The Mystery of Natalee… Still ‘Current’
The television news magazine A Current Affair has been doing in-depth coverage of the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Natalee Holloway. Today, I was surprised to receive an e-mail from an assistant for one of their producers requesting the source photo for the image on the right — I was happy to cooperate with that photograph, some key URLs, and a few other pics that might be of use to them.
A Current Affair in the past was accused of being more tabloid than ‘legitimate’ news in style, but their investigating and reporting of events from Aruba has been solid, their emmy-award winning reporter Harris Faulkner also working hand-in-glove with Fox News personalities like Geraldo Rivera and Greta Van Susteren to keep the search for Natalee front-and-center on the national news.
In fact, if you follow the link in the preceding paragraph to the show’s website, you will see that A Current Affair was the first news program to zero in on suspect Joran van der Sloot and find photos and websites relevant to van der Sloot, such as his now-deleted MSN Spaces blog and tickle.com profile.
As the mainstream media, with the possible exception of Fox, begins to move away from this story, it may be up to a show like Current Affair to keep international attention on Aruba, on the investigation. I heard in Geraldo Rivera’s colloquy with Bill O’Reilly on O’Reilly’s show, The O’Reilly Factor tonight that there is apparently anger on the part of officials on Aruba who had to let Paul van der Sloot, Joran’s father, go. It is readily apparent in the news coverage done by Fox and other outlets like MSNBC that the frustration factor in this investigation is much higher than what we Americans customarily deal with. Even with solid sources on the ground in Aruba, our fellow blogger Dan Riehl frequently encounters a good deal of frustration with changing stories, constantly shifting tides of rumor. An example is detailed below in entries by Ian Schwartz linking to Dan’s blog as well as Fox video from the island — how there may, or may not have been a “hit” by search dogs on a quarry near the van der Sloot home today.
There have already been comments on this site that seek to paint this story in terms of American media (crap)-storm versus beleaguered little Aruba and perhaps one still-juvenile dutch national in jail there. While no one is more likely to grow disgusted with our media than Americans themselves, I promise you , for this blogger it doesn’t matter one bit — in fact, the Netherlands and the island of Aruba are normally such safe societies statistically and in reality that this storied civility and safety adds to the interest in the story. To be honest, if Joran was an American kid, say a fellow 17-year-old on that trip with Natalee, I think we’d be much less intrigued and certainly less surprised. It isn’t hypocrisy, if you ask me — we expect a 17, 18, all the way through 60-year-old in our country on any given day to play a part in such a crime. It is something we are sadly accustomed to, here. For me there was initially a surprise factor at work… European-born kids, who are successful students and athletes, with a well-thought-of family, are not typically suspected of this kind of deceit, perhaps murder.
So I guess I feel that the European folks who are placing comments here and filling message boards about this case in their own language with big ugly American rants are more guilty of using the investigation into Natalee Holloway’s disappearance to further their own “damn Yankee” spiels — their “politics”, if you will — than Americans who simply want to know where the hell our girl from Mountain Brook is, who the hell put her there, and why he did it. It got so ugly in the comments on the previous entry I wrote for this blog that some American angrily trotted out the old “if it wasn’t for us you’d all be wearing swastika armbands” argument in a response to a nasty comment from a Nederlander, in reference to the American role in World War II. I appreciate the feeling of wanting to defend ourselves, but… I’d love it if the search for Natalee Holloway didn’t become something political for Americans, Europeans, or Arubians.
This is a human tragedy, not an excuse for a few angry Europeans to remind us yet again about what big, hobnail-booted cowboys we are, or an excuse for indignant Yanks to remind Euros, yet again, that our grandparents and great-grandparents saved their cheese on more than a couple of occasions. This is about a mother bewildered as her tall, charming son sits in a jail cell. This is about a mother from Alabama stalking her daughter’s shadow daily across little Aruba. About what we believe an earthly paradise to be versus its reality. If it is about anything, it is about two kinds of lost children — one lost the moment “something bad” happened on the beach, on that island where his family had made their home, the other seemingly irrevocably lost on what was to be her last night on Aruba. Instead of arguing EU versus USA politics, we should be looking on in mutual sadness and wonder, because lost children break hearts, no matter where in the world they were born, no matter what language they speak.
New Video: Combing Aruba
Hannity and Colmes has brand new video of Geraldo Rivera combing the island today, including a few minutes of what is most likely the quarry.
Download the video here.
Nothing Found at Quarry
Initial reports conclude that nothing useful was found at the quarry search site.
Another Picture of the Search Area?
(Most likely a EquuSearch member pictured in his diving outfit)
I can’t confirm it but it looks like the same body of water in the picture in the previous post.
Another picture in the extended entry:
Picture of Search Area
(via Riehl World View)
A reader at Dan’s blog Riehl World View sends in this picture of the search area, near the quarry.
Divers In Water
Scared Monkeys is reporting that divers have entered the water ..
UPDATE:: We have word from multiple sources that divers are in the water at a quarry near the Van Der Sloot’s home. There are evidence flags up around the area. We will post as more information is available.
Dogs Found Something in Aruba; Dive Team On Its way
This is breaking news from Dan at Riehl World View:
Just had a communication from Aruba – search dogs have gotten a “hit” in quarry near the Van der Sloot house, dive team being rounded up.
As posted yesterday, today’s grids covered areas more accessible for the boy(s) working on a tight timeline.
I’m told there will be a press conferees at 1PM. Also, dogs said to not false alarm for non-human remains. Appears find is in very deep water of quarry, quarry was once drained and a corpse suspected to have been there for approximately ten years was discovered at that time.
In my opinion, I don’t think the body is there because apparently everyone on the island is well aware of the body previously found in that quarry. If you were to hide a body you wouldn’t put it someplace when a previous one was found.
Steve Croes Just Released From Jail
“There is Still Hope to Find the Truth”
Those are the words that the Chief Prosecutor had to say.
The following video has her on record saying this along with other information:
