10 Years Later: Searching in Aruba for Natalee Holloway … The Search of the Aruba Landfill in 2005 for Missing Natalee Holloway (PICS)

THE LANDFILL SEARCH FOR NATALEE HOLLOWAY … PROBABLY ONE OF THE BEST AND WORST THINGS I HAVE EVER DONE …

On July 23, 2005 Scared Monkeys conducted an interactive, town hall style  on-line interview with Tim Miller of Texas Equusearch, the non-profit search team that had been searching for Natalee Holloway in Aruba since she had gone missing on May 30, 2005.  Texas Equusearch had been flooded with emails of encouragement and tips from the many followers and readers at Scared Monkeys that Tim granted the interview. Interactive web interviews are commonplace today, needless to say they were not in 2005 and the logistics to make it happen was nothing short of a miracle. Following the interview as I thanked Tim Miller on the phone and for TES’s great work in their search for Natalee Holloway, Mr. Miller did an amazing thing … he asked if I wanted to go to Aruba and help search for Natalee. Once we cleared up some logistics and made sure that we could pay for the ticket to Aruba ourselves so not to impose on TES or have them divert any funds from the search on our account, we let it be known that Red was going to Aruba to search with Texas Equusearch.

Returning to Aruba, a place where my family had vacationed since the 1970′s, long before the many high-rise hotels and wining vacations there on game shows. Aruba, a place where I got to know so many families, who treated us as one of their own and a place where I had even dated an Aruban girl, who’s family was pretty well connected. Talk about your long distance relationship, before the days of social media and Facetime or Skype. A place where I hung out with more locals than tourists. Aruba, a place where I lived and worked as well. Now I was going back to help find Natalee Holloway.

I have to admit i was not sure what I was getting into and was not sure which searches I would be doing, land, water, both? I had told Tim that I was going to be a member of the search team first and reporting on the story second. Little did I realize than just a couple days before going to Aruba that that I would be helping search in the Aruba landfill as The witness claimed he saw the men dumping the body on the afternoon of June 1. The following article discusses the landfill search on such a generic and antiseptic way. Let me just say it was far from that and maybe one of the most rewarding and disgusting thing I have ever done in my life.

Picture via Scared Monkeys – 2005

A volunteer group searching for Natalee Holloway dug through a landfill for a third day Sunday but found no clues, while the missing teen’s mother left Aruba for the first time since her daughter disappeared two months ago.

Crews equipped with trained dogs, a bulldozer and a tractor hoe dug 15 holes in a landfill where a witness claims he saw men dump and cover a female body two days after Holloway disappeared, said Robert Cook, spokesman for the volunteer Texas EquuSearch, which is coordinating the landfill effort.

Searches at the landfill Friday and Saturday also produced no sign of Holloway.

THE LANDFILL SEARCH FOR NAYALEE HOLLOWAY.

From July 30, 2005 … Red searched the landfill from 10 AM till 3 PM. He said it was one of the foulest and god awful smelling places he has ever been in. For three days we searched the landfill and for every hole that was dug to a certain level, some one then had to get into it to do a more fine search with rakes and shovels. The picture below taken by a digital camera, although it looks grainy. That would be because of the constant Aruba trade wind blowing all the sand and crap in the dump around.

During the landfill search, I not only searched for Natalee Holloway with the members of Texas Equusearch, I also was digging next to her dad, Dave Holloway. I thought to myself as we were digging in the worst filth and the most disgusting stench that I had ever experienced in my life, I so wanted to help this man and find his daughter. Then I thought to myself in the next second, it might not be the best thing to happen when he was present. It was one thing to take part in this search, another thing to find human remains in a landfill, but quite a different thing to have to see a grown man break down in uncontrollable tears and emotions if we actually found her. This was the roller-coaster of thoughts and emotions that took place ever day as we searched for Natalee Holloway.

This search will forever be seared in my mind, body and soul … as previously stated, one of the best and worst things I have ever done in my life.

Picture via Scared Monkeys – 2005

Unlike most landfills in America where those in charge can locate and track what was dumped where and when, Aruba had no such tracking system. Imagine that. Instead, we had to go by the witness as to what area of the landfill he thought he saw the vehicle and where the dump site was. All the while the witness covered his face for fear of being recognized and to prevent the foulness from getting into his nose and mouth. So how did we know how far down to dig or where to dig holes? At a certain point we got in the holes and looked that the daily news papers that were thrown away to see what date they were to find the date just before May 30, 2005. That was the methodology.

Picture via Scared Monkeys – 2005

And for every hole that was dug like the one above, when we got to what we thought was close enough to the correct proximity of time, some one had to get into the hole and comb throw it to see if we made needed to dig deeper or had to use a rake, shovel and your hands to search. That would be yours truly in the blue shirt in the hole.

Picture via Scared Monkeys – 2005

And all the while Red and the members of Texas Equusearch were in the landfill in some of the most foul and hideous conditions trying to help Beth and Dave find their daughter on a witness tip we were following up on, the media was kicking their feet up from a distance trying to get a picture with their telephoto lenses.

Picture via Scared Monkeys – 2005

Or better yet, a close up of the media getting a sun tan while we are in the landfill busting our butts to get some closure for the Holloway/Twitty/Reynold’s family.

Picture via Scared Monkeys – 2005

Picture via Scared Monkeys – 2005

Picture via Scared Monkeys – 2005

Picture via Scared Monkeys – 2005

3 Months Old Janna Rivera Missing Since 5/29/15 in Indianapolis, IN (Update: Authorities Don’t Believe the Baby is Alive, Baby Placed in Dumpster)

3 month old Janna Rivera has been missing since Friday, May 29, 2015 in Indianapolis, Indiana. The original 911 call was placed around 8 AM Friday from a woman saying the child was missing and could be dead. Authorities searched for the missing baby on Friday within a five mile radius of the 4100 block of Candy Apple Boulevard. Sadly, the police believe that the baby is dead.  WISH-TV8 is reporting that investigators questioned a person of interest in connection to the disappearance of Janna Rivera, but they said he is not cooperating. The police announced around 3:50 p.m. that the search had been suspended after a five mile radius had been combed through.

The father has been named a person of interest in the case.

Rescuers spent eight hours searching for the baby within a five mile radius of the 4100 block of Candy Apple Boulevard.

Detectives cleared the scene Friday night after spending all day gathering evidence inside of the home where they believe Janna Rivera was last seen.

“We’re looking for a three-month-old child and that’s the utmost concern for us,” said officer Christopher Wilburn, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.

The search began when IMPD received a call from Janna Rivera’s mother early Friday morning. She told them that her daughter was missing and could be dead.

UPDATE I: A spokesperson for the police department Richard Riddle said, “At this point we’re three days out from the baby’s disappearance. Based upon that, we do not believe that baby Janna is still alive.”

IMPD Lt. Richard Riddle said that they believe the 3 month old baby is no longer alive and the father remains a person of interest, but no arrests have been made. The authorities believe the infant was placed in a dumpster on Friday.

Investigators continued their search Sunday morning at a landfill where 3-month-old Janna Rivera may have ended up after she was put into a dumpster on the northeast side of Indianapolis.

Sunday morning, a spokesperson for the police department Richard Riddle said, “At this point we’re three days out from the baby’s disappearance. Based upon that, we do not believe that baby Janna is still alive.”

Riddle said her biological father has cooperated with the department and has led police to believe the body was put into the dumpster. He expects investigators to continue searching the landfill for hours.

UPDATE II: Indianapolis Police Search Landfill For Missing Infant.

Dozens of officers in white gear poked through the South Side Landfill on Sunday following a day of heavy rains searching for Janna Rivera. Her mother reported her missing from their home on the city’s northeast side Friday. Indianapolis police spokesman Lt. Richard Riddle says officers spent part of Saturday searching a trash transfer station, but found nothing.

Riddle says statements made by the child’s father have led investigators to believe the child died on Friday and her body was placed in a trash container.

Police look for Janna’s remains at “South Side Landfill”.

The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department moved their search for missing 3-month-old Janna Rivera to a landfill on the southwest side of Indianapolis Sunday morning, but they suspended the search around 1 p.m. Sunday afternoon.

Police were prompted to look for Janna’s remains at “South Side Landfill” after the baby’s biological father tipped police that she was placed in a dumpster on the city’s east side. “We believe that the baby was placed into a dumpster on the east side of Indianapolis on Friday morning,” said IMPD Lt. Richard Riddle. “That trash from the dumpster was transferred to a transfer station out in Mount Comfort. A search was done in Mount Comfort yesterday with negative results.”

Two People Stabbed Sunday Morning at Tufts University at the Delta Tau Delta Fraternity House

NECN is reporting that two people have been stabbed at Tufts University in Medford, Mass at the Delta Tau Delta frat house.  Tufts officials had asked students to seek shelter and lock their doors around 5 AM Sunday while police responded to reports of an assault. The conditions of the stabbing victims are unknown. Tufts spokeswoman Kim Thurler says the victims are not affiliated with Tufts and that the incident “appears to be non-random.”. Currently, the police have no suspects in custody.

Police on the Tufts University campus in Medford, Massachusetts, are investigating an apparent stabbing, according to the university.

The incident occurred early Sunday morning at the Delta Tau Delta fraternity at 98 Professors Row, a street that runs through the campus.

According to police, two victims are being treated for stab wounds at a local hospital. Tufts says the victims are not affiliated with the university.

The suspect is at large. Police initially ordered a shelter-in-place while they conducted a search of the area, but later lifted the restriction and said that the crime was not a random act.

Tufts University is posting updates on its Twitter feed.

UPDATE I: The Shelter in place’ order lifted in Tufts stabbings.

A shelter-in-place order has been lifted at Tufts University in Medford this morning after two people were apparently stabbed “near the campus,” the school reported on Twitter.

The incident occurred at the Delta Tau Delta fraternity on Professors Row, involving people who were not affiliated with the campus, the university stated on Twitter, calling the incident “non-random.”

Somerville Police Deputy Chief Paul Trant had no immediate information on the victims or their conditions, but said no arrests have been made and the investigation is active and ongoing.

“We don’t believe it was a random act of violence,” Trant said. ‘We believe the parties were known to each other.”

Students and staff were told at approximately 5:30 a.m. to stay inside and lock their doors until further notice. At approximately 8 a.m. the university tweeted that people could “return to their normal activities.”

Beau Biden, the Son of Vice President’s Son, Dies at Age 46 of Brain Cancer

Beau Biden,  the son of Vice President Biden and former state attorney general of Delaware, died Saturday after battling brain cancer at the age of 46. He is survived by his wife, Hallie, and two children. Joseph Robinette “Beau” Biden III had battled brain cancer for several years and underwent surgery in Houston in 2013 and then followed a normal course of radiation and chemotherapy. In 2010,  Biden, suffered a mild stroke. Biden had been given a clean bill of health in 2013; however, Beau had a recurrence this spring in 2015 and began an aggressive treatment and was admitted to Walter Reed this month. Sadly, he has lost his battle with this insidious disease.

Beau Biden, a major in the Delaware Army National Guard’s Judge Advocate General Corps, became one of his state’s most popular public figures and had been considered the front-runner for the 2016 race to become the state’s next governor, but in August 2013 he was admitted to one of the world’s most renowned cancer treatment centers, MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, to begin his fight with the disease.

Beau Biden became a national political star in 2008 after delivering a stirring introduction of his father at the Democratic National Convention in Denver the night Joe Biden accepted the nomination for vice president. A little more than a month later, Beau Biden deployed to Iraq and served there for one year — except for a trip home in January 2009 to see his father take the oath of office as vice president.

Beau Biden was awarded the Bronze Star.

A statement from Vice President Joe Biden announcing the death of his son Beau Biden:

It is with broken hearts that Hallie, Hunter, Ashley, Jill and I announce the passing of our husband, brother and son, Beau, after he battled brain cancer with the same integrity, courage and strength he demonstrated every day of his life.

The entire Biden family is saddened beyond words. We know that Beau’s spirit will live on in all of us—especially through his brave wife, Hallie, and two remarkable children, Natalie and Hunter.

Beau’s life was defined by service to others. As a young lawyer, he worked to establish the rule of law in war-torn Kosovo. A major in the Delaware National Guard, he was an Iraq War veteran and was awarded the Bronze Star. As Delaware’s Attorney General, he fought for the powerless and made it his mission to protect children from abuse.

More than his professional accomplishments, Beau measured himself as a husband, father, son and brother. His absolute honor made him a role model for our family. Beau embodied my father’s saying that a parent knows success when his child turns out better than he did.

In the words of the Biden family: Beau Biden was, quite simply, the finest man any of us have ever known.

Joe & Beau Biden – Our condolences to the Biden family

On a personal note, I had a sister that passed away far too young from brain cancer and my prayers go out to the Biden family that they find peace. Also, I am no fan of the political policies, beliefs an agenda of Vice President Joe Biden and Lord only knows we make fun of him because he gives us so much material to do so, but today my heart goes out to this man as no one person should ever have to experience the death and pain that this man has suffered.  In December 1972, Joe Biden received a phone that his wife, Neilia, and three children had been in a horrible car crash on the way home from purchasing the family Christmas tree. His wife and daughter had died, and his two sons, Beau and Hunter, were critically injured. Now tragically, VP Biden has lost Beau to cancer. Our condolences go out to the Biden family.

His wife, Neilia, and three children had been in a horrible car crash on the way home from purchasing the family Christmas tree. His wife and daughter had died, and his two sons, Beau and Hunter, were clinging to life. Having just turned 30, Joe Biden raced home to Wilmington and considered never taking the oath of office.

Through the support of other senators, Biden agreed to be sworn in the next month at the hospital bedside of Beau and Hunter. Eventually venturing to Washington, Biden decided that he would take the train every morning from Wilmington and return every night.

“As a single parent, he decided to be there to put us to bed, to be there when we woke from a bad dream, to make us breakfast, so he’d travel to and from Washington, four hours a day,” Beau Biden told the Denver crowd on Aug. 27, 2008, in the speech that introduced the world to a story that his father had told many times.

Part 1: It Has Been 10 Years Since Natalee Holloway Went Missing, No Body … No Crime … And No One Tried, But We Know Damn Well Who Is Responsible, Don’t We Joran Van der Sloot?

ITS HARD TO BELIEVE IT HAS BEEN 10 YEARS …

May 30, 2005 … Alabama teen Natalee Holloway has gone missing in Aruba while on a class trip with her fellow Mountain Brook classmates to celebrate their graduation from high school, to begin their college careers and the rest of their lives. Or so they all thought. All of these young teens with their whole lives ahead of them, just celebrating one more time together before they went their separate ways in what was supposed to be a safe vacation surrounded by sand, sun and the sea. Like so many classes before them, a visit to Aruba was supposed to be the one last high school fling. Sadly, for Natalee Holloway it would be the one last thing she ever did in life, never to attend college, never to have the rest of her life. Enter Joran Van der Sloot, Deepak Kalpoe and Satish Kalpoe and everyone’s lives would be changed forever and not for the better.

Natalee Holloway and friends in Aruba 2005

The first post Scared Monkeys ever wrote on this missing persons case was entitled, ‘This Can’t Be Good For Tourism, Where’s Natalee Holloway’. At first glance, one night think it was rather crass and insensitive. But having visited Aruba since the 1970′s, having friends on the small Caribbean Island, even having dated a beautiful Aruba girl in my teens, and having lived and worked on Aruba, I pretty much knew what the prime concern would be for “One Happy Island” and that was to save its tourism industry at all cost. Even if it meant trying to push the dirt under the rug and hide things in the closet. The cover-up, collusion, corruption and cronyism would only be made worse in the case of missing Natalee Holloway when the individual last seen with the beautiful blond Alabama teen was Joran Van der Sloot, a boy of Dutch privilege who’s father was a judge in waiting with so many connections legally, politically and with law enforcement that all signs pointed toward the Holloway, Twitty and Reynold’s family being given the run around from the very beginning. I say this prior to ever having researched the case in depth or having talked to or met any of the family members. From experience, I knew the family was in for a hell of a time from past experiences on Aruba where the most simple of things are made into some of the most exasperating efforts in futility. I knew that Dave Holloway and Beth Twitty were in for a hell of a roller-coaster experience.

No one will ever convince me otherwise that the disappearance of Natalee Holloway and the subsequent search and investigation in Aruba was obstructed on two levels, one from the Van der Sloot family and Paulus Van der Sloot with his connections to prevent his son from going to prison and two, on a police, prosecution and government level to attempt to sweep this under the sand and save their economy that depended upon American tourism.

18 year old Natalee Holloway went missing on Aruba and was last seen leaving an Aruba bar, Carlos N’ Charlies, with three boys, Joran Van der Sloot, Deepak Kalpoe and Satish Kalpoe. The news of Natalee’s disappearance was not made public to the adults in attendance with the teens until the following day when it was time to head off for the airport to leave. Natalee was missing. From the outset, something was very wrong in how this case was being investigated. The Aruba police had the mindset that Natalee was just off having fun and she would return because this happens all the time. REALLY? That might have been some what okay reasoning for Aruba LE had any one of the three people Natalee was last with were missing too. However, they were not, they were already lying. What changed this case, brought it to the forefront and escalated it to new heights that we have never seen before in a missing persons case was that Aruba and the powers that be never imagines that the Holloway/Twitty family would have arrived so quickly on Aruba and hit the ground running trying to find Natalee. The Holloway/Twitty crew were doing the police and detective work that the Aruba LE should have already had done. Like I said, from the outset something smelled to the high heavens, and it was not just inept and incompetent police work, some was so bad it was obvious it had to be intentional.

Carlos N’ Charlies 2005

The lies begin from the three amigos, Joran, Deepak and Satish … From the beginning of dealing with the three individuals who were last seen with Natalee, the lies were flowing. They stated that they dropped her off at her hotel, the Holiday Inn after having left Carlos n’ Charlies. How can the last three people ever to see Natalee not be considered suspects? especially when video surveillance tape showed that the three had never done any such thing. Wouldn’t that or shouldn’t that have been the first thing that Aruba LE should have checked? Instead, the family had to do the investigative work.

Holloway was last seen by friends getting into a vehicle and leaving the Carlos and Charlie’s nightclub in the capital of Oranjestad  before dawn Monday.

Police questioned and released three Aruban men who said they dropped Holloway off early Monday at the Holiday Inn, where she had been staying about 3 miles from the capital of Oranjestad, said police assistant inspector Jules Sambo. The three were not suspects, he said.

MORE LIES … BLAME IT ON THE BLACK GUYS.

On June 5th, 2005 two black men were arrested in connection with the disappearance of Natalee Holloway. Why, because they were black. How racist is that? The former security guards, Mickey John, 30, and Abraham Jones, worked for the vacant Allegro hotel, two blocks from the Holiday Inn where Holloway stayed. How does anyone arrest two black men for a crime when the last people seen with a missing person walk free? Thus, we see from the outset the mindset in Aruba to blame this on anyone, two hapless black men, just because Aruba can. And they might have gotten away with it had Beth Holloway not come to their rescue and state, they were innocent.

The 2005 Arrest of Mickey John

A judge ruled Wednesday there was sufficient cause to keep holding two former hotel security guards in connection with the disappearance of an Alabama high school honors student.

The decision means authorities may hold Nick John, 30, and Abraham Jones, 28, for nearly four months while prosecutors investigate possible murder and kidnapping charges in the disappearance of 18-year-old Natalee Holloway, defense attorneys said. Neither man has been formally charged.

The two men were arrested Sunday on suspicion of first- and second-degree murder and capital kidnapping, the latter of which is invoked when a kidnapping victim is killed, according to court-appointed defense attorneys Noraina Pietersz and Chris Lejuez.

Later in the case, I had the opportunity to meet Mickey John in the States through the aid of FOM and talk to him as to what happened, his involvement, if any, and his opinions on the case. After talking to him for 5 minutes it became obvious he had nothing to do with Natalee’s disappearance and what just an easy patsy to blame it on. Was Micky John a choir boy, of course not, but he was hardly a murderer. John told me that he would never make any type of statement, especially in Aruba fro fear he would be arrested again for no reason. What had always bothered me to this day was how did the Aruba LE, prosecution and judiciary allow the last three people ever to be seen with Natalee Holloway go from persons of interest and prime suspects to witnesses? From 6/8/05, Attorney general spokeswoman Vivian Van Der Biezan also told a news conference that three “persons of interest” who were questioned and released last week were considered “witnesses,” not suspects. HUH? They dropped the dime on Micky John and Abraham Jones and the Aruba legal brain-trust fell for it hook, line and sinker. Of course the fact that Joran Van der Sloot’s father, Paulus, was a lawyer and a judge in waiting with his many connections had nothing to do with this attempted cover up and frame job. It would not be until June 13, 2005 that Abraham Jones and Mickey John was released from jail.

Abraham Jones Released!

This announcement was telling on two fronts, one, justice finally prevailed in that these two black security guards were finally let out of jail as they had no involvement in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway and the other would be something that would become a common occurrence through out the investigation in Aruba. The second interest fact was that Scared Monkeys broke the news of the release of the two security guards before the AP. Needless to say that prompted many news outlets to contact us and ask how that was possible. This became one of the events in the case that prompted the news outlets to track SM, not the other way around. That’s what happens when you have people on the ground and know others with connections that supplied info and data on a case that was so fluid.

On June 6th, volunteers in Aruba searched for missing Natalee Holloway. About 700 volunteers joined police, soldiers and FBI agents on Monday, combing scrubland and beaches on Aruba’s southeastern tip in an unprecedented search for an Alabama teenager who vanished a week ago on a trip to the Dutch Caribbean island. The Aruba government gave their civil servant employees the day off to help search for Natalee. However, only about 18% of government employees showed to search on what was the biggest story to hit Aruba since their independence from Holland. Also, who did not search … Joran Van der Sloot, Deepak Kalpoe or Satish Kalpoe.

It would not be until June 8, 2005 that the three boys, Joran Van der Sloot, Deepak Kalpoe and Satish Kalpoe would be arrested by Aruba authorities in connection with the disappearance of Natalee Holloway. However, Natalee went missing on May 30, all this time for these three to get their stories synched together and to be coached by Joran’s father, Paulus Van der Sloot. Eight days go by and the individuals who were last seen with a missing person were allowed to sanitize, erase, get rid of and clean up all loose ends with the help of their master white-washer, Paulus.

Aruban police arrested three more suspects in the case of the missing American honors student Thursday, the attorney general said.

Attorney General Caren Janssen said police arrested three men that police had previously questioned and released in the disappearance of 18-year-old Natalee Holloway.

Authorities have described the three as students – two Surinamese and a native of the Netherlands – who told police they dropped off Holloway at her hotel around 2 a.m. on May 30. Hotel employees, however, say that security cameras did not record her return.