Natalee Holloway's Dad Leads Investigators In New Special as Authorities Dispute Discovery of Remains
Some remains that may be those of Natalee Holloway have reportedly been found in Aruba, where she vanished without a trace during a school trip back in 2005.
The discovery is featured on the Oxygen network's The Disappearance of Natalee Holloway. The program details efforts by the missing teen's father, Dave Holloway, and private investigator T.J. Ward to finally bring his beloved daughter home.
In 2015, to mark the 10th anniversary of the Alabama teen's disappearance, Inside Edition’s Chief Investigative Correspondent Lisa Guerrero went to Aruba with Holloway and Ward in the father’s endless quest to find his daughter.
“Natalee wanted to go to Aruba,” Holloway said. “It was her high school class trip and my immediate answer was, ‘No you're not.'
Guerrero asked, “You didn't want her to go. Why?”
“Because, you know, staying out of the country, I just thought it was too extravagant and too risky,” he replied.
Aruba is a beautiful Caribbean island with gorgeous sun-kissed beaches and luxury resorts, but the island has a party-hearty reputation, where booze flows freely and the drinking age is just 18.
The teen stayed at the Holiday Inn Hotel and Casino, where she met Joran van der Sloot, a handsome local boy who was a regular at the hotel's blackjack tables.
On her last night, Van der Sloot made plans to see her at a downtown party bar called Carlos 'n Charlie's. The bar is now closed and abandoned.
“Down here at the end of the corner, Natalee got up into the sunroof and yelled, ‘Aruba!’” her father said. “And one of her classmates said, ‘Hey Natalee, get out of the car,’ and she said, ‘Oh no, it's okay.'"
Her friends never saw her again.
Guerrero asked him: “Don't you wish one of her girlfriends would have stopped her from getting in the car right here that night?”
“Yeah, I really wish they had the buddy system going,” he replied. “But apparently they didn’t.”
It's long been believed that Natalee's body was dumped in the ocean. When Inside Edition went with Holloway and Ward to Aruba two years ago , it was to check out an intriguing new tip, that her body could be found in a crawl space at The Marriot Surf Club, a resort that was under construction in 2005, the year she disappeared.
The determined father was skeptical back then.
Holloway and Ward were joined by search and rescue expert Tracy Sargent, whose dog, Chance, has been trained to detect cadavers, even those that may have been dumped somewhere years before.
Sargent and Chance strode the grounds and pathways. They went inside stairwells and checked out the garage. Every available space open to resort guests was probed by Chance, using his amazing sense of smell.
“Were you able to find any trace at all of Natalee’s body?” Guerrero asked Sargent.
“No. Not at all. Not at this point. We certainly can't rule it out,” she replied.
Holloway has returned to Aruba for the six-part special on the Oxygen cable network, which begins Saturday.
Holloway and Ward say an informant has led them to the backyard of a house where Natalee's body could be buried. Bones were allegedly discovered at the location.
Based on an excerpt from the Oxygen special, police in Aruba were dubious about the new information, saying in a statement to Inside Edition that the bones found were not human remains.
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Whatever the outcome of the DNA test, a father's quest for justice is as strong as ever.
Dave Holloway told Inside Edition in 2015 that he will never give up looking for Natalee.
“As long as there is a chance that I’ll find her, I’ll keep looking,” he said.
Van der Sloot has never been charged in connection to Natalee Holloway’s disappearance. He’s currently in prison for the 2010 murder of another woman in Peru.
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