Natalee Halloway Aruba Disappearance

The Natalee Ann Halloway Aruba disappearance has been quite controversial and shocking news as Aruba has always been seen as a perfect vacation getaway. Aruba which is one of the smallest beaches of the ABC Islands and with one of the finest beaches in the world is a favorite destination for tourists and students taking a break from their busy and stressful student days.

Natalee Halloway, an American teenager from Mountain Brook, Alabama went on a post-graduation trip to Aruba and disappeared on May 30, 2005. She still remains to be officially missing to this day although according to authorities of Aruba she is unlikely to be alive still. The Halloway Aruba disappearance has caused great concerns along with media sensations in both the United States and Aruba, and in the Netherlands as well.

The Halloway Aruba disappearance has had several versions from different witnesses and suspects of the crime as well. Halloway with one hundred twenty four fellow graduates of Mountain Brook High School were visiting Aruba on a five-day unofficial senior class graduation trip. Halloway according to investigations left Carlos'n Charlie's, a famous tourist-oriented bar and grill in the downtown Oranjestad, at about 1:00 a.m. on May 30, Monday with Joran van der Sloot and two companions, brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe in Deepak's car. Halloway did not turn up for her return flight that morning neither did she appear in any of the security camera footage of the hotel lobby she was staying in although Beth Twitty, the mother of Holloway made a statement on April 19, 2006 that the security cameras of the Holiday Inn were Natalee stayed was not working that night she disappeared. All of Halloway's things were found at her hotel room including passport, packed luggage, and mobile phone. Searches throughout the island and the surrounding waters have been made but to this date have been fruitless.

The three people she left with that night from Carlos'n Charlie claimed to have dropped her off her at her hotel around 2:00 a.m. and she was approached by a dark man in a black shirt similar to that worn by security guards as the young men drove away. Although this statement stood for a while, after arrest and interrogation of these suspects, their testimonies changed each having a different side of the story. On September 3, 2005, a Saturday, all four suspects which included Paulus van der Sloot, the father of Joran, were released by a judge despite the attempt's to keep them in custody on the condition that they remain available to the police. On September 14 however, all restrictions on the suspects were removed.

The Halloway Aruba disappearance has cost massive media coverage which has triggered a backlash among critics, disapproved of the amount of coverage that has been given to the story. The saturation of the Halloway Aruba disappearance was largely hidden from view in the late August 2005 when Hurricane Katrina hit the island.

The Halloway Aruba disappearance has affected a lot of people's outlook of Aruba, and a year may have passed since the missing of this teenage American, but to this day it remains to be an unresolved case and unanswered questions of what really happened to Natalee Holloway that night of May 30, 2005.