Every Mother's Nightmare
A mother sent her daughter away for vacation with about 100 friends, classmates and chaperones. If she had trepidations about letting her go she was appeased by the thought that she is 18 years old and will be on her way to college soon. She also knew she could trust her daughter. She had just graduated from high school with honors and had earned full scholarship at the University of Alabama. She was proud of her and with these thoughts in check, saw her off at the airport to fly to Aruba for a one-week unofficial school trip. She never came back.
Natalee Holloway’s story is every mother’s nightmare. While it is primal that parents ensure the safety and well being of their children, at a certain age the parents realize the need to also pull away and learn to let go. But what if the timing of letting her go eventually becomes the decision you, as a mom will regret the rest of your life?
Natalee’s mother Beth Twitty rushed to Oranjestad in Aruba to search for her daughter. Her persistence had brought the FBI to descend into the island and the Dutch government had deployed their own military planes to assist in the search. Tourists and residents all helped in combing the island for the missing teenager or for any clues that could lead to her, with no results. The three teenagers who were last seen with her were arrested, questioned and eventually released. The main suspect, Joran van der Sloot then fly back to Holland to go to college. This week in the news, they featured him in an interview. He tried to clear his name from any criminal misconduct and told the reporter that it was Natalee who had aggressively pursued him.
“She had a lot to drink. At Carlos 'n Charles she grabbed my hand and took me with her to take jelly shots off her. And afterward she asked me to buy a shot for her, buy her a shot to drink.” He narrated to the interviewer. “And she climbed on the bar. She laid down on the bar and she called the bartender by name and he got her a jelly shot and I took a jelly shot off her belly.” And then van der Sloot continued to tell of how she had gone with him to the beach and had insisted that he stayed because it would be her last night in Aruba. Then he claims he and his friends had left her on the beach to sneak back home because he had school the next morning. He also claimed that he didn’t even recognize Natalee when they showed him her picture when she went missing. To him, he was just another girl passing by the island paradise wanting to have fun.
The last images of a mother of her daughter as told by a stranger.
