The so-called tropical paradise where teenager Natalee Holloway disappeared has been the scene of a string of vicious attacks on vacationing American women, The National Enquirer can reveal.
Recent graduate Natalee, 18, vanished on May 30, the last night of her five-day trip from Mountain Brook High School in Birmingham, Ala., to the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba. Within days of her disappearance, two women from Mass., who declined to be named, came forward and said they were sexually assaulted on the island two years ago after leaving the popular nightspot Carlos ‘n’ Charlie’s in Oranjestad, the center of town. One said: “I befriended a hotel worker in Aruba and he turned against me. On my last night I went out on a date with him to a local bar. After we left he took me to the parking lot and assaulted me.”
Amy Bradley, 23, of Chesterfield County, Virginia, disappeared from a Royal Caribbean cruise liner during a family holiday in March 1998. Her mom Iva Bradley said that Amy befriended three men who worked on the ship. She’s never been found.
Natalee went missing after she left Carlos ‘n’ Charlie’s following a night of drunken revelry and got into a car with three local men. She is feared murdered.
Three young men have been arrested in connection with Natalee’s disappearance and remained in custody at the time we went to press. Police have identified them as brothers Satish Kalpoe, 18, and Deepak Kalpoe, 21, and their friend, Joren van der Sloot, 17. Attorneys for each have said their client claims innocence. The three young men told police they took Natalee to a beach after leaving the bar with her early on May 30, when she was last seen. They said they returned her to her hotel not long afterward. Two former hotel security guards who worked at a beach front hotel not far from the Holiday Inn where Natalee was staying were also arrested. Police identified them as Abraham Jones, 28, and Mickey John.
The National Enquirer can reveal van der Sloot had an angry pushing match with Natalee’s friends just hours before she vanished. The blow-up occurred on May 29 at Carlos ‘n’ Charlies. It’s a sprawling nightclub and dance club in the resort with booths and several bars that serve yard-high margaritas for $12. The club, a Mexican theme bar that offers up loud music and South of the Border food, was the place Natalee and her group decided to party before their scheduled flight home the next day.
Bryan Reynolds, 18, one of the 125 Alabama seniors on the Aruba trip, recalled that van der Sloot was chatting with Natalee and she seemed ill at ease with him. When it came time for her to leave, Natalee didn’t seem to be bothered by van der Sloot. She left with him and the Kalpoe brothers.
They later told police they drove to secluded Arashi Beach and parked by the ocean where Natalee and van der Sloot made out. They said they drove her back to the Holiday Inn at about 2 a.m. and claimed Natalee was too drunk to get out of the car, but did eventually. “I can stand on my own,” she supposedly told van der Sloot. The men said they saw her being approached by a security guard as she walked toward the hotel. Police promptly arrested two of them.
There have been reports that four women have vanished from Aruba since 1998. One note on a message board even speculates that there may be a serial killer at large. But police on the island, which depends on its $565 million- a-year tourist industry, deny kidnappings occur regularly.
A police spokesman said: “We know nothing of any other missing persons from this island and we have received no further reports of women being attacked. We regard our island as a safe place for tourists to visit and the Natalee Holloway case won’t change that.”
