Featured Image Credit: In a memory of Natalee Ann Holloway/Facebook
Topics: Crime, US News, World News
Anish Vij
Topics: Crime, US News, World News
The mystery of a cheerleader who disappeared on 'Paradise' Island is still one of the US's most chilling missing person cases.
Natalee Holloway disappeared almost 17 years ago while on on a graduation trip with friends on the Caribbean island of Aruba, a Dutch territory.
Three men, Joran van der Sloot, 17, and brothers Satish, 18, and Deepak Kalpoe, 21, were the initial suspects in the case, having been the last people to see the teen alive.
Natalee was last seen getting into Deepak's car with Satish and Joran.
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Despite all three being later released, van der Sloot remains a key suspect in the case as he went on to murder 21-year-old Stephany Flores Ramírez in the Peruvian capital of Lima – five years to the day of Natalee's disappearance.
On 18 December, 2007, prosecutors announced that the case would be closed without charging anyone with a crime.
However, on 1 February, 2008, the case was reopened after receiving video footage of van der Sloot.
He was reportedly under the influence of marijuana and said that Holloway died on the morning of her disappearance, while a supposed friend had disposed of her body.
Strangely, van der Sloot later denied that what he had said was true, and in an interview claimed that he had sold Holloway into sexual slavery.
He later retracted his previous comments.
In January 2012, van der Sloot was convicted of the murder of 21-year-old Stephany, which took place on 30 May, 2010.
At the time, Natalee's mother, Beth Holloway Twitty, criticised the handling of the investigation.
"If the investigation had been handled properly during the first 10 days, the world would not have witnessed and experienced the pain and suffering my family and I have endured," she said.
"For the rest of my life, I will continue to be the voice for my daughter, seeking justice in Aruba.
"Every parent would want the same justice for their child."
Beth recently made an emotional return to Aruba, the island where her daughter went missing, alongside television personality Nancy Grace.
The pair said they were met by local police while filming for the television series A Natalee Holloway Investigation.
“They wanted to arrest us,” Grace told Inside Edition. “They wanted to arrest Natalee’s mother.”
The police confrontation in Aruba, which was partially caught on camera, took place after Grace and Natalee’s mother allegedly filmed in a hotel without permission, which they called a trumped-up charge.
She speculated: “They do not want bad PR, public relations, about Aruba. Summer is coming up, spring break right now, they want to welcome everybody in.”
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