A LACK OF EVIDENCE?

Another 'Conspiracy Theory'--"She's Alive!"

Dale Netherton

May 18, 2005

What do you do when a crime is committed and there is not a trace of evidence to pursue? You have three choices. You can endlessly search for evidence and if nothing turns up eventually you must turn to the second choice which is to file the case away in the cold case files. Either of these two choices will lead you nowhere if you ‘re looking for evidence in the wrong place.

How do you decide where to look for evidence? You can look where you have already looked or you can look in a new location. Given the size of the earth you would probably like to narrow your search to somewhere more likely than less likely. How do you decide where is more likely? Here you must revisit the known facts of the case and formulate a theory that will give you some possibilities of where to look. Otherwise you will be looking at random over a vast area which limits the possibility you will find anything. This is why a theory must guide you in your search.

For a concrete example let’s revisit the Natalee Holloway case. There has been no evidence of her found to date. There have been searches in all places where there was some indication her body might be found and nothing has turned up. There have been interrogations and arrests and releases and nothing reported that indicates there is a likely location her body will be found.

Searching for a body of someone we don’t have any evidence is dead is a flaw in the investigation strategy. (Yet, Janssen held them last summer for premeditated murder...how would they know it was a murder at that point in time???) Time spent looking for what at this point is an assumption, narrows the investigation and excludes the question, “ What if she is alive?” At this point in the investigation there is just as much evidence she is alive as that she is dead, yet where have all the searches been conducted and for what?

No one thought they would find a live person in any of the search areas. This show the bias of the dominant theory driving the investigation. Likewise there is a bias that the chief early suspects, especially Joran Van der Sloot, were participants in her disappearance to the extent they “knew what happened to her”.

Perhaps they participated and didn’t know what happened to her after she was “delivered”. This option seems to be either ignored or dismissed but it hasn’t been proven to be out of the question.

So if the current theory that Natalee is dead is not coming up with any findings, why isn’t someone pursuing the possibility she is alive? (You are ridiculous if you think she really is alive when all indications of common sense and simple research conclude that she is not alive according to Joran et al.) If you watch the interviews and the talking heads all you get is an attitude of resignation that comes from “ no body has been found therefore we can’t proceed”.

Not once has there been anyone that I have seen on TV say,’ Let’s suppose Natalee was kidnapped and may be held a this very moment in a live and captive position”. This statement would lead to a whole series of questions that may be pertinent to finding Natalee. Such as, “ Where could she be?” “ Who would have taken her and for what purpose?” “ Is it possible for someone to take a girl from the island of Aruba without the authorities knowing it?” Or “ Could the authorities have known about it and looked the other way?” None of these questions are being asked nor pursued and the viewing pubic should be asking why they aren’t.

I have contacted several networks asking about this approach and I have received no response. These are news organizations that would rush in thousands of cameras and reporters to look at a dead body but won’t consider that might not be the story at all.

Why is their mind set so rigid? They know they are finding nothing new. They know this case is fading from the public view because of a lack of leads, Yet they will not consider what might create new leads. This is a free press that is supposed to be searching for the truth and reporting it but instead it is more interested is clinging to a theory that is going nowhere.

What kind of a mindset clings to the hope of finding a dead body for a story instead of exploring the possibility that the person is living and could be rescued? How many times has it occurred that someone given up for dead is later found alive and has lived in captivity? This is not an unknown happenstance yet in the Natalee Holloway case it is evidently taboo.

For those readers out there who would like to see the media consider a positive approach that could lead to a happy ending I urge you to do your part and make it known to your friends and the media you subscribe to that this story is not being fully considered. It is floundering in false unproven assumptions and there are many possible suspects that are being ignored.

When a large reward is posted, as one has been and no one has responded this tells you something is fundamentally wrong in the investigation. Either there is no one who knows anything (which is highly unlikely) or they are under threat if they talk.

This needs to be ferreted out. The media thrives on giving attention to others mistakes and incompetence. Like the government self examination is not something they do with any regularity. It would be a good time to give them a wake up call and ask them what they are afraid of and why they are reluctant to investigate rather than just sit around waiting for a phone call. There is a comparison used in the selling trade between a salesperson and an order taker.

This is analogous to having a reporter that waits for the news and one who searches out all the possibilities. One asks where could evidence be found and the other sits and bemoans a “ lack of evidence”. If you had been kidnapped, which one would you rather was covering your disappearance?