Missing college student in the Dominican Republic from Ashburn

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What kind of girlfriends abandon their drunk and wasted friend with a strange boy on a beach in a foreign country at 5am???

Pretty much every young woman on spring break right now.

I know I did this exact same thing multiple times at her age.

What, did you want her friends to stand around in a circle while she hooked up with the guy to make sure she was safe? She was a 20 year old adult woman. She made a choice. Unfortunately, it was a bad one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is Joshua Steven Ribe from the US as well?

Yes. 24 years old. Really don't think he orchestrated a kidnapping. Just stinking drunk and dumb.

He wiped his internet presence very quickly.

His lawyer probably told him to. He's the next Joran Vandersloot.

Even if he is innocent, this is right move for sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What kind of girlfriends abandon their drunk and wasted friend with a strange boy on a beach in a foreign country at 5am???

Pretty much every young woman on spring break right now.

I know I did this exact same thing multiple times at her age.

What, did you want her friends to stand around in a circle while she hooked up with the guy to make sure she was safe? She was a 20 year old adult woman. She made a choice. Unfortunately, it was a bad one.

The choice to go at all was bad. Her parents never should have let her go. And yes, they could stop her. I am SURE they are paying her school tuition and expenses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many people from the US really don't realize how lucky they have it here.
Most parts of the world are very dangerous by comparison, and life is cheap.

Stop fear mongering. This isn’t true. Most parts of the world are not more dangerous than the U.S. today. Spare me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What kind of girlfriends abandon their drunk and wasted friend with a strange boy on a beach in a foreign country at 5am???

Pretty much every young woman on spring break right now.

I know I did this exact same thing multiple times at her age.

What, did you want her friends to stand around in a circle while she hooked up with the guy to make sure she was safe? She was a 20 year old adult woman. She made a choice. Unfortunately, it was a bad one.

There's a reason getting drunk and hooking up with strangers is a very bad idea. Women need to be smart, not dumb.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many people from the US really don't realize how lucky they have it here.
Most parts of the world are very dangerous by comparison, and life is cheap.

Stop fear mongering. This isn’t true. Most parts of the world are not more dangerous than the U.S. today. Spare me.

Well, the Dominican Republic and Haiti certainly are more dangerous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What kind of girlfriends abandon their drunk and wasted friend with a strange boy on a beach in a foreign country at 5am???

Not good friends at all. Either dimwits or drunk or both. Very sketchy, stupid behavior.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What kind of girlfriends abandon their drunk and wasted friend with a strange boy on a beach in a foreign country at 5am???

Pretty much every young woman on spring break right now.

I know I did this exact same thing multiple times at her age.

What, did you want her friends to stand around in a circle while she hooked up with the guy to make sure she was safe? She was a 20 year old adult woman. She made a choice. Unfortunately, it was a bad one.

The choice to go at all was bad. Her parents never should have let her go. And yes, they could stop her. I am SURE they are paying her school tuition and expenses.

Why shouldn't she go? Never mind whether they could stop her or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even though she grew up in the US, goes to college in the US and her family lives in the US, the US government wouldn't help her parents when they contacted them. So they had to go to the Indian government to put pressure on the DR and lots of time was lost.

It's taken 3 days for this to hit the media. She's a lovely, brilliant young woman - hope they find her.

The only people who can have a big impact on this are people in the exact place where she went missing.

People think all the media coverage helps but I don't think it does at all. It's just voyeuristic horror stories to frighten ourselves with. All that Natalee Holloway coverage didn't do a bit of good. Her killer wasn't busted and he reoffended.

What helps are police and other people on the ground.

And right now our fed.govt. is in a mess so I wouldn't be hoping for speedy, effective diplomacy right now...and even if it was effective...only people who saw her, maybe the local telecom if people nearby were producing phone data, and anyone involved in however she disappeared can help. So at best US diplomatic pressure might hurry up some data analysis. It wouldn't bring this poor girl home alive.

Totally agree. There is a large contingent now who think if the WHOLE world doesn’t know and care about something, it didn’t happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even though she grew up in the US, goes to college in the US and her family lives in the US, the US government wouldn't help her parents when they contacted them. So they had to go to the Indian government to put pressure on the DR and lots of time was lost.

It's taken 3 days for this to hit the media. She's a lovely, brilliant young woman - hope they find her.

…because she is an adult and there are standards for “missing person” reports for adults. You can’t just call up and report a grown up missing after only a few hours and have them leap into action as though she were a minor.
Without evidence of any crime, you can’t just expect resources to immediately deploy to find an adult who hasn’t checked in with her friends or hasn’t texted her parents back in a while.

I feel so bad for them, and I hope they find her alive and physically unharmed.

As a society though, we need to make up our minds about whether college students are adults or not. Because it seems that when they are treated as such, folks get real mad when things go sideways.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What kind of girlfriends abandon their drunk and wasted friend with a strange boy on a beach in a foreign country at 5am???

Pretty much every young woman on spring break right now.

I know I did this exact same thing multiple times at her age.

What, did you want her friends to stand around in a circle while she hooked up with the guy to make sure she was safe? She was a 20 year old adult woman. She made a choice. Unfortunately, it was a bad one.

The choice to go at all was bad. Her parents never should have let her go. And yes, they could stop her. I am SURE they are paying her school tuition and expenses.

Why shouldn't she go? Never mind whether they could stop her or not.

Because she lacks the ability to make good decisions. Like not swimming drunk in the dark.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many people from the US really don't realize how lucky they have it here.
Most parts of the world are very dangerous by comparison, and life is cheap.

Stop fear mongering. This isn’t true. Most parts of the world are not more dangerous than the U.S. today. Spare me.

Well, the Dominican Republic and Haiti certainly are more dangerous.

But the dude she hooked up with is American.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is Joshua Steven Ribe from the US as well?

Yes. 24 years old. Really don't think he orchestrated a kidnapping. Just stinking drunk and dumb.

He wiped his internet presence very quickly.

His lawyer probably told him to. He's the next Joran Vandersloot.

This seems likely. He has reportedly offered more than 1 story, never a good sign.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This appears to be the gist of his statement.

https://dr1.com/news/2025/03/10/young-tourist-goes-missing-when-on-spring-break/

Just taken at face value, it sadly seems pretty straightforward that the group left those two to hang out together alone.
And that maybe they made out or had sex or whatever and then went into the water and they were super drunk and he got sick and passed out and then when he woke up she wasn’t there and he freaked.

[Anonymous]

People die from going swimming at night in the US too--this article was on that specific topic.

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/nyregion/19drown.html