Natalee Holloway: New Clues
(Page 1 of 5)
March 25, 2006
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48 Hours has obtained what is believed to be the last
known photo of Natalee Holloway, the 18-year-old from
Alabama who went missing nine months ago while on a
senior-class trip in Aruba. FBI agents discovered the
photo in the camera of one of her classmates. Holloway,
pictured on the left, is seen dancing at island bar
"Carlos and Charlie's" on the night she disappeared.
(CBS)
Quote
"He wanted to talk about the fact that he knew more
about the whereabouts of Natalee ... concerning a
specific burial location ... The information that this
person gave was too specific to just be a story that was
just made up by someone."
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Gerold Dompig
(CBS) Ever since American teenager Natalee Holloway
disappeared on the island of Aruba during a high school
post-graduation trip last year, police say they have
done everything in their power to crack the case. But
Natalee's mom, Beth Holloway Twitty, disagrees — and
accuses Aruban authorities of being slow in their
investigation.
Authorities now say they feel confident this case will
be solved soon. Correspondent Troy Roberts gets an
exclusive, inside look at the investigation and at new
clues police are considering.
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"They say a picture speaks a thousand words? This one
speaks 2,000 words to me," says Gerold Dompig, Aruba's
lead investigator in the Natalee Holloway case, as he
looks at what may be the last picture taken of the teen.
The photo, shown publicly for the first time by 48
Hours, was discovered by the FBI in the camera of one of
Natalee's classmates. For Dompig, the picture is a
constant reminder of his toughest case.
Deputy Chief Dompig has been under a strict gag order
since last year, but Aruban authorities agreed to let
him speak exclusively to 48 Hours about the latest
details of his investigation.
Asked how he would characterize the current state of the
investigation, Dompig says, "I would say 'critical last
phase.'"
"Do you believe this case will be solved?" Roberts
asked.
"Yes, I do," Dompig replied.
The story of what happened to Natalee Holloway has been
marked mostly by speculation and rumor but very few
facts. But , for the first time, police allowed 48 Hours
inside the police investigation in Aruba. Among the
things 48 Hours has learned is what authorities believe
really happened to the Alabama teenager the night she
disappeared, as well as clues that could close the case
once and for all.
"We have been informed by a manager of a nightclub that
he received a call. He wanted to talk about the fact
that he knew more about the whereabouts of Natalee,"
says Dompig, who acknowledges that this is the first
valuable lead he's gotten in a while. "Yes, concerning a
specific burial location, yes," he says.
Holloway disappeared last May, and for nearly a year,
police have received dozens of leads, all leading
nowhere. But Dompig is convinced that the person who
made the call may be the key witness they’ve been
waiting for.
"The information that this person gave was too specific
to just be a story that was just made up by someone,"
explains Dompig.
Now, based on this new information, investigators will
begin searching again for Natalee’s body on the northern
tip of the island.
"Somewhere on the sand dunes that go all the way up
behind the lighthouse … where we basically have to
search," explains Dompig as he shows Roberts the general
search area. "It’s worse than looking for a needle in a
haystack."
Aruba, just a stone’s throw from the coast of Venezuela,
plays host to more than a million visitors every year,
most from the United States. In recent years, a younger
and younger crowd has landed on its shores.
The senior trip to Aruba was a well-deserved vacation
for Natalee. Days earlier, this honor student graduated
from Mountain Brook High School, just outside
Birmingham, Ala.
Three of her best friends, Liz Cain, Mallie Tucker and
Claire Fierman, recall their last days with Natalee.
"It was so much fun. We would wake up, go like, brush
your teeth, go straight to the beach. We would literally
stay in the water all day long because it was so
perfect," says Fierman. "We just hung out with our
friends on this beautiful island. It was a really fun
trip.”
On their last night, Cain says they went to Carlos'n
Charlie's, a local nightspot.
The legal drinking age on Aruba is only 18, and even
that is not strictly enforced, making the island a
preferred vacation spot for American teenagers. No one
disputes that Natalee and many of her classmates drank
alcohol during their senior trip. But the authorities
tell 48 Hours they have evidence that Natalee’s drinking
got seriously out of control and may even have
contributed to her death.
"She was, I think not differently from other students.
She was having a great time and she was using … doing
that," says Dompig. "Using way too much alcohol in
combinations which could basically be lethal."
Natalee
Holloway: New Clues
(Page 2 of 5)
March 25, 2006 |
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48 Hours has obtained what is believed to be the last
known photo of Natalee Holloway, the 18-year-old from
Alabama who went missing nine months ago while on a
senior-class trip in Aruba. FBI agents discovered the
photo in the camera of one of her classmates. Holloway,
pictured on the left, is seen dancing at island bar
"Carlos and Charlie's" on the night she disappeared.
(CBS)
Natalee’s mother, Beth Holloway Twitty, has been working
tirelessly since last May, trying to unravel the mystery
of her daughter’s disappearance.
"You know she was 18 years old. She was on her senior
trip. They were in this establishment of legal age," she
says. "I'm certain they were drinking. We never even
tried to say that they weren't, you know. But I have to
ask myself, you know, 'Should that cost her life?' No.
It shouldn't."
Police interviews with hotel staff, local bartenders,
and her friends reveal that Natalee had spent much of
the day with a drink in her hand.
"Do you know if Natalee could handle her alcohol?"
Roberts asked.
"Yes," said Cain. "She was never somebody to be out of
control if she had been drinking at all."
"When you hear stories, like people started drinking in
mid-afternoon and drank through the night. Does that
sound accurate?" Roberts asked.
"Yes," Claire Fierman said.
Fierman and Cain agreed that the drinking was kind of
excessive.
48 Hours has learned that the Aruban investigation
turned up another disturbing detail.
Asked if he has been able to confirm whether Natalee
purchased or consumed illegal narcotics during her stay
in Aruba, Dompig says, "We have statements claiming that
she, that she had drugs."
What kind of drugs?
"I cannot say," Dompig replied.
Dompig notes that police don't have any proof that
Natalee used drugs but "that they saw her with drugs in
her possession."
Had Natalee’s friends heard stories of people taking
drugs?
"No. The only thing I heard about drugs is there were
like people at the hotel that weren't with us that would
like offer stuff to people. I was never offered drugs
and I never even saw 'em," said Fierman.
However, police do believe that Natalee’s judgment was
impaired that night. Her friends were surprised that she
was last seen willingly getting into a car with three
strangers, 17-year-old Joran van der Sloot, 21-year-old
Deepak Kalpoe and his brother, 18-year-old Satish Kalpoe.
Fierman says it would have been out of character for
Natalee to voluntarily get into a car with three boys.
"It frustrates me so much because I feel as much as,
like, we say that, no one believes us 'cause you hear
all that stuff," she says. "But, from the bottom of my
heart, that is extremely out of character and not
something that Natalee Holloway would ever do."
Holloway's mother agrees. "No way would she have left
her friends and placed herself knowingly what she was
getting into. They just took her when she just … There's
no way."
"Do you think she may have been vulnerable because she
had been drinking too much?" Roberts asked.
"Very much so," Cain replied.
Since Natalee disappeared almost 10 months ago, her
mother has used any opportunity to keep the story alive
to pressure the government of Aruba to solve this case.
"There are just no words to explain the frustration
level that we have had to experience in dealing with
officials from the island of Aruba," she says.
Last fall, Twitty called for a boycott of Aruba. The
island’s tourism industry has suffered: Travel bookings
are off more than 4 percent from a year ago.
Does she still support a boycott of Aruba?
"The only leverage that we have in getting any traction
in the investigation is when they feel the effects of a
boycott," says Twitty.
According to Deputy Chief Dompig, the boycott is not the
only thing that has cost Aruba dearly. He says
authorities have about $3 million, on this
investigation. "Which is about 40 percent of our
operational budget," he explains.
As far as Beth Twitty is concerned, there has always
been a simple solution to solving this case: Just ask
the people last seen with Natalee — Joran van der Sloot
and Satish and Deepak Kalpoe.
"If they had just gotten the suspects within the first
48 hours like they were supposed to have done, then they
wouldn't have spent anything," she says.
Natalee Holloway: New Clues
(Page 2 of 5)
March 25, 2006 |
 |
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48 Hours has obtained what is believed to be the last
known photo of Natalee Holloway, the 18-year-old from
Alabama who went missing nine months ago while on a
senior-class trip in Aruba. FBI agents discovered the
photo in the camera of one of her classmates. Holloway,
pictured on the left, is seen dancing at island bar
"Carlos and Charlie's" on the night she disappeared.
(CBS)
Natalee’s mother, Beth Holloway Twitty, has been working
tirelessly since last May, trying to unravel the mystery
of her daughter’s disappearance.
"You know she was 18 years old. She was on her senior
trip. They were in this establishment of legal age," she
says. "I'm certain they were drinking. We never even
tried to say that they weren't, you know. But I have to
ask myself, you know, 'Should that cost her life?' No.
It shouldn't."
Police interviews with hotel staff, local bartenders,
and her friends reveal that Natalee had spent much of
the day with a drink in her hand.
"Do you know if Natalee could handle her alcohol?"
Roberts asked.
"Yes," said Cain. "She was never somebody to be out of
control if she had been drinking at all."
"When you hear stories, like people started drinking in
mid-afternoon and drank through the night. Does that
sound accurate?" Roberts asked.
"Yes," Claire Fierman said.
Fierman and Cain agreed that the drinking was kind of
excessive.
48 Hours has learned that the Aruban investigation
turned up another disturbing detail.
Asked if he has been able to confirm whether Natalee
purchased or consumed illegal narcotics during her stay
in Aruba, Dompig says, "We have statements claiming that
she, that she had drugs."
What kind of drugs?
"I cannot say," Dompig replied.
Dompig notes that police don't have any proof that
Natalee used drugs but "that they saw her with drugs in
her possession."
Had Natalee’s friends heard stories of people taking
drugs?
"No. The only thing I heard about drugs is there were
like people at the hotel that weren't with us that would
like offer stuff to people. I was never offered drugs
and I never even saw 'em," said Fierman.
However, police do believe that Natalee’s judgment was
impaired that night. Her friends were surprised that she
was last seen willingly getting into a car with three
strangers, 17-year-old Joran van der Sloot, 21-year-old
Deepak Kalpoe and his brother, 18-year-old Satish Kalpoe.
Fierman says it would have been out of character for
Natalee to voluntarily get into a car with three boys.
"It frustrates me so much because I feel as much as,
like, we say that, no one believes us 'cause you hear
all that stuff," she says. "But, from the bottom of my
heart, that is extremely out of character and not
something that Natalee Holloway would ever do."
Holloway's mother agrees. "No way would she have left
her friends and placed herself knowingly what she was
getting into. They just took her when she just … There's
no way."
"Do you think she may have been vulnerable because she
had been drinking too much?" Roberts asked.
"Very much so," Cain replied.
Since Natalee disappeared almost 10 months ago, her
mother has used any opportunity to keep the story alive
to pressure the government of Aruba to solve this case.
"There are just no words to explain the frustration
level that we have had to experience in dealing with
officials from the island of Aruba," she says.
Last fall, Twitty called for a boycott of Aruba. The
island’s tourism industry has suffered: Travel bookings
are off more than 4 percent from a year ago.
Does she still support a boycott of Aruba?
"The only leverage that we have in getting any traction
in the investigation is when they feel the effects of a
boycott," says Twitty.
According to Deputy Chief Dompig, the boycott is not the
only thing that has cost Aruba dearly. He says
authorities have about $3 million, on this
investigation. "Which is about 40 percent of our
operational budget," he explains.
As far as Beth Twitty is concerned, there has always
been a simple solution to solving this case: Just ask
the people last seen with Natalee — Joran van der Sloot
and Satish and Deepak Kalpoe.
"If they had just gotten the suspects within the first
48 hours like they were supposed to have done, then they
wouldn't have spent anything," she says.
Natalee
Holloway: New Clues
(Page 3 of 5)
March 25, 2006 |
 |
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48 Hours has obtained what is believed to be the last
known photo of Natalee Holloway, the 18-year-old from
Alabama who went missing nine months ago while on a
senior-class trip in Aruba. FBI agents discovered the
photo in the camera of one of her classmates. Holloway,
pictured on the left, is seen dancing at island bar
"Carlos and Charlie's" on the night she disappeared.
(CBS)
"They were focused already from the first day, from the
get–go, on these three boys. So, it's hard for them to
understand that when we investigate, we have to go
systematically. We have to go back to basics. And we
have to do it by the book," says Dompig. "We are within
the Dutch kingdom. We have a judicial system. We have a
court of law. And we have rules. So we had to follow the
rules of the game."
The police apparently did just that. Contrary to the
storm of criticism from the American media, the Aruban
police say they quickly put van der Sloot and the Kalpoe
brothers under surveillance.
Dompig says surveillance of the three boys began on the
third day after Natalee was reported missing and
included observation, telephone wire taps, and even
monitoring of their e-mail.
“Bringing in the prime suspect is basically the last
thing we do," Dompig explains. "When we bring you in, we
probably already know the story because we have
observed. We have talked to all your friends. We have
checked your phone line. We have done everything that is
technically possible to know about your whereabouts.”
But police say extreme pressure from the Holloway family
forced them to stop their surveillance and make arrests.
Just 10 days after Natalee disappeared, police took van
der Sloot, the Kalpoe brothers, and later, even van der
Sloot's father into custody.
Asked if pressure from the family compromised the
investigation, Dompig says, "I think so. It at least
distracted the investigators' efforts.”
Twitty says she was just trying to get the police to
find her daughter.
"We wanted justice and we wanted the truth. And I think
that that was shocking to the officials in Aruba that we
were so persistent in our quest for that," she says.
Paulus van der Sloot was quickly released on judge’s
orders, but the young men remained in custody.
Twitty says she is confident the three boys know what
happened to Natalee.
But less than a month after their arrests, a court
released Deepak and Satish Kalpoe. As police feared,
simply questioning the brothers did not turn up enough
evidence to charge them with a crime. To this day, they
deny any involvement with Natalee’s disappearance.
Despite the setbacks, the cops were able to play
hardball with their prime suspect, 17-year-old Joran van
der Sloot, thought to be the last person who saw Natalee.
As Aruban law allows, authorities detained him for
months without charging him with any crime.
Aruban lawyer Arlene Shipper — who often speaks on
behalf of the Aruban government — was sure Joran would
crack. "It's mind-boggling to us that a 17-year-old, if
he would have done it could not have been broken. It's
incredible."
But as Dompig explained, Joran’s age actually made
things harder for the interrogators.
Dompig acknowledges Joran was afforded some special
legal protections because he was 17 years old at the
time of his arrest. Dompig says that did complicate
matters. "Yes, that complicated matters seriously
because he had more visiting rights with his father —
his father being a judge in training was a problem for
us because he could give his son certain advice."
Joran’s father discussed the family’s ordeal with CBS'
The Early Show.
"We are telling the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
And we spoke all this to Joran to tell the truth,"
Paulus van der Sloot said.
Police say they could not listen in on the conversations
between Paulus and his son, citing that they were
"privileged conversations."
Dompig says he believes Paulus van der Sloot does know
more than he has been telling about the circumstances
surrounding Holloway's disappearance.
But in spite of those parental visits, 48 Hours has
learned that the interrogations were intense and tough.
Special agents from the FBI were brought in, along with
investigators from Holland to conduction the
interrogations.
Dompig says while Joran van der Sloot wasn't subjected
to questioning in the middle of the night, there were
late sessions.
"So he was deprived of sleep but it wasn't going on for
days?" Roberts asked.
"No," Dompig replied.
Dompig says it almost worked. “There were several
moments where Joran almost broke. Several moments,” he
says.
Natalee Holloway: New
Clues
(Page 4 of 5)
March 25, 2006
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48 Hours has obtained what is believed to be the last
known photo of Natalee Holloway, the 18-year-old from
Alabama who went missing nine months ago while on a
senior-class trip in Aruba. FBI agents discovered the
photo in the camera of one of her classmates. Holloway,
pictured on the left, is seen dancing at island bar
"Carlos and Charlie's" on the night she disappeared.
(CBS)
Dompig says Joran's basic story changed three times.
"But the little facts changed over 25 times. So it was
never the same."
One critical element of the interrogation remains in
dispute: did Joran admit to having sex with Natalee?
Twitty claims that Joran was clear with the police about
one thing — that he had sex with her daughter the night
she disappeared.
"I had access to several statements, and in one of
Joran's statements he's describing Natalie as she's
falling asleep and waking up, falling asleep and waking
up repeatedly. And, as she's doing this, he is
explaining, he's very sexually explicit, graphically
detailing what he is doing to Natalie. OK?" Twitty said.
Twitty and her attorney would not share those documents
with 48 Hours. In spite of her claim, Dompig says there
is no proof of sexual assault.
Asked if Joran van der Sloot ever confessed to being
sexually intimate with Natalee, Dompig says he never
did.
"Believe me, we were looking for anything to throw him,
to keep him in jail," says Dompig. "The only thing he
admitted to was that he was fondling [her] sexually,
like kissing, touching her. And there was no sexual in
terms of penetration or whatever, really having sex with
her.”
After nearly two dozen lengthy interrogations, the
police still had no confession and had found no body. So
on Sep. 3, 2005, Joran van der Sloot was released to his
parents.
"This young man, a 17-year-old-boy was able to withstand
90 days in prison, and undergo specialized
interrogation, and they weren't able to get a confession
from him," says attorney Arlene Shipper.
"What does that say ?" Roberts asks.
"It can mean two things — either he's innocent, he
really doesn't know what happened, or he's a genius,"
she replied.
Joran van der Sloot has denied any wrongdoing, but he
has done nothing to dispel Dompig’s suspicions.
Asked what FBI profilers told Dompig about van der
Sloot's psychological profile, he says, "They use the
word sociopath. And the fact that he was capable of
lying about basically everything."
Twitty says there's a reason she thinks van der Sloot is
lying — he is covering something up. "He's covering
something up so horrible that he can't tell the truth,"
she says.
But if Joran can’t or won’t tell the whole story of what
happened that night, police think they may soon find
someone else who will.
"New people are coming in the picture," says Dompig. "It
is possible that there was help. Or it is possible that
there was a second group involved other than these three
boys.”
With no major break in the Holloway case in the past six
months, Aruban authorities are re-doubling their efforts
to find Natalee’s body.
One of the most persistent theories clouding the case is
the notion that her body was dumped out at sea.
But Dr. Ruben Cruz, the head of the island’s search and
rescue team showed 48 Hours that an unweighted body
thrown overboard near the shore would wash up on the
beach.
Cruz says he and his team have tossed a dummy overboard
many times, but that in every case, it drifted back to
shore. The only way that wouldn’t happen is if a boat
sailed more than two miles offshore — a trip that would
have turned up on police radar and been captured on
tape.
Police have accounted for every boat in the water the
night Natalee vanished.
Authorities now believe that the teenager's body may be
buried somewhere among some dunes, but not because it
washed ashore. The Aruban authorities’ new theory is
that someone, someone possibly very close to the young
suspects, took the time to carefully hide the body, not
once but maybe twice, literally re-burying her.
Natalee Holloway: New
Clues
(Page 5 of 5)
March 25, 2006
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48 Hours has obtained what is believed to be the last
known photo of Natalee Holloway, the 18-year-old from
Alabama who went missing nine months ago while on a
senior-class trip in Aruba. FBI agents discovered the
photo in the camera of one of her classmates. Holloway,
pictured on the left, is seen dancing at island bar
"Carlos and Charlie's" on the night she disappeared.
(CBS)
And there’s another stunning revelation from the
authorities: Though they’re convinced Holloway is dead,
they tell 48 Hours that they believe she was not
murdered.
"This was a highly intoxicated body of a very small
person," says Dompig.
Dompig laid out the latest scenario of what happened
after Natalee was last seen driving off with van der
Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers shortly after 1 a.m. He
says investigators think the group did not go to the
beach but that they possibly brought Natalie back to the
van der Sloots' home.
Wherever she was, police now think that while Natalee
was with Joran, she died suddenly from an overdose of
intoxicants.
"We feel strongly that she probably went into shock or
something happened to her system with all this alcohol
maybe on top of that other drugs which either she took
or they gave her and that she just collapsed," says
Dompig.
The crime, Dompig suspects, occurred when the body was
illegally disposed of. The boys may have acted alone.
"We’re not talking about killers here," he says.
Or, as Dompig reveals for the first time, they could
have had accomplices. "New people are coming in the
picture. It is possible that there was a second group
involved, or more people than these three boys," he
says.
Dompig speculates the body was hastily buried once, and
that those extra accomplices may have been needed to
move it to a more hidden location.
These latest developments, the new witness, the chance
of an accidental death by overdose, and the possibility
of additional accomplices re-locating the body, have
changed Dompig’s view of the case.
"I'm convinced that there's no thing as a crime of this
proportion, which goes unseen. There's the information
on there. And we just have to get it," he says.
But the challenges are daunting: So far, there has not
been a shred of forensic evidence found in the van der
Sloot house, the Kalpoe car, or anywhere else on the
island.
"It's very rarely that you have a case that somebody
just disappears and there's hardly any evidence left
behind," says Shipper.
Ten months after Natalee’s disappearance, Natalee’s home
town of Mountain Brook, Alabama, is still starved for
answers.
Natalee’s schoolmates have had to handle a harsh lesson
about the dangers of the adult world they’ve entered.
"You know, we went on senior trip. But then after that,
it was basically like we were forced to not become
adults, but definitely grow up a lot," says Cain.
Natalee’s parents have filed a civil suit against Joran
van der Sloot and his father, but Twitty knows she may
never learn the truth about what happened to her
daughter.
Asked what gives her hope today, she replied, "I don't
have any."
"You don’t have any?" Roberts asked.
"If somebody wants to tell me ..." she tearfully
replied.
But Dompig is optimistic that answers will be found. "We
are that much closer to knowing what really happened to
Natalee," he says. "A crime like this cannot go
unsolved."
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