Where did the Reward stand in early 2006?

In the beginning of 2006 Beth Holloway Twitty was still mentioning the reward when appearing on cable news shows. One would think then, if Beth was talking about this reward it would be easy to travel around the net and learn the details of the reward. That was not exactly the case. If one were to actually follow the various links to reward sites you would have been amazed at just exactly how much potential money was being offered, "for information for the whereabouts of Natalee." The problem was, there seemed to be little or no detail on the reward itself, how to claim it, or any of the conditions to be met if one had the information to respond to said reward.

In February of 2006, there would be a $250,000 amount offered by the then Philadelphia, philanthropist, Joe Mammana. It was difficult to gage back then exactly what his pledge amount was, but somewhere between $100,000 to $250,000. Sadly, though Joe had a history of offering many pledges in the past, but never making good on any of the claims. And of course Joe's reward offering is a moot point now with him being in jail.

There also would be the million dollar link tied back to Am South Bank's corporate website. The website link would then give little or no information about the reward itself. It would, however offer quite a testimonial to Natalee the special young lady with the full ride scholarship and lots of other accolades to the missing young teen. Mostly the AM South link would be associated with the "Hope for Natalee" wristbands, and seemed to be a "collection agency," for contributing to the reward fund.

Clearly one that most missed, in the reward discussions was a mysterious benefactor out of Atlantic City, New Jersey, offering a $2,000,000. reward for information that would break this case wide open, and lead to the arrest of those responsible. There were a lot of details attached to this reward, but since it was to be funded by pledges, "Please make your pledge payable to the 'Pledge for Natalee Fund'" perhaps, that ambitious amount never quite got off the ground. It never was really publicized, so who knows exactly what to make of this reward offer. Again, it seemed to be another collection for donations, for another "reward fund."

When you total up the staggering amount of money pledged out at the beginning of 2006 it does give one pause, at how this case was grabbing at the hearts and minds of some people. Whether they were honest in their attempts to offer these large amounts or just trying to gain attention to the case, one will never know.