In May 2005, Holloway's daughter Natalee was in Aruba on a graduation trip with fellow students from Mountain Brook High School. Natalee was scheduled to fly home later on May 30, but failed to appear for her flight. She was last seen by her classmates outside Carlos'n Charlie's, a Caribbean chain restaurant and nightclub in Oranjestad, in a car with locals Joran van der Sloot and brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe.
Involvement in investigation
Immediately following Natalee's missed flight, Jug and Beth Twitty traveled to Aruba with friends by private jet. Within four hours of landing in Aruba, the Twittys presented the Aruba Police Force with the name and address of Van der Sloot as the person with whom Natalee left the nightclub. Holloway stated that Van der Sloot's full name was given to her by the night manager at the Holiday Inn, who supposedly recognized him on a videotape. The Twittys and their friends, with two Aruban policemen, went to the Van der Sloot home looking for Natalee. Van der Sloot initially denied knowing Natalee's name, but he then told the following story, with which Deepak Kalpoe, who was present, agreed: Van der Sloot related that they drove Natalee to the California Lighthouse area of Arashi Beach because she wanted to see sharks, before dropping her off at her hotel around 2:00 a.m.
Beth Holloway alleged in televised interviews that Joran van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers know more than they have told, and that at least one of them sexually assaulted or raped her daughter. Holloway stated that she received copies of police statements stating that Joran van der Sloot admitted having sex with Natalee at his home and described intimate details of her. She has never released copies of the alleged statement, though she characterizes them as admissions of "sexual assault" However, Vinda de Sousa, former Holloway/Twitty family attorney from Aruba understood that the admission may have been for consensual sex. In addition, former Aruban deputy police commissioner Gerold G. Dompig denied that any such statement was made, stating that Van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers consistently denied having sex with Natalee.
On June 12, 2005, three days after the arrest of Joran van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers, and in response to a nationally televised address by Aruba Prime Minister Nelson Oduber reaffirming Aruba's commitment to solving the case, Holloway stated, "I'm not getting any answers". She added, "I don't feel any further along than the day I got here". Holloway subsequently stated that her complaints were not addressed specifically at the Aruban government, but arose from frustration at not knowing what happened to her daughter.
On July 5, 2005, following the initial release of the Kalpoes, Holloway alleged, "Two suspects were released yesterday who were involved in a violent crime against my daughter", and referred to the Kalpoes as "criminals". A demonstration involving about two hundred Arubans took place that evening outside the courthouse in Oranjestad in anger over Holloway's remarks, with signs reading "Innocent until proven guilty" and "Respect our Dutch laws or go home". On July 8, 2005, and after Satish Kalpoe's attorney threatened legal action over Holloway's allegations, which he described as "prejudicial, inflammatory, libelous, and totally outrageous", Holloway read a statement that said her remarks were fueled by "despair and frustration" and that she "apologize to the Aruban people and to the Aruban authorities if I or my family offended you in any way".
Criticism
Holloway was criticized for her focus on Joran van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers, to the exclusion of any other theory as to what happened to Natalee. According to the lawsuit filed by the Kalpoe brothers, she has (on various television programs) repeatedly accused them, and Joran van der Sloot, of "sexual assault" and "gang rape" of her daughter.
Holloway was also criticized for making what have been deemed to be inconsistent and contradictory statements (for example, as to whether there were operating security cameras at the Holiday Inn). According to Julia Renfro, U.S.-born editor of the Aruban tourist-oriented newspaper,
Aruba Today, who befriended Holloway in the early days of the investigation, Holloway pandered to tabloid television and her "behavior was odd from the get-go". Renfro noted that "Holloway immediately concluded that her daughter had been kidnapped and made no effort to check hospitals or police", adding that within a couple of days, after fixing responsibility on Joran van der Sloot, Holloway "was telling TV interviewers that she knew her daughter had been gang-raped and murdered".
Media coverage
On February 16, 2006, while Joran van der Sloot and his father Paul were in New York City for an interview with ABC
Primetime, they were served with a lawsuit filed by Holloway and her former husband Dave, alleging personal injury against Holloway and alleging that Van der Sloot's father created a permissive environment. However, the case was dismissed on jurisdictional grounds on August 3, 2006.
On February 3, 2008, an undercover exposé produced by crime reporter Peter R. de Vries aired on Dutch television showing video of Van der Sloot purportedly smoking marijuana and admitting to being present during Holloway's death. The show became the most watched non-sports program in Dutch television history. Following the airing of the program, Beth Holloway, adhering to the position that the tapes represent the way events transpired, believed that Van der Sloot dumped Natalee's body, possibly alive, into the Caribbean. She told the
New York Post that her daughter would still be alive if Van der Sloot had called for help. On September 22, 2008 in New York, De Vries accepted an International Emmy Award in Current Affairs for his coverage while accompanied by Holloway.
Holloway also alleged that the individual Joran van der Sloot supposedly called that evening was his father Paul, who according to Holloway "orchestrated what to do next". She and Dave Holloway alleged that Joran van der Sloot was receiving "special legal favors". After the court decision not to rearrest Van der Sloot was affirmed, Holloway stated, "I think that what I do take comfort in, his life is a living hell", later adding, "I'd be good with a
Midnight Express prison anywhere for Joran."
I think he is a time bomb and he will strike again.—Beth Holloway
Book
Holloway said that she vowed to share her story shortly following her daughter's disappearance, in the hope that other families would not suffer what she had to go through. After five months of unsuccessfully searching on Aruba, her attorney John Q. Kelly took over the case and she spent the next two years traveling to various high schools and colleges to present messages about personal safety. When she thought about reaching more travelers with her story, Holloway said that her efforts evolved into writing a book.
HarperOne, an imprint of HarperCollins published
A Mother's Testament of Hope and Faith on October 2, 2007. Written under the name "Beth Holloway" following her divorce from Jug Twitty, the book retells events leading up to the night Natalee Holloway disappeared in 2005, and the ensuing investigation during the aftermath. It then focuses on the obstacles faced in Aruba by the Holloway and Twitty families in their search for Natalee. Holloway recounts her anger at what she felt was a lack of cooperation from local officials such as the Aruban police, including the failure to obtain a warrant to search the home of Van der Sloot. The book was soon on
The New York Times best seller list.
Film adaptation
In October 2008, the Lifetime Movie Network announced plans to create a television film based on the book. Jarett Wieselman of the
New York Post questioned whether it was too soon for such a film to be made. Holloway said that she was not sure at first that she could take this step, but felt that it was "the right thing to do" after meeting the creative staff in Los Angeles.
On April 19, 2009, Lifetime aired
Natalee Holloway, starring Tracy Pollan as Beth Holloway-Twitty, Grant Show as George "Jug" Twitty, Amy Gumenick as Natalee Holloway and Jacques Strydom as Joran van der Sloot. The film does not solve the case, but stages re-creations of various scenarios, based on the testimony of key players and suspects. The broadcast of the film attracted 3.2 million viewers, garnering the highest television ratings in the network's history at the time. Although it set ratings records for Lifetime, the movie was not received well by critic Alec Harvey of
The Birmingham News. Harvey called the movie "sloppy and uneven, a forgettable look at the tragedy that consumed the nation's attention for months". However, Jake Meaney of
PopMatters found the film to be surprisingly "calm and levelheaded", and praised Tracy Pollan's portrayal of Holloway. Holloway said that she was honored by Pollan's portrayal and that there "could not have been a better choice."
Extortion plot
Around March 29, 2010, Joran van der Sloot allegedly contacted Holloway's attorney John Q. Kelly with an offer to reveal the location of her daughter's body and the circumstances surrounding her death for an advance of US$25,000 against a total of $250,000. Kelly said that he secretly went to Aruba in April to meet with Van der Sloot, who was desperate for money, and gave him $100. Kelly notified the Federal Bureau of Investigation to set up a sting operation with the Aruban authorities. On May 10, Van der Sloot allegedly accepted the amount of $15,000 by wire transfer from Birmingham to his account in the Netherlands, following a cash payment of $10,000 that was videotaped by undercover investigators in Aruba. In exchange, Van der Sloot told Kelly that his father buried Natalee's remains in the foundation of a house. Authorities determined that the information that he in return provided was false, because the house had not yet been built at the time of Natalee's disappearance. Van der Sloot later e-mailed Kelly that he lied about the house. Holloway was shocked that the FBI did not promptly file extortion charges against Van der Sloot, allowing him to leave freely with the money to Bogotá, Colombia, on his way to Lima, Peru. The FBI and the office of the U.S. Attorney contended that the case had not yet been sufficiently developed.
On June 3, 2010, the U.S. District Court of Northern Alabama charged Van der Sloot with extortion and wire fraud. On June 30, 2010, a federal grand jury formally indicted Van der Sloot of the two charges. The indictment filed with the U.S. District Court seeks the forfeiture of the $25,100 that had been paid to Van der Sloot from Holloway's private funds. Van der Sloot was apprehended on June 3 in Chile and is presently being held at Miguel Castro Castro maximum security prison in Lima, Peru, where he is charged with the first-degree murder and robbery of Stephany Flores Ramírez. Though Holloway made television appearances as new developments arose, she was directed by the FBI not to discuss her daughter's case or that of Flores Ramírez.
Prison visit with Van der Sloot
In a September 2010 interview from the prison, Van der Sloot admitted to extorting Holloway, stating: "I wanted to get back at Natalee's family ... her parents have been making my life tough for five years." On September 11, Holloway traveled to Peru with Peter R. De Vries and his Dutch television crew to visit the prison. According to Van der Sloot's attorney Maximo Alonso Altez Navarro, his client was taken "practically by force" to a meeting with Holloway that took "less than one minute." Altez Navarro said that when she asked questions about the disappearance of her daughter, Van der Sloot responded by saying that he could not speak to her without his lawyer present and handing her his business card. Altez Navarro claimed that Holloway was "snuck" into the prison without being identified by the Dutch media crew who she was with. A prison spokesperson stated that Holloway's name was not found in the visitor registry. Holloway and the crew were removed from the prison, reportedly after a hidden camera was discovered by the guards. Representatives for Holloway and De Vries denied that a hidden camera was involved nor was anything seized. Colonel Abel Gamarra of the Peruvian National Police stated that no arrests had been made. Holloway's attorney John Q. Kelly commented, "I know she didn't tell me ahead of time because I would have asked her to exercise a little more caution." While in Peru, Holloway spoke with Flores Ramírez's brother Enrique on camera. On September 17, Holloway and the group left the country for Panama and arrived in Aruba on the same day. Holloway spent a few days in Aruba working with De Vries on a documentary about her missing daughter to be run on Dutch television, reportedly with the cooperation of prosecutors who had been investigating Van der Sloot.
