Natalee Holloway

BIRMINGHAM, ALA. - In a hearing scheduled months ago, a judge yesterday declared Natalee Holloway dead, more than six years after the teenager vanished during a graduation trip to the Caribbean island of Aruba. Holloway disappeared in Aruba on May 30, 2005. The 18-year-old was last seen leaving a bar with Joran van der Sloot. Her body was never found. Van der Sloot pleaded guilty Wednesday in Peru to the 2010 murder of a woman he met at a casino in Lima. - Associated Press

NATALEE Holloway is back in the news, and that's good news for media owners. Our seemingly endless fascination with pretty women in trouble sells newspapers, increases TV news viewers and ups the number of eyeballs on Internet news sites. Missing teens. Criminal babes. Blonde and pregnant? Even better. And remember the summer of the congressman and the missing staffer? I can't even think of their names. We are a nation of voyeurs, and sex sells. So does tragedy - think of "rubbernecking delays" caused by people slowing down to look at the crumpled remains of cars at a crash site.

I'M WRITING re the small blurb on March 3 on Page 22 regarding the missing 17-year-old girl. I find it amazing that it takes 10 days to print the picture of a missing local girl, but when Natalee Holloway went missing thousands of miles away, she was all over the front page. Don't you think that pictures of local missing people should go somewhere in the paper the day they are reported missing? If the public has the picture and information earlier, we can actually do something with it. I don't live in Aruba, I live in Philadelphia, where I might actually see the missing individual.

Monday is the day after Mothers Day, time to cut mothers some slack, and Natalee Holloway did vanish six years ago, with everyone agreeing that her mother, Beth, has not been the same since. But there's no excuse for this. Beth is "honoring" Natalee by hosting a lurid cable reality show, a sort of poor woman's America's Most Wanted , which premieres Monday at 10 p.m. after Justice for Natalee Holloway , a made-for-TV movie that's terrible even by the low standards of Lifetime.

An underwater photograph, possibly showing human remains, is being treated as a lead in the highly publicized case of Natalee Holloway, the Alabama high school student who disappeared in Aruba nearly five years ago. Patti Muldowney of Manheim, Lancaster County, took the photograph while snorkeling with her husband, John, during an October vacation. In December, they noticed how some shapes resembled a skeleton partly covered with sand, and recently forwarded the photograph to the Philadelphia office of the FBI. "It's been sent to our legal attache in Bridgetown [Barbados]

ON TUESDAY, Ardmore bakery owner Richard Petrone Sr. marked the third anniversary of the night his son disappeared after leaving a South Street bar. On Feb. 19, 2005, Richard Petrone Jr., 35, and girlfriend Danielle Imbo, 34, left Abilene's shortly before midnight in Petrone's 2001 Dodge Dakota. Then they vanished. So did the truck. There was no evidence of robbery, nor have their credit cards and cell phones been used. And now the case has been classified as a murder-for-hire.

Some of their stories, you may have heard. Others, perhaps not. Each was suddenly, inexplicably ripped from her world and sucked into the oblivion of the missing. Unisha Jefferson. Taneke Daniels. Latoya Byrd. Natalee Holloway. La'Toyia Figueroa. Yesterday, their families met with politicians, law-enforcement officials, and neighborhood watch groups during a conference on missing persons at West Philadelphia High School. Organized by City Councilman Juan Ramos, the conference capped the city's "Missing Persons Awareness Week.

Natalee Holloway is declared dead BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The parents looked on somberly as a judge on Thursday declared Natalee Holloway dead, more than six years after the American teenager vanished during a high school graduation trip to the Caribbean island of Aruba. "We've been dealing with her death for the last 61/2 years," Dave Holloway, who requested the declaration, said after a brief hearing. "We've still got a long way to go to get justice. Holloway, 18, disappeared May 30, 2005.

Working under a national media spotlight, police recruits searched a wooded section of Cobbs Creek Park yesterday looking for clues about the fate of Latoyia Figueroa, a pregnant West Philadelphia woman missing since July 18. In a highly unusual move, police allowed reporters to shadow the searchers as they made their way through the high grass and underbrush. "We want to get as much exposure as we can," said Lt. Frank J. Vanore Jr. of the Southwest Detective Division, who is heading the investigation.

I HAVE BEEN following the Natalee Holloway case closely since day one. I met my Aruban wife there 20 years ago. My heart as well as my wife's and every Aruban's goes out to Natalee's family. We all wish this nightmare could go away and Natalee to be home safe with her family. Almost every Aruban opened up their hearts and homes to Beth Twitty and Natalee's father, Dave. They have done eveything possible to find her. Were mistakes made in the beginning? Maybe. Mistakes are made in many missing persons cases even in a sophisticated country like ours.

BIRMINGHAM, ALA. - In a hearing scheduled months ago, a judge yesterday declared Natalee Holloway dead, more than six years after the teenager vanished during a graduation trip to the Caribbean island of Aruba. Holloway disappeared in Aruba on May 30, 2005. The 18-year-old was last seen leaving a bar with Joran van der Sloot. Her body was never found. Van der Sloot pleaded guilty Wednesday in Peru to the 2010 murder of a woman he met at a casino in Lima. - Associated Press

Natalee Holloway is declared dead BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The parents looked on somberly as a judge on Thursday declared Natalee Holloway dead, more than six years after the American teenager vanished during a high school graduation trip to the Caribbean island of Aruba. "We've been dealing with her death for the last 61/2 years," Dave Holloway, who requested the declaration, said after a brief hearing. "We've still got a long way to go to get justice. Holloway, 18, disappeared May 30, 2005.

Monday is the day after Mothers Day, time to cut mothers some slack, and Natalee Holloway did vanish six years ago, with everyone agreeing that her mother, Beth, has not been the same since. But there's no excuse for this. Beth is "honoring" Natalee by hosting a lurid cable reality show, a sort of poor woman's America's Most Wanted , which premieres Monday at 10 p.m. after Justice for Natalee Holloway , a made-for-TV movie that's terrible even by the low standards of Lifetime.

Surprise visitor for van der Sloot LIMA, Peru - The mother of Natalee Holloway entered a maximum-security Lima prison - apparently without registering as a visitor - and confronted the Dutchman who remains the lead suspect in her daughter's 2005 disappearance in Aruba. Beth Twitty entered Castro Castro prison Wednesday with a Dutch television news crew to talk with Joran van der Sloot, "but he refused, so there was no interview," said van der Sloot's attorney, Maximo Altez. Van der Sloot is charged with killing a woman in Peru on May 30, five years to the day that Holloway, then 18, disappeared while on a high school graduation trip to the Caribbean island of Aruba.

Before Joran van der Sloot became one of the most famous murder suspects in the world, Matthew Biebel nearly threw a punch at him during a poker game. "You could tell he was a punk," Biebel says, recalling his encounter with Van der Sloot in Aruba on May 30, 2005 - the last day Natalee Holloway was seen alive. Five years to the day later, a young woman named Stephany Flores Ramirez was found murdered in Van der Sloot's hotel room in Peru. The baby-faced suspect with the dyed buzz cut and dead eyes awaits trial in that case.

What's in an underwater photograph taken by a snorkeling Lancaster County women in Aruba may never be known. Yesterday, authorities ended days of searching by divers for the possible remains of Natalee Holloway, an Alabama high school student missing since a graduation trip five years ago, a spokeswoman for the Aruban prosecutor told CNN. The news was confirmed by Adolpho Richardson, the chief investigator in the case, according to the...

Divers in Aruba began searching Saturday for any signs of a submerged skeleton possibly photographed by a snorkeling Lancaster County woman. Investigators hope the photograph might be a break in the much-publicized disappearance of Natalee Holloway, an Alabama high school student who disappeared during a graduation trip in 2005. The initial search found nothing significant, so authorities are hoping the FBI can get Patti Muldowney, and her husband, John, to help pinpoint the location, Aruba's deputy police chief, Adolpho Richardson, told the Birmingham (Ala.

An underwater photograph, possibly showing human remains, is being treated as a lead in the highly publicized case of Natalee Holloway, the Alabama high school student who disappeared in Aruba nearly five years ago. Patti Muldowney of Manheim, Lancaster County, took the photograph while snorkeling with her husband, John, during an October vacation. In December, they noticed how some shapes resembled a skeleton partly covered with sand, and recently forwarded the photograph to the Philadelphia office of the FBI. "It's been sent to our legal attache in Bridgetown [Barbados]

ON TUESDAY, Ardmore bakery owner Richard Petrone Sr. marked the third anniversary of the night his son disappeared after leaving a South Street bar. On Feb. 19, 2005, Richard Petrone Jr., 35, and girlfriend Danielle Imbo, 34, left Abilene's shortly before midnight in Petrone's 2001 Dodge Dakota. Then they vanished. So did the truck. There was no evidence of robbery, nor have their credit cards and cell phones been used. And now the case has been classified as a murder-for-hire.

NATALEE Holloway is back in the news, and that's good news for media owners. Our seemingly endless fascination with pretty women in trouble sells newspapers, increases TV news viewers and ups the number of eyeballs on Internet news sites. Missing teens. Criminal babes. Blonde and pregnant? Even better. And remember the summer of the congressman and the missing staffer? I can't even think of their names. We are a nation of voyeurs, and sex sells. So does tragedy - think of "rubbernecking delays" caused by people slowing down to look at the crumpled remains of cars at a crash site.