Also, with the exception of the first few hours after she landed on Aruba, the quality of Beth's investigative efforts has been dismal. For whatever reason, she has clearly never made anything approaching a systematic effort to contact and debrief all the MB students on the trip. Instead, it appears she has speaking mostly to just a small number of Natalee's close friends, and not even questioned them very thoroughly. Her seeming lack of curiosity about the details of what the students may have witnessed, has been remarkable.

The explanation may be that she is someone who operates largely on gut feelings, and hence is less concerned with the specifics of exactly who saw what, where and when, as with larger "truths". For example, since she already "knows" that Natalee was kidnapped from CnCs, she isn't as motivated to question witnesses, in order to piece together the precise sequence of events. She may even be subconsciously trying to avoid learning anything, that may challenge what she prefers to believe.

And finally, since the disappearance, Beth has consistently shown some very poorjudgement in who she trusts and associates herself with: It seems that nearly every one of her chosen allies has shown themselves to be incompetent, dishonest, or even criminal. The latest example, is her bizarre romance with John Ramsey.

Of course, Beth is after all just the victim's mother, not an attorney trained to be factually precise in her statements, or a professional investigator with the duty and the experience to be objective and analytical in her thinking. But for those who consider themselves among her supporters, and have concluded she is most likely correct about Joran's guilt, yet aren't willing to blindly accept everything she says without scrutiny, much of Beth's behavior can be extremely frustrating.

Did Joran admit having committed "sexual assaults"?

In several interviews, Beth has referred to Joran's "sexual assaults" against Natalee, and even made the claim that Joran had admitted such "sexual assaults". However, she has never produced any documents to support this claim. Presumably, what she is referring to are Joran's statements, in which he describes sexual activity he allegedly engaged in with Natalee, in Deepak's car and on the beach. In which case, this is one of several examples of Beth's unfortunate tendency to state her opinion as fact: She does not believe that Natalee would have consented to what Joran described, therefore it must have been an assault. It never seems to have occurred to Beth that the sexual activity may not actually have happened, rather she seems convinced that Joran is telling the truth about having "fingered" Natalee in Deepak's car, and that Joran is only lying about it being consensual (even though both Kalpoes say they only saw kissing). In fact, it could be that the "fingering" (consensual or otherwise) only occurred on the beach, and Joran relocated it to the car in his initial story, because at that point he was claiming they went from CnCs to HI without leaving the car, so to mention it he had to say it happened in the car.

Beth has claimed that Joran said Natalee was going "in and out of consciousness" during the sexual activity, and in his June 9 statement. Joran did say that Natalee fell asleep and woke up at least five times while they were in the car. However, Joran also clearly specified that as he was digitally penetrating Natalee, she was awake and indicating consent by kissing him. And furthermore, Joran says that Natalee later manually stimulated him on the beach. So in order to accept Joran's testimony as evidence of sexual assault, one has to pick and choose which portions of his testimony one wishes to believe.

Did Joran really change his story "22 times"?

On a number of occasions, Beth has made the claim that Joran has had "22 versions".

It is true that Joran has told at least 4-6 different versions, regarding where he last saw Natalee, how he got home, and her condition when he last saw her:

* According to Deepak, at 2:26 am on May 30, Joran told him he was walking home, having just left Natalee passed out on the beach.

* From May 30 or 31 through June 10, Joran claimed they left Natalee at her hotel.

* According to Joran's friend Freddy, on May 31, Joran told him that the Kalpoes dropped him off at his house, after they all left Natalee passed out on the beach.

* From June 10 through June 13, Joran claimed that the Kalpoes dropped him off at his house and drove off with Natalee.

* From June 13 through June 19, Joran claimed Deepak picked him up, and he left Natalee asleep on the beach.

* Since June 19, Joran has claimed that Satish picked him up, and either on that date or later, he began claiming he left Natalee awake on the beach looking at the stars.