PB NATIVE SEEKS ANSWERS IN ARUBA

By Judy Normand/Of The Commercial Staff

Beth Holloway Twitty is a woman possessed. Her world has been reduced to a tiny slice of land in the Caribbean, a place she's come to know intimately since May 30, the date her daughter Natalee vanished while on a high school graduation trip to the tropical island paradise of Aruba.

For the 18-year-old's mother, days blur into an endless cycle of searching -- walking the streets and beaches of Aruba and pleading for information from anyone who will listen. She hands them prayer cards and bracelets with a message of hope for Natalee. Occasionally, she's even confronted those suspected of having something to do with her daughter's disappearance.

As each day passes, she prays that her daughter has only been kidnapped.

Four young men, to date, have been detained and are being questioned about Natalee's disappearance. They include 17-year-old Joran van der Sloot, brothers Deepak Kalpoe, 21, and Satish Kalpoe, 18, and Steve Gregory Croes, 26.

"I know they had something to do with the kidnapping, rape or murder of my daughter, but I'm praying she's only kidnapped," Twitty said during a recent telephone conversation from her Aruba hotel room where she and her husband, Natalee's stepfather, George "Jug" Twitty, keep their desperate vigil. "Isn't it strange that I should be praying that my daughter has been kidnapped."

Also on the island are Natalee's father, Dave Holloway, and his wife, Robin, of Meridian, Miss., and a host of family and friends who have traveled to and from the island at various times as the days stretch into long, nerve-racking weeks. Twitty, a speech therapist, and her husband now live in the community of Mountain Brook, Ala., near Birmingham, with Natalee and 16-year-old son, Matt.

Twitty is the former Beth Reynolds, a 1978 graduate of Pine Bluff High School. Her mother, Ann Reynolds, is a resident of Pine Bluff.

As the investigation efforts creep along, dictated by Dutch law, Joran van der Sloot has emerged as the chief suspect. He's someone Twitty found to be "arrogant" and "defiant" when she was able to speak to him briefly. With dogged determination to find her daughter, she was also able to meet with van der Sloot's parents. The opportunity arose as she was making her daily trek around the island and found the van der Sloot residence.

"I was only there to give him a prayer card," Twitty said, referring to the suspect's father, Paul van der Sloot, who is training to be a judge in Aruba. Greta Van Susteren, a lawyer and host of "On the Record," airing weeknights on the Fox News Channel, accompanied Twitty to the van der Sloot residence with cameras rolling. Van Susteren has camped out in Aruba with the family for several days to, in her words, "do anything to help this mother," and is praised by Twitty as "my hero."

Both of them, Twitty said, were absolutely shocked that van der Sloot invited them into his home, albeit with a request to leave the cameras outside.

"There's no way I could have done that with a plan. I was just doing what I have to do, but when he opened that gate, I think I beat him to the house," Twitty said.

As to the conversation with Paul and Anita van der Sloot, Twitty indicated she "got what she needed," but that the information seemed to be more of a confirmation they and their son were somehow involved in the disappearance of her daughter.

"All I can say is that he and his son definitely have information about Natalee," she said.

Thursday, Paul van der Sloot was also arrested and taken into custody in connection with Natalee's disappearance. According to news reports concerning Dutch law, this does not mean that authorities believe that van der Sloot knows what happened, but that Aruban law gives authorities significant leeway to hold someone in custody without charging them with a crime as a way to find out more about an incident.

Twitty said, contrary to some reports, van der Sloot's son had been "hanging around for a couple of days" before making contact with Natalee in the early morning hours as she and her group partied at a local hangout -- a bar called Carlos and Charlie's. She said classmates saw her daughter get into the car with van der Sloot and drive away.

Bruce Roberts of Pine Bluff is a friend and former classmate of Twitty's. He said the situation with Natalee had "hit too close to home."

"It's always someone else," he said. "I have a son and a daughter and I think about what something like this would do to me. We knew Beth and went to school with her. Our hearts go out to her family, and we want to do anything we can to help, whether it's forming a prayer chain or handing out fliers. I just can't imagine the torment she's going through."

Of all the emotions -- fear, frustration, anger -- the one Twitty says drives her forward on her quest is justice.

"I get mad, but it's almost like you have to play the cards you're dealt. The government here and the laws are so different from the U.S. I just have to do what I can, when I can," she said. "The system here is sort of like a pyramid; a triangle. They give them (suspects) lots of room at the bottom to hang themselves, then work toward the top. It may work, but it scares me, because at the top, there's no jury; just the judge who makes the decision."

She finally slows down around 1 or 2 a.m., she said, and wakes before 5. She also carries notebooks, which she fills with comments from the Aruban people (who have been very supportive, she said) and jots down anything she deems important to her daughter's case.

"Oh, I just want out of this. I want somebody to beam me out of here," she said, adding she'd seen no television since arriving on the island. "I can't watch it; I'm living it every day."

Twitty wishes to thank the people of Aruba, her family and friends on the island and in the United States for "amazing" support through the family's ordeal.

"Tell the people in Pine Bluff that I miss them and thank them so much for carrying me through all this," she said. "Maybe we can come back soon and have a really happy class reunion."

"Beth Reynolds was always such a nice person and a reliable friend," said Cindy Forestiere of Pine Bluff, another classmate. "I'm so pleased she's so strong, because that will help the case."

Forestiere said she'd last seen Twitty at a 10-year class reunion and had not seen Natalee since she was a baby.

"We want her to feel the love and support from her family and friends in Pine Bluff," she said.

Twitty's mother has good and bad days, but is always hopeful.

"I have to be -- for Beth," Reynolds said.

Natalee will be 19 on Oct. 21 and plans to enter the University of Alabama in pre-med.

"After this, though, we may consider international law," her mother said.