The trust was run through AmSouth, and there was speculation that AmSouth put up the original $1-million.

Only the Holloway/Twittys and the Fab 7 would know for sure, and they aren't talking.

I tend to agree with the speculation that AmSouth put up the original reward guarantee, as Jar was working for AmSouth at that time and a phone call from McWane (he of the executive jet used by the posse) would have certainly motivated the bank. It could have been spun to the bank that the "kidnapping" was directed at Jar's extended family.

IMO, there was never, ever any chance of anyone collecting on the reward. The searches in the casinos and restaurants were exercises in futility and hedonism; the crack house searches were for PR purposes only (virginal straight-A'ers don't descend into crack-house denizens overnight--there are always stops on the way down); and the tale of purported MedJet was also for PR purposes only--did anyone ever confirm that there was an actual, fully staffed MedJet on the tarmac in Aruba for two days?

The "Help-Kidnapped-Call Big Hootie!!" diorama posters and Motherless Matt's Toyota Tundra are the only facts we can actually hang our hats on, two years later (well, VelcroJoe really had a lot of shit stick to him, but that was a result of his own pre-vanishing stupidity, right?).

There wasn't just one "trust" fund. Natalee was the Helen of Troy (the face that launched a thousand ships) of the US donate-to-me industry.

TES; DuhDave and Round Robin; the hallowed Holloway/Twittys; Scrux, SM, NataleeHollowayNet; the holy roller churches; Gramma Reynolds; etc--everybody jumped onto the donate-to-me wagon and even Katrina couldn't make much of a dent in the cash-gathering exercises at that fevered moment in time.