Missing Girl in Aruba

[Cumberland]

I have been obsessively watching the news about this case. It gets more and more weird, now with the father who is a judge being arrested.

My personal opinion is that she probably had too much to drink, and that there was some sort of accident that led to her death. I dont think she was intentionally murdered, but I do think her death was covered up.

[Meenah]

I cannot watch any of this. My daughters are the same age. Caroline went to Cancun this past spring for Spring vacation. It makes me feel sick.
Luanne

[SuzySunshine]

I don't have children but if I did I don't think I'd be able to watch it either. I agree that someone is covering something up, otherwise why would they have arrested the father? I just hope they find her so that her mother can take her home and that the truth will come out. It is very sad and I think its ridiculous that it has taken this long to get the true story which we still don't have.

[PrincessFiona]

What's up with the 24/7 coverage of this though? Unfortunately, things like this happen every day.

kris

[SuzySunshine]

I think part of that is because Aruba is such a big toursit town, if this turns out bad it could greatly affect their economy.

[PrincessFiona]

It's a tragedy...but not a headline news 24/7/replay for a month tragedy in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, it's terrible...

I hope that they eventually do figure out what happened...maybe I'm just cynical because of the 24/7 coverage of Jackson/Schiavo and now this....Give us news when there is something new to report...please...I'm so tired of hearing the exact same news story over and over again.

kris

It's a tragedy...but not a headline news 24/7/replay for a month tragedy in my opinion. Give us news when there is something new to report...please...I'm so tired of hearing the exact same news story over and over again.

kris

I agree here. This story seems to have really captured the attention of the public and the media, including me. I can't stop watching for the latest. But I am also sick of the same update over and over and over.
It is getting stranger and stranger as time goes on. Obviously the son did something and it's possible the father helped him cover it up.
Is it because Natalee is young, blond and pretty that this story gets so much attention?

[PrincessFiona]

I think that probably has something to do with it. Those 3 little boys that went missing and were found dead didn't get 1/2 of the media coverage that the missing woman in aruba is getting....but they weren't wealthy either. I also wonder whether or not ther would be a larger outcry about the fact that the police never checked the trunk if this had been a wealthy upper-class family. We'd be hearing about it 24/7 and how the police commissioner should be fired, etc if they had been a different 'class' people I think. That just gets under my skin.

I also notice barely a mention of the fact that this all happend when she was leaving a bar at 1.30am in a heavy bar district. All I hear is that she was an honors student. Yes, she was an honors student who went out partying in the seedy bar district and left at 1.30 am. This could happen to you in New York too. When you travel, you have to be careful. Heck...you have to be careful in your own backyard....

I think it's a terrible tragedy...I would be devastaed if it was one of my family members....truly...but it isn't headline news...and it isn't something that couldn't happen her at home. Anyone remember the actual targeting of tourists that happend in Florida a few years back?

I wish that they would find her alive...I know it won't happen....but I also think our govt has put so much undue pressure on aruba that they have made arrests without the evidence to charge these people.

kris

[Cumberland]

One thing I think is so strange- an honors student who was supposedly a popular girl- why wasnt she reported missing until she didnt show up for her flight. If she was there with 100 classmates, wasnt she sharing a room with them? We have heard very little from her friends- why didnt they stop her from leaving with a stranger, or notice that she wasnt at her hotel room? She wasnt reported missing until 11am the next day. That is a long time for a popular girl to be MIA.

I think that probably has something to do with it. Those 3 little boys that went missing and were found dead didn't get 1/2 of the media coverage that the missing woman in aruba is getting....but they weren't wealthy either. I also wonder whether or not ther would be a larger outcry about the fact that the police never checked the trunk if this had been a wealthy upper-class family. We'd be hearing about it 24/7 and how the police commissioner should be fired, etc if they had been a different 'class' people I think. That just gets under my skin.

kris

I agree that the 24/7 coverage has largely to do with the fact that this is a pretty & wealthy white girl....I can't tell you how many times I heard it mentioned that she was from an affluent neighborhood in Alabama (or whatever state she lived in). Is that supposed to make this more tragic?? Those 3 little boys didn't get nearly as much news coverage. And it was repeatedly mentioned in the news that those boys went missing in a city that was recently voted as one of the most dangerous cities in the US. What does that matter? Is that supposed to make their disappearance less tragic? Is it then their parents fault for living in such a seedy neighborhood?

I think the friends didn't report Natalie missing until later the next morning because they knew that she had been drinking the night before and they didn't want to get her in trouble. The mother is still denying that there was a chance that her daughter was intoxicated that night....after all, she was an honors student....

[DCJenn]

What's really disgusting is the 100s of Mexican and Mexican American women who have disappeared in Nuevo Laredo, right over the border. Seriously, it's frightening. It was covered in the San Antonio press due to proximity, but do you really think that 100s of brown skinned poor girls equal 1 blonde honor student from Alabama? clearly not. (The Washington Post just covered the asassination of the new volunteer Chief of Police of Nuevo Laredo. Seems no one wants to find out what's been going on for lo these many years)

It's shameful.

How about the Pregnant Mexican American girl who disappeared the same time as Laci Peterson in Texas. Didn't hear about her in the National Press, nor was it a prime time coverage of "who did it and why". There was a pregnant African-American girl here who disappeared at the same time. the Post covered it in the Metro section.

Our TV coverage sucks. If you're not blonde, blue-eyed, and pretty, you can just hope that the story get to your local paper.

Jenn

[HeartRN]

I agree with everything posted here...it's icky that because media is such a competitive business they "have" to report on what will "sell". Unfortunately, people are apparently more "intrigued" by the "Good girl gets in trouble while on graduation vacation in tropical Aruba" v. "Three little boys playing in abandoned car in seedy New Jersey". Objectively, I can see why the Aruba story gets all of the attention, at least from the media standpoint. Still, the 24/7 is too much....and makes me nauseous, too (although I continue to watch, of course!) Quite frankly, I think I'd prefer not to hear any of it reported ad nauseum (sp?)--that goes for anybody missing, regardless of race, economic background, etc!

I do remember hearing about the pregnant Mexican woman who disappeared at the same time as Laci Peterson....they actually spent a decent amount of time drawing similarities between the two cases. I remember because I was surprised that somebody even did this!

[Rapunzel]

1) My theory (not worth a thing btw) is that she was drunk, went for a swim on the beach with the boy and drowned (or got caught up in a current and washed out to sea). Highly likely she drowned if you mix being skunky drunk with swimming off of a secluded beach at night.

2) I didn't know the sad conclusion to the three missing boys. Here in MA they only reported they were missing - and haven't heard a thing since. I do remember thinking when I first heard the story that it seemed like it wasn't going to end up very well. I mean, the woman's story was that she turned her back for *one* minute. Yeah, right. You don't turn your back for sixty seconds and suddenly "lose" three boys. Very sad.

3) Yes, the media only cares about you if you are photogenic, preferably white and of northern European descent, and have a daddy that can either afford to send you to Aruba for highschool graduation OR throw you the darned biggest wedding in the state of Georgia (or wherever Lil Miss Runaway Bride was from).

4) No, you aren't coming off as a "good girl" postmortem if you are staying out at bars until 1:30am and running off with three strange young men by yourself thereafter. Ummmm.... does not translate to "good" girl behavior.

I've now said my piece....

Jennifer

Hm, glad I don't have cable any more. I haven't heard a thing about this. I was wondering the other day if she had been found.

It is sad that there is so much focus on this one case when, unfortunately, things like this happen to other people (non-white, non-honor students who don't live in nice nieghborhoods) and no one pays much attention.

I think her mother's reaction is normal -- who wants to believe that their child's behavior has led them to an early and possibly violent or scary death? And speaking of parents, for goodness sake, why didn't the dad/judge realize that coming clean straight away was better than trying to hide what happened? :disappointed:

[PrincessFiona]

Did the judge come clean with something? I haven't been watching.

The thing that bothers me about those three little boys is that they apparently went across the street and jumped into the back of an old car (trunk) and it closed on them...the police checked the car but didn't open the trunk. Here we're practically so upset with the justice system in aruba tha we're practically threatening them with "no one's going to come her if you don't figure this out now" but there is no outcry that the police failed to check the entire car out....

Is it the parents fault that they were poor and lived there, EDWife? <sarcasm> Of course it is...this is america....no matter what your circumstance or how you were raised if you don't pull yourself up by your little bootstraps and pick your butt up and glue it back to your body and get a college degree so that you can get a good-paying job that will be outsourced and then lose everything you've worked so hard for....well...its' all your fault and you deserve your lot in life. </end of sarcasm> :>

kris