page_title: Disappearance of Natalee Holloway
section_title: Investigation criticism
hierarchical_section_title: Disappearance of Natalee Holloway / Investigation criticism
caption_attribution_description: Young female signing a memorial wall for Natalee Holloway, less than two weeks after her disappearance.
context_page_description: Natalee Ann Holloway was an eighteen-year-old American woman whose mysterious disappearance made international news after she vanished on May 30, 2005, near the end of a high school graduation trip to Aruba in the Caribbean. Holloway lived in Mountain Brook, Alabama, and graduated from Mountain Brook High School on May 24, 2005, days before the trip. Her disappearance resulted in a media sensation in the United States, and remains unsolved.
  Holloway was scheduled to fly home from the Caribbean island on May 30, 2005, but she failed to appear for her flight. She was last seen by her classmates outside of Carlos'n Charlie's, a restaurant and nightclub in Oranjestad. She was in a car with local residents Joran van der Sloot and brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe. When the three men were questioned, they said that they dropped off Holloway at her hotel and denied knowing what had become of her. Upon further investigation by authorities, Van der Sloot was arrested twice on suspicion of involvement in her disappearance and the Kalpoes were each arrested three times. Due to lack of evidence, the three suspects were released each time without being charged with a crime.
context_section_description: The Twittys and their supporters criticized a perceived lack of progress by Aruban police. The Twittys' own actions in Aruba were also criticized, and the Twittys were accused of actively stifling any evidence that might impugn Holloway's character by asking her fellow students to remain silent about the case and using their access to the media to push their own version of events. The Twittys denied this.
  In televised interviews and in a book, Beth Twitty alleged that Van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers knew more about Holloway's disappearance than they have told authorities and that at least one of them sexually assaulted or raped her daughter. On July 5, 2005, following the initial release of the Kalpoes, Twitty alleged, "Two suspects were released yesterday who were involved in a violent crime against my daughter," and referred to the Kalpoes as "criminals". A demonstration involving about two hundred Arubans took place that evening outside the Oranjestad courthouse. The protesters were angry over Twitty's remarks, with signs reading, "Innocent until proven guilty" and, "Respect our Dutch laws or go home." Satish Kalpoe's attorney threatened legal action and described Twitty's allegations as "prejudicial, inflammatory, libelous, and totally outrageous." On July 8, 2005, Twitty read a statement that said her remarks were fuelled by "despair and frustration" and that she "apologize[d] to the Aruban people and to the Aruban authorities if I or my family offended you in any way."
  In her 2007 book Loving Natalee: A Mother's Testament of Hope and Faith, Twitty wrote that,
   What we want is, we want justice. And you know—and we have to recognize the fact that, you know, this crime has been committed on the island of Aruba, and we know the perpetrators. We know it's these suspects, Deepak and Satish Kalpoe and Joran Van Der Sloot. And you know, we just have to, though, keep going, Nancy, because the only way we will get justice for Natalee is if we do keep going. I mean, if we give up, absolutely nothing will happen. Nothing.
  — Beth Holloway
  Following the airing of the De Vries programme on Dutch television, Twitty adhered to the position that the tapes represented the way events transpired and told the New York Post that she believed her daughter might still be alive if Van der Sloot had called for help. She contended that Van der Sloot had dumped Holloway's body, possibly alive, into the Caribbean ocean. Twitty also alleged that the person Van der Sloot supposedly called that evening was his father, Paulus, who, according to Twitty, "orchestrated what to do next." Holloway's parents alleged that Van der Sloot was receiving "special legal favors." After the court decision not to rearrest Van der Sloot was affirmed, Twitty stated, "I think that what I do take comfort in, his life is a living hell," later adding, "I'd be good with a Midnight Express prison anywhere for Joran."
  In response to her daughter's disappearance, Twitty founded the International Safe Travels Foundation, a non-profit organization designed "to inform and educate the public to help them travel more safely as they travel internationally." In May 2010, she announced that the Natalee Holloway Resource Center would open at the National Museum of Crime & Punishment. Located in Washington, D.C., the center opened on June 8 to aid families of missing people.
  Holloway's family initially discouraged a travel boycott of Aruba, but this changed by September 2005. Twitty urged that people not travel to Aruba and other Dutch territories because of what she stated were tourist safety issues. In a November 8, 2005, news conference, Governor Bob Riley and the Holloways urged Alabamians and others to boycott Aruba. Riley also wrote to other United States governors seeking their support—the governors of Georgia and Arkansas eventually joined in the call for a boycott. Philadelphia's city council voted to ask the Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell to call for a boycott. Rendell did not do so, and no federal support was given.
  The boycott was supported by some of Alabama's Co
caption: A young woman leaves a message on a prayer wall erected in support and memory of Holloway
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