Beth was stunned by the news because she had spoken to her daughter frequently throughout the visit to the island paradise. They also texted often. During all of these communications, nothing made her think that something might be going wrong with Natalee’s vacation.
Because of this, Beth could only be shocked and stunned by the news that her daughter could not be located. She could not believe anything but that her daughter was alive and well and would come home to her family at some point. Anything else seemed too unreal to believe.
Beth felt that the video surveillance system was not working properly on the night she arrived and could not have been functioning the night Natalee went missing. She gave a different account at one point when she admitted that there was no evidence on the footage that Natalee had returned to the hotel as van der Sloot and his friends alleged.
She also said that the lack of any video evidence that her daughter had gone back to her hotel room did not mean Natalee had not gone back to the hotel. It was very possible for Natalee to get to her room at the hotel without passing through the lobby, where the security cameras were positioned. She contended that the lack of evidence was not proof of anything.
Despite all of their hard work and best efforts, no leads were forthcoming in the search for the missing teen. Van der Sloot’s friend’s car was taken by the police. They wanted to search it for evidence connected to the disappearance of the American teenager. At first, the local law enforcement officials said that they had made the discovery of blood in the back seat but that was later found to not be the lead that they thought it would be.
The case was such a high profile one that the United State Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice even weighed in. She said that the State Department was in “constant contact” with the local authorities. She said that the United States government was helping in every way it could to help find Natalee and that they were giving support to the Aruban government to make sure everything was bring done to bring the girl home safely.
After a month of searching for the American teen, the evidence police gathered seemed to suggest different outcomes. At one point, two hotel security guards were taken into custody. The police suspected them of both assault and murder of the young girl. They were released when no real evidence linking them to her disappearance was found.
People in the areas had reported that the guards were known for trying to pick up young women at local bars. Then van der Sloot was taken into custody, along with his two friends.
While they may have let him go, the local police never stopped looking at van der Sloot and his two high school classmates as suspects. They were suspects on day one of the investigation and they remained suspects throughout their search for the missing American girl. Their movements were under surveillance the entire time they looked for Natalee.
The law enforcement officers also tapped the boys’ phones and read their email messages. Soon after they took the boys back into custody they made a discovery that dashed any hope of finding the girl alive.
