Natalee Holloway’s Mother Finally Has Answers About Her Daughter's Disappearance
Natalee Holloway had her whole life ahead of her when she suddenly vanished while on a school trip to Aruba in 2005. Her mom, Beth, searched tirelessly for clues that might lead her to her daughter’s whereabouts. There were many twists and turns in the case and three prime suspects — although no one was held accountable. Then, over 18 after the teenager disappeared, Beth and all of those who knew and loved Natalee finally found the answer they were looking for.
Natalee was a driven student
Natalee was a star student, and she graduated from Mountain Brook High School with honors. But the teen hadn’t always had her nose stuck in a book. She also packed her schedule with a number of extracurricular activities.
These included participating in the dance team and the National Honor Society. She was also due to start at the University of Alabama after being awarded a scholarship to the prestigious school.
It was a graduation trip to remember — for all the wrong reasons
Prior to starting college, Natalee and her classmates planned to celebrate their graduation in style. In May 2005, a group of 125 students from Mountain Brook High School jetted out to Aruba for a short vacation. Natalee was 18 years old, but seven chaperones were also there to watch over her and the other kids.
Yet according to Natalee’s mom, Beth, her daughter was hardly a party animal. In a 2006 interview with Vanity Fair, Beth said the teen was motivated and well-behaved — and not typically one for boyfriends or raucous behavior.
Her family was worried from the start
Even though Natalee had already traveled to Europe and Canada, her father, Dave, confessed that he had reservations about Aruba. "I told her flat out she was not going to Aruba if I had anything to do with it," he told NBC News.
Her uncle Paul Reynolds said, "Natalee's naive. She hasn't dated a lot. She doesn’t party a lot." Even Natalee apparently worried about a nightspot in Aruba called Carlos 'n Charlie's.
There had been trouble in the past
Beth told NBC News, "My stepson had had an encounter at Carlos 'n Charlie's during 2003." She described how her stepson had intervened when he saw some locals coax "young females into leaving the establishment with them."
But despite this, Beth still felt it was an exciting opportunity for Natalee, and Natalee even convinced her father it was a good idea. "There's safety in numbers," Beth said.
Their concerns were put aside
Beth told Vanity Fair, “Natalee was very smart but very naïve.” Nevertheless, the Aruba vacation was seen as a right of passage for graduates of the school, and, after all, the teen’s stepbrother George had been fine when he'd done the same thing years before.
Ultimately, then, the mom gave permission for her daughter to go on the trip. So, in the early hours of May 26, 2005, Beth took Natalee over to a friend’s home ready for takeoff.
The departure day was bittersweet
Before leaving, the mom arranged to meet her daughter at the airport after her long weekend in the Caribbean. We know now, though, that the teenager would never return home, and her family would never see her again.
In November 2019 Beth recalled her final moments with Natalee on ABC’s 20/20, explaining, “I helped her get her bag out of the car and just kissed her goodbye, said ‘I love you, have a great time.’”
A moment gone too soon
Beth continued, “And then she entered the door, and the door closed. Never could I have imagined that would be the last time.” It wasn't the last time anybody saw Natalee, though. Once the Mountain Brook High students arrived in Aruba, they reportedly embraced the island’s famous party atmosphere.
In fact, then-Police Commissioner Gerold Dompig would later tell Vanity Fair, “I don’t want to demonize them. But the group really went far — very far — in terms of having a good time.”
The police thought Natalee had gone partying
Dompig – who was in charge of the investigation into Natalee’s subsequent disappearance until 2006 – claimed that the students had participated in “wild partying, a lot of drinking, [and] lots of room switching every night.”
He added, “We know the Holiday Inn [where the students were staying] told them they weren’t welcome next year.” Dompig told Vanity Fair that they'd had reports that Natalee had taken things too far as well.
Natalee did "so much drinking"
In his Vanity Fair interview, Dompig said, “Natalee, we know — she drank all day, every day. We have statements she started every morning with cocktails — so much drinking that Natalee didn’t show up for breakfast two mornings.”
Of course, it could be expected that teenagers on their first trip away from home would test the boundaries of their newfound freedom. That’s why the graduates had been accompanied to Aruba by a group of chaperones in the first place.
The supervision was never supposed to be strict
According to Mountain Brook High teacher Bob Plummer, who accompanied the graduates to Aruba, the adults checked in with the teens every day to ensure that everything was okay — but they did not micromanage the young people's time.
As trip organizer Jodi Bearman told Fox News in 2005, “The chaperones were not supposed to keep up with their every move.” The kids, then, were somewhat free to enjoy themselves.
Trouble struck on the last day
The last known sighting of Natalee took place at 1:30 a.m. on May 30 — the night before the teenagers were due to return home. At that time, she was outside the Oranjestad venue Carlos ’n Charlie’s.
The next morning, the graduates all gathered in the hotel lobby in preparation for their flight. When Natalee didn’t show, Bearman called Beth to make her aware of the worrying situation.
A terrible call
Recalling this life-changing conversation, the mom of two later told 20/20, “They tell me that my daughter Natalee is missing and that no one has seen her.” We can only imagine how she felt.
"I knew immediately that my daughter had been kidnapped in Aruba," Beth told Vanity Fair in 2006. "Natalee has never been late in her life." The worried parents didn't wait to jump into action.
The family boarded an emergency flight
Hours later — and still with no sign of Natalee — Beth boarded a private jet to Aruba alongside her then-husband, Jug, and two of his friends. The party arrived on the island at about 10:00 p.m. that evening.
But while it was late, the group hit the ground running with their search for the missing teenager. And to begin with, they traveled to the last place where she had been spotted.
Joran van der Sloot enters the picture
During the course of that first night in Aruba, Beth discovered that Natalee had last been seen in a car with Dutch teen Joran van der Sloot and his two friends Deepak and Satish Kalpoe.
Van der Sloot — then 17 years old — was living on the island and studying at the International School of Aruba. And according to witnesses, he had a reputation as what you'd charitably call "a ladies man."
He becomes the focus of the investigation
When Beth mentioned van der Sloot to an employee at the Holiday Inn, she gave the worried mom a local insight. Van der Sloot quickly jumped to the top of the list of suspects.
The mom later explained to Vanity Fair magazine, “[The woman] knew exactly who he was: Joran van der Sloot. And then she said — these were her exact words — ‘He tends to prey upon young female tourists.’”
Retracing Natalee's last steps
It’s believed that Natalee met van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers at a casino at the Holiday Inn earlier on the evening of her disappearance. Surveillance footage also showed Natalee sitting around a poker table with the Dutch teen.
Then, later that evening, Natalee was seen leaving Carlos ’n Charlie’s in a car with the three men. So, given that van der Sloot may have had vital information about her daughter’s whereabouts, Beth’s group went to visit him at home.
Van der Sloot's story keeps changing
After some questioning, Van der Sloot claimed that he and the Kalpoe brothers had driven Natalee to Arashi Beach because she had wished to look at the sharks there. But this was only one story he'd tell over the years.
He also claimed that he and Natalee had had sex in the back of Deepak’s car near a local lighthouse before the trio dropped the American off at the Holiday Inn at around 2:00 a.m.
Another story emerged
Van der Sloot also alleged that Natalee had tripped as she had left the car, although she didn’t allow him to help her. After that, he said that he had continued to watch Natalee as he and Deepak Kalpoe drove away.
He then reportedly witnessed the teenager being approached by a man in a black shirt. And the Dutch student’s version of events was backed up by his friend Deepak, who was with him when police questioned him at his house.
Mother's intuition told her this was her man
The first people to be arrested — and quickly released — in connection with Natalee's disappearance were two security guards. But even at this point in the investigation, Beth believed that the authorities had gone after the wrong suspects.
In fact, she was convinced from the outset that van der Sloot was involved in Natalee’s disappearance. When talking about the night when she had first met the Dutch national, Beth told 20/20, “I thought, ‘You’re it.’”
The original trio are placed under arrest
The Aruban authorities shared Beth’s suspicions about van der Sloot. Police ultimately released the two detained security guards without charge and then arrested van der Sloot — along with both Kalpoes — on suspicion of Natalee’s kidnap and murder.
Van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers were arrested on June 9, 2005 — ten days after Natalee disappeared. And while they were detained, all three suspects altered their versions of events.
Their story changes — but no one was charged
They claimed that they hadn’t left Natalee at the Holiday Inn. Instead, van der Sloot said that the Kalpoes had left him and Natalee at a beach near the Marriott Hotel. He apparently then parted ways from Natalee there — despite the fact that she was supposedly struggling to stay conscious.
All three men were eventually released. And while the trio were all later rearrested — twice for the Kalpoes — a dearth of supporting evidence meant that none were ever formally charged at that time.
More frustrating developments
In 2007 the Aruban authorities decided to close the case — thus leaving Natalee’s disappearance unsolved. Her family didn't know whether she was still alive, they had no remains to lay to rest, and they had no one to blame.
Beth was still convinced that van der Sloot was involved. She would tell 20/20, “He’s a monster. I know that he was responsible for the demise of Natalee, and I’ll never, never not believe that.”
Further revelations in the years that followed
Over the years, van der Sloot gave conflicting accounts about what had happened to Natalee. In 2008 he suggested, for instance, that she had died on the morning of her disappearance and that a friend had subsequently gotten rid of her body.
In addition, he claimed that he’d sold the American teen as a sex slave. These claims were caught on a hidden camera, and the Dutch student later retracted both of the stories.
He wanted a reward for information
Yet Beth was still determined to prove van der Sloot’s involvement in her daughter’s disappearance. She seemingly saw her chance in 2010 when van der Sloot contacted the family's attorney to ask for $250,000 in exchange for information about Natalee.
Beth sent the Dutch student $25,000 as an initial payment. After Beth sent van der Sloot the cash, however, he left the country. He probably didn't realize that this transaction would eventually lead to his undoing.
Van der Sloot gets convicted — of another crime
That could have very well been the end of the story. But exactly five years after Natalee disappeared, a 21-year-old woman was deemed to be missing in the Peruvian capital of Lima on May 30, 2010.
That woman was Stephany Flores Ramírez. And like Natalie, Flores had been captured on CCTV at the same casino as van der Sloot in the hours before she had vanished.
He was sentenced to 28 years
Lima authorities subsequently raided a hotel room booked under van der Sloot’s name, where, tragically, they found Flores’ dead body. The Dutchman had already escaped to Chile at that point.
But he later returned to Peru to face questions over the young woman’s murder. On June 7, 2010, he confessed to the killing, eventually receiving a 28-year sentence for the crime in January 2012.
Beth was haunted by the murder
Beth was haunted by the idea that van der Sloot may have traveled to Peru with the money she had sent him in exchange for information about Natalee. However, the mom of two refutes the suggestion that she’s to blame for Flores’ death.
As she told 20/20, “Whoever was responsible for letting Joran leave that island, Aruba – they are the ones that have to [lose] sleep at night over Stephany Flores’ death. Not me.”
The case that solved it
Van der Sloot’s prison term was scheduled to come to an end in 2038, but Peru has an extradite agreement with the U.S. On May 11, 2023, it was announced that Van der Sloot would indeed be extradited to America on extortion charges.
This development would eventually lead to the closing of Natalee's case, too. While van der Sloot admitted his guilt for the wire fraud and extortion charges, it was another confession that made the headlines.
The lead suspect finally confessed
In October 2023 van der Sloot pleaded guilty in federal court to the extortion and wire fraud charges. In the process of this, he also confessed — in shocking detail — to the murder of Natalee Holloway.
"It's over. Joran van der Sloot is no longer the suspect in my daughter’s murder. He is the killer,” Beth Holloway said afterward. "After 18 years, Natalee’s case is solved."
The confession in full
"He gave a proffer in which he finally confessed to killing Natalee," Beth explained. A proffer is where a defendant tells the authorities what they know about a certain crime, usually when they're looking to secure a plea deal.
Court documents later revealed a transcript of a portion of a recorded interview between van der Sloot and his attorney, Kevin Butler, on October 3, 2023. A recording of the interview was part of the proffer.
He laid out all the details
"[Natalee] asked to go back to her hotel," van der Sloot says at the start of the transcript, "but I was just trying to get dropped off a little bit further away from her hotel so we could, uh, walk back to her hotel and I might still get a chance to — to be with her... That's what I was hoping for."
"Deepak drops me off at another place," van der Sloot continued, "a little to the right of the Marriott Hotel, known as 'The Fisherman's Huts.' This place is not far from — you know — the next place is the Marriott Hotel. And the next place after that is another Marriott Hotel, which is a timeshare. And then it's the Holiday Inn [where Natalee stayed]. We walk along the beach."
Natalee tried to fight back
The next part of van der Sloot's confession saw him letting the brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe off the hook. He confessed that the Kalpoes "get in their car and they leave" after dropping him off. He then stated that he "lay [Natalee] down" on the beach and that they "start kissing each other." "I start feeling her up… and she tells me no," he said.
"She tells me she doesn’t want me to feel her up," van der Sloot confessed. "I insist. I keep feeling her up either way." He then admitted that Natalee tried to fight him back by kneeing him in the crotch. But, van der Sloot said, he retaliated by getting back up and kicking Natalee. She was seemingly knocked unconscious by the blow.
He "put her into the ocean"
"She's laying down, unconscious, possibly even dead, but definitely unconscious," said van der Sloot. "I see right next to her there's a huge cinderblock laying on the beach." The next part of the confession was brutal. Suffice it to say that the cinderblock was the murder weapon. "Afterwards, I don’t exactly know what, you know — I'm scared. I don't know what to do," van der Sloot continued.
"I decide to take her and put her into the ocean," van der Sloot continued. "So I grab her and I half pull, half walk with her into the ocean. I push her off. I walk up to about my knees into the ocean and I push her off into the sea. After that, I get out. I walk home."
The judge threw the book at him
Judge Anna Manasco sentenced van der Sloot to 20 years on the federal charges of extortion and fraud. "You have brutally murdered, in separate incidents years apart, two beautiful women who refused your sexual advances," the judge said at sentencing.
In line with van der Sloot's plea agreement, he will serve the 20-year sentence together with his sentence in Peru — meaning he will not be jailed in the U.S.
Finally some closure
Natalee's parents tried to take whatever solace they could from the confession. "I was blessed to have had Natalee in my life for 18 years," Beth said. "She would be 36 years old now and I still miss her every single day."
"It has been a very long and painful journey," she continued, "but we finally got the answers we’ve been searching for all these years. We finally got justice for Natalee."
The confession was enough
Beth informed reporters outside of the trial hearing that van der Sloot's recorded confession was also corroborated by a lie-detector test. "Even with this confession, though, he can't be tried here for Natalee's murder," Beth said.
"But I am satisfied knowing that he did it, he did it alone and he disposed of her alone," she added. She admitted, “I have what I need. Her case is solved."
Emotions ran high in the courtroom
NBC News reported that van der Sloot was given a chance to address the court after his sentencing. "I would like to apologize to the Holloway family," he said van der Sloot. "I am no longer that person back then than I am today. I gave my heart to Jesus Christ, he helped me through all of this."
Beth, however, was not ready to hear such an apology. "You are a killer and I want you to remember that every time that jail cell door slams," she responded.
"You look like hell, Joran"
There was one moment in the court where Beth even addressed van der Sloot directly. "You look like hell, Joran," Beth said, according to NBC News. "I don't see how you're going to make it."
Beth later wondered, "How could he have murdered her and then he goes home and checks the soccer scores, gets on a porn site and gets up and takes a shower and goes to school?"
Natalee might've been a doctor
"Natalee would be 36 years old," Beth said in a statement to van der Sloot in the court. "I think of the doctor she would be. You terminated her potential, her dream, you terminated that when you bludgeoned her to death. She would have made all her dreams come true."
Later, Beth said, "I think now it becomes easier for me to appreciate her life through my son's life and through children's lives, and I really hadn't been. I've been a little distracted. Now I can focus on that."