At the behest of her father, Natalee Holloway has at long last been declared legally dead. There are two things I find crazy about this situation - one is that missing adults aren't automatically declared dead for seven years! Holloway only disappeared about six years ago, and this has only been done now because the father specifically petitioned for it, for insurance reasons and to free up her college fund for use by her little brother.
The second thing is that, despite the myriad red tape involved in a missing person still being legally alive, to say nothing of the emotional toll, Holloway's mother--who I should add is now divorced from her father--opposed the request.
I guess it's not entirely unreasonable for a parent to want to leave this hanging as long as possible, but come on - imagine if they'd found some trace of DNA five years ago and used that evidence to declare her legally dead at the time. Her family would have had five years to deal with their grief by now.
It's a bullshit situation, and I wouldn't presume to tell a dead girl's parents how to feel about it, but that's what she is - a dead girl. Would her mom really prefer that she'd been tied up in a basement somewhere all this time? Six years, in my opinion--let alone seven--is way too long to keep that wound open. Especially if it's becoming a practical and financial problem for others in the family.
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