Posted by LegallyLex:

It is with sadness that I am reporting to everyone that the Persistence leaves Aruba tomorrow heading for home. As you are aware, the side scan sonar search is complete. There are many many targets for the ROV to look at. Sadly, this will not happen with the Persistence. The main reason is the lack of funding. This combined with the winter rough weather makes it difficult. John and the crew thank all of your for your help and many blessings and prayers you have provided. Please continue these prayers until the Persistence and crew makes it back to port in New Iberia.

Thanks everyone! You are the best!

Article & Video Link

Thursday, February 28, 2008 | 8:21 PM
By Cynthia Cisneros

KEMAH, TX (KTRK)—It’s been almost three years since Natalee Holloway disappeared in Aruba on a class trip.

But searchers have not given up hope.

A Kemah businessman has been on the front lines of the search for Natalee, spending over a million dollars of his own money. Over the past four months, he’s paid for an underwater search.

The morning we were there, Louis Schafer was signing a wire transfer for $250,000. The money used to operate a sophisticated, deep sea survey boat, named the Persistence.

“I’ve dedicated a million dollars, I’ve gone way above that,” said Louis Schafer of Underwater Expeditions. “I feel like it’s time to ask for help from the American people that want to see this case solved.”

The Persistence has been used every day since November to survey the ocean floor near Aruba. It uses remote operated vehicles, called ROVs, to sweep the ocean depths. What they’ve been able to accomplish is astounding.

“By Friday, we will have surveyed the entire 50-square mile off Aruba,” Schafer said. “We have identified at least 60 of the targets. we have about 150 more targets to inspect.”

Natalee Holloway traveled to Aruba two years ago to celebrate her high school graduation and disappeared. Natalee was last seen with Joran Van der Sloot who says he does not know what happened to her.

Schafer made a fortune in the deep sea diving business for oil rig removal and installation. He had access to unique technology and a team of experts that could find just about anything.

“So we have completely mapped the ocean floor, we know every object that’s there, we know every object that could be a container holding her in the sea,” he said.

A relentless search Schafer and his team say will stop, if they don’t get more funding.

“And we all feel, I’m speaking from everybody on the team, that she’s in one of the targets we have not looked at yet,” Tim Trahan of Underwater Expeditions said. “We can’t stop. I go to sleep at night thinking we’ve located it, we just need to get to it.”

The search of the rest of those targets will stop this week. For more information on how you can help, Click Here.

Support the Effort

Special Notice:
The dedicated ocean search for Natalee Holloway has been underway since mid-November, 2007. What began in Louisiana during mobilization now culminating in Aruba, the search has utilized some of the best search equipment and personnel in the world. To date, approximately 900 miles of sonar data has been collected covering a geographic area 80% the size of Aruba. The search has required a painstakingly slow approach which in the end leaves no stone unturned.

Although slow, this approach is extremely effective in marine search and recovery. Since the beginning, the search has been privately funded by Louis Schaefer Jr. of Underwater Expeditions who remarkably and gracefully accepted the financial burden when requested by Texas Equusearch and Natalee’s parents. John Silvetti of Marine Surveys, Greg Landry of Offshore Innovative Solutions, Erik McGuire of Seatronics, along with Agiosat and Wilkens Weather Service came beside Louis to conduct this humanitarian effort. To put this search effort in financial perspective, an equivalent search conducted for industry would involve costs well exceeding several million dollars. This project has been conducted for about 35 cents on the dollar, with costs still exceeding a million dollars.

Although we have searched and ruled out an extensive portion of the original planned search area, a substantial portion of the high-probability area yet remains to be explored. Now, following a publicly confirmed admission that Natalee Holloway was disposed at sea, we are confident that completing the focused search area will bring closure. We therefore formally invite and request anyone who this humanitarian effort has touched to get involved and to help support the remaining search efforts. Donations are being handled by Texas Equusearch, a 501© (3) nonprofit organization. Please come beside those who have already given so much to help ensure a proper funeral in Alabama for Natalee Holloway. Please make all donations marked as: “Holloway search”.

To learn more about Texas Equusearch and to help support the search for Natalee Holloway, check out:
http://www.texasequusearch.org/donate.html

Texas EquuSearch Office:
4013 FM 517, Suite B
Dickinson, Texas 77539
P. O. Box 395, Dickinson, Texas 77539

Office: (281) 309-9500
Fax: (281) 534-6719
Toll Free: (877) 270-9500
Email: donate@texasequusearch.org

http://nholloway.blogspot.com/2008/02/support-effort.html