This Can’t Be Good For Tourism, Where’s Natalee Holloway

For an Island paradise that prides itself on sandy beaches and a constant trade wind, the last thing they would want is bad publicity of an unsafe island. However, An Alabama high school student, Natalee Holloway, disappeared during her graduation trip to Aruba.

Natalee Holloway, 18, was among 125 graduating seniors from Mountain Brook High School, near Birmingham, on a five-day trip to the Caribbean island.

She was last seen getting into a vehicle and leaving a nightclub in the capital, Oranjestad, before dawn on Monday, deputy police chief Gerold Dompig said. She did not show up for her group’s return flight later in the day.

“We went to check in for our airplane, and she wasn’t there, and she’s been missing since then,” classmate Jay Weinacker said.

Having lived and worked there, people really need to understand that island’s like Aruba have their fair share of crime as well. Once you are away from the hotels and in Oranjestad it is no different than any other city in the US. Sometimes even worse.

Aruba police said Wednesday that they had questioned and released three local men who said they dropped the teenager off at her hotel late Sunday night. Officials said the girl’s parents were unable to spot her on a hotel surveillance tape.