What Happened to Natalee?

Is Natalie alive? Natalee Holloway was last seen with still prime suspect Joran van der Sloot. He says he left her on the Marriott Beach area of Aruba near the Fisherman Huts. Unfortunately he told what is called the Holiday Inn Lie when first questioned and because of this Natalee's mother Beth Holloway and others refused to believe him after that lie was uncovered. Some will focus on the Mt. Brook teens, especially those like Francis Ellen Byrd who gave very vague answers to what happened that might. In spite of boycotts, lawsuits and lots of contradictory stories and many rumors this remains a case of a Missing Alabama Teen. Here are some of the best of the on line essays on the case.

Thought provoking essays on the Natalee Holloway case

 
Okay, Charge Them with What?
 
By anonymous internet poster Nomdeguerre

Someone has reported that a decision will be made in the fall whether or not to charge Joran and the Kalpoes with a crime in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway. That seems to make sense, as sooner or later the Aruban prosecutor's office has to charge them with something, or the judges on Curacao will release them as suspects.

Releasing them as suspects is something we all can understand. The question in my mind is, if it goes the other way, what could they be charged with? This is assuming that there is no evidence in the files of either the Aruban police or the KLPD that definitely establishes that Joran or the Kalpoes either harmed Natalee or took action to conceal her body if she died accidentally. Presumably, if they have a smoking gun, somebody would be in jail right now.

When Karin Janssen was in charge of the case, I thought that she would probably wait as long as possible, then if no evidence of a serious crime could be found, she might try a "hail Mary" with the best evidence she could come up with to support some lesser charge. Don't know enough about the current person in charge to even speculate about what she might do, but let's assume for a minute that the prosecutor's office wants to bring charges. It doesn't look as if they have enough to support a charge of murder or what we would call manslaughter, so if they file anything, it would have to be lesser charges.

 
The problem is, what lesser charge?

Paulus has been released not only from jail but as a suspect. That has to mean that they don't have any evidence that he was guilty of anything in connection with Natalee's disappearance, including being involved in helping Joran somehow dispose of Natalee's body if she died accidentally in his presence. Joran's friends were questioned (again and again, in some cases), yet with the exception of the Kalpoes, those who were arrested were promptly let go. That would seem to indicate that, if Joran somehow disposed of Natalee's body, they don't know who helped him do it.