Natalee Holloway disappeared ten years ago while on a graduation trip to Aruba, and her family has never stopped searching for her remains in the hopes that they will bring her killer to justice. Recently, a new witness came forward with information about Holloway’s last moments on Earth, and although Aruba’s Chief Prosecutor Eric Olthof says his story can be discredited, Natalee’s father says he believes he’s telling the truth.
Jurrien De Jong contacted Dave Holloway several years ago with his story, saying he witnessed Joran van der Sloot–the young man last seen in public with Natalee–go into a restricted area of construction near a Mariott Hotel with Natalee. Joran emerged sometime later carrying Natalee’s body, and took her beneath a crawlspace, where he presumably buried her. He came back out alone.
“He says that a car pulls up and Joran and Natalee get out of the vehicle. This is on May 30, (2005) and this vehicle pulls into the parking lot at the Marriott hotel, and you can see a construction site and you can see the Holiday Inn … and this area is enclosed with a chained fence. He says that Natalee says, “Well the gate’s locked,” and (van der Sloot) says something about, “Well I know a trick,” and somehow he, I guess, unwraps the chain and they go in …” Dave Holloway says of his conversation with De Jong. “Then he sees them go across the construction site, and they get up on the platform, which I presume to be the foundation of the Spyglass Tower, and they run up to an area that’s got half of a stairway built and they go up that and he loses sight of them. Then, approximately five minutes later he says they emerge with Joran carrying Natalee in his arms and apparently he knew that she was not living. He put her down on the concrete slab and then jumped down off of it and put her body down on the ground and then went and dug an opening under the slab and then put her body in it and then covered it back up and walked out.”
Joran van der Sloot–who is currently in prison after being convicted of a murder unconnected to Natalee–told investigators that he did leave a club with Holloway the last night she was seen, but that he left her on a beach.
The issue prosecutors have with the story is that the Mariott wasn’t under construction at that time, but Dave Holloway says he knows that it was. The area wasn’t searched in the beginning stages of the investigation because everyone assumed it was locked up at all times and would have been inaccessible to the murderer.
“I can tell you for a fact. I was there on June 1, and there was definitely construction in that area. June 1, 2005, because it was all chained up. And that’s one of the areas we never searched because we assumed it’s locked up and secured at all times, and they have construction workers there on site,” Holloway said.
It’s unclear what this will do for the investigation, or how difficult it would be to search the area for Natalee Holloway’s remains now that it’s been built up. Jurrien De Jong says he waited so long to come forward to police with his story because he was involved in illegal activity at the time.