Even after five years of enquiry, the mystery behind the disappearance of high school graduate Natalee Holloway refuse to get solved. It was on a senior class trip when the incident happened and had grabbed the headlines for a quite long time, giving inspiration to several books, movies, and heavy media coverage.
The sad fate of her daughter has persuaded Natalee’s mother Beth Holloway to announce the opening of the Natalee Holloway Resource Center, a nonprofit to assist families on missing relatives. The center will be based at the National Museum of Crime & Punishment on Seventh Street NW in Washington DC. The museum features Holloway’s disappearance in its “Cold Case” exhibit.
When the efforts of finding her daughter turned fruitless, Beth Holloway finally decided to start of the non profit oraganisation aimed at preventing as many missing cases, providing the families with support and reducing the setbacks she once experienced. According to a museum statement, the center plans to give family members a plan, contact information, a media liaison and other services. In addition, guidelines for travel safety, including a national network of college volunteers to promote safe travel program to high school and college students are also on the anvil.
FIVE YEARS LATER
Flashback – May 31, 2005
Loving Natalee – Beth Holloway
Page 58: Detective Jacobs asks us to come to the police station in Bubali in about an hour to give our official statements.
Page 59: Jug, Jodi, and I arrive at Bubali at eight o’clock sharp …
Detective Jacobs is sitting behind the counter in a reclining swivel office chair. As we move toward him, he leans back in his chair. “We’re ready to give our statements,†we say, anxious to tell him the facts about Natalee’s disappearance we’ve gathered thus far, so that an investigation can get under way.
Page 60: He pushes one hand and then the other down and across his belly, which is extended by his rearing back. He says, “I’ll have to eat my frosted flakes first,†and then, running a hand across his jaw, adds, “and get a shave before I can deal with you.†And with that he gets up from the chair, exits through the little swinging door, and disappears ….
A half hour passes. Then an hour.
I WISH THERE WAS AN AMERICAN LAW ENFORCEMENT CONTACT HERE TO HELP US, SOMEONE TO ACT AS A LIAISON.
I get up from the plastic chair, go outside, and sit down in the gravel driveway ….
I’m outside about thirty minutes when another officer, police chief Jan van der Straten, comes out to the driveway and tells me bluntly and curtly to get up. “You can’t sit in the gravel like this. Come back inside.â€
Inside, two more hours pass …
After almost three hours detective Jacobs comes back into the waiting area and tells me he doesn’t need me today.
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Loving Natalee
A Mother’s Testament of Hope and Faith
By Beth Holloway
ISBN: 9780061452277; ISBN10: 0061452270; Imprint: HarperOne ; On Sale: 10/2/2007
FIVE YEARS LATER!
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Flashback
Loving Natalee – Beth Holloway
Page 200: My child. My beautiful daughter. I can’t save her. It’s too late. Natalee is gone. And second to the great tragedy of losing her is if we fail to learn from what has happened.
I could be any parent in the world. And no parent should ever go through this experience. Natalee could be anyone’s daughter. And in these thoughts a new path is made clear. There is something I can do. Many people reached out to us, and I can now reach back to them. It might be too late to save Natalee, but it’s not too late to save others. And it’s time now to make good on my pledge to stand before high-school and college students, law enforcement professinals, victims’ rights groups, travelers of all ages, and anyone interested in personal safety to share Natalee’s story and our hard lessons, so that others might learn from them.
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Loving Natalee
A Mother’s Testament of Hope and Faith
By Beth Holloway
ISBN: 9780061452277; ISBN10: 0061452270; Imprint: HarperOne ; On Sale: 10/2/2007