The Disappearance of Natalee Holloway

Natalee Holloway

Natalee Hollway was born on October 21, 1986 to Dave Holloway and Beth Twitty.  She was the oldest of two, having a younger brother named Matthew.  Dave and Beth divorced in 1993 and both eventually remarried.  Natalee primarily lived with Beth in Mountain Brook, Alabama.  Natalee was a regular church and was known to be very kind.  Her father Dave (the most precious man I have ever seen) described his daughter as being energetic, kind and was someone who would do anything for anyone.

Natalee was an honors student at Mountain Brook High School as well as a member of the dance team.  She was also involved in the American Field Service where she helped exchange students adapt to life in the U.S.  Natalee earned a full academic scholarship to the University of Alabama and was planning on studying pre-med.  She graduated from high school on May 24, 2005 and it was the last time she had seen her father, Dave, and her stepmother, Robin.  

Trip to Aruba

On May 26, 2005, Natalee and her classmates arrived in Aruba for their class trip.  There were 124 students with 7 chaperones.  The group was staying at the beachfront Holiday Inn Resort on the northern end of the island.  We don’t have specific details about the entirety of Natalee’s trip, however, we know where she was and who she was with on their last night, May 29, 2005.

Natalee and some of her friends were in the casino at their hotel when she met a local 17-year-old boy named Joran (pronounced Yoran) Van der Sloot.  Joran was born in the Netherlands but was going to school in Aruba. They chatted at the casino and then the group decided to head over to a local bar called Carlos n’ Charlie’s in downtown Oranjestad.  Natalee and Joran danced and had drinks together and were reportedly having a good time.  Around 1:00 am, the bar was closing so the group decided they were going to head over to another bar.  Natalee, though, decided to head out with Joran and his two friends, Deepak Kalpoe, 21, and his brother Satish, 18.  Natalee’s friends had tried to convince her to not leave with them, but she told them she was fine.  They all thought that she was getting a ride back to the hotel with the boys in a silver Honda.  

The next morning Natalee’s friends couldn’t find her, but saw that her bags and her passport were still in her hotel room.  They notified a chaperone that they couldn’t locate Natalee and they called Beth, Natalee’s mom.  The flight back home to Alabama took off without Natalee on board. 

The Search for Natalee

Upon finding out that Natalee was missing and hadn’t made it on her flight home, her family immediately makes their way to Aruba.  Once they arrived, they immediately began searching for answers on where Natalee could be.  Natalee’s family first went to the hotel casino where she had first met Joran.  There they were told by the night manager that Joran often frequented the casino in order to pick up young girls on vacation.  Beth asked the manager to see security camera footage and then decided to call the Aruban police.  They then made their way to Carlos n’ Charlie’s Bar to gather any information they could.  

The police and Natalee’s family then went to the Van der Sloot residence where Joran was questioned about what had happened the night Natalee went missing.  Paulus Van der Sloot, Joran’s father, a lawyer and judge-to-be, kept a close eye while Joran was being questioned. 

Joran admitted to leaving the bar with Natalee and the Kalpoe brothers, Deepak and Satish.  He says that after leaving the bar, they went to the lighthouse at Arashi Beach on the northwest tip of the island, then to shark-watch before dropping her off at the hotel.  Joran said that they dropped her off at the hotel around 2:00am and the Kalpoe brothers corroborated this story.  Joran agreed to take the police and Natalee’s family to the hotel where he claimed he and the Kalpoe brothers dropped Natalee off and told them that Natalee had fallen and hit her head getting out of the car, but was fine and went into the hotel.  He also claimed that he knew the guard and he could corroborate, but the guard was not there. 

On June 1, 2005, Natalee had not yet been declared as a missing person, but a search had begun.  There were approximately 100 tourists and locals searching the area for Natalee.  In the following weeks, the search expanded to include volunteers from the United States, the Aruban police, Dutch Marines and three F-16 fighter planes from the Netherlands.  

On June 5th, the first two arrests were made in the investigation.  Two former security guards from a hotel that was closed for renovations at the time were arrested.  Joran and the Kalpoe brothers had claimed that they had seen a guard approaching Natalee outside of her hotel after dropping her off.  However, it was determined that they had nothing to do with Natalee’s disappearance and were released June 18th.  One of the guards told police that one of the Kalpoe brothers had told him while they were all in jail together that he and his brother had left Natalee and Joran at a beach near the hotel.  

On June 9th, Joran Van der Sloot and both Kalpoe brothers were arrested and held on possible charges of first degree or second degree murder and kidnapping resulting in death.  The Aruban Attorney General, Caron Janssen, had said that they had been hoping one of the boys would lead the police to definitive evidence so that was why they hadn’t been taken into custody right away.  

On June 14th, the beach was searched for evidence, but nothing was found.  The next day, the Van der Sloot residence was searched and police seized two vehicles, computers and cameras.  Paulus, Joran’s father, was questioned and arrested on June 22, along with Steve Gregory Croes, a party boat DJ who had been reported to have connections to Natalee’s disappearance.  Both were released on June 26th. 

Satish admitted to lying to police when he was first questioned and changed his story.  He now said that he and Deepak dropped Natalee and Joran off at the hotel and that was the last time that they saw them.  A gardener at the Aruba Racquet Club gave a statement to the police saying that he saw all three of the “men” in a car near the club and the Marriott hotel around 2:30 am when the Kalpoes claimed to have already been home.

Searches continued with volunteers, locals, the marines and divers.  Sonar equipment was used and several leads were given and being followed up on.  A search in August was conducted after a tip that a sonar machine had detected human bones, but the divers came up empty.  A pond near the Marriott where the gardener had seen the boys was also drained, but again, nothing turned up.  Six weeks after Natalee’s disappearance, her family put up a reward of $200,000 for her safe return and a reward of $100,000 for any information on what happened to her.  By the end of July 2005, the reward for her safe return had been increased to $1 million.  

Beth stayed in Aruba for two months following Natalee’s disappearance and Dave has made several trips to Aruba looking for his daughter.  The family hired private investigator TJ Ward in 2005 to help with the case, and he has never given up in the search for Natalee.  Joran and the Kalpoe brothers were released from jail initially on July 4. The Kalpoes were arrested again in August two weeks after Beth had left the island.  They were again released on September 3rd.  

During the investigation, Joran’s story continued to change.  He was traveling around to different countries and talked a lot about the investigation.  It had seemed that he was happy to be in the spotlight and relishing in the fact that he was now “famous.”  

Was There a Cover Up?

Paulus Van der Sloot, Joran’s father, was a prominent lawyer on the island of Aruba during the time that Natalee went missing.  He was also in the process of becoming a judge.  Natalee’s family believes that the Aruban police helped to cover up what happened because the police commissioner at the time was Paulus’s best friend as well as Joran’s godfather.  The island of Aruba is very small and no trace of Natalee was found. 

Failed Lawsuits

In February of 2006, a suit filed with the Supreme Court of New York accused Joran Van der Sloot of “malicious, wanton and willful disregard of the rights, safety and well-being” of Natalee.  It claimed that Paulus enabled Joran’s predatory behavior, but was dismissed on August 3rd, 2006.  A judge determined that local taxpayers would only have “ephemeral” interest in seeing the case through. 

In December of 2006, Beth and Dave filed a wrongful death suit against the Kalpoe brothers in a Los Angeles Superior Court.  Unfortunately, the location made it unable to go through and a judge dismissed it over a lack of jurisdiction on June 1, 2007.  

Another Arrest/More Searches

In November of 2007, Joran and the Kalpoe brothers were again arrested because of “new incriminating evidence.”  They were charged with “involvement in the voluntary manslaughter of Natalee Holloway or causing serious bodily harm to Natalee Holloway, resulting in her death.” Unfortunately, the evidence didn’t move the case forward and they were released on December 7th.  

On December 30, 2007, divers searched a fish trap off the coast of Aruba after photos of what appeared to be a human skull were seen.  Nothing of relevance was found in the trap.  In 2008, a Dutch reporter recorded Van der Sloot saying that Natalee collapsed when they were on the beach together, and he was unable to revive her.  He said that he and a friend disposed of her body from a boat.  After finding out he was recorded, Van der Sloot insists that he was lying when he said it. 

Van der Sloot Extorts Beth Twitty

Paulus Van der Sloot died of a heart attack in February of 2010.  It is reported that Joran spun out of control with drugs and alcohol following his father’s death.  In March of 2010, Joran sent an email to Beth’s attorney, John Kelly, with an offer to reveal the location of Natalee’s body in exchange for $25,000 upfront and another $225,000 to follow.  Beth agreed and her lawyer relayed the information to the FBI.  On May 10th, John Kelly took $10,000 to Aruba and met with Joran.  Joran led Kelly to a house and told him that his father, Paulus, buried Hollway in the foundation.  After this, another $15,000 was wired to Joran’s bank account in the Netherlands.  

It was later revealed that it was a false location, but Joran had already made a trip to Peru with the money.

The Murder of Stephany Flores Ramirez

Joran spent three weeks in Peru spending the money that Beth had given to him in return for answers about where she could find her daughter’s remains.  While in Peru, five years to the day after Natalee went missing, Joran killed Stephany Flores Ramirez in his hotel room in Lima.  Joran confessed to killing her after she had used his computer to look up Natalee.  

On June 3, 2010, Joran was arrested in Chile and held in the high-security Castro Castro Prison.  On June 27, 2010, Joran was indicted for wire fraud and extortion in the United States for his attempt to get $250,000 from Beth.  It was said that authorities didn’t arrest him immediately after he received the wire payment because there wasn’t “sufficient evidence” to do so.  

Joran was sentenced to 28 years in prison and is currently serving his time in a Peru prison.  He was also ordered to pay $75,000 in reparations to Stephany’s family.  At this time, it was said that Joran would not be extradited to the U.S. for the extortion charges for 25 years.

On January 12, 2012, a day before Joran’s sentencing, Dave Holloway requested that Natalee be formally declared dead.  Beth was against this, however, an Alabama judge agreed with Dave.  

Dave Holloway & TJ Ward’s Continued Investigation

Throughout the years following Natalee’s disappearance, Dave never quit searching for his daughter.  He has taken several trips back to Aruba and follows every lead with his private investigator, TJ Ward.  They have followed up on several leads that have turned out to be dead ends, but despite this, Dave takes each one until the end.  The Oxygen series, The Disappearance of Natalee Holloway, follows Dave, TJ and his team of investigators on a lead they received from someone close to the case.  

On September 15, 2015, Dave received an unsolicited call from a man named Gabriel who was living with a guy that had previously lived with Joran Van der Sloot.  Gabriel’s roommate claimed to know where Natalee’s remains were.  In 2016, Gabriel told TJ that Joran told his roommate, John Ludwick, that Natalee had been foaming at the mouth and wouldn’t stop.  Joran then called his father, Paulus, who helped him to bury the body.  In 2010, according to John, Joran became paranoid that Natalee’s remains would be found because of the new searches taking place and offered to pay John $1,500 if he dug up the body for him.  John, being the supportive friend he was (UGH), agreed to do this for Joran.  John said that Joran told him Natalee’s body was in the national forest and he dug it up, took it to a morgue and had it cremated.  Then they threw it into the ocean at low tide.  TJ confirmed via his passport that John Ludwick was in Aruba at the time this allegedly occurred.  

TJ and Dave set up a face-to-face meeting with Gabriel after 18 months of correspondence.  Dave sat with Gabriel where he told him everything he had told TJ the year before, but with some additional details.  Gabriel told Dave that the Kalpoe brothers dropped Joran and Natalee off in an alley next to the Marriott hotel where they walked to the beach with two drinks in hand.  Dave believes that Joran spiked Natalee’s drink with GHB, the date rape drug.  According to Dave, you could pay the bartender at Carlos n’ Charlie’s $25 to spike a drink for you.  Gabriel says that Joran went to kiss Natalee, but she began foaming at the mouth and choking on her own vomit.  Joran panicked and called his dad.  When Paulus arrived, he determined that Natalee was dead and went back home to retrieve a burlap sack.  

Gabriel explains to Dave that Natalee’s body didn’t fit in the burlap, so they stomped on her body to dismember it in order for her to fit.   They put the burlap in the back of Paulus’s car and drove to the national park where they dug a hole for her body and placed a cactus over it once the dirt had been replaced.  He repeats what John had told him about digging up her body and he believes that John did this, 100%.  

Dave and TJ hope that if the story is true, they will be able to find DNA evidence in either the hole where Natalee’s body allegedly was or in the trunk of John’s aunt’s car that he used to move the body from the gravesite.  Dave told TJ that the story seems very credible to him because of where John claimed the Kalpoe brothers dropped Natalee and Joran off.  According to Dave, he was one of two people that knew she was dropped off by the Marriott, not at a fisherman’s hut which had been the story the media heard. 

After meeting with Gabriel, TJ and his investigative team, along with Dave, set up a sting operation to get John’s confession on tape.  If they got what they needed, they planned to take this information to the Aruban police. They had Gabriel set up a trip for him and John in New Orleans because Louisiana is a one-party state.  This means that federal law permits the recording of conversations with the consent of only one party present.  Gabriel agreed to be recorded.  TJ’s team set up recording equipment in John and Gabriel’s hotel room. 

While on the trip to New Orleans, John told Gabriel several things that were recorded and put into their files for the Aruban police.  John told Gabriel that he and Joran would rape girls four times per week and they did use drugs to do so.  John said it was only a couple of times that the girls were passed out.  John talked about how OJ Simpson wrote his book, If I Did It, and that he could go on TV and talk about what happened hypothetically, too.  

John also told Gabriel that he could take him to where he dug up Natalee’s remains, but they weren’t really in a national park where he initially said they were.  He said that the gravesite was actually a ten minute walk from his aunt’s house at the top of the mountains off of a path in a cul-de-sac.  Because of this Dave and TJ are concerned about the validity of the story now that it has changed.  John continued to talk about Joran and how he and Joran would have threesomes with the girls they picked up and he blames Stephany Flores Ramirez for Joran being in jail.  

John told Gabriel that Joran used his laptop to send the emails to Beth’s attorney and that he did offer him $1,500 to move Natalee’s remains.  He said that after he dug up her bones, he opened the burlap and there was a brown, black, fluid on them and there was a smell that almost made him vomit.  He said he used his aunt’s blue Mitsubishi to transport the remains where they stayed overnight.  John said that Joran dug up a dog buried in the cemetery and put those bones on top of Natalee’s body and drove to the crematory.  He said that he paid $200 cash to push the remains in the incinerator himself.  

After the trip to New Orleans, TJ and his team were confident that the recordings would be useful for re-opening the case and taking John into custody.  They knew the recordings wouldn’t be admissible in court, though. 

Back to Aruba

TJ and his team were working on getting a trip back to Aruba put together where they would be able to deliver their information to the Aruban authorities.  They needed Gabriel to bring John to Aruba as well to physically show him where the gravesite was.  While this was being set up, though, Gabriel’s patience with John was wearing thin and he decided to quit the investigation.  

Despite this, TJ and his team flew to Aruba and began working on how they could locate the two potential gravesites.  They knew the location of John’s aunt’s house because Gabriel was able to locate it on a map before quitting, so they drove around looking for a cul-de-sac that could potentially be the one that John spoke about.  They found a potential site and moved onto the next phase of their plan. 

After finding the spot, they met with Dr. Jason Kolowski, a DNA analyst.  He listened to John’s recordings and determined that what John said of the remains after opening the burlap was an accurate description of what they would be like five years later.   Dr. Kolowski said that the fluid from the body should still be present at the gravesite and it would be black, tarry, and soapy.  He also said that the decomp material would not be DNA comparable.  

Then they went with Dr. Kolowski to both potential gravesites where it was determined that the national park was unlikely because of the visibility and hardness of the clay.  However, Dr. Kolowski determined that the site near John’s aunt’s house would be a viable place. 

While they were doing this, Dave was working on convincing Gabriel to go to Aruba and help with the investigation.  Before Gabriel, John and both of their girlfriends arrived in Aruba, Dave flew in as well. 

TJ brought in another person to assist with the search, Tracy Sargent.  Tracy is a Canine Search and Rescue Specialist, and she and her human remains detection dog, Chance, went out to the site as well.  According to Tracy, Chance can detect human remains anywhere from two hours old to 250 years old.

Now that Gabriel was ready to help again and finally in Aruba, the team gave him a GPS tracker and instructed him to take photos of the gravesite John led him to and to drop the tracker there.  John took Gabriel to his aunt’s house and then to the alleged gravesite where Gabriel took several photos and videos.  Unfortunately, he didn’t charge the GPS tracker so he had to retrace his steps with TJ and the team to show them where John had led him.  

After being led to the alleged gravesite, TJ compiled all of the information they had and he and Dave met with Aruban authorities.  They met with Chief Richardson for three hours and were optimistic about John being taken into custody.  There was an immediate order for the blue Mitsubishi to be searched and the next day, the Aruban authorities were searching the area with TJ’s team and Dave present.  

Chief Richardson told them that they had plans to take John, Gabriel and their girlfriends into custody the next day and asked them to continue surveilling them in the meantime.  The next day, March 21, 2017, was the day John and Gabriel were to leave Aruba, and Gabriel decided that he was going to leave without John.  

Gabriel and his girlfriend left for the airport without John and Lauren.  Shortly after, John and Lauren ran out of the hotel and made it to the airport with 15 minutes to spare before boarding the plane.  Unfortunately for Dave and the team, they made their flight and left the island before any arrests were made.  

Back in the U.S.

Once back in Florida, Gabriel kicked John out of his house and told him that he was going to turn him over to the authorities.  John then agreed to go to the FBI in hopes that his cooperation would lessen any potential charges against him.  John had a two hour meeting with the FBI, but it is unclear if they ever followed up on his statements.  The day after his meeting with the FBI, John agreed to speak with TJ to discuss the details of the case. 

On March 26, 2017, John and TJ sat down for a recorded interview.  John told TJ that he was watching the Lifetime movie about Natalee with Joran one night, and Joran was picking apart the details of the movie.  Joran said that it was an accident and because of the combination of drugs and alcohol Natalee was on, it would look like he had raped her.  John said that Joran implied that his father helped him cover it up.  He said that the gravesite was at the top of a hill in the desert just past a cul-de-sac and could pick out the spot.

John told TJ that Joran knew he needed money for drugs so he offered him $1,500 to dig up the remains.  He said that Joran was with him when he dug them up and the burlap was wrapped up in a blue tarp.  He said that they took the remains to his aunt’s house and decided to crush the bones.  He said that they took the skull to a cave and burned it so the hair follicles wouldn’t be able to be used for DNA.  Then they paid a local fisherman to borrow his boat to dispose of the crushed remains.  He agreed to tell the Aruban authorities. 

Aruba Again

TJ and John were again making plans to head back to Aruba with Gabriel and John in April of 2017.  Once back in Aruba, TJ meets with Aruban police.  Then John brought the authorities to the alleged gravesite and the cave behind his aunt’s house where he says they burned Natalee’s skull.  Everything that John told TJ in the interview was unable to be confirmed, and Chief Richardson said that John was not a credible source.  After yet another disappointment, TJ, his team and Dave cut ties with Gabriel and John.  

Two weeks later, though, TJ and Dave receive word that John and Gabriel were back in Aruba because John claimed to have evidence at his aunt’s house.  He said that he kept something as a trophy in the yard.  There’s a cell phone video of John digging something up and he pulls out a Ziploc bag with four pieces of bone in it.  

On April 25, 2017, Gabriel sends Dave a text with a photo of the bag of bones then calls him to tell him that Natalee’s remains were in a pet cemetery in a box with dog bones.  He tells Dave that he’s going to Chief Richardson.  The next day, John took Gabriel to the pet cemetery where Chief Richardson surveilled them.  John was unable to locate the grave.  

A week after receiving the bone fragments from Gabriel, the Aruban police called Dave to discuss their findings.  They tell him that of the four pieces, two of them are animal bones but they are unclear on what the other two pieces are.  They had no report to send to Dave and no DNA testing had been done. 

On June 13, 2017, Dave and TJ were back in Aruba seven weeks after the bones were given to the police.  TJ and Dave went to the pet cemetery where they saw a fresh hole dug and four wheeler tracks.  The next day they met with Chief Richardson and a couple of police officers about the bones.  The Aruban police refused to give them any reports on the bones because they weren’t law enforcement.  They let them look at the physical bones and Dave wanted to have them tested himself.  The Aruban authorities allowed them to take the bones for testing, but they could not be used in any criminal cases.  When they asked them about the fresh hole at the pet cemetery, the police said that it was likely from drug smuggling.  

Testing the Bones

After returning to the U.S., TJ and Dave gave the bones to Dr. Kolowski for testing.  Seven weeks later, Dave and TJ went to Washington D.C. for the results.  On August 17, 2017, Dr. Kolowski explained the process to them and the results of their initial testing.  

Dr. Kolowski explained that the bones were cleaned and ground down to attempt to extract DNA.  The results of this were negative.  However, they also did mitochondrial testing which comes from maternal DNA passed from a mother to a daughter.  This test was positive for human remains with a European Caucausian sequence.  They would need an oral swab from Beth, Natalee’s mother, in order to do another test. 

On September 11, 2017, they reviewed the results of the DNA swab from Beth.  It was determined that it was not a match, however, it was not a full exclusion because there could be underlying profiles not coming through.  The final test performed was a phyto-milo test and on October 2, 2017, it was determined that the bones did not belong to Natalee Holloway.  It is unknown who they do belong to. 

Where Are We Now?

In 2018, John Ludwick was killed by a woman he was attempting to kidnap.  Ludwick had previously been roommates with her, but wanted something more.  She didn’t.  He ambushed her outside of her home while getting out of her car.  She was able to wrestle a knife away from him and stabbed him in the abdomen.  He was airlifted to a hospital where he died of his injuries. 

Dave Holloway said that after this last lead, he was going to do his best to move on with his life.  In 2022, Beth Twitty went back to Aruba with Nancy Grace to film another show, but was threatened to be arrested by Aruban authorities for filming in a hotel without permission.  Beth has said that she has found peace with what happened to Natalee. 

Joran Van der Sloot is still in prison in Peru and remains the number one suspect for Natalee’s disappearance.  

Beth has set up a web-based center for education and crime prevention with Crime Museum called the Natalee Holloway Resource Center.  It is noted that this is not a recovery center, but a place for information on how to help.  If a loved one is missing, you should contact law enforcement immediately.