Natalee Holloway disappeared while on a school trip in Aruba back in May of 2005. She was just 18 years old. Joran van der Sloot has long been suspected of murdering the pretty blonde teenager from Alabama. He even confessed to it.
Joran van der Sloot has a penchant for lying, however, and has led investigators–and the family of Natalee Holloway–on wild goose chases countless times. He is presently serving a prison sentence in Peru for the 2010 murder of another young woman.
Now–nine years after Natalee Holloway’s disappearance–her father, Dave Holloway, has returned to Aruba to pursue a new lead that he hopes will result in finding his daughter’s body.
Fox News reports that island resident Jurrien de Jong has come forward–after nine years– and told the syndicated TV program Inside Edition that he was an eyewitness to what happened to Natalee Holloway.
The biggest question here is why did he wait so long?
A new witness has emerged in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway http://t.co/S7SLGlD6F4 pic.twitter.com/8AbwVUftZq
— People magazine (@people) May 12, 2015
“I saw Natalee Holloway on the last night she was alive,” he said. “I was the eyewitness.”
“I saw that Joran was chasing Natalee into a small building under construction,” De Jong continued. “In about five minutes he came out with Natalee in his arms, and slammed the body of Natalee on the floor, and then he made an opening in a crawl space… I knew she was dead.”
ICYMI! #NataleeHolloway case gets a possible breakthrough as a witness has come forward! http://t.co/ySjnS6I7cM pic.twitter.com/MJRAXQIqHF
— Perez Hilton (@PerezHilton) May 13, 2015
Dave Holloway now has an investigator and a cadaver dog in his employ, and will soon set out to see if De Jong’s claims have any merit.
Joran van der Sloot has claimed to have left a drunken Natalee Holloway alone on a beach. On hidden camera he confessed to killing her. He once even told Fox News Channel’s Greta Van Susteren that he sold Natalee Holloway into slavery. van der Sloot was also charged with trying to extort $250,000 from Natalee Holloway’s mother, Beth Holloway, by claiming he could lead her to her daughter’s remains.
De Jong told the distraught father what he knew last year, and also told the same to a Dutch newspaper, Algemeen Dagblad.
How Joran van der Sloot's arrest helped Beth Holloway move forward http://t.co/Mv8MdPlttp #WhereAreTheyNow
— HuffPostOWN (@HuffPostOWN) February 4, 2015
Will Jurrien de Jong’s claims lead a tired, heartbroken, and discouraged father to his daughter’s remains? Will Dave and Beth Holloway–who divorced several years before their daughter went missing–finally be able to lay Natalee Holloway to rest?
No one expects Natalee Holloway is alive–at least not many people do. It would no doubt give her family some peace to properly inter her remains.
