Boycott Seeks to Pressure Aruba in Holloway Case

(March 6) -- For nearly five years, Indianapolis resident Michelle Harstad-Simonsen has been urging U.S. tourists to boycott travel to Aruba. Her aim is to pressure the Aruban government into taking action in the May 2005 disappearance of an American teen who was visiting the island.

"This consumer grass-roots movement urges everyone to abandon plans to travel to Aruba or the Netherland Antilles until this case is resolved," Harstad-Simonsen told AOL News. "We want justice, plain and simple."

Natalee Holloway, 18, from Mountain Brook, Ala., disappeared May 30, 2005, while on a trip to Aruba to celebrate her high school graduation. Her body has never been found.

Holloway's classmates said they last saw her leaving Carlos 'n Charlie's nightclub with Joran van der Sloot, then a 17-year-old Dutch honors student living in Aruba, and his two friends, Surinamese brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe. All three young men were arrested, but they were released without charge.

From the onset of the case, van der Sloot allegedly has made multiple confessions, each varying significantly. As a result, Aruban prosecutors have deemed them a mixture of "lies and fantasy" and have decided not to take action against him, a move that angers Harstad-Simonsen.

"I decided to get involved after Beth Holloway [Natalee's mother] announced her intention to boycott Aruba in the fall of 2005," Harstad-Simonsen said. "I had followed Natalee's case from Day One. It hit home because I am a crime victim, and my heart dropped when I read the allegations against van der Sloot. I saw myself in her and wanted to give her justice. I was determined to do something about it. I started the Aruban Boycott blog in November 2005, with no intention of giving up."

Harstad-Simonsen is originally from Wisconsin and holds a bachelor's degree in political science and criminal justice. She had dreams of becoming a prosecutor, but mounting student loan debts kept her from attaining that goal.

"I have used my applicable and relevant skills and worked in the legal field for 10 years. In the last year or so, I started working on my own as a true crime writer," Harstad-Simonsen said. "I have a journalism background, so it seemed a perfect fit to integrate my criminal justice background with my passion for writing, but the main goal is justice for Natalee. Hitting the [Aruban government] where it hurts is the only tool to use, considering most of their revenue comes from tourism."

According to travelworld.thecheers.org, more than 1.5 million tourists a year visit Aruba, with 75 percent of those coming from America. Tourism dipped more than 9 percent after Beth Holloway's plea for an island boycott. Last year, CDNN and other Web sites reported that the "botched Holloway case" continued to damage Aruba tourism. However, since that time numbers have rebounded.

The U.S. government has refused to support a boycott of Aruba, as have many major travel groups.

Despite the recent increase in visitors to the island, Harstad-Simonsen says she has no plans to back down and remains convinced the boycott is having a negative impact.

"The boycott is working," she said. "I get e-mails all the time from Dutch and Aruban individuals asking me to take down my blog and stop writing negative things about the island. There's no way anyone would take the time to write and send me these long e-mails if it wasn't working. I will stand by in the long haul until the powers that be on the island do what they can to end the case. Until they do that, the boycott will continue indefinitely."

So while Harstad-Simonsen is dedicated to continuing her fight, she admits that the end is far from sight and that it is unlikely the Holloway case will ever be solved.

"I hate to be pessimistic, but I don't see them finding Natalee," she said. "If she was on the island, she would have been found by now. I truly believe that she was dumped in the sea. Trying to locate her is like finding a needle in a haystack, but I do applaud Natalee's dad, Dave Holloway, for his persistence in trying to locate her. I am a parent myself, and I would do the same thing."

Related Links:
Why Does Suspect Keep Talking in Holloway Case?
Another Alleged Confession Made in Holloway Case
New Holloway Details Emerge in Alleged Confession