Just days after news broke that there could soon be a long-awaited crack in the case surrounding Natalee Holloway, an Alabama teenager who disappeared 12 years ago in Aruba, a prosecutor is disputing the potential bombshell.
While Dave Holloway, Natalee’s dad, said that authorities recently discovered human remains behind a home in the Caribbean island, Aruba Public Prosecutor Dorean Kardol is telling a totally different story.
In fact, Kardol told The Huffington Post that “no human remains were found.”
“During an investigation by police in an area indicated by Mr. Holloway, we found remains, but they were found to be from animals,” the prosecutor told the outlet.
Holloway responded to Kardol on Friday, telling HuffPo that he believes the prosecutor is being misleading and that there is evidence in the hands of an investigator he’s working with. Holloway’s initial claim about the remains came just days before a new TV show titled, “The Disappearance of Natalee Holloway” premiered on Oxygen this past Saturday.
That show reportedly features both Holloway and T.J. Ward., a private investigator. Earlier, it was reported that the remains are currently being tested and that process could take months to complete.
The New York Post has more about the tragic, ongoing story and the developments that are making headlines around the globe:
Joran van der Sloot, a Dutch man the teen was last seen with outside a bar, is serving a 28-year sentence in a Peru jail for killing business student Stephany Flores — a killing that came five years to the day after Natalee’s disappearance.
In March 2016, van der Sloot appeared to have made a shocking confession to an undercover reporter about having murdered Natalee.
[Holloway’s dad, Dave Holloway] said the investigation led them to an informant known as “Gabriel,” who lived with a friend of van der Sloot, and eventually, to the remains.
Dave Holloway said that the informant took him and investigators to the location where the remains were found and that they then sent them out for testing. He said he was hopeful that this could be a much-needed break in the unsolved mystery.
“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 told “Today” last Wednesday morning.
While Holloway said the remains were moved to the U.S. for DNA testing, Aruba officials appear to be denying that this happened and have faisaid that such a removal would constitute tampering with evidence. As for Gabriel, Crime Online has more:
On the Today show, Holloway claimed that a friend of someone who knew Joran Van der Sloot, the primary suspect in his daughter’s disappearance, gave him the location of the remains. That person, known only as Gabriel, told CrimeOnline that he befriended Van der Sloot’s friend John Ludwick, who led him to the remains. Gabriel said he was not with Natalee’s father or the private investigator at the time, and that he alone alerted Dave Holloway and local authorities about the discovery. […]
When asked about public prosecutor’s claims, Gabriel said, “that is a total lie.” He claims that local police do not want the truth to be known about what he found, and said that when he first found the remains in April the police asked him if he had told anyone about them or taken any photos. He said he lied and told them no, and that they have no idea how much documentation and proof will be shown in the TV series.
Holloway’s mom, Beth, has described in the past the harrowing ordeal she and the family went through in the wake of her daughter’s disappearance, telling CBN about an emotional moment she experienced days after the teen went missing.
The grieving mom recalled findng herself frustrated and in emotional pain as she prayed before a row of crosses. It was when she reached the fifth cross that she said God gave her peace.
“Complete peace blanketed me. It’s a familiar feeling yet unknown to me like this before,” she told CBN. “And in this instant I knew that Natalee is with God.”
Prayers up to the Holloways as they wait to find out whether they’ll receive some closure in the case.