Beth Holloway makes her first public appearance since Jordan van der Sloots murder confession of a Peruvian woman at the opening of a resource center in her daughter’s memory.
WASHINGTON – One day after the key suspect in the Natalee Holloway case confessed to an unrelated murder in Peru, Beth Holloway opened a missing person resource center in Washington named after her daughter. Holloway spoke briefly about the new resource center but refused to answer questions about Joran van der Sloot’s recent confession to killing a 21-year old woman in Peru. She had only one comment regarding the murdered victim Stephany Flores Ramirez.
“Please again, let’s all remind ourselves to keep the Flores family in our hearts and our prayers,” Holloway said.
Beth Holloway partnered with The National Museum of Crime & Punishment to create the Natalee Holloway Resource Center that helps families with missing loved ones.
“The Natalee Holloway Resource Center will be the families’ first stop for contact information, missing person posted development and media engagement,” Holloway said.
The resource center will not be involved in search and recovery for missing person cases. That responsibility will be left to law enforcement. Instead the focus is on the first 24 to 48 hrs of someone’s disappearance. Janine Vaccarello, who is vice president of the center, said the first steps into filing a missing person case are crucial. Assistance will be provided in filing a police report, putting together missing person signs and developing a location for a command center.
“Those are the absolute critical steps for research and recovery,” Vaccarello said. “Those are the steps that we are going to make sure happen.”
Educational and outreach programs will also be a part of the resource center’s mission. The center will participate in the awareness to safe traveling and crime prevention.
The launch comes almost five years after Natalee Holloway disappeared during a class trip in Aruba shortly after her high school graduation. Sloot was arrested and charged twice for Holloway’s disappearance but was released due to lack of evidence.