MB Teen Speaks out; NATALEE PALS RACKED WITH GUILT

This little article from the New York Post (you have to register but well worth it) seemed to have snuck in under the radar. From the July 17, 2005 Sunday edition entitled, “NATALEE PALS RACKED WITH GUILT OVER THE DAY THEY SAW HER SLIP AWAY,” Ruth Mc Vay shares her thoughts on Natalee Holloway, that fateful evening and the aftermath. Its starts with this bombshell.

NATALEE HOLLOWAY’S best friends watched helplessly as she climbed into a car with three men she barely knew after a night of partying on the island paradise of Aruba.

And they never saw her again.

Oh boy, after last nights rumblings in the discussion forum after the Greta Van Susteren interview with MB teens, this article is sure to cause some lively discussion as well. I think it may have caused some discussion, raised eye brows and head turning in Mountain Brook, AL as well. What strikes me also as very odd this that the Twitty’s seem to have a very close relationship with Fox News when discussing this story, more so than the other networks. Then to have the New York Post, a sister publication owned by the parent company of Fox do a “questionable” story like this just appears peculiar.

Haunted by that thought and praying daily for her best friend, Ruth McVay, 18, spoke to The Post of the thrilling but finally shocking vacation during which Holloway disappeared, never to be seen of heard from again.

McVay and Holloway shared a bed in the hotel where they and 122 of their high-school buddies and seven chaperone’s went on vacation after graduation. They stayed up at night talking about their futures and their dreams.

On their last night, McVay turned in early while Holloway stayed out dancing with the men who would soon become suspects in her disappearance.

She woke up and realized Holloway was missing.

Many remember Ruth Mc Vay from the interview with Greta Van Susteren’s “On the Record,” June 21, 2005 with fellow classmate Frances Ellen Byrd. (Transcript here).

Other friends told her the story of how her friend got in the car with the strangers.

They said no, they tried to stop her,” McVay said of the friends who watched as Holloway drove away with three guys the girls had met the day before.

It was so unlike Holloway — a straight-A student who graduated near the top of her class and a full-scholarship winner who dreamed of becoming a doctor — to go off with virtual strangers, McVay said.

Ahh? What? These are Natalee’s closets friends and roommates. Just read from the transcripts yourself. From the June 21, 2005 Greta interview:

VAN SUSTEREN: Ruth, did you actually see Natalee leave with Joran from Carlos and Charlie’s?

MCVAY: No, I actually left an hour before the club closed.

VAN SUSTEREN: Either one of you, do you know if any of your friends saw her leave with him?

BYRD: No. If one of our good friends had seen her, we would never have let her get in the car with him, ever. Absolutely not.

Ruth Mc Vay goes on to tell the haunting story that has puzzled so many out there that follow this story of the disappearance of Natalee. Obviously Ruth is describing the events of leaving Carlos & Charlie’s with second hand information as she has already previously stated she left the bar much earlier.

Natalee would never take off with people we didn’t know,” McVay said. “She was my most responsible friend ever.”

Now all McVay and friends can wonder is why — on Holloway’s last night in Aruba, on the trip of a lifetime, surrounded by friends who loved and admired her — why this smart, savvy youngster would go by herself with three near-strangers.

And why her friends could do nothing to protect her.

That moment on May 30 was the last Holloway’s friends saw of her — and the start of a compelling drama that has haunted friends and family and stymied police.

“The million-dollar question is why she got in the car,” McVay told The Post from her Mountain Brook, Ala., home. “It’s the biggest mystery ever.”

But van der Sloot and Holloway were seen dancing and drinking until the bar closed about 1:30 a.m. May 30.

Then Holloway did something that shocked her friends: She jumped into a car with van der Sloot and Surinamese brothers, Satish Kalpoe, 18, and Deepak Kalpoe, 21.

It just didn’t make sense, McVay said. “I know that Natalee is responsible enough to leave on her own,” McVay said.

That brings us back to the June 21 interview on Fox with Greta:

VAN SUSTEREN: Frances, when you left Carlos and Charlie’s, was it just Natalee that was left behind in your group of friends, or was there a bunch of you?

BYRD: No, I don’t know how many people exactly, but there was a lot of people there at closing time, including the local people and all the other people that were in Carlos and Charlie’s that night. And when we all left, there was just a huge group of people waiting outside for taxis, and I never saw her get into that taxi.

Then comes the explanation for the other question that has been nagging people for such a long time. How could they not realize that that Natalee was there. Obviously Ruth had left Carlos n’ Charlie’s early and went to bed as she has stated but what of the other roommates? Then comes the shocking reality the following morning

Later that morning, when McVay woke up, Holloway wasn’t next to her like she’d been every other night during their stay at the Holiday Inn.

“We thought she slept in another room so as not to wake us up,” she said. “We thought she was being polite.” With Holloway’s packed bags and passport untouched and departure time looming, McVay and the group began to panic.

“We started walking down the halls knocking on all the doors,” she said. “We told the chaperon, ‘There’s a problem, she’s not here.’

Please read the entire article it is well worth it. You will have to register to do so. I will leave the analysis and questioning of this article to the readers to discuss in the forums. There are many inconsistencies in this article from what has been stated previous. I will admit is strange that Joran would have made the comment regarding C&C’s that is was a slow/bad night on Sundays and then show. Being a slower night than most though does also play into some questions. I will leave asking these two questions:

1) Who were the last set of friends that Natalee was with when the lights went on at C&C’s and it was time to leave? According to this article,”But van der Sloot and Holloway were seen dancing and drinking until the bar closed about 1:30 a.m. May 30.” Which set of friends saw this when the bar closed? Which best friends “watched helplessly as she climbed into a car”?

2) Although Ruth Mc Vay left early from the bar and went back to the hotel to go to sleep, why was no one concerned at the time that Natalee did not return to the hotel? According to this article Mc Vay was told, “Other friends told her the story of how her friend got in the car with the strangers. “They said no, they tried to stop her,” McVay said of the friends who watched as Holloway drove away with three guys the girls had met the day before. Yet in a previous interview right next to Ruth, Francis Byrd said, “No. If one of our good friends had seen her, we would never have let her get in the car with him, ever. Absolutely not”. Francis Byrd had also alluded in that same interview that she never saw Natalee get in a cab at closing even though she knew Natalee was at C&C’s at closing. Which is fine. However, the question that comes to mind is when everyone returned to the hotel from C&C’s, why did they not notice then that Natalee was no where to be found? I just don’t get it.

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