Free Portrait of a Monster: Joran Van Der Sloot, a Murder in Peru, and the Natalee Holloway Mystery by Lisa Pulitzer, Cole Thompson Page A

particularly talented jazz dancer. Her natural, graceful moves often attracted the attention of the opposite sex. She was a member of her high school dance team, the Dorians. The previous night, the two friends danced their hearts out for an hour before Lee finally left her to return to the bar for another round.
    When the bar had closed at 1:00 A.M. , Lee looked around for Natalee but couldn’t find her. She filtered outside with about sixty other Mountain Brook teens, where taxis were lining the street to provide rides back to the Holiday Inn. With so many people spilling out at once, no one was specifically looking out for Natalee. A general presumption prevailed that everyone was looking out for everyone.
    Still, Lee wanted to be sure Natalee was safe. She walked around the corner to another bar, Choose-A-Name, to see if Natalee might be there. Her instincts told her that Natalee had not been in the crowd outside Carlos’n Charlie’s. She would have called her on her cell phone, but the teens were in the unusual and frustrating position of having no cell service on the island. However, looking in the karaoke bar, Lee didn’t find Natalee there either and she returned to Carlos’n Charlie’s to take a cab back to Palm Beach.
    At 3:00 A.M. , Natalee still hadn’t returned to the room. However, she could easily have been in the company of scores of other Mountain Brook seniors still outside partying by the pool. She assumed that Natalee was pulling a last hurrah all-nighter.
    Now, however, having fruitlessly searched the hotel, Lee felt sick at the thought that something might have happened. Overcome with nausea and panic, she ran to find a chaperone.
    Bob Plummer, a teacher and golf coach at Mountain Brook Junior High School, was outside in the hotel parking lot. He had just completed a final head count and passport check of the students on the first bus when Lee, Ruth, and several other girls came running out of the hotel. They looked distraught, and one of them was crying.
    “We can’t find Natalee,” Lee blurted out between sobs. “Nobody’s seen her since last night.” Plummer walked with the girls back into the lobby where the other adults were busy assembling the second busload of students, checking their tickets and passports.
    “Has anybody seen Natalee this morning?” Plummer yelled out to the teens who were gathered near the wicker couches, seated on suitcases, listening to iPods.
    “Yes,” one of the guys said. “I saw her leave Carlos’n Charlie’s last night with some guys in a silver car.”
    Several of the classmates claimed to have seen Natalee in the backseat of the vehicle next to a tall white guy. Two dark-skinned locals were with them in the front seats. Natalee did not seem to be held against her will. They speculated that maybe Natalee thought she was getting into a cab with the guy since many of the taxis on the island are unmarked. When the car passed, Natalee rolled down the rear window and yelled out to her classmates standing on the curb. “I’m going to ride back to the Holiday Inn,” she shouted. “Aruba!”
    It sounded to Lee like Natalee had gotten into a car with the Dutch tourist from the casino. She’d seen him at Carlos’n Charlie’s, standing by the front stage watching her dance. Her hunch was confirmed when one of her classmates said he’d recognized the guy from the Excelsior.
    Lee was trying hard to control her emotions. This was not like Natalee. Something was terribly wrong. She would never get into a car by herself with strangers. It didn’t make any sense.
    Plummer noticed Lee trembling. She was having a hard time catching her breath. Putting his arm around her, he tried to soothe her. “She probably just lost track of time,” he told the terror-struck friend. “She’ll show up. Let’s just go to your room and see if maybe she’s come back.”
    Room 7114 was empty. Except for the purple duffel bag, there was no sign of Natalee. Plummer found her