NATALEE HOLLOWAY CASE~The Element of Motive

I came across another really good article from a excellent writer, thinker, call it what you want. He makes some really valid points. It leaves you wondering about the whole case. He has written several article pretaining to this case. Link at the end of this post.






Dale Netherton
May 2, 2006


People do not commit crimes without a motive. The motive may be irrational, but it is what motivates them to violate the rights of another person or persons. The criminal expects that by violating a victim’s right to life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness they will gain or alleviate something that is impeding their wishes. Whether the criminal is seeking property or the elimination of a witness, they assume the violation of the victim’s rights will resolve the impediment to their desires. The criminal may be delusional, incompetent or simply vicious, but when they act, something moves them, even if they are acting in a blind rage to attack their victim. It may be so deranged that it is hardly comprehensible to a rational observer, but no one acts to violate the rights of another person without a motive unless they suffer from a random outburst of mental instability often referred to as insanity.. Thus, the insanity defense is the defense of last resort for criminal action. That is not what we are dealing with in the Natalee Holloway disappearance.
Someone(s) abducted Natalee. If she had simply run off as some naive pseudo-sleuths have proposed ,one would have to ask why and secondly why has she not been seen? This was no runaway bride scenario. Who runs away on a small island if escape is the motive? There are far better locations she had access to and there was no history of any discontent. There is nothing to indicate she was or is a runaway. Which brings us back to the motive of someone to abduct her. Why would anyone want Natalee? The first question then becomes, what did she possess that a criminal would want? Did she have a lot of cash on her person? Was she robbed and then murdered to prevent a witness from identifying the criminal? That conjecture certainly doesn’t fit with any of the evidence so far revealed. What then would motivate a criminal to abduct Natalee?
A young boy like Joran evidently had a desire to be with Natalee for some reason as he admits he was with her and they even expressed affection for each other. And one could conjecture that affection led to arousal and rape was the end result. This scenario has a lot of flaws. First of all, rape is a crime of violence and is not initiated by affection. Secondly, there is no evidence of a pattern of sexual violence by Joran and the likelihood that he was that overcome with passion that night would indicate someone desperate for a sexual encounter. Arriving after midnight to the “party” is hardly indicative of someone seeking desperately to have a sexual encounter. Joran was known by many girls and it strikes me as highly unlikely he would pick someone he had only known for a brief period as someone he desperately had to have sex with. And if he was going to achieve submission through affection would he invite other boys to tag along?
Enter the Kaploe brothers. Was this a gang rape gone bad? From what we know from Joran, he was not on a personal friend basis with the brothers. They ‘drove him around’. This was what he indicated on his interview on Fox with Greta Van Sustran. Whether he is believable is of course another question. But strictly from a motive standpoint ,why would three boys suddenly decide to accost a visiting female knowing she would not be easy. If she were easy and had invited them, there would have been no motive for harm. Joran didn’t know any easy marks for such an episode? Doesn’t fit with what we know of motivational behavior. Imagine Joran saying to the brothers,” I met this girl and I think we can rape her and hide her body so no one will find her”. And the brothers would reply, “ Yeah that sounds like a great plan.” If this sounds plausible I expect abduction by aliens would also fit.
This brings us back to what could have possibly happened to Natalee and who had a motive to do her harm? With sex and violence out of the picture and running away not credible, we have to look at the possibility that she was herself a valuable commodity to someone for some purpose. This would suggest an abduction for profit. And here we see the most plausible motive. There is human trafficking in the Carribean. This is known. There is the opportunity for abduction. There are visiting attractive young females. and there is a lot of money to be made from selling their “services” by those involved in the criminal trade. Whether Joran and his drivers had anything to do with abducting Natalee has yet to be proven. But the motive of a payoff or island privilges could very well have had a role in asisting the abduction of Natalee.
What specifically was the reason Joran considered Natalee someone he was interested in? If it was a casual encounter, does it follow that he would “make out” with her and just dump her with no further interest whatsoever? And if she was upset with him for some reason would she not have asked him to take her home? But what if someone said to Joran, “ If you will bring a girl to a specified location at a certain time you will be extended casino privileges. All you have to do is drop her off and leave. We’ll take care of the rest.” Is this so far fetched that it couldn’t happen and if it didn’t, then what is the answer to where Natale disappeared to? We have already considered the runaway scenario and the sex scenario and found them wanting. But what about this possibility?
This option has the issue of motive clearly established. And if money was the motive what would be the downside of attempting such an abduction? The downside for any criminal is getting caught. And how does a criminal avoid getting caught? Either he is so clever that he knows where law enforcment will be when he commits the crime or he has a connection that he can pay off to look the other way. Since the possibility of a police officer or a camera or a radar for boats leaving the island ( which I understand is under police jurisdiction) could spot some unusual behavior the buy off option is the most plausible. If you are in the highly lucrative human trafficking business one of the costs of doing business has to be avoiding confronntation with authorities by pay offs. There was probably not a concentration of this activity on one island as just a bank robber doesn’t hit a bank in the same vicinity if he suspects this may call too much attention to his activity. Suppose it just happened to be the night for an Aruba pickup and Joran simply picked Natalee because she mistook his attention for a genuine interest in her. He offered her a ride back to her hotel and took her to the pickup point, dropped her off and maybe doesn’t know what happened to her but that wasn’t his assignment.
Since he was seen with her it would have looked very suspicious if the polce has not at least picked him up. But what motivated them to be so secretive about their interrogation? Would it not have been a feather in their hat to grill him and the Kalpoe brothers, pitting them against each other until one finally cracked? There is no indication that the interrogation had any such element. The recorded conversation did not reveal anything significant. Why? If the boys had known what had happened after they dropped her off at the drop off point, wouldn’t they have discussed or speculated? Instead they talked in generalities and revealed nothing. Maybe this too was a ploy to show the world that the police was secrretly recording and trying to get answers for questions they already had answers they did not want to make public. It all fits so well with the motivation of money. Why would the police be protective of a potential criminal unless they wanted to be sure Joran and the Kalpoe brothers didn’t spill the beans. Getting Joran to go on television with instructions to avoid any implication of the authorities would also fit as an attempt to demonstrate his involvement was not significant. If they can get Joran exonerated by the public they are practically home free. For there is no known closer link to her disappearance. Making another arrest also diverts attention for Joran and further dilutes the case and this is the motive behind the display of ineptitude, the endless unproductive searching and the wild speculation , resignations and the portrayal of having cnducted an exhaustive search. For if it were found that the police had colluded with a ring of human traffickers the outrage by the populalce could bring down the government and the wrath of would be tourists. There is a huge amont of motivation that such involvement be diverted in any way it can be. But the facts of the case center around the motivation of the abductors and this aspect of the investigation has been almost avoided. It is the central driving force that explains why anyone would cause Natalee to disappear. Motive must be analyzed and openly discussed, for the why of the abducttion leads to the possible actors and their actions. Waiting for evidence to appear does not constitute an active investigation. The element of motive is a central component leading to possible suspicious behavior. Consider it carefully and you may come to some surprising conclusions that will make you wonder why certain avenues of investigation haven’t been and are not being pursued. For whatever your theory, motive must be a central component. And in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, it has mostly been overlooked.

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=8969