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Oct. 27, 2005 Five months into the vanishing of 18-year-old Natalee Holloway, the beautiful, missing-from-Aruba Alabama honours student who, according to various websites, was awarded an eight-year, full-ride scholarship for a four-year premedicine degree at the University of Alabama, Aruban authorities are officially looking to the silent, gated community of Mountain Brook, Alabama, to finally provide answers and assistance. Much has been made of the muzzling of the 130-odd Mountain Brook residents who accompanied Natalee Holloway on the outbound-from-Alabama leg of the graduation trip to Aruba, yet there has never been an explanation why the adults (numbering almost 40, including seven chaperones) who accompanied the more than 100 celebrating classmates http://beta.abc3340.com/news/stories/0605/233827.html have also been ordered to remain silent. Those adults, constituting almost 40 per cent of the vacationing group, would have been aware of group dynamics and the presence of any possible dangers to the teenaged children: their seasoned and mature observations would have been invaluable had they been encouraged to interact with investigators instead of honouring the gag order imposed months ago by the Twitty family http://www.postherald.com/me061005.shtml. The FBI, which early on had laboured under the family-provided premise that the vanishing was a kidnapping, made a few perfunctory inquiries of the trip participants and then retreated to the sidelines in fortress America--leaving further investigation and follow-up action to that large contingent of FBI personnel who were actually on Aruba http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/oct/article171.html. Aruban authorities have finally received the infamous video and audio material aired on the Dr. Phil show several months ago; however, provided to them was a CD-ROM and copies of the video (which showed only the back of someone’s head) and audio tapes. Even though, under the laws of any first-world legal system, originals are required, Aruban authorities did forward the copies to Holland for analysis to determine their authenticity, despite the initial assessment that the transcriptions do not match up to what is said on the tape copies. Aruba’s Police Commissioner Dompig, determined to overcome the obstacles inserted into the on-Aruba investigations by the day-one machinations and misrepresentations of some members of the poster-packing Alabama posse, has taken off the gloves and thrown down the gauntlet. An on-Aruba re-review of the few trip-participant statements taken by the FBI shows that the documents are sadly lacking in constructive detail and contain inconsistencies. Aruban authorities provided, on-air, a telephone number that can be used by trip participants who wish to call and render assistance—that number, undoubtedly, seldom rings. In a recent flurry of televised interviews, covered extensively by the Aruban press, Mr. Dompig has persistently mentioned that Beth Holloway is still missing from Aruba, even though her presence is necessary to help move the investigation forward to its conclusion. The Aruban press, aroused, are demanding to know why the Aruban people are being asked to provide complimentary meals, accommodation and sustenance to on-Aruba, from-America searchers while Beth Twitty and her family (and only Beth Twitty and her family) have access to those tens of millions of dollars in donated funds, and also to the carte blanche financial assistance promised on-air by Dr. Phil to cover on-Aruba search expenses. Surely the deluded donors should have been informed that their contributions might be used to fund an early retirement? Mutterings of misrepresentation are swelling in Aruba. When Beth does deign to grace the island with her presence again, she could find herself to be on the receiving end of some pointed questions that can not be glossed over with a few hundred 'you knows'. Might one of those asking the questions be Michael Posner, that self-made man from Chicago who very generously provided $100,000 in freebie hotel rooms to the Texas EquuSearch turtle egg-tromping team? Velcro Joe Mammana, he of the no-go, no-show Aruba fame, could end up wielding a much, much smaller stick than Mr. Posner and, should an accounting be demanded, just might suggest to mother Beth that Mr. Posner’s hotel bill be paid by the trust, just to keep peace in the family. Marcia Twitty, the Mountain Brook-based family spokesperson who has 23 years of experience in public relations said, on or around June 10, “that the story of what transpired on Aruba during the trip would come out eventually. After all this is over, she said, the students "can talk all they want." Five long months, Marcia, and all we can hear is the sound of one hand clapping (is the other hand busy stuffing the donor’s contributions into cookie jars?). It is now time to rescind the gag order—if anyone can still remember anything. ------------ About the author: Dayo Gould is a frequent visitor to Aruba, and is a volunteer ESL teacher in a Christian school. Email: ed_asp@hotmail.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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