Were police justified in assuming Natalee was just off partying somewhere?

ALE's initial failure to take the case seriously, has been defended on the grounds that it was not unusual for tourist girls to disappear for days in Aruba, and that previously those girls had always turned up unharmed, having simply decided to extend their vacation. However, I strongly suspect that this is a myth. It's one thing for a tourist to miss her flight and be unaccounted for, for a few hours. But for a day or more? While knowing that many people would be looking for her? I'd like to see an article in an an Aruban newspaper about such a case. Perhaps there have been some, but if so, probably not very many. It certainly wasn't an everyday occurrence. Furthermore, in this instance there were particular circumstances (the missing girl was last seen getting into a car with male strangers) that should have raised an immediate red flag with investigators.

Beth Holloway

To me, Beth is a very sympathetic figure. I see no reason to doubt that she is good person, who deserves great compassion for the terrible double injustice she has suffered: First, the disappearance and presumed death of her child, and then, the likely loss of any opportunity to obtain answers and see the guilty punished, due to a badly botched investigation. Although I don't agree with everything Beth has said and done, the determination with which she has fought for her daughter, is worthy of admiration. Had it not been for Beth focusing the attention of the US media on the case, it would probably have been closed and swept under the rug within a few weeks at most. And at first, Beth performed some quite competent, indeed rather impressive investigative work of her own, successfully tracking down the last person seen with Natalee and delivering his name and address to police, within five hours of landing in a completely unfamiliar foreign country.