The Night I Met Beth Twitty

The Real Aruba Truth, Dan from TX

"DISCLAIMER: I was scribbling notes like a madman for half the evening, so I'm painting a very broad picture of the events. I also apologize ahead of time for misspelling anyone's names or forgetting names altogether.



Let me dispel some rumors. First, Joe Mammana was not there. Second, it was not a fundraising event for Beth or even for TES (they have a bigger fundraiser in March). It was a media event for Texas Equusearch and a pep rally- in attendance were local Houston news reporters and a camera crew from 60 Minutes. I might actually be in the footage since I was hovering around Beth when the cameras got all in my face...I am the chubby guy in the striped 'Mafioso' shirt and glasses. The one desperately trying to ignore the cameras and just act natural.


Downtown Houston absolutely sucks if you're not familiar with it, and how I missed a major intersection like Main and Preston twice I don't know. I got there an hour late and the first thing I asked the guy at the door (who was himself a TES member whose own sister has been missing for years) if Beth had arrived yet and then realized that she arrived just ahead of me...she hadn't even cleared the entry and was standing no more than twenty feet from me! Beth immediately said hello to Tim Miller and a few other people, and so I got in line to say hi as well.


About Beth Twitty: Beth looks just as thin in person as on TV, and she is taller than I expected. But she also seemed quite relaxed, friendly and open, confident, strong, and I had the feeling that she has made peace with some things. I know the Twittys are quite religious so perhaps she found that rock and fortress that the Bible speaks of. She is an ordinary woman with extraordinary resolve. Beth spent a few minutes talking to each person hovering around her with the news camera right in her face, and when she learned I had a boycott strategy guide to offer her she told me, "Don't leave tonight without talking to me again!" I offered to be her go-for; she graciously accepted but didn't ask for anything the whole evening.

I ended up near the buffet chatting with a very nice lady named Kim Ogg, director of the Houston Crimestoppers and proud mother of a wanna-be break dancer (her young son discovered how well you can spin on a slick concrete floor). Kim was the evening's first speaker (Tim Miller was the MC), and her subject was the long-standing and mutually beneficial relationship that TES and Houston Crimestoppers has. But Kim began by explaining how on dispatch one night she fielded a missing persons call and found out that officially the police at that time couldn't do anything to help the missing person's family. Kim said that was the night she realized this was a terrible way to treat these people, official policy or not.

Tim Miller called Beth up to speak not about herself, not about Natalee, but about Texas Equusearch. She spoke of how TES offers something that even law enforcement cannot- hope and a chance to find answers and closure. She explained to everyone what Arubans don't seem to understand- if you find yourself faced with the mysterious disappearance of a loved one, you simply must do everything possible to find them. There is no other option. Of course Tim Miller understands this, having lost his own daughter Laura; her disappearance and murder inspired him to start Texas Equusearch.

Tim said he is the most blessed man in the world for this life mission he is on and despite the loss of his daughter. He went on to speak about one of TES's earliest searches. He spoke of a Hispanic family whose father was beaten badly and the mother and infant boy kidnapped (unfortunately the mother was later found murdered). TES found the mother's body and helped police find the boy- who had been sold! Tim described how TES members started a relief fundraiser for this man and his infant son that went from $200 to $35,000 in two days. I have the man and his son's name in my notes, but I can't seem to make them out...but they were there in person.

There were several other past and current clients who spoke: the man I met at the door who first got involved with TES when a co-worker disappeared and whose own sister is still missing today; Barbara Rigsby, whose brother disappearaed in West Texas earlier this year; and a man whose brother disappearaed recently- this search is ongoing. But Barbara added something to Beth's speech: finding a lost loved one, even if they are most likely dead, is a final act of love for them, not just closure for their family. You see, TES not only looks for missing persons but they allow families to get involved and feel that they are doing something more than waiting by a phone; Barbara said that TES is her family now.

I caught Tim at intermission and asked him a few questions, which he spoke about later that evening. If you look at the TES website you will see 250 members, but Tim told me that there are currently 700 members nationwide and that Natalee's disappearance and TES involvement in Aruba opened a lot of doors for this organization and brought a lot of new contacts, members, and resources. He told me that TES does about a hundred searches a year on average, and that he wants to see a half million members nationwide someday.

About Tim: he's very laid-back and easygoing, with striking blue eyes that I would describe as utterly free of pretense. If I remember correctly he attended this rally wearing blue jeans and cowboy boots!

Finally, they showed two DVDs: one was photos of the Aruba search, complete with Erica Harvey's Natalee song in the background; the second was photos of far too many missing persons that TES was or is searching for- and that DVD represented on a handful of their clients. I believe that many of the people present were Aruba veterans, because when TES member Joe Huston mentioned how wonderfully supportive, concerned, and helpful the Aruban people were but how worthless the Aruban government was in the search efforts, the room erupted in applause and agreement.

This is something that travellers to Aruba are repeating again and again, and if you read Walter's comments on this blog you will see that some of the Arubans aren't too happy about their government and ALE, either. It is too bad that they aren't unhappy enough yet to protest the MEP and ALE instead of criticizing and blaming the U.S. media and Beth herself.

If any of you Arubans are reading this, know that Americans blame your government for this fiasco of an investigation, not you. They are the problem here.

I did get to speak to Beth again for about ten minutes before I left; it was a quick discussion about boycott strategies that for now is on a need-to-know basis. Aruba will find out what Beth and her team have been up to soon enough if ALE doesn't produce some real results real fast!"