June 16, 2005

 
Aruban helicopter search fails to find body of missing American girl
 
By Peter Prengaman

ORANJESTAD, Aruba – A helicopter searched for the body of an Alabama teenager as investigators sifted through items seized from the island home of a justice official whose son was with the young woman the same night she disappeared, officials said Thursday.

A Thursdsay, judge considered a petition from the justice official, Paul van der Sloot, to see his jailed 17-year-old son, Joran. The judge was also expected to rule on a request from lawyers defending the youth and his two Surinamese friends to see any evidence authorities have gathered. Van der Sloot, from Holland, is training to be a judge in Aruba, which is a Dutch protectorate in the Caribbean.

More than two weeks after the 18-year-old Natalee Holloway went missing, searches by authorities, volunteer islanders and tourists have led nowhere, and no one has been charged in the case. Authorities were refusing to say if they thought Holloway was dead.

On Thursday, however, Police Superintendent Jan van der Straaten told The Associated Press that used a helicopter "to search for possible remains – but found nothing." He declined to say where the helicopter searched.

On Wednesday, investigators brought in from Holland and police using a German Shepherd searched the van der Sloots' one-story, yellow-beige home, where Joran lived in an attached apartment. Agents were seen carrying two white garbage bags filled with items from the house, while authorities towed away a blue sport utility vehicle and a red Jeep from the property in Noord, outside the capital, Oranjestad.

Van der Straaten declined to give details on what they found. "We are still busy with the investigation and interrogations of suspects," he said Thursday.

Following the approximately four-hour search, Attorney General Caren Janssen clarified that Paul van der Sloot was not under investigation.

Asked why it took investigators more than two weeks after Holloway's disappearance to search the van der Sloot home, Janssen said Thursday, "You have to build up an investigation. You can't just go in there like a cowboy, you have to give certain direction to investigators."

Joran remains in police custody along with Deepak Kalpoe, 21, and Satish Kalpoe, 18, of Suriname. The three were questioned and released shortly after Holloway's May 30 disappearance. They were formally arrested last Thursday.

The two brothers have told police that they and Joran were with Holloway and that she and the Dutch youth were petting in the back seat of their car. The detainees initially said they took Holloway to a beach on the northern part of the island then dropped her off at her Holiday Inn hotel, where they claimed she was approached by a security guard.

But Antonius "Mickey" John, a former hotel security guard released from custody on Sunday, told reporters that Deepak Kalpoe told him during a chat in jail that he and his brother actually dropped the young van der Sloot and Holloway off together near the Marriott, about 10 blocks north of the Holiday Inn. John said he passed the information on to police.

Kalpoe's lawyer would not comment on John's statement Wednesday, but said his client maintained his innocence.

Van der Straaten declined to give a timeline Thursday on when the investigation could conclude, or when Joran and the Kalpoe brothers might either be released or formally charged.

He dismissed rumors that police may investigate coastal waters on the north side of the island known to have sharks. "Sure, we have shark places on the northern side, but they have nothing to do with the investigation," he said.

Holloway was celebrating her graduation from Mountain Brook High School, near Birmingham, Alabama, with 124 other students and seven chaperones when she vanished during the early hours of May 30. Her U.S. passport and packed bags were found in her room.

The law says authorities can hold detainees for up to 116 days without filing formal charges. The three young men have been in custody since June 9.

 


June 17, 2005 Friday
THE O'REILLY FACTOR
GUESTS: Dilma Arends

O'REILLY: In the "Back of the Book" segment tonight, we wanted to wrap this week up with a comprehensive look at the Natalee Holloway disappearance, since it has captured the attention of the entire world.
 
Joining us now from Aruba is Dilma Arends, an investigative reporter for "Bondia Aruba (ph)," a daily newspaper.
 
Now, all I want you to do, Ms. Arends, is you're an investigative reporter. Just give me the overarch of what you've learned about this case. Go ahead.

DILMA ARENDS, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Well, Bill, I guess the only thing we can say is we know as much as you do. Just -- the only difference is that we understand the system here. As investigative reporters we know how far we can go with the police and investigative authorities. They just don't give out information. And we -- we usually rely on tips, especially when arrests are to be made.
 
However, because of the interest in this case and because of the presence of a number of U.S. media on this island, the police and those who are close to police have become extremely cautious. They don't say anything in order not to harm their investigation.
 
So in fact, we are as much in the dark or in the light as you are.

O'REILLY: But you know the players. You know this Van Der Sloot guy. You know that he was a playboy hanging in the casinos, 17 years old, driving when he shouldn't have drove. You know all that.
So how are you putting this case together? Have you, in your own mind, put together the case?
 
ARENDS: No, because it's very difficult. I mean, Van Der Sloot is a 17-year-old boy. He doesn't have a car. He wasn't the one driving. So these are all assumptions that everybody makes, perhaps even us here.
 
But then another thing happens and the whole theory falls apart. So it's very difficult in this case to make a theory and make an assumption and make a judgment.

O'REILLY: Now, were you able to talk to the two men, the security guards who were released, who say they did talk to the suspects who are still in custody? Were you able to talk to those men?

ARENDS: Yes. As a matter of fact, we only spoke to one. We spoke to Mickey John. And the first thing we asked was how was the demeanor of one of the young men who was with him in jail? In this case it was Deepak, the 21-year-old.
 
And he said the guy was very calm. And that is contrary to reports we heard from Abraham Jones, saying that Joran Van Der Sloot was crying and very upset. So these are two different personalities. It all depends how they handle stress. Don't forget, Joran Van Der Sloot is still a 17-year- old boy.

O'REILLY: Yes. Well, it's been 19 days since this young lady disappeared. He has been in the news for every single day of that. And it seems to us that you would be able to get whatever this young boy knows by this time.
 
Do you know what the FBI's role is down there, madam?

ARENDS: The FBI is assisting the Aruba police with technical information, with technical backup. However, we also have two forensic excerpts from Holland assisting the investigative team. As a matter of fact, they were on hand, both here at the Marriott when they searched the whole area, at the house -- at the house of Van Der Sloot, and in other investigations.
 
So Aruba is welcoming experts from both the FBI and from Holland.
 
O'REILLY: Now we have heard that the FBI is being kept away from the investigation; they're not actively interrogating. Have you heard that?

ARENDS: Well, because they're not giving out any information, we don't know that. We don't know who is doing the interrogation.

O'REILLY: Yes, but you know how leaks -- you know how leaks are. You know how leaks are. People leak.
 
ARENDS: Well, that -- and that is the strange thing about this case. Last week there had been a leak that turned out to be completely wrong. That leak said that the two boys -- the three confessed. It created enormous uproar on this island.

O'REILLY: Yes. I understand.

ARENDS: It was -- it was aired. Everybody was on the street looking around. I mean, the public came out because everybody is living through this whole ordeal.

O'REILLY: I got it. I got it. Listen, you've got to be very careful. You've got to be very careful.

ARENDS: Yes. And the police somehow kept -- I mean, they closed the lid. They're not giving us anything.

O'REILLY: All right. Well, the longer this goes on, the worse it is for Aruba and, of course, the worse it is for the Holloway family.

ARENDS: Yes.

O'REILLY: Thanks very much. We appreciate it.

 


Graduation does not suddenly make a teenager into an adult

June 15, 2005

I wish I could be more charitable about the seven adults who "chaperoned" 124 Alabama high school seniors to a trip to the exotic Caribbean island of Aruba.
Natalee Holloway's relatives must be a lot more forgiving than I would be. Marcia Twitty, the aunt of the honor society, full scholarship-winning recent high school graduate, says Holloway's family doesn't blame the chaperones. She told reporters the adults who accompanied the graduates on their senior trip were "incredible, wonderful people. ... These were people who knew our kids day in and day out," according to a quote on wnbc.com.
 
Incredible, wonderful people who had a severe lapse in judgment, that is. "Let's see, I think it might be fun to be outnumbered over 17 to one by teenagers hell-bent on getting away from their folks on an island where they can drink unlimited amounts of alcohol like they can't back in the States. And keep track of them? Well, we'll be around, somewhere, if they need us. ... "
 
From news reports, the recent Mountain Brook High School graduates from Birmingham, Ala., pretty much ran over the island like a bunch of ants at a Sunday school picnic, with too many treats to even take in all at once.
 
A woman named Jodi Bearman put the trip together, and defended the chaperones. "They (the students) sign a waiver, and it basically makes sure it's clear to them that they are responsible for themselves," she told wnbc. "Chaperones assist in emergencies, but by no means are liable if an accident should happen or anything like that."
 
Obviously not, since they left without the teen when she didn't show up at the airport the next morning. Can you even imagine leaving a foreign country while one of the children you came with is missing?
 
After absolving the chaperones, Bearman rearranged her mouth so she could talk out the other side: "Although the students are expected to be responsible for themselves, Bearman said she knew that this being their first venture out after high school, chaperones would be needed to supervise," wnbc reports. Letting kids run around an island bar-hopping is supervising?
 
"The chaperones intentionally go out at night, and try to go to the places and check on the kids, but by no means are there specific instructions to do so," Bearman said. Oh? Why not? Because the kids are suddenly all grown up because they got to put their tassels on the other side of their mortarboards?
 
That brings us to the students' parents. Did they honestly think it was a good idea to send kids on a trip where their children sign waivers relieving the adults with them of any responsibility to keep them as safe as possible?
 
I know from bitter experience what can happen by overestimating a child's maturity and likelihood to do what I say, and how powerful peer influence is on a child's behavior. When I had an almost-17-year-old foster daughter, I once put too much trust in her and gave her and her sweet girlfriend, their lovely batting eyes assuring me how they would comport themselves, just enough extra freedom to let them seriously endanger themselves.
 
Am I nuts, or is it the parents who let young kids sign their safety away?