ORANJESTAD, Aruba (4 July 2005) -- From the top of the Hooiberg hill you can see all of the tiny island of Aruba, which is little more than a sliver of white sand set in the sparkling blue of the Caribbean. But Jim Greene, perched half-way up, is not here as a sun-seeking tourist. He is looking for a body. Greene, who has come all the way from Colorado, has joined dozens of American volunteers scouring Aruba for teenager Natalee Holloway. "This place would make a good dumping ground," said Greene grimly, looking down from the Hooiberg at Red Cross workers surveying two murky ponds below him. The quest has become an American obsession. Holloway, a blonde Southern belle freshly graduated from high school, has been missing on the Dutch island for a month. Her presumed murder has terrified US parents, risked economic disaster for Aruba and thrown a spotlight on a seamy underside of crime, drugs and drinking on an island that markets itself as "paradise". Now this little slice of heaven has turned ugly. In the run-up to President George Bush's speech on Iraq last week it was Holloway's face, not the President's, which ruled the US airwaves. Her story has all the classic ingredients: a beautiful victim, a playboy suspect, accusations of corruption in the highest places and an implacable amateur detective in Holloway's mother, Beth Twitty. But behind the headlines lurks an unpleasant media tale. It is how a young woman's tragedy has been shamelessly used to boost the ratings in cable TV's never-ending battles. And the awful truth that Natalee's death would not have rocked America so much if she had been black. Or Asian. Or poor. Or a boy. Natalee Holloway was embarked on an American rite of passage that mimics the annual trek by British teenagers to the beaches of Spain and Greece. By the planeload, fresh-faced Americans head to the Caribbean in search of sunny skies, the opposite sex and as much drink as they can handle. At Carlos'n Charlie's bar last week in Aruba's capital of Oranjestad, the rite was in full swing. Barely dressed young teens gyrated on the dance floor and beer was sold -- literally -- by the yard in long, fluted glasses. A month ago this is where Holloway was last seen alive on the final day of her graduation holiday. It was 1.30am and she drunkenly climbed into a car with three young men: Dutch teen Joran van der Sloot and two Aruban brothers, Deepak and Satish Kalpoe. That is all we know for sure. The boys, all now in jail, told police they drove to a lighthouse beauty spot in the north of the island. Van der Sloot and Holloway, who had been kissing in the backseat, were then let out at a nearby beach. Van der Sloot says he walked Holloway down the beach and then said goodbye. He headed home. Holloway was never seen again. That is the simple version. But the three originally claimed to have let Holloway off at her hotel, the Holiday Inn. They said she stumbled into the arms of a hotel security guard. But another story emerged after two of the inn's guards were arrested. Now it seems the Kalpoe brothers did let van der Sloot and Holloway out of the car together. What happened next is a mystery. Early in the investigation, Aruba's deputy police commissioner, Gerold Dompig, said one of the boys admitted "something bad" had happened to Holloway. Since then the three's stories have shifted as regularly as Aruba's sand dunes. But the shocking fact is that the three were only identified as suspects due to the efforts of Beth Twitty, who descended on the island from Alabama like an avenging angel. She interviewed Holloway's holiday friends to find out her last movements. She claimed to have swiftly identified van der Sloot from video obtained in a local casino. She confronted the boy and told the authorities that the three had been the last people to see her daughter alive. Only then, many days after Holloway had been reported missing, did the Aruban police arrest the boys. Such inaction has smacked of a mix of incompetence, Holloway's family says. Van der Sloot's father, Paul, is a respected judge on the island. The family is part of the island's social elite. Joran, despite being 17, was a regular in the casinos. He and the Kalpoe brothers are well known on the island's social scene, regulars at bars frequented by the young Americans. | | Natalee Holloway Paul van der Sloot denies there has been a cover-up but agrees he briefed his son on the legal implications of being a suspect in Holloway's disappearance. Aruba's chief prosecutor, Karin Janssen, claims Van der Sloot said he told the boy: "Without a body, there is no case." The elder van der Sloot has also been arrested, but was later released after several days of questioning. Further confusion arose on Friday after Janssen reversed previous denials and claimed that the boys had been charged with murder more than three weeks ago. She said the news had not been released to protect the feelings of Holloway's family during the search. Government spokesperson Ruben Trapenberg also faced questions as to why late last week two of the three boys were transported together, apparently giving them the opportunity to compare or arrange their stories. Trapenberg said it had been done to monitor secretly what they might tell each other. It is an unconventional way of doing justice. Suddenly Aruba's paradise has started to look tarnished. Race has also reared its head. Much has been made of the delays in arresting any suspects -- including the van der Sloots -- while the two security guards, who were both black, were picked up swiftly. It has also cast a spotlight on the island's nightlife, rife with copious booze and fuelled by illicit drugs. Dealers lurk outside some bars, whispering to passers-by to see if they want to score. Rumours claim that among the clientele of Carlos'n Charlie's are those overfond of the use of "date rape" drugs in spiked drinks. For the Aruban authorities it has been a public relations disaster. |
