Am I the only one that thinks that maybe?

You can hardly call an 18-year old a child. I lived on my own already in that period of my life, with all the responsibilities that came with it. If anyone is at fault, it is Natalee herself for coming into a situation that others could abuse her in.

Natalee didn't deserve to be killed...but she and her parents were definitely asking for trouble. I can't feel sorry for a girl who went to a party island where she could underage drink, who went off with strange boys living there to scam on tourist chicks. I can't feel sorry for the parents who condoned the whole thing by paying for it.

I agree with the original poster. If the daughter and parents had shown better judgment and common sense, they would not have gone through this tragedy. We're not talking about a little girl abducted from her front yard while playing with Barbies - we're talking about grown people making naive choices.

So if that's the case, why don't we just go ahead and move the high school graduating age to our early twenties because if this is Natalee's fault or Beth's then I guess every college student who goes missing-I guess their parents are at fault for trusting their "kids" to go away unsupervised...right? And I guess when parents of murdered college kids who are at out of state colleges, I guess they shouldn't show any concern right?

All 18 year olds make mistakes and yes, it was irresponsible, the decision Natalee made to go off with Joran, but how about the reality that no one really knows what happened because everyone was completely wasted, how about it's not her fault that she got murdered (if that's the case) or sold into sex traffiking (if that's the case). I wouldn't be so quick to judge since you're not in Beth's shoes. And by the way, her father didn't want her to go but her mother was trying to cut her some slack for the hard work she did that year. She really was intelligent, that's not some lie they made up to make her look good. She was a smart, sweet girl who made a mistake and it doesn't show lack of concern to wonder what the *beep* happened to your daughter; how much concern would it have shown if she just did nothing?

Gosh, sorry if I sound harsh, but I was a couple of years ahead of Natalee in school and it's so infuriating to see Beth every Christmas with tears in her eyes while people like you want to say she wasn't a good parent....geez.

"...but guys don't watch tomboys when they're cruising the hall..."

Excuse me, but Natalee was 18 a legal adult,capable of making her own decisions.

I went to Mexico right after graduating at age 18 (in 2003) and we came back just fine. I don't think its fair to blame the parents for something Natalee didn't need permission to do in the first place. She needed them to pay for it but if she could've gotten the money herself she could have gotten on the plane with her mother attached to her leg screaming for her not to go and there wouldn't have been a damn thing they could do about it.

If you want to blame someone I would look more at her friends who shouldn't have let her get into that car. When we were in Mexico I had a friend who got incredibally wasted and I made sure I knew exactly where she was and when we were leaving the club I made sure she was right there with us. I would have chased down that car if she had gotten in it. I would not have waited until morning. These kids may have been a bit immature and that obviously worked against them but if the parents thought their child was mature enough to go there at age 18 I don't see how you can blame them. Also remember that over 100 students went on that trip and only ONE didn't come home. Its not like this is common occurance.

Most parents, especially when their child has done very little if anything wrong (as was the case with Natalee, who was in general a "good girl") and was a good student (she received multiple scholarships to the University of Alabama) would have allowed their child to go on a graduation trip. A lot of kids go on senior trips and a lot of them, even good ones make mistakes ... the thing is most of them don't end up dead and therefore you never hear about it. Any kids that age can go out with their friends and make the same mistake Natalee did (I know I did at that age and I am now 20+ years removed from my h.s. graduation), but not end up like she most likely did if for no other reason but luck (luck that we didn't flirt with the wrong person, like she most likely did).

Also, I just have to say that I think its rather counterproductive at this point to judge.

The Twitty's/Mr. Holloway allowed Natalee to go to Aruba knowing FULL WELL that there would be drinking and gambling. There were only SEVEN chaperones (for 124 kids). They are sorry excuses for parents. I would NEVER allow my daughter to go to a foreign country knowing that she wouldn't really be supervised.

IT'S CALLED SENIOR TRIP. It happens every year in May. Graduates go to such places as Florida, Cancun, South Padre Island, Aruba, etc... This particular story has been beaten down our throats from the media a millions times by now and there "were over a 100 of her classmates PLUS CHAPERONE'S." How do you not know this by now? This has nothing to do with BH. NH was drugged more than likely the date rape drug and it went from there. This could have easily happened in Florida or anywhere else besides she's was about to enter a major college The University of Alabama and Natalee's mom wouldn't be there to hold her hand there either. This was a tragedy period.

Did you not take a Senior trip with a bunch of your classmates and go somewhere? We went to Florida (no chaperone's thank you very much) and stayed hammered all week. If nothing more this story has brought awareness for futures party seekers. Peace