The Natalee Holloway Wall of Hope – Part 3

We will be posting pictures taken at the Natalee Holloway Wall of Hope , which is hosted at the Mountain Brook Community Church, throughout the weekend. Please click on the pictures to see them in full size. The full size of each is almost one megabyte, so if you are dial up they may take a while to download.

Title Plaque

Peace Plaque

Gifts of Hope

These pictures were taken by some of our discussion board members who go by the name of PairofDivers. Thank you very much for sending them in.

Wow Diario, How do you really Feel?

A translated article from Today’s Diario. This is not supposed to be an editorial but you could not prove it by the context of the article. I would think that an investigative newspaper like Diario would and has printed articles questioning the investigation and the lack of leads in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway. The Diario and Jossy Mansur have made great strides in their own investigations and financing of some of the searches. The below article just seem to be very odd as compared to the participation of Diario itself.

What I find most troubling is the following statement from this article:

“This almost certainly not the case, as more groups want to come search on our island, and let us not forget that there are groups who are after the reward money and will come to also try their luck.”

That is what they think this is about? If a non-profit organization actually finds Natalee I have to believe they are bound by financial rules that state how any such reward money is dealt with. It is sad that this is the view put out to the Aruban people as to why people come and help the families search for Natalee Holloway. Many people volunteer their time away from their lives and careers to help with no chance of this “try your luck” theme that has been put forward. One would then ask the question to the writer of this article and Dairio; if you solves the case and found Natalee Holloway, what would you do with the money?

For many following this case and who have participated in the efforts to help the Holloway’s & Twitty’s gain closure, this has only been about trying to help. To reference all of the failures and failed leads serves no purpose. This is not about what has been done and failed it should be about what more can be done to succeed. Every lead had to be looked into because one never knows which one may be THE ONE that solves the mystery.

The other comment I find rather conveniently inflammatory is the following:

“What they were good at was to discredit our island and they questioned our dignity of our people.”

No one discredits the dignity of your people. It has been said over and over again that there are 3 or 4 people that everyone has a question about, not the Aruban people. However, is it any wonder why Arubans may feel like they do when the most read paper on Aruba prints a story like this? In my opinion it is rather irresponsible. From personal experience the Aruban people I have met over the years and the ones most recently I have come to know are great people. They opened their homes to me and even more to the point we have developed friendships as if we have known each other for years.

Maybe Diaro if you wish to complain about the bad press that you claim comes from the American media, you may first want to look in the mirror and check your own pages out first. There is a big difference between questioning authority, the investigation and the Government participation and making a blanket statement regarding all Arubans. One would almost think that this newspaper never printed one word questioning any of the ways in which this investigation has been handled. That would hardly be the case.

I find this article one of the most puzzling and troubling that I have seen especially when having personally spoken to Jossy Mansur himself. My hopes are that he will discuss this in the not too distant future.

Saturday 13 august DIARIO page 13

“More Search Teams Can Be Expected on Aruba”
In the disappearance case of Natalee Holloway.

Oranjestad (AAN): During the almost 80 days of investigation in the case of Natalee Holloway, all sorts of resources have been used to localize the body of the disappeared teenager, either alive or dead.

The arrival of the new group of Florida with the two dogs, Astro and Rhino, brought the question if this is the last resort to localize the young girl.

Detention of the two security guards, after that the three young teenagers, of which two have received their freedom, and now one is still under continuous interrogation, didn’t give any result.

Investigators from the Netherlands came and FBI from the US to do an investigation, and nothing has helped as yet.

Sophisticated equipment was brought that were used in a helicopter to fly in the west and northwest area of our island to detect heat or a buried human body, which didn’t give any results.

From the US the Equusearch team came that also didn’t achieve anything, nor the private detective that the family brought and worked illegally on our island didn’t achieve anything in their investigation.

All the while, [Aruban] police force and Aruban investigators and Judicial deports received blow after blow from the “experts” almost every night on American television and who do not know what they are talking about regarding Aruba or our legal system.

What they were good at was to discredit our island and they questioned our dignity of our people.

It went so far that the Netherlands sent some F-16 to fly and investigate, what also doesn’t have much credibility on our island, seeing as when they left after two days of flying they disappeared and no one heard anything else about this presumed investigation.

A gardener came forward who saw the young men in the morning after the disappearance of Natalee, in the car in the vicinity of Racket Club, and this alleged witness also disappeared like the F-16s.

Another witness came forward who allegedly saw movements at the Dump and later could not indicate with clarity what he saw and where he saw it, and caused that again the Dump was being dug up, without any results.

Today a Florida group came to contribute their efforts. The questions is if they are the last resort.

This almost certainly not the case, as more groups want to come search on our island, and let us not forget that there are groups who are after the reward money and will come to also try their luck.

Indications are thus that the Florida group with their equipment and two dogs, we can expect arrival in the coming weeks of other groups to continue the search

Scared Monkeys Caption Contest

The Scared Monkeys Caption Contest.

How to Play

1. Go to our discussion board, go the the Monkey Lounge, and find the thread CAPTION CONTEST.

2. Enter your caption for this picture.

3. We will close the contest at 9 PM Monday.

Thats it! Have fun with it. Make our Day…

Rescue International Wants to Send Search & Rescue Dogs back to Aruba

While I was in Aruba helping search for Natalee Holloway with Texas EquuSearch, one of the many search teams that I met was members of Rescue International. Bruce Barton, Dale and search canine Ebby performed searches at the landfill, the Bird Sanctuary, the abandoned Atlantis Hotel, on the beaches and at the dunes while in Aruba. They are looking to return to Aruba to further help the cause; however, they do need help in their efforts. Many if not all of the hotels do not allow dogs to stay in them as this is a tourists island. If anyone has any connections or information that could help them in this matter please contact them at: director@rescueinternational.org or email red@scaredmonkeys.com and I will forward them the information. Also, if anyone knows of individuals who may have houses for rent in Aruba as well.

Bruce Barton sent me an email stating that they hope to go back to Aruba as soon as possible to help in the efforts. Also, Rescue International is asking for donations to help fund another trip to Aruba to help search for Natalee Holloway. If you have any questions regarding their searches, their organization or donations they can be contacted directly. Thank you.

Formed in 1985 Rescue International (RI) is a nonprofit, volunteer association of people, response teams and companies that provide special search, rescue, and recovery services and products to requesting agencies free of charge. RI’s educational programs are based on a foundation of experienced instructors teaching students skills and providing information derived from hands on experience and supported with a written program guide and/or manual. RI has a number of Search and Rescue Training Programs available. RI’s canine programs will help train SAR Canine handlers and their dog to reach a minimum Canine Training Standard for each area of operational ability. Based in Stroudsburg, PA., RI members and resources have responded to many of the major disasters in the past 15 years, including the 1987 Bridgeport, CT – Apartment Building Collapse, 1988 Earthquake in Armenia USSR, Hurricanes Hugo-Andrew-Opal, 1999 flooding in Boundbrook, NJ , World Trade Center Disaster Recovery Operations and many regional rescues. The Funds: NOTE RI is a non-profit rescue and educational organization but is not a charity and donations are not tax deductible per the IRS code, its only a act of passion and thanks to the handlers, canines and team members that are on the line or are going to be there when needed.

The Natalee Holloway Wall of Hope – Part 2

We will be posting pictures taken at the Natalee Holloway Wall of Hope , which is hosted at the Mountain Brook Community Church, throughout the weekend. Please click on the pictures to see them in full size. The full size of each is almost one megabyte, so if you are dial up they may take a while to download.

These two posts are close enough that if you get the full sized image you can read the comments easily that people have written.

Cross and Comments

Decorations

These pictures were taken by some of our discussion board members who go by the name of PairofDivers. Thank you very much for sending them in.