The Disappearance Heard Around the World
David and Beth Holloway brought Natalee into the world in 1986. However, their life was rocked by a phone call they received on May 30, 2005. That was when they learned that their daughter had vanished during her trip to the Dutch island of Aruba, in the Caribbean.
They were told that their daughter never came back to the hotel. As much as the news shocked her family, it spread like wildfire around the world via the news media. The Holloway family would never be the same.
The Holiday Inn staff reported that they never saw the teen without a drink in her hand. They said her drinking began early in the morning and it did not let up until late into the night.
They said she missed several breakfasts because she was too hungover. This was confirmed by her two friends Claire and Liz.
The first three days of the Aruba trip were going well. On the last night of their island vacation, the group went to a local bar, Carlos’ n’ Charlie’s.
This is where Natalee first met Joran van der Sloot. He was a Dutch national and a high school student who lived in Aruba. He was 17 years old.
Van der Sloot went to that bar with his friends Satish and Deepak, two older classmates. He started talking to Natalee and she was taken in by his attractive looks and physique. She was seen leaving the bar with van der Sloot at about 1:30 a.m.
Her friends thought she wanted a fun night with the cute boy she met. They assumed they would see her the next day when they all left Aruba. They were wrong. That was the last time anyone saw the teenager alive.
The adult chaperones on the trip became alarmed when they could not find Natalee the next morning. Calls to her cell phone went to voice mail. Her baggage and belongings, including her passport, were neatly arranged in her hotel room.
Everything seemed to be in order but they could not find Natalee. They noticed that no one had slept in her bed. They called the hotel management and the police. Then the search officially began.
The Aruban police looked all over for Natalee. This included the waters around the hotel and the entire island, which is very small. From the high point on Aruba, you can see the entire island. The search area was not extensive but the search was.
Upon learning of Natalee’s disappearance, her mother, Beth, went with her husband to the island. Beth did everything she could think of to find her daughter. She wanted to know about the three boys Natalee was hanging out with the night she vanished.
