Alabama teenager missing after trip to Aruba

[Brent]

http://www.nbc13.com/news/4556789/detail.html

Disturbing. She's there with no adult supervision and she's been missing since Sunday Morning(FIVE Days!).

[streetsoldier]

Update: the FBI is assisting the local police; her family and many friends are down there searching, and a reward of $50K is being offered. More, three men; one Dutch, two from Surinam (Former Dutch colony between Franch Guiana and Guyana on the NE South American coast), are being considered "persons of interest".

IMHO, the possibility exists that the girl may have been kidnapped for "white slavery" in either Surinam or the Netherlands.

[Brent]

Update: 2 men, who are security guards at a hotel near where she was staying, have been arrested. Police say they could be charged later today. There's a new search going on near a lighthouse on the north side of the island.

This doesn't sound good.

[BreinLa]

FYI, there were 20 adult chaperones on this trip with 100 students. My 18 yr old just came back from his senior trip to the Bahamas with 40 chaperones and 150 kids. Not an easy job for parents. I appreciate each and every one of the parents who went on that trip, but also understood there is no way they can watch everything that is going on. I just know that they asked the kids to always go places in groups and never alone.

[rainstorm]

i agree the chaperones shouldnt be blamed unless they were shown to be grossly negligent. having been a teenager recently myself its not hard to imagine she was looking for a little extra excitement and possibly violated some rules. just my 2 cents worth. when you are in a strange place you NEVER EVER go anywhere unless you are in a group. i also heard she went alone to a remote beach with 3 men, though those men are no longer suspects. that was incredibly stupid

[Miss Mary]

I am sending my daughter Nina to Paris and London (4 days each) in a week. 19 students from her HS, a handful of teachers AND a few of their spouses, and a few parents. Lots of supervision. We were also informed they'd be in their hotel rooms at 10 p.m. each night and never on their own, the entire trip. So this story of the missing student in Aruba shook me up! I hope and pray they find her. But I have to ask - why were they permitted to be in a nightclub until 1 a.m.? I also feel comforted knowing the student/adult ratio with Nina's trip is better than this poor girl's senior trip. What her parents are going thru I cannot imagine. I keep praying for a good outcome but fear the worst.

Mary

[rainstorm]

I am sending my daughter Nina to Paris and London (4 days each) in a week. 19 students from her HS, a handful of teachers AND a few of their spouses, and a few parents. Lots of supervision. We were also informed they'd be in their hotel rooms at 10 p.m. each night. So this story of the missing student in Aruba shook me up! I hope and pray they find her. But I have to ask - why were they permitted to be in a nightclub until 1 a.m.? I also feel comforted knowing the student/adult ratio with Nina's trip is better than this poor girl's senior trip. What her parents are going thru I cannot imagine. I keep praying for a good outcome but fear the worst.

Mary

well mary, i dont know all the details, but she may not have been "permitted" to be in a nightclub at 1am. she may have snuck out and gone. there is a simple lesson to be learned here. when you travel in a group, stay in a group. im sure nina will be fine as long as she remains in a group of fellow students and chaperones wherever she goes

[alicia-w]

dont forget, folks, that this gal is 18 years old. last i checked, she didnt need anyone's permission to be anywhere.

[Miss Mary]

Helen - I know, we don't have all the answers in this tragic Aruba story. When I first heard about it, I couldn't get over the large number of seniors - 125. That's a large group to keep track of. And chaperones do their best I'm sure. I've been on daily field trips, never overnight ones. But I can say it does wear on you - the constant supervision that is expected of you. And teens being teens, doesn't help. They just don't see the dangers we adults see, sadly. With Nina's trip, we had a student/parent/teacher meeting weeks ago. The teacher who has organized these European trips for years conducted the meeting. She prepared the students as best she could I'd say. Gave them lots of useful advice but the look on all their faces when told tourists are targetted for thefts (purses, wallets, cameras, etc.) was sheer shock. We live in a safe community, which can be a problem when traveling, but I think she got thru to them. At least she got thru to each parent and we've had many a talk at home about how street savvy she will have to be over there. But Nina will be with a group at all times, except bathroom runs or in her hotel room, but is sharing it with another student. The teacher in charge personally checks on each room before retiring for the night. What stuck with Nina is the fact that children are trained especially in London to beg for money and then they slit the strap on your purse, stealing everything if they can. I am a little worried, can't help it, but I want Nina to have a life. This is just another step in her world to becoming that adult she'll be soon. Thanks for the reassuring advice! That did help Helen.

Mary

[alicia-w]

anybody that leaves alone with three guys is just asking for trouble.

[alicia-w]

when i graduated from high school, i was only 17. we backpacked through Europe, though i did have relatives and family friends that i was expected to check in with occasionally. that was the beginning of my wanderlust; two and a half months wandering around the old country... never had a problem. but i had been travelling my entire life too.

[BreinLa]

dont forget, folks, that this gal is 18 years old. last i checked, she didnt need anyone's permission to be anywhere.

Exactly alicia, I agreed as a parent to let my 18 yr old go to the Bahamas knowing the legal age there is 18 and he could go wherever he wanted. My husband and I sat down and also had a talk with him before he left. We hoped and prayed he knew his limitations, which he did and ended up having a wonderful time. But I have spoken to several chaperones since his return and it was amazing to hear some of the stories. I guess the one statement that sticks with me was "Some of these kids had never been on their own before or never had been anywhere. When they got to the island they went nuts" As a matter of fact, some of them were sent home real early for not following the rules.

Anyway, I hope they find her soon, I am praying for a good outcome.

[Brent]

Fox News reporting police have found a bloody mattress on a different part of the island. Unclear if it's related...

[tracyswfla]

Fox News reporting police have found a bloody mattress on a different part of the island. Unclear if it's related...

I hope this is not going to end badly, but it appears that with this length of time missing, it is not going to be good news!

[rainstorm]

Helen - I know, we don't have all the answers in this tragic Aruba story. When I first heard about it, I couldn't get over the large number of seniors - 125. That's a large group to keep track of. And chaperones do their best I'm sure. I've been on daily field trips, never overnight ones. But I can say it does wear on you - the constant supervision that is expected of you. And teens being teens, doesn't help. They just don't see the dangers we adults see, sadly. With Nina's trip, we had a student/parent/teacher meeting weeks ago. The teacher who has organized these European trips for years conducted the meeting. She prepared the students as best she could I'd say. Gave them lots of useful advice but the look on all their faces when told tourists are targetted for thefts (purses, wallets, cameras, etc.) was sheer shock. We live in a safe community, which can be a problem when traveling, but I think she got thru to them. At least she got thru to each parent and we've had many a talk at home about how street savvy she will have to be over there. But Nina will be with a group at all times, except bathroom runs or in her hotel room, but is sharing it with another student. The teacher in charge personally checks on each room before retiring for the night. What stuck with Nina is the fact that children are trained especially in London to beg for money and then they slit the strap on your purse, stealing everything if they can. I am a little worried, can't help it, but I want Nina to have a life. This is just another step in her world to becoming that adult she'll be soon. Thanks for the reassuring advice! That did help Helen.

Mary

thanks mary

[MSRobi911]

As a Band Parent I chaperoned many many group trips over the past 7 years. The only one I didn't make was the last one to London at Christmas time. I was worried, yes, but I was also OK with the group of parents that were going and knew that they would be taken care of. We had many meetings before the trip and we even had to buy two return trip tickets just in case anyone misbehaved and had to be sent home early. Thank goodness they didn't have to do this. I will say the last night one room of boys decided to have a "tea party" as they call it...the dummies threw tea cups and saucers out the window of their hotel room....they were caught really fast as we always have hall monitors walking the halls and if the kids were upstairs we had people in the lobby and every exit of the hotel we were in. The ratio of student per chaperon was 1 1/2 students to 1 parent...which was excellent! They were all assigned "groups" and depending on where you wanted to go on your free days, you could change groups to go to a different group, you just had to sign out with your original parent and sign in with your new parent...this was all done at breakfast every morning.

Hope they find this girl soon, but it doesn't sound too promising unfortunately.

I will keep her in my prayers.

Mary

[bfez1]

anybody that leaves alone with three guys is just asking for trouble.

I feel the exact same way and where were the chaperones???

[Kelarie]

Fox News reporting police have found a bloody mattress on a different part of the island. Unclear if it's related...

From a report I heard, it was unrelated.

[mf_dolphin]

Fox said that the blood on the matress was animal blood and therefore not related. Don't think I want to know why there was animal blood on the matress.

[Miss Mary]

Me either Marshall. My first thought when I learned the blood was from a deceased dog nearby, was this poor animal beaten to death? And when this story first broke, authorities said the crime rate in Aruba was very low. Sure it is.

Mary