Natalee Ann Holloway

The case of the disappearance of Natalee Holloway has been one of the most hotly covered cases of the past decade. Due to unreliable evidence, silent witnesses, and inept law enforcement in Aruba, the case has made slow progress and circled on itself many times. This case is unique because it is wavering between being open or closed. Every once in a while, new evidence will surface or old evidence will be re-evaluated. The case has just recently been declared "cold" because the victim has not been seen nor heard from in a considerable length of time: in Natalee's case, three years.

In the early morning hours of May 30, 2005, Natalee Holloway, of Mountain Brook, Alabama, disappeared. She was last seen leaving Carlos 'n' Charlie's Nightclub on the island of Aruba in the town of Oranjestad with three young men, later identified as Joran Van der Sloot and brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe. Natalee was first reported missing the next morning when she failed to show up for her flight home from Aruba. She was on a post-graduation trip with her high school's graduating class. Her bags and passport were later discovered in her hotel room. She never left.

After months of squabbling and valuable time lost, Aruban authorities finally arrested van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers. There are many speculations as to what happened to Holloway, from her being raped, drowned, murdered, or spirited out of the country, among other things. Investigators on the Aruban end of the case met an unfavorable amount of obstruction at the highest levels of law investigation, being blocked by everything from local police to the FBI in their attempts to solve the Holloway case. Holloway's mother, Beth Twitty, expressly forbid any investigation into the Holloway family and any interviewing of Natalee's fellow classmates to try and determine the kind of girl she was. Holloway's father, Dave Holloway, has since written a book on his daughter's disappearance, blaming Aruba for the loss of his daughter and ignoring the possibility that she could have willingly participated in illicit activities. Twitty and Holloway, backed by the governor of Alabama, called for a travel boycott of Aruba and the entire Kingdom of the Netherlands, saying that Americans faced a valid threat.

There have been many attempts to "pin the tail on the donkey," so to speak. Many suspects have been arrested and released, some being re-arrested later. Confusion of evidence has limited the credibility of said attempts, most notably the Skeeters video. Journalist Jamie Skeeters secretly taped an interview with Deepak Kalpoe, where he spoke of Holloway and the night of her disappearance. The tape was given to the TV show Dr. Phil and was aired on an episode. On the Dr. Phil tape, when asked if all three men had sex with Holloway, Kalpoe is heard to answer "She did. You'd be surprised how easy it was." This created an outrage among the Kalpoe family, leading them to file a libel and slander suit against the Holloway family and Dr. Phil. Further investigation of the original tapes by the FBI and Dutch authorities have determined the Dr. Phil tape to be fudged and that Kalpoe in fact says, "No, we didn't. You'd be surprised how simple it would've been."

The most recent developments in the case have led to van der Sloot's re-arrest in 2007. He has since been released and is now studying in Thailand. There are speculations as to his funding and guiding of a prostitution ring based in Thailand planning to export Thai prostitutes to Aruba as sex slaves. No matter how the case is looked at, investigators are dealing with a handful of shady characters, especially Holloway herself. Since she has been assumed dead and has not been heard from in three years either way, we cannot know what truly happened to her on May 30th. Future developments may prove a culprit or an innocent of van der Sloot and the Kalpoes.