The mysterious disappearance and death of high-school senior Natalee Holloway in Aruba is an enduring symbol of a parent’s worst nightmare.
Five years after her daughter’s death, Beth Holloway has teamed with a Manhattan corporate security firm to ensure parents can sleep easier when their kids go abroad.
The 48-year-old mother and Investigative Management Group (IMG) have started Mayday 360, which promises to have the resources to intervene immediately at the first sign of trouble overseas.
Holloway said the most important lesson she learned from her awful ordeal was that when a loved one is in trouble far from home, it’s vital to get bureaucrats to start an emergency response if circumstances demand it — a key component of what Mayday 360 plans to offer.
“In our case,” Holloway told The Post, “it took five days for the American consulate to respond.
“You need a response that is both urgent and timely. Some of the challenges we faced were in utilizing the resources of the governments involved,” she said, referring to the inaction displayed after her daughter’s disappearance.
An estimated 275,000 American students study abroad each year and some 100,000 American teens head to Mexico each spring break, seemingly oblivious to recent State Department warnings about drug-fueled violence in that country.
Many gallivanting youths wind up in life-threatening predicaments — lost and confused, badly injured or under arrest on alcohol or drug charges.
Holloway, who will serve as a partner and director of business development for the company, says the venture is an outgrowth of the lectures she’s given since 19-year-old Natalee was kidnapped and killed in May 2005. She had become separated from her Alabama high-school classmates during their senior class trip.
In her chats, Holloway has made it a point to warn high-school and college students about the many hidden pitfalls awaiting them in foreign lands, she said.
“I always remind students to understand that when you leave the United States, there are challenges and consequences to face if something tragic happens,” she said.
That ugly lesson was in the news last week with the disclosure that John “Zeke” Rucker, a 21-year-old from Sewell, N.J., was fighting for his life after being severely beaten while vacationing with friends in Cancun, Mexico.
Rucker, who was celebrating his recent graduation from Rutgers University and was planning to enter law school, suffered multiple skull fractures after he was apparently attacked upon falling asleep near his hotel pool.
In extreme cases, Mayday 360 will dispatch ex-federal agents with specialized knowledge about a particular country’s laws, customs and language.
“The biggest thing about being overseas and outside of the United States is that people don’t think about it until it’s too late,” explained Robert Strang, a former special agent for the DEA in New York City, who heads IMG.