PARADISE "LOST"--ARUBA NEVER TO BE THE SAME

An Island Paradise? Or an Island Nightmare?

All the non-believers of Natalee were in for a big surprise, as her friends, Laraine Watson and Claire Fierman didn't say anything bad about Natalee and certainly nothing incriminating nor atypical behavior from a straight A, naive and sweet girl.

PAULUS = DAURY?

I wonder if Paulus watched or read any of this because it's been said by Art Wood that Paulus = Daury. Is Daddy Sloot afraid of getting caught? Joran will never give him up. So who will? His "judicial friends"? I highly doubt it. Last year a confidential source told me that Paulus has more clout on the island than we ever imagined. As Joran would say, Paulus has "shit on them, too (governmental officials, etc).

There is a myriad of interesting activities on the Island of Aruba..after hours sex shows, child prostitutes, drugs of any kind, homosexual encounters, and shady money/business dealings. He's got all of his conspirators in his back pocket. As long as the Prosecution keeps on with the infamous "catch and release" facade, Paulus stays out of the spot light, along with his precious psychopath son, Joran.


(These are excerpts from Dateline with Chris Hanson (You know him from his undercover show, "To Catch a Predator"...how fitting.)

Watch VIDEO HERE

Beth Holloway explained her excitement, yet concern about the trip to Aruba, "I was excited the Mountain Brook students had been there the previous two years. Even my step-son -- the year 2003. And there were going to be over 150 plus classmates. So, we felt like, you know, there's safety in numbers."


She felt good about it except for one troubling piece of information about a nightspot down there, a bar called Carlos 'n Charlie's. "My step-son had had an encounter at Carlos 'n Charlie's during 2003," Beth stated.


She continued with the negative story her step-brother experienced. Beth's step-son told her that the locals had coaxed some young females into leaving the establishment with them… and he (the step-son) stepped in at the last minute because just didn't feel good about the situation, you know, with them, and he stepped in at the last minute because of the situation."

But class member Laraine Watson, who's never spoken publicly about their trip, or Natalee's last night, until now, says it couldn't have started better. "We were so excited. I mean, it was a tropical paradise... without our parents! Together."


Claire Fierman had been friends with Natalee since they met in junior high. "We were on the beach. We stayed outside all day. You'd usually take a nap, get dressed, go eat dinner, and then go to one of the bars. Come home whenever you wanted to."


On the last night of the trip, Sunday, May 29, Natalee and her friends headed down to the hotel casino. They soon struck up a conversation with a young man. He said he was 19 years old, a tourist visiting from Holland. His name was Joran.


Laraine Watson stated, "I met him in the casino and I didn't shake his hand or anything, I just said, 'Who's that?' when my friends introduced me."


Chris Hansen: What did you make of him?


Laraine Watson: He just looks like an average, normal high school guy. I mean, I remember he's really tall. I remember looking at him thinking, "Oh, who's that guy?" You know, he's hanging out with my friends.


Chris Hansen: What was the 'buzz' on him with the rest of the gang?


Laraine Watson: You know, I don't know if he initially came up to my girlfriends and said, "Hey." and started talking to them. Or if they approached him. But Natalee was in there when I saw him near the blackjack table. And I don't know if they were even talking. I just remember seeing him and wondering what he was doing hanging out with my friends.


Chris Hansen: Did he create any suspicions?

Laraine Watson: Not really. I just was curious to see who the boy was. I wasn't really suspicious. I mean, he's going to come out with us later.


In fact, Joran did join Natalee and her friends later at that same well-known nightspot that had worried Natalee's mom.


Laraine Watson: It was fun. I mean, when you go with a big group of your friends out to a bar, it's fun. And we were legal. You know, we were 18 and we could drink. Joran seemed to fit right in with the hundred-plus kids from Mountain Brook, who essentially took over the bar Sunday night.


Chris Hansen: Did you see him at Carlos 'n Charlie's that night?


Laraine Watson: I did see him. I didn't talk to them. I just saw him dancing.


Chris Hansen: Did you see him have any interaction with Natalee at all?


Laraine Watson: No.


Chris Hansen: What time did you wrap it up at the bar that night?


Laraine Watson: I think the bar closed at 1:00 a.m. So, we pretty much left when the bar closed. So, you know, the last song came on..."Sweet Home Alabama" came on. I think they all knew we were from Alabama, so they played it for us. And we went outside and started trying to get in taxi cabs to get back to our hotel. And it was kind of chaotic.


Chris Hansen: Did you think that's how Natalee got separated from the rest of the crowd?


Laraine Watson: I do. I do. I didn't see her in the car that she was last seen in. But some other members of the group did see who Natalee had gone off with. They didn't think anything of it at the time but she had gone off with Joran and some of his friends. The next morning, Monday, the group was scheduled to catch flights taking them all back home. But at the Holiday Inn, no one had seen Natalee.


Claire Fierman: So, I'm boarding my plane. One of our friends, Francis Ellen, comes running through the airport, grabs me as I'm getting on my plane and says, "Natalee is not coming home. We can't find her." And I say, "Beth is going to be so mad." Because my initial reaction is she's overslept. Where is she? You know, it wasn't panic.


But as Natalee's plane pulled away from the gate panic did begin to set in. Less than 12 hours after her daughter Natalee was reported missing, Beth Holloway Twitty's plane touched down in Aruba. She was joined by her then-husband Jug and a few friends from home, and the group wasted no time tracking down clues about what had happened to Natalee.


Their first stop: the Holiday Inn -- where Natalee had stayed --- and where they began asking questions about that Dutch tourist named Joran. Beth Holloway: So, all I did was give this little bit of information to the nighttime manager and she knew instantly who he was. ...Minutes later the group from Alabama was arriving at his family's home.


By now police had arrived at the house and Paulus van der Sloot, a politically-connected legal official, hovered as police questioned his son, Joran. And when it came to the key question -- when did Joran last see Natalee -- he said that he and two friends, brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe -- had dropped her off at her hotel around 2 am. End of story.


By now at least 20 people had gathered around -- Beth, her husband, their friends, and police -- and they all got in cars and headed back to the Holiday Inn. At the Holiday Inn, Joran himself showed Beth and the group where he had supposedly left Natalee, right at the hotel's front entrance. Beth Holloway: So, he spread his arms out. Said, "This is where I dropped her off." and he explained how she got out of the car, and she stumbled. And he said, "She fell and she hit her head."

The Next Morning

The group tried to get some rest, and the next morning Beth went to the police station hoping to follow up on what she had learned the night before.

Beth Holloway: (After they arrived at the police station) The lead detective (Dennis Jacobs), told me that he would have to have a shave. And he rubbed his cheeks, and his stretched his arms down to his large stomach and said he would have to have his Frosted Flakes first before he could deal with me. And then, after two hours, he came out and said that he'd changed his mind. That he didn't need to meet with us after all.


The next day Beth was back at the police station and this time the detective had questions for her. "He asked me if Natalee ever had a history of seizures or epilepsy? And I said, "No." Beth Holloway Twitty says she didn't understand the significance of that question at the time and wouldn't for more than two years. But soon after that question was posed to her, there were arrests in the case. Just not who she thought. Then the family brought in a hard-charging, hard-living Texan named Tim Miller. If anyone could find Natalee, they thought that perhaps he could.

Watch Tim Miller's VIDEO HERE

Little did Tim Miller know, but he'd spend nearly a year of his life in Aruba knocking on doors, hunting down leads, sifting the sand -- and the sea. "I'll never forget that day when Dave Holloway's in the bottom of that well on Natalee's birthday, putting trash in a bucket, and I'm pulling it up thinking, 'Maybe they put Natalee in a well and threw trash on top of her.' And I said, 'It's a hell of a way to spend your daughter's birthday.' I said, 'Dave, get out of that hole.'


And so, he got out, and I went down. And then he said, 'Tim, get out of that hole.' He said, 'I'm leaving Aruba. I will never come back here again.' "


But Tim Miller says that very day, in October, 2005, there was a turning point. The deputy police chief saw Miller and Dave Holloway and shared a hunch. Miller said, "There's no need for you all to be searching the landfill anymore." He said, "I think you all need to be out in the sea, three to five miles."


Soon, there was another tip -- one that seemed to add credibility to that theory. On the night Natalee disappeared, Miller learned that there had been a break-in at a fisherman's hut on the beach. Among the missing items --- a metal and wire box --- a fish trap. Miller wondered if they could have used it to dispose of Natalee's body and weigh her down at sea so her body couldn't be discovered.


"Well, we talked to a lot of people in Aruba. And they say 90 percent of anybody that drowns on that side of the island, their bodies will float up to the banks of Venezuela. I don't think that they was willing to take a risk on Natalee's body floating." Miller was determined to launch a search, but one sophisticated enough to find a target so tiny -- a fish trap -- in an area so vast seemed just about impossible.

Louis Schaefer & The Persistence



How a ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicles) Works

Until Louis Schaefer entered the picture. Schaefer is a self-made multimillionaire who made hisfortune in the underwater exploration business. Schaefer was one of the few people in the world with the expertise to help find Natalee's body if Tim Miller's theory was correct. And he was offering his services free of charge.


The plan was to use high-tech equipment to map the ocean floor off Aruba, and then, step-by-step, use state of the art equipment to scan the bottom for anything that looked like it could contain Natalee's remains. Just before Thanksgiving, 2007, Dave Holloway came to see the Persistence -- the vessel that he hoped would bring Natalee home. "There's been times, I'll be honest with you, you look up at the sky at night, or get up and you can't sleep. Look up at the stars. Think, God help us. Answer some prayers for us," stated Holloway.


In November 2007, Tim Miller and Dave Holloway went to New Iberia, La., to see off the research vessel named Persistence. Dave Holloway said, "Your boat says it all -- persistence. I've been persistent, and Tim's been persistent and everybody else is going to be persistent."

Example of a ROV in progress

Dave Holloway: And when this went out, I thought, gosh, the only thing I can hold on to is, is this

boat search. I said, that's my last hope. That's my very last hope.

Tim Miller: The sea has always been calling us back.


In December 2007, Miller returned to Aruba, and based on his theory and study of water currents, literally drew a line in the sand.


Tim Miller: I stepped on the boat and said "Natalee we're coming to get you." Now we're finally coming to get you. And I still believe that from the bottom of my heart. She's out here and now we're on our way.


On Christmas Eve sonar pictures revealed what looked like a large trap, almost exactly where Tim Miller theorized it would be. And on Dec. 29 the crew dropped a remote operated vehicle, or ROV, into the water to get a closer look. Tim Miller: It looked like a skull. Still looks like a skull.


Tim Miller: I'm thinking at this point, "Oh, my God, maybe we've got something. Maybe we've got something." Could they have found her? Or was hope, perhaps, making them see what they wanted to see?


Tim Miller: In my years of searching we have seen several bodies, skeletal remains--I have seen my own daughter's skeletal remains. I can't help but believe at this moment that that is human remains in that crab trap. Tim Miller couldn't help but think that the date they first saw that trap -- Christmas eve -- was a sign that just maybe they were on to something.


Tim Miller: Maybe that was some of God's timing. I hope maybe Beth and Dave can have what they have been looking for two and half years. , "Dave, we found her." Dave Holloway: "Are you sure?" and he said, "I'm 99.9 percent sure." He said, "We hadn't gone down and dove under or anything. But the photographs--" he said, "I tell you, Dave." I-- he said, "That's what we're looking for. And that's gotta-- that-- that's it."



Tim Miller: Everything was going right. That morning there was actually a double rainbow when we got started. Another sign from above? A school of dolphins followed the Persistence as it sailed out to the target.


Tim Miller: I know I looked at somebody on the boat, and I said, "The-- the dolphins are going with us to go ahead and get Natalee."

An answer from the depths

The researchers had discovered a fish trap about 90 feet below the surface in almost the exact spot search expert Tim Miller had theorized Natalee's body might be. The divers approached the target and signaled above. And then...it's thumbs down. Negative, not it. A crushing disappointment. To be sure there was no relevant evidence, material from the trap was given to the FBI.


For the Holloways, though, another wild ride began. Natalee Holloway's parents were about to be thrown another bombshell --perhaps the biggest yet. An elaborate hidden camera sting in the Netherlands, arranged by Dutch reporter Peter de Vries, caught Joran van der Sloot on tape with a man named Patrick who had gained his trust.


Van der Sloot not only said he was with Natalee when she collapsed on a beach, but that he had a friend with a boat get rid of her body. For Dave Holloway, watching the show was the most painful moment yet.


Dave Holloway: It was a good thing he-- there was an ocean between us and Holland, because I would have come after him.


Though the tape was difficult to watch, for Natalee's parents it seemed to confirm many things they have believed all along. First and foremost that Joran was with Natalee -- and had something to do with her disappearance.


Beth Holloway: I wanted to come to the TV and kill him. I wanted to peel his skin off his face. Second, that her body was, indeed, dumped at sea.


Tim Miller: You know, I think there's a lot of truth in it. And I think it validates what we've been wanting to do for the last couple of years, and that's search that water. But for Natalee's mother, there was something else about the tape that was particularly revealing.


On the tape, Joran van der Sloot says all of a sudden it was like a scene from a movie, the way Natalee was moving. "Shaking?" his friend asked. "Yes," he answered. When Beth heard van der Sloot describe what happened, she said it not only made sense, it confirmed to her what she had believed from the start.


Beth Holloway: The facts are within 48 hours of Natalee's disappearance, a lead detective asked me if she had a history of epilepsy or seizures. Two and a half years later, the main suspect himself, admits that Natalee -- he felt as if she suffered an epilepsy or seizure. And he even indicates how she's shaking. So, if we look at just that one-- just that one piece, that's one thread out of a lot. Then, I have to say yes, there definitely was some collusion and corruption going on in the early days of Natalee's disappearance. Absolutely.

Excuses From Corrupt Morons

However, according to the prosecutor's office it's standard procedure to ask if a missing person might have a seizure disorder. Police and prosecution officials declined on-camera interviews, but have consistently denied that there was any corruption, collusion or mishandling of the investigation. The director of Aruba's hotel and tourism association says everyone wishes the Holloway case had been treated more urgently in the first 48 hours, but that police wrongdoing was certainly not an issue.


Rob Smith: In fact, quite the opposite, you know, our island is very focused on tourism, so we've put a tremendous amount of effort into solving this case, millions and millions of dollars from our police budget have been focused on nothing but bringing resolution for the family. Joran van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers insist they had nothing to do with Natalee's disappearance or death. And when it comes to that videotape, van der Sloot claims he was lying, impaired by marijuana. After the hidden camera footage aired, prosecutors sought to arrest Joran van der Sloot again but judges denied the request.


Joseph Tacopina (van der Sloot's lawyer): For two courts to deny his rearrest shows you the value, the evidenciary value of this tape, which is none.


Joseph Tacopina: Joran's story, over 20 hours that he was taped, is disprovable by fact, disprovable in its inconsistencies internally, and incredible because he was under the influence of narcotics when he was making those statements.

Not Giving Up Joran and Paulus!

Dave Holloway: That search will continue. They have the capability to find something as small as a quarter on the ocean floor. I mean, that's how sophisticated this equipment is. Today Natalee Holloway would be 21 years old, a junior in college, phoning home to chat about friends or boys or maybe a biology test she'd aced that afternoon. Instead, she is gone. Her final resting place, a mystery.


And so her parents keep searching, hoping that somewhere off the coast of Aruba, a boat called the Persistence, may bring them an answer -- and peace.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23301056/