year to finally get someone that was willing to listen to what she felt were the significant events of those first couple days in June of 2005. She tells me of the older couple that supposedly had Natalee, the fact they wanted $4,000. and she emphasizes that Beth was only willing to come up with $1,000. of the money the rest Angela took out of the restaurant cash drawer. Julia says the Medjet she believes took Natalee off that island that very night, because the plane according to the control tower changed course, mysteriously.

I do not know what to think about any of this. However, the one thing I did come away with was the feeling that Julia Renfro deeply cared still about this case. It had sort of become her life's work to help figure it all out. And for that I will always have a tender spot for this caring woman. We had a couple hours of great conversation. It was great to finally meet someone that seemed to know so much about so many things, regarding this case. I hoped to meet with her again, but she was going on a long vacation in a another day, so it would probably not work out. We did promise to stay in touch.