It has been 12 years since Mountain Brook teen, Natalee Holloway, mysteriously vanished from a graduation trip in Aruba. While Natalee’s disappearance has slipped in and out of the headlines since 2005, her father has never given up hope that she may be found. On Wednesday, Dave Holloway and private investigator T.J. Ward appeared on the TODAY Show to announce a new possible lead.
Holloway and Ward claim that an 18 month long investigation has put them in contact with an informant who knows men directly involved with Natalee’s disappearance. The informant, “Gabriel,” led the men to a house in Aruba where they found buried human remains. Holloway is hopeful these remains will prove to be his daughter. “I know there’s a possibility this could be someone else, and I’m just trying to wait and see.”
Holloway and Ward are being featured in a new series on Oxygen that follows their investigation. The show, “The Disappearance of Natalee Holloway,” premiers Saturday night.
No one has ever been formally charged in Natalee’s disappearance. Joran van der Sloot, the man Natalee was last seen with outside of a popular tourist bar, has been arrested on multiple occasions, but authorities could never charge him with anything. He is currently serving a 28 year sentence in Peru for the death of Stephany Flores. She was killed on the fifth anniversary of Natalee’s disappearance. Van der Sloot also faces charges in Alabama for extorting money from Holloway’s mother, giving her false information on Natalee’s whereabouts.
Other investigations have led to arrests, but still no charges have ever been filed. According to Daily News, two years ago, an informant told Inside Edition that he saw van der Sloot chase Natalee into a building and emerge carrying her in his arms. However, that investigation was thrown out when it was discovered that the building the informant was referring to had not been built yet.
It could take several weeks to a month for the DNA test to determine if the newly discovered remains are indeed Natalee’s. Dave Holloway hopes that this new information will finally put an end to the devastating rollercoaster ride he has had to endure for the past 12 years. “We’ve chased a lot of leads and this one is by far the most credible lead I’ve seen in the last 12 years,” he said. “It would finally be the end.”
