BETH TWITTY'S FOUNDATION~GOD BLESS YOU BETH~WE LOVE YOU !
http://www.internationalsafetravelsfoundation.org/MS/MS10/page.php?p=97 <--link SO GLAD THAT YOU HAVE THIS FOUNDATION SET UP IN HONOR OF NATALEE. GOD BLESS YOU ALWAYS BETH
Monday, April 03, 2006
http://www.internationalsafetravelsfoundation.org/MS/MS10/page.php?p=97 <--link SO GLAD THAT YOU HAVE THIS FOUNDATION SET UP IN HONOR OF NATALEE. GOD BLESS YOU ALWAYS BETH
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Mother of girl missing in Aruba preaches safety
Friday, April 21, 2006
Karen Farkas
Plain Dealer Reporter
Green -- The message on how to stay safe when traveling was familiar to most Green High School students Thursday but the messenger brought many to tears and all to a standing ovation.
"I can't save Natalee," said Beth Holloway Twitty, whose daughter disappeared almost 11 months ago while on a trip to Aruba. "It's too late for me, too late for Natalee, but it's not too late for you."
Twitty, who became nationally known as she led the search for her missing daughter, is traveling the country to promote her new nonprofit organization, the International Safe Travels Organization.
Natalee Holloway, 18, disappeared May 30, days after she graduated from high school near Birmingham, Ala. She was on a school-sponsored senior trip. She was last seen getting into a car with three men after spending an evening at a bar with friends.
"She never saw this coming and was blindsided," Twitty said. "Natalee had a false sense of security. She was among many friends and let her guard down for just a moment. In that moment, she vanished."
The three men were arrested and later released, although Twitty still considers one a major suspect. Last weekend, police arrested a fourth man, a 19-year-old, and continued to search offshore.
Twitty said the man in custody was not anyone the family discussed as a suspect with officers. She said she doesn't know if charges will be filed.
"Natalee was kidnapped, raped and most likely murdered," she said. "What happened to her could happen to anyone in this room."
Her presentation Thursday afternoon, which was also scheduled for last night and today at the University of Akron, Portage Lakes Career Center and Coventry High School, began with a moving video tribute to Natalee. The 600 juniors and seniors were silent as Twitty walked across the darkened stage, lighted by a spotlight.
She gave a synopsis of events, describing her frustration as she dealt with Aruba officials. She spoke of her problems coping with language barriers, Dutch law, the inability to get search warrants and officials' denial of how officials denied -RD%>the existence of crack houses and brothels. She searched many of them for Natalee, she said.
She said youths need a safety plan wherever they are and they have to watch out for themselves. They should carry cell phones and, if out of the country, make sure they can make international calls, which she regrets not arranging for Natalee, who left her phone in her room.
"Whether in a mall or outside the U.S., you're the only one who can save yourself," she said. "The best way I can honor Natalee is to share this information."
A Web site is under construction, www.safetravelsfoundation.org, and will include information for students and parents on more than two dozen popular tourist destinations.
"For the past 11 months I've been living every parent's worst nightmare," she said. "I don't know what happened, where she is or if she's alive. It doesn't look good."
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