The Duct Tape Strangler

Oh, the vagaries of Internet search engines. As far as I am aware, there is no such dreadful creature as The Duct Tape Strangler. He/she was only a figment of the mind of Kerfuffles. Since the story has hit about strands of blond hair found on duct tape along a beach in Aruba, my blog has been pounced upon by droves of seekers coming to Kerfuffles for more information. Sorrowfully, I have none. I even suspect that those blond hairs will be found not to belong to Natalee, nor have any criminal links, as duct tape is used for so many perfectly legal projects.

I made one posting about the tragic Natalee Holloway disappearance in Aruba, which I entitled "Too Much Fun". I also made a post about The Freeway Blogger, "Moonbatting Necessities", and mentioned his use of duct tape and jokingly cautioned him on being mistaken for the entirely fictitious Duct Tape Strangler.

I searched for more news today of the young girl's disappearance and did find an interesting AP story, dated today. It involves a man from South Carolina and a woman he met at a shop in North Carolina. It is truly a "he said - she said" affair, however the story sounds plausible. The man claims that the woman relayed some gossip to him from a telephone conversation with the Van der Sloot family, who were her friends from when she lived in Aruba. He claims that she told him details of Holloway's disappearance, including claims that the intoxicated teen died after accidentally falling and hitting her head on a rock. He contacted the FBI and now the woman says she told him nothing of the sort. Here it is from AP:

"Interviewed by The Associated Press late Thursday, Palmer said her son had been a school friend of Joran van der Sloot, who is jailed in the case, and she said has known parents Paul and Anita van der Sloot for years. But she said she knows nothing about what happened to Holloway.

"'I haven't seen them (the van der Sloots) since 2001,' she said, adding that she also has not spoken with the family since then.

"Jim Dooley, a personnel recruiter from Charleston, S.C., told the AP he referred the FBI's Birmingham office to Palmer after she shared with him details of the case she said came from Paul van der Sloot during a phone conversation shortly after Joran van der Sloot's arrest. Dooley said he struck up a conversation with Palmer while his wife tried on clothes in the store where Palmer works. He said Palmer quoted Paul van der Sloot as saying Holloway died after falling and hitting her head on a rock at an Aruban beach."

Natalee Holloway was last seen in Aruba at Carlos N Charlie's. It is doubtful that there were any Duct Tape Stranglers lurking about there, but from this photograph of another beautiful young woman at the same nightclub, it seems not a safe environment for intoxicated teens.

Where is the Fun at Carlos N Charlies? Scared Monkeys has more, HERE and HERE, including breaking news today that the Aruban Prime Minister and the Minister of Justice have ordered all materials pertaining to the Natalee Holloway investigation to be given to the FBI. Interesting that today also the Alabama legislature asked that citizens boycott Aruba because no one has been charged in the case. After so many weeks, will the FBI be able to get to the bottom of this sad story? We can hope.