Pelham Meeting: Questions & Answers

There was a meeting with friends of the Holloway/Twitty Families to discuss the case and the answers some questions.
The meeting was held on Saturday, October 28, 2006 in Pelham, Al (Just south of Birmingham, AL).

The meeting consisted of presentations of various aspects of the case and a question and answer session.

The clarify internet rumors... Dave & Robin were are the day & night meeting, Beth was at the night meeting.
Beth had a previous engagement and did not get back in town in time for the day meeting. Jug was unable
to attend due to Homecoming at his sons college, he attended the game since his son is a football player.

There were many people there representing all aspects of the case, those that discussed the boycott, the blogs
and the forums, among other things. Also members of Dave's family were present.

There were some things discussed at the meeting that the attendees are not allowed to discuss at this time,
but I was given permission to post for all of us at BFN the general questions & answers. Answers were provided by Beth,
Dave and Art Wood.

1. Did Natalee have any chronic illnesses, asthma, allergies? NO

2. Has Natalee ever been out of the US before her trip to Aruba? YES, She traveled to Austria when she was 16, she went with Beth.

3. Had Natalee ever ran away or threatened to? NO

4. Did Natalee have a tickle site, etc...? NO, she did IM on AOL with friends when she was younger, but had pretty much outgrown that by her Senior year.

5. Did she have a prepaid phone in Aruba? NO

6. Honors from high school? To name a few...fluent in Spanish, National Honor Society, Who's Who Among America's High School Student's, Dorians, many school clubs, and a Scholarship to the University of Alabama.

7. When did she meet Joran? On May 29th at the Casino.

8. Is that PVDS in the Casino video? Cannot be confirmed, the croupier does not recall PVDS being there.

9. Is there a Blue Eyed Dutch Boy? NO, there is no blue eyed Dutch boy.

10. Association with GVC? NO association with him except on the 28th at C & C's he slapped her on the rear.

11. Did Security Guard attempt to break into their room? YES, this was reported but do not know who it was.

12. Did Natalee attend the Soul Beach Festival? NO

13. What is the closing time for C & C's on Sunday night? 12:30 am (has been stated over and over that it is 1:30 am)

14. What did Natalee have with her when she went missing? $50.00 and drivers license (proof of age)

15. Did Natalee make any phone calls that night? There was a strange call to a friend of hers (William) but there is no evidence that it was from Natalee. The message was on his Cell phone and he retrieved it on the airplane on the way home.

16.Something bad happened, who said that? Do not know which suspect made that comment.

17. DEA Agent in Aruba at the time Natalee disappeared? He was there on vacation, he was not there officially.

18. Are there missing sneakers or just sneaker? No one knows for sure.

19. What is Automotive Enterprise? A car wash in Aruba.

20. The "Call me Hootie" poster... what is the explanation of that? This poster is the first that was distributed in Aruba. The Kidnapped posters that were made up to be put up were not allowed to be used. The Call me Hootie poster idea came from Julia Renfro.

Additional questions and answers: (Questions asked to Beth)

21. Beth, you made a statement that Joran's clothing the first night at the VDS residence was not in keeping with someone being in a Casino. What was Joran wearing? Joran was wearing lightweight short-short pants and a tee shirt.

22. Was Joran's clothes dirty? No

23. Beth did Joran have a black eye? I do not remember.

24. Was Deepak's car seen inside the VDS compound? Yes, Alberto Groeneveld and Claudio Eldridge told me they had to climb the wall in order to write down the license number.

25. Where were Joran and Deepak when Paulus called on the cell phone? I really do not know.

26. Were the Sloots tipped-off that the family group had landed in Aruba?
Beth -- not at first. Art Wood -- the Sloots were probably tipped-off when the family group stopped at the Noord Police Station to wait for Charles Croes, Alberto Groeneveld and Claudio Eldridge to return from the VDS residence.
 
Debbie concluded
I am sure that others that attended the meeting can add to what I have told you all, these were the ones that I wrote down.

Note to all that attended: we have been given permission to post the Q & A information but the other information does not need to be discussed at this time.

Personal note: It was very nice to meet all the people that attended. It was nice to put a real person with the people that we have come to know here. I really enjoyed the time that I spent with everyone I just wish that the circumstances had been different... I wish that Natalee was home and at school where she belongs.

More posts about the meeting

• Who was there? Robin, Dave, Beth, Jug...any or all? Did any of them speak to the group?

Robin, Dave and Beth were there. I was told prior to the meeting that Jug would probably not be there because one of his sons had an important event and he had to choose between the two. I don't know if that's just the PR story or if it's actually the case. I really don't know what the deal is with Beth and Jug.

• What about the "bloggers"...who actually showed up?

It's my understanding that there were only a handful of bloggers there. I know Debbie from BFN Was there and none of the other names were familiar to me. The boycott blog people were not there.

• Was the agenda anything like the one posted? For that matter, what was the agenda?

No the agenda was not like what was posted --- and that never was the agenda. That was something prepared by a guy named "don", basically just some of his own thoughts and had nothing to do with the meeting. There was never an agenda that was distributed or even talked about that I am aware of. There were a couple of purposes I believe -- one was for the family to meet with lawyers and that was not anything that was done in the presence of any blog people. It was to evaluate what can be done going forward mostly for the purpose of getting information released from ALE.

Part of the purpose of meeting with the others was to answer some questions and clear up some issues and basically PR.

• Did they come up with any plans?

Any plans that were made were with the lawyers, etc. were not made known to anyone else. I believe it was productive but I dont know anything specific that I can speak to.

• What was said about what is posted on the boards?

Again, there was a lengthy list of questions -- issues that are often discussed on blogs and the family addressed those and answered questions. In general, it seems like Beth in particular was not aware of much of the misinformation that is going around. Dave was more up to speed on that stuff.

• Do they (family) read the boards? Did they mention any particular posters, good or bad?

I dont believe anything bad was said about any board in particular or any particular poster. I know that thanks were given to Debbie and BFN but that is all I know about that. Debbie gave a presentation also.

• Is it true that Beth signed autographs?

If she signed any autographs it was at specific requests from people but it was not a planned part of the meeting and there was not time set aside for anything like that. If she did, it would have been in the hotel lobby after the meeting. That's exactly what I was told.

• Is it true that questions were not allowed from the panelists, unless they were approved beforehand?

No, I do not believe that is true. From what I understand the family very much wanted to address questions and clear up misunderstandings. But keep in mind the only people there were people who were supportive of the family so it's not like anyone was going to be hateful and ask something really controversial.

• Did anyone try to "crash" the meeting?

Not that anyone is aware of but someone called the news media and had them there when Dave and Robin arrived that morning. No one from the family called or invited any media. Also, there were a couple of attempts from "crashers" to call the hotel a couple days before and cancel the meeting

BTW There are certain things that were talked about that we are told not to discuss yet but I just got off the phone a little bit ago and got the ok to post some things and to clear up some issues that have been in dispute on the blogs.

To begin with here's a starting list

• reIt's been said on blogs that Beth made posters to put up before she ever went to Aruba. Beth did not make them but some "kidnapped" posters were made before they left the ground , in the time that Beth was driving back from Arkansas. When they got there, ALE would not allow her to use any posters with the word "kidnapped". That's where Julia Renfro comes into the picture --- Julia is the one who suggested the "Hootie" posters and the wording for it and she printed them up.

• They flew in on the McWane jet and the med jet was called after they got there because ALE was insisting that she would probably show up in a crack house based on what they had seen from tourists in the past. It was sent by a friend in Alabama and I dont know who. The bill was paid for by the friend as well and not out of funds from the search fund.

• Yes, Beth really got pulled over for speeding on her drive back to Alabama and she really did tell the officer that her daughter was "kidnapped" because that is what she believed at the time. She believed that because Natalee was reliable and it was very out of place for her to miss her flight and nowhere to be seen and none of her friends knew either.

• In the casino video Natalee was on her friend's cell phone. The way it was described was that the girls had made a call to a friend and were all passing it around to say hi.

• There is no missing luggage