Missing college student in the Dominican Republic from Ashburn

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CNN story says the US Embassy gave him a new passport so I guess the DA still didn’t give him back his original one. The way DR has handled this is nuts.

It makes perfect sense if you consider the situation from the DR's perspective.

DR was using this young man as a deflection from all the criminal activity raging around their island and tourist locations. Once this received worldwide attention, the authorities needed a scapegoat to keep attention away from the island, and this young man fit the bill. Any person with a thinking brain could see what was happening.

I hope some high-voltage lawyers step forward and offer their services to this young man. He needs to sue that miserable, wretched hellhole for using him like this. He's going to have a very hard time living down the notoriety, and it will follow him online indefinitely.

This makes sense. I agree with you.

The reaction of the DR is not surprising.

[Anonymous]

From what I’ve read it appears the US was waiting for the judge to say he was free to leave but the DA was still dragging its feet returning the passport. Then the embassy agreed to give him a replacement passport which Ribe chose and the story didn’t break until he was already on the plane flying back. I assume it was to try to catch the DA off guard, because Ribe’s team didn’t trust cooperation and that the DA would follow the judge’s instructions (which it still hadn’t done). Reminds me of the last scene in Argo of the Americans rushing to get on the plane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^Yup. Also, there have been hotel review allegations against the hotel for spiking alcoholic drinks. Considering how both he and Sudiksha are on video vomiting in the bar, no telling if their drinks were spiked.

Oh.

Was not aware of that detail about the video.

Doubt you are right about “spiked” alcoholic drinks. That’s a kinda crazy theory you cooked up in your head, PP.

Do you drink alcohol? I’m guessing not, since anyone who drinks knows full well that vomiting will occur with ANY alcohol if one drinks enough of it.

Yes I’m aware of the past cases of tainted alcohol being sold by DR bars; believe the bars got a cheap deal from island distilleries on “rejected” batches of rum (probably mostly heads and tails, them mixed in with known-good batches).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^Yup. Also, there have been hotel review allegations against the hotel for spiking alcoholic drinks. Considering how both he and Sudiksha are on video vomiting in the bar, no telling if their drinks were spiked.

Oh.

Was not aware of that detail about the video.

Doubt you are right about “spiked” alcoholic drinks. That’s a kinda crazy theory you cooked up in your head, PP.

Do you drink alcohol? I’m guessing not, since anyone who drinks knows full well that vomiting will occur with ANY alcohol if one drinks enough of it.

Yes I’m aware of the past cases of tainted alcohol being sold by DR bars; believe the bars got a cheap deal from island distilleries on “rejected” batches of rum (probably mostly heads and tails, them mixed in with known-good batches).

Meh. The DR is a third world country. And all the island distilleries have to do SOMETHING to dispose of their rejected batches of rum. It’s not like you’d want to export the reject stuff.

And like I said, it’s a third world country.

[Anonymous]

So now it is reported Ribe and his father were connecting through Puerto Rico, and had to go through immigration there as it is the first call of the US. Apparently there was some stamp missing on Ribe's new passport so DHS has detained him and separated him from his father.

What a mess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So now it is reported Ribe and his father were connecting through Puerto Rico, and had to go through immigration there as it is the first call of the US. Apparently there was some stamp missing on Ribe's new passport so DHS has detained him and separated him from his father.

What a mess.

Did they make it to the U.S.? It's not clear to me from the news if they made it onto their next flight:

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So now it is reported Ribe and his father were connecting through Puerto Rico, and had to go through immigration there as it is the first call of the US. Apparently there was some stamp missing on Ribe's new passport so DHS has detained him and separated him from his father.

What a mess.

Did they make it to the U.S.? It's not clear to me from the news if they made it onto their next flight:

Puerto Rico is the US

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So now it is reported Ribe and his father were connecting through Puerto Rico, and had to go through immigration there as it is the first call of the US. Apparently there was some stamp missing on Ribe's new passport so DHS has detained him and separated him from his father.

What a mess.

I would think the U.S. government is still competent enough to correct this mistake in an expedited manner with profuse apologies to this young man who's been put through hell.

[Anonymous]

Jesus. Poor guy. He’ll probably never travel abroad again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So now it is reported Ribe and his father were connecting through Puerto Rico, and had to go through immigration there as it is the first call of the US. Apparently there was some stamp missing on Ribe's new passport so DHS has detained him and separated him from his father.

What a mess.

Did they make it to the U.S.? It's not clear to me from the news if they made it onto their next flight:

Puerto Rico is the US

It's a territory of the U.S., not one of the states of the United States.

Anyway, what I meant was has he made it to one of the 50 states in the United States? Meaning, if he makes it to one of the 50 states, he's safe. If he's stuck in Puerto Rico, DR might get ideas and try to pull him back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So now it is reported Ribe and his father were connecting through Puerto Rico, and had to go through immigration there as it is the first call of the US. Apparently there was some stamp missing on Ribe's new passport so DHS has detained him and separated him from his father.

What a mess.

Did they make it to the U.S.? It's not clear to me from the news if they made it onto their next flight:

Puerto Rico is the US

Department of Homeland security in Puerto Rico is detaining him. He’s with the US government. He is not in the continental US but he’s in the US.

It's a territory of the U.S., not one of the states of the United States.

Anyway, what I meant was has he made it to one of the 50 states in the United States? Meaning, if he makes it to one of the 50 states, he's safe. If he's stuck in Puerto Rico, DR might get ideas and try to pull him back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So now it is reported Ribe and his father were connecting through Puerto Rico, and had to go through immigration there as it is the first call of the US. Apparently there was some stamp missing on Ribe's new passport so DHS has detained him and separated him from his father.

What a mess.

Did they make it to the U.S.? It's not clear to me from the news if they made it onto their next flight:

Puerto Rico is the US

It's a territory of the U.S., not one of the states of the United States.

Anyway, what I meant was has he made it to one of the 50 states in the United States? Meaning, if he makes it to one of the 50 states, he's safe. If he's stuck in Puerto Rico, DR might get ideas and try to pull him back.

They offered to return his passport, so I think your yen for drama will be disappointed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CNN story says the US Embassy gave him a new passport so I guess the DA still didn’t give him back his original one. The way DR has handled this is nuts.

It makes perfect sense if you consider the situation from the DR's perspective.

DR was using this young man as a deflection from all the criminal activity raging around their island and tourist locations. Once this received worldwide attention, the authorities needed a scapegoat to keep attention away from the island, and this young man fit the bill. Any person with a thinking brain could see what was happening.

I hope some high-voltage lawyers step forward and offer their services to this young man. He needs to sue that miserable, wretched hellhole for using him like this. He's going to have a very hard time living down the notoriety, and it will follow him online indefinitely.

Making “sense” doesn’t make it legal. DR was framing him and waiting for a body to be found. They felt perfectly fine keeping him in perpetuity, he was held for almost 2 weeks (and so was his friend) which is much longer than the legal 48 hours. It’s pretty awful. I cannot trust anything their investigation concludes from this point forward.

I think DR was just thinking about all that money, really.

And who can blame them? DR is a third-world country and they understand they are a third-world country with little to nothing going for them, other than tourism from developed / western nations.

The DR just wanted to send the message to tourists that it’s now taking crime against tourists seriously and that DR is totally safe (even though we all know that isn’t true).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So now it is reported Ribe and his father were connecting through Puerto Rico, and had to go through immigration there as it is the first call of the US. Apparently there was some stamp missing on Ribe's new passport so DHS has detained him and separated him from his father.

What a mess.

The missing stamp is his entry-stamp into the DR, which is located in his original passport (which the DR apparently refuses to relinquish).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So now it is reported Ribe and his father were connecting through Puerto Rico, and had to go through immigration there as it is the first call of the US. Apparently there was some stamp missing on Ribe's new passport so DHS has detained him and separated him from his father.

What a mess.

Did they make it to the U.S.? It's not clear to me from the news if they made it onto their next flight:

Puerto Rico is the US

It's a territory of the U.S., not one of the states of the United States.

Anyway, what I meant was has he made it to one of the 50 states in the United States? Meaning, if he makes it to one of the 50 states, he's safe. If he's stuck in Puerto Rico, DR might get ideas and try to pull him back.

They offered to return his passport, so I think your yen for drama will be disappointed.

They did offer, but kept delaying. they had to “find it” as if they didn’t know where it was (of course they knew and I am shocked they weren’t required to bring it to court). The other Iowa man had his returned on Tuesday, does DR think we’re dumb that they didn’t keep the passports together?

The reason the US issued the new expedited passport is bc Riibe got tired of the excuses and didn’t trust they would give it back when they said (today, no tomorrow, no I can’t find it).

I agree the scenario that somehow DR can get him returned from San Juan is ludicrous.