Chip Chick
Later that day, Natalee was supposed to be on a flight back home to Alabama. She never showed up at the airport, though. She never checked into her flight.
She never got onto the bus that was scheduled to take her and her classmates back to the airport. And that was when the chaperones knew something was wrong. She was the only student to not be there ready for the trip home.
Natalee’s luggage was fully packed back in her room at the Holiday Inn and her cellphone and passport were found along with her belongings. The chaperones talked to Natalee’s roommates and brought her stuff to the hotel lobby, still hoping she would just show up late.
Nobody could find Natalee, but they did find her things packed and ready in her hotel room…
Natalee never showed up. As soon as Natalee’s mom Beth was alerted to the fact that nobody had seen Natalee and she missed her flight home, she flew down to Aruba with Natalee’s stepdad on a private jet.
Beth, Natalee’s mom, immediately flew down to Aruba with Natalee’s stepdad as soon as she got the news that her daughter had disappeared on her trip
Beth proceeded to stay at the Holiday Inn, in the very same room Natalee had stayed in that week. 4 hours after Beth arrived in Aruba, she met with the Aruban police. And she had the name of the last person Natalee was seen with: 17-year-old Joran van der Sloot.
Joran was Dutch, and an honors student himself. He was going to school at the International School of Aruba and also living on the island. How did Beth have his name?
The Holiday Inn’s night manager had recognized Joran on the hotel’s surveillance camera footage. Apparently, Joran was well known to hang out near the hotel picking up tourists. Beth and her husband proceeded to go to Joran’s home with two police officers. And when they knocked on the door, Joran was home. He also had a friend over, Deepak Kalpoe, who was in the car with him the night he was seen with Natalee.
