The Disappearance of Natalee Holloway (2017) s01e02 Episode Script
The Sting
1 My name is Dave Holloway.
My daughter went missing in Aruba in May, 2005.
Joran was the last person seen with my daughter.
He knows what happened, and now he's free and clear.
I never dreamed that 12 years, and we still have nothing, up until now.
John Ludwig was involved with Joran van der Sloot in 2010, and had knowledge to your daughter's remains.
Our goal is to build the evidence to bring charges against the individuals responsible for your daughter's death.
- There's DNA evidence still.
- Correct.
There should be DNA evidence at the grave.
She should rot in her grave over what she did to my guy.
Trashing a human that's lost their life is that That's just perverted.
Sick.
And now he's saying he did something to Natalee and he knows where she is.
If I have a lead, I've got to pursue it.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
[SWEEPING STRING MUSIC.]
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
Over the last several weeks, I've been pursuing a lead that could solve my daughter's case.
We have a guy by the name of John who states that he helped Joran van der Sloot remove Natalee's remains.
Now, all we have to do is prove it.
We're working with our informant, Gabriel, who has continued to gather information from John, who now lives with him.
This guy knows something, and I'm gonna find out what.
I spoke to Gabriel last night, and he reiterated again that he's adamant 150%, that what John's telling him is the truth.
This is real, then this is This is, uh, the best-case scenario that I've ever seen since the beginning of her Natalee's disappearance.
You know, the first part of our investigation is to get John's statements recorded on tape.
Pretty tricky, because he does not know we're involved at this point in time, and we've got the Enlisted Gabriel's help to get him to start talking.
Well, today, we need to lock the perpetrator in to his story be able to build a criminal case, and to turn it over to the Aruban authorities and possibly the FBI.
So the plan for our sting operation is to convince John to come to New Orleans for a fun, free vacation with all expenses paid.
We've established New Orleans because it's a one-party state.
This trip that we're doing to New Orleans is critical.
- Mm-hmm.
- Okay.
So we have got to get out certain things to lay the foundation of a criminal case.
Okay, so he he's aware that y'all are going to New Orleans, uh, on Monday? Correct.
And I know you're going there to take him to gamble and so on and so forth.
But one of the critical things that That we're trying to accomplish here - Mm-hmm.
- Is we need John to talk about what he's already communicated to you in the past.
I've been undercover, working with John.
He is not a person that you want to be around, because he's not mentally stable.
To get more, uh More out of John, I actually started living with him three months ago.
That's when he told me everything.
How did you meet him? How Well, before I ever moved to Aruba My aunt gave me the opportunity to move to her house there and take care of business for a while and to live alone, so I took the opportunity and went, and I meet Joran.
We bumped into each other one day.
He gave me his number and we ended up chilling and sh He was my friend at the beginning, but then I I find out what kind of individual he really, really was.
She should rot in her grave over what she did to my guy, putting him in jail for all these years.
I should piss on her f ing grave for that sh It's really hard to To listen to somebody talk that way, you know? He disgusts me, because me as a father I have two girls, and if I was in Dave Holloway's position, I would do anything to try to find my daughter.
You guys do not know what it is to live with John.
You guys don't have no Well, I-I watched the videotape of him - Yeah.
- Last night.
Unbelievable.
Yeah.
I know where you coming from, from all this.
You're going to get Yeah.
What you deserve, you know? Your peace, and they're gonna get what they deserve.
I'm wiring the room that you all are gonna be staying in.
Could be used for law enforcement.
- Mm-hmm.
- And possibly the FBI.
- Okay.
- I need details.
What he was paid, what he went out there - and did at the grave site - Mmhmm.
When he took the remains to the to the mortuary.
Once Gabriel gets John to New Orleans, his mission is to extract information from John as to his involvement to discard Natalee's remains.
What we're doing is building a criminal case - Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
- Against him, okay? This is the most critical part of the investigation right here.
If we don't get the confession, as far as this, uh, this lead's concerned, it's done.
The first day, what I'm gonna do I'm going to see how I feel him out, and I'm gonna push to get out almost everything that day.
- Yeah.
- He's a smart guy.
You got to beat him at his game.
- Yeah.
- You know? But you got to be smart how you do it.
I honestly, I don't think I'll have a problem.
- Okay.
- Just If there's one person that could f this whole thing up, it's his girlfriend, Lauren, uh Turnlock.
She went ahead and called me and said.
"John confessed something to me," and I wanted his girlfriend to tell me what he told her, so I decided to record her.
When did you find out about John and what he was involved in? You know, so I started asking him questions and he basically confessed about everything.
Where was the body hidden, and and, uh - What did he tell you? - He told me that it was cremated in Aruba.
And what else did he tell you? Did he tell you where - he got the bones? - Yes, um - Or the body, or whatever.
- That, um, it was in a park, but the park wasn't, like, a normal National Park.
It was kind of just like a desert.
- Okay.
- And that, um, the body was actually under a patch of cactuses.
She said, "If I tell you, what John told me", don't ever tell nobody, or call the cops," because she doesn't want him to get in trouble.
The thing that kind of scares me a little is that I don't think she trusts me.
Does she already know that he's going to - Yeah.
Yeah, she knows.
- New Orleans? John's girlfriend is already suspicious of Gabriel.
I'm concerned that she's gonna ask John not to tell Gabriel any other information.
If John already has suspicions about Gabriel, this whole thing could fall apart.
We've had so many disappointments throughout the past, and you know, you're always thinking, you know, "Is this the great big con?" But it's moving towards You know, its being real, and then this morning I received a text from my my wife, and she does not know that we're going to New Orleans to investigate this lead, and neither does my ex-wife, Natalee's mother Beth.
You know, you just can't put somebody through anticipation, anxiety.
I realize now that, uh, you know, I should have been a lot more protective of her emotions and And all of our family's emotions throughout this process, and I didn't want to put her through that.
[SOMBER MUSIC.]
I'm Robin Holloway, and Dave and I He's my husband, and we have been married for It'll be 22 years in July, and I've had a pleasure of being Natalee's stepmother, until that terrible day when she disappeared.
Hey, camera! - Hey, Natalee.
- Where's your Santa Claus hat? I promise, he's I never forget when I first met Natalee, after Dave and I started dating.
I was so nervous, so I drive over and I get there, and, um, this little blond-headed girl comes running out, and she just hugs me, and I'm like, "Oh, this is great," and it's just one big, happy, blended family, and we One of the last vivid memories of Natalee was how excited she was about going to Aruba, And the last words I said was "Be careful," and "I love you.
" And I never talked to her again or saw her.
After Natalee disappeared, all these random leads kept coming in, and Dave got his hopes up that we would finally get the truth, and, um, nothing panned through.
It hurts to see Dave suffering but he'll never give up looking for Natalee.
This latest lead, um, I'm hopeful, but I looked at it, and I looked at it with apprehension, because we'd been through so many.
To see the hurt that, uh [SOMBER MUSIC.]
[CLEARS THROAT.]
To see all the people hurting, just It's tough.
Uh, you know, my my wife and my immediate family.
So We get through this New Orleans operation, you know, I'm hoping that we can finally get justice for Natalee's death.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
There's two things that we need to get out of this sting operation in New Orleans.
First of all, we need to get John's confession on tape, so we can use that against him in a criminal case.
Second, we need to get John to give Gabriel more specific details of where he dug up.
Natalee's remains, so we can go to the spot to try to find Natalee's DNA.
That may lead to a conviction of Joran van der Sloot and these other individuals involved.
I have with me Eric Bryan, one of my associates, and Katherine Wainscott.
Kathy and Eric both will be conducting physical surveillance on the perpetrator and also on Gabriel.
They are experts with surveillance, they're experts with gathering information, and they're experts with using covert cameras and being able to get close without getting caught.
I've been an investigator since 2003.
I've known TJ since 2004, and we know each other very well as far as how the other person thinks and how we function.
I've been following the Natalee Holloway case since it happened, on a personal level and a professional level.
I'm a retired FBI agent.
Uh, I was involved in the undercover program for over 20 years.
I've done hundreds of covert meets with hundreds of sources over the years.
My role is provide surveillance and also to provide, uh, some security in the event something goes wrong.
My old squad, we worked kidnappings.
You never think that, you know, when your kid goes out the door, it'll be the last time you see them.
As a parent, I don't think anything can be worse than, uh, losing a child, and I think what's even worse is not knowing what happened to your child.
Today, we're going to talk about what our plans are of hopefully getting the confession that we need.
We're gonna position two rooms in that hotel where they're going to be, one next door to each other.
Today, we're going to go wire that one room with all our cameras.
And then we'll put a room right next to it, to where they can control the cameras.
So what's Gabriel's marching orders? Well, Gabriel knows he's being being filmed.
He's going to lure, um, the perpetrator to start talking about Aruba to capture what he knows about Joran van der Sloot and his knowledge that he claims that he was instructed by van der Sloot and paid, uh, to go remove the remains somewhere from the National Forest.
Right now, all we have is a general location, the Aruba National Park, but we need to narrow it down so we can find the exact spot.
We've got a whole National Forest to search, and that's a lot of area if you're looking for a grave, and, uh, you'd never be able to search all that with the dogs, I don't believe.
I probably know that island better than most of the residents who live there, because I've covered all of it.
Paulus van der Sloot always said Joran had nothing to do with Natalee's disappearance, but the police actually thought that Paulus was involved in the actual covering up of the death of my daughter.
A couple of days after Natalee went missing, a witness saw Paulus van der Sloot in the middle of the night, in that same area, coming out of the National Forest; And they met head-on.
He knew who Paulus was and he goes, "What the heck is he doing out here at 4:00 in the morning?" If Paulus van der Sloot buried her in that location, it was a brilliant move on his part, because most foot searchers would not travel through an area where there's a lot of cactus.
So we're anticipating that the perpetrator is going to take Gabriel back to the original crime scene? Yes, 'cause he's excited about wanting to show him where he said, "I know exactly where the crime scene is", "and I'm gonna take you to it, and I'll show you exactly where.
" What we really need is a confession from the perpetrator to Gabriel - Right.
- All on tape, so we can then go to the next stage, see if we can find the physical evidence.
Looking at the evidence that TJ has discovered, I would say that I'm 99.
999% sure that van der Sloot killed her.
Proving it is a different story, So what we're here to do now is prove it.
Right now, we're monitoring the camera installation crew and putting in the hard wires for the cameras and the audio.
- You got it to go through now? - Uh, yeah.
I think.
- Okay.
- Uh, let me go next door, make sure that's clear on that side.
They are experts with surveillance and they're experts with using covert cameras without getting caught.
- Dave! What's going on? - Hey.
- Doing okay.
- Come on in.
Yeah, thanks.
These guys have been working all day to get the sound and the, um, video in play.
You guys are pros.
Yep.
Putting cameras up in the corners, and microphones.
In the other room, right next door, we'll monitor everything here.
Who's gonna be manning the, uh, ships? Kathy and Eric will be doing it.
- When Gabriel notifies you - Yeah.
- You're gonna notify him.
- I'm gonna send a message, - uh, or call Eric.
- Yeah, we'll-we'll be - We'll be close by.
- Yeah.
What kind of signals are they going to get? Oh, I'm gonna do it by text.
- Oh, by text.
- By text.
'Cause he's got me set up in his phone, something else, so he can text back and forth.
- Just be careful.
- I am.
Be careful.
I would say the most concerning part for me would be, you know, if John happens to walk out of the room and sees a door that somebody opened in the camera room and there's cameras in there, and and, you know, just any small thing will cue him off that something's just not right.
I guess if, uh plan B, if something goes sour, then we're just flat-footed then, huh? We gotta get something tangible.
You know, if John happens to become suspicious or whatever, then it's probably over.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
Being successful in this operation in New Orleans sets up the stage for the Aruban operation, so, uh, it we still got a long ways to go, but we're moving forward as we had planned, and if we get through this, then it's on to Aruba.
Find the grave site, and hopefully that will resolve all of this.
I have a question.
Um, what is your end result? I mean, what do you want the most? Do you want someone in jail? Uh, or do you just want to know what happened, to have it documented? - How do you see this? What's - I, well, I mean, my number one goal is to find Natalee and and find out what happened, and then the second go priority and goal is Joran van der Sloot was responsible for her death, then I want to see, um, him dead, and then, number three is John, uh, committed a crime where he disposed of her body, so those three things are my priorities.
You know, Joran, for what he did, he needs to serve his time for Natalee's murder.
He's just an evil person.
Evil.
I think Joran van der Sloot knows what happened to Natalee, and I just want to know the truth.
Right now, my hope is that they'll arrest John, hold him for disposal of human remains, and then formally bring Bring charges against him.
- [PHONE RINGS.]
- Is that him? Yep.
- Can you hear me? - Hello? Yeah I hear you.
How are you? Okay, well, are you gonna prompt him about his girlfriend and all? Why he told his girlfriend or what he told his girlfriend? Uh She went ahead and told John that, "Don't go to New Orleans.
" The girlfriend has a suspicion about this trip to New Orleans, and she doesn't trust Gabe, and I think that she's trying to convince John not to trust Gabriel as well.
You know what our goal is, correct? I mean, Gabriel'll complain all the time, "You just don't know how hard it is to take care of this guy.
"He's stolen a lot of money.
He's he goes off "and he's outside committing crimes, and I'm having to bail him out.
" And that's all it is.
John's a handful.
Well, you're coming here to have fun, Gabriel.
- Okay, l - .
Okay, listen to me.
I know I know you're working hard at this, and I know you're having to tolerate a lot.
I want you to text me when you get to the hotel.
- Okay? - .
All right.
Have a good trip tomorrow, and, uh, just just stay in touch with me, okay? - All right, thank you.
- .
Whew.
[CLEARS THROAT.]
That's what I'm worried about.
Oh, I know.
I mean, the guy He's put up with a lot with this guy.
I mean, he's, um He's off the wall.
Well, Gabriel is ready to give up and you've already come this far.
- So close.
- Yeah, don't fail me now.
- Yeah.
- If they don't show up in New Orleans, we have no evidence.
No taped confessions and no chance to charge this guy.
All the hard work that we'd done, over all these years, it all comes down to Gabriel now.
Gabriel and John are due to arrive this morning.
We have, um, two rooms: One for Gabriel and John and one room to monitor what is going on in their room, in hopes to get the confession on tape and on film so we can utilize it in Aruba.
[PULSING MUSIC.]
So we just got word that John and Gabriel just landed in New Orleans, and are on their way to the hotel.
Yeah, it's a huge relief that they're here, and now all we need to do is get John to confess to Gabriel.
We're all in our positions, spread out uh, so that we can get exactly the information that we need efficiently.
Okay, Gabriel's wearing a long-sleeved white T-shirt.
He walked over to John.
All right, they're walking back towards me, so gonna go into the mall and wait for them to pass.
It's a very fluid situation.
These things change on a dime.
The surveillance, it's never scripted, so you have to be prepared for anything.
Yeah, they're at least 100 feet ahead of me.
Okay, he's checking in right now? Yeah, they're just acting like two buddies, like they made amends.
- All right.
- I'll I'll let you know if they go to the elevator, - or what.
- Okay, sounds good.
- [INDISTINCT.]
F - What? Well, dude [SIGHS.]
Wow, you got a really hard life, don't you? [BLEEP.]
All right.
Did van der Sloot ever shoot up with you, or he just snorted? What'd he do? So what was his drug What was his drug of choice? So then how How did he do drugs and When he used to go and, you know Like, when he went to f those girls? When he used to go rape all those girls? How many times did you do it with him? So that Gabriel, brought up how they met women.
Some they would drug, some they would have sex with unconsensually, so, uh, he does confirm that that was what they used to do on the island.
[MUMBLING INDISTINCTLY.]
But don't you, like, felt bad that the girls were just laying there, unconscious, and you guys would f them? You know, Aruba is portrayed as one happy island.
There's an ugly side to it.
There's a lot of men who have taken advantage of a lot of girls on the island, and, uh, it's something you don't want to think about the details, but I feel like that Joran van der Sloot tried to take advantage of Natalee.
In the early 2000s, the Aruban tourism board decided that they were gonna concentrate on these high school graduation trips, and started advertising to these high schools and sorts to, "Bring your kids on down", we've got a safe environment.
" It sounded like it was safer than Disneyworld.
When I arrived on the island, the police told me, said, "GHB is a problem here.
" GHB is a date-rape drug.
Basically what it does is if you put in a drink, they drink it, within 20 minutes, you're walking them out the door like you're leading a dog on a collar.
She wakes up the next morning and has no recollection of what happened.
She knows she's been violated, but she can't remember who, what, when, or where.
It just kind of erases your memory.
You can pay the bartender $25 to have one of them spiked.
He reaches under the bar, pulls out a clear bottle, pours some stuff into one glass, girl drinks it, 15, 20 minutes, they're walking out, and I had a number of parents contact me and say, "Hey, my daughter was in Aruba, this happened to her.
" You have a child, and they go on this vacation, 18 years old, they're so innocent and naive and gullible.
Natalee was a very intelligent young girl who had her life ahead of her, and one incident of not being careful can cost you your life.
I've got eyes on John and Gabe.
Looks like they're sitting down with a fortune teller.
[SIGHS.]
[PANTING.]
I took the stairs.
Okay, Kathy, I'm gonna go outside.
- You want to take it? - [EXHALES SHARPLY.]
Yeah.
Eric and I have now switched, so I'll be monitoring the cameras, and Eric's on foot.
I'm just waiting for my phone to get charged.
Dude, about 30 minutes, and we'll go.
When I had filmed them earlier, they had seen some kind of, uh, fortune teller, what-do-you call, psychic.
I don't understand.
For what? I ain't I haven't Well, you can't say it on TV.
Like what? Like what? Be more specific, dumbass.
Like That's pretty messed-up.
Ever since Natalee went missing, we've had a lot of people trying to take advantage of the situation.
People who got obsessed watching Natalee and Natalee's case.
Huge reward is now being offered to find missing Alabama teen, Natalee Holloway.
The media attention after Natalee disappeared ballooned.
It attracts people looking to capitalize on the situation, through either a reward or a book deal.
I saw Natalee Holloway on the last night that she was alive.
I was the eyewitness.
As anything else, you had all the cons who wanted to come in and And get a free trip, or get some money, or something out of it, and when you're in desperation, like we were, uh, sometimes you would fall for those.
It's easy to allow somebody to convince you, you know, maybe this could be it, and I've answered those type calls over and over and over from different people, and it opened my eyes on how many people are motivated by money, inserting themselves into this case, but I can't rule it out of my mind because I need to resolve what happened to my daughter.
It's just what I've got to do.
[LINE TRILLING.]
- Hey, TJ.
- Hey.
Um, Dave's here with me.
Tell me a little bit real quick.
Okay, um evidently.
John went and spoke with a psychic, and the psychic told John that he has a way to make money right in front of him.
Talking all about how he can make money off of the whole Aruba story.
So, it was a really How he can make money off the Aruba story? - Yeah.
Yeah.
- John or Gabriel? - John.
- Are they out of the room? Yes, the perpetrator and the informant just went into Bonefish Grill.
TJ, wait a second.
The monitor just went out.
I can't see a thing.
Looks like everything just went down.
What can you see on the monitor? [STAMMERS.]
What? Can you see? Anything on the On the cameras? Can you send me a picture of the monitor? - Let me see.
- Mm-hmm.
- Show it to Dave.
- Yeah.
You can't see anything there.
We're gonna send our tech guys in as soon as we can.
Yeah, I walked all the way down Bourbon Street, I'm going about 20 yards behind them.
Okay, towards the French Quarter.
- All right.
- Yeah.
Hopefully they don't come back - to the hotel anytime soon.
- [DRILL WHIRRING.]
[DRILL WHIRRING.]
Um, the Command Center's calling.
Kathy.
Hold on, Kathy.
- Hello.
- Hey, TJ.
Eric followed them to a restaurant.
- Right.
- Um, and they sat at the table for about five minutes and then got up and looked like they were going to use the restroom, but there was a back door, so at the moment, we do not know where they are.
Okay, let me call you right back, and I'll see if I can, uh, find out, so we can, um, get a visual on them.
Okay? Call you right back.
Why would he do that? They went out the back door.
He knows that we're monitoring their activity.
Why would he go out the back door, and not let me know? That's not good.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
Why would he do that? They went out the back door.
He knows that we're monitoring their activity.
Why would he go out the back door, and not let me know? So, uh, Eric's lost him? - [CELL PHONE RINGS.]
- Hey, TJ.
Hey, any update? Eric just called and he has not found them.
Have you heard anything from Gabriel? No, I just sent him a message.
He's not responded back.
I'll let you know just soon as I, um, make contact with him.
- Okay.
That sounds good.
- All right.
Thanks.
Uh-huh.
Can I pull the entire strap? Oh, my Lord! It's up, I can see it! [CELL PHONE RINGS.]
- They got it.
It's back up.
- Good.
Have Eric go to the hotel, in the lobby.
Yeah.
Okay, yeah.
We're ready on this end, so if they do walk in, we're ready to roll.
I'm letting Eric know.
Yeah, let Eric know, if you don't mind.
Yeah, I'm sending him a message right now.
- Okay.
- All right, sounds good.
Let's do it.
Coming in.
Stuff like this, you guys did, in - In, uh, Aruba? - .
Like this.
Like like You know, like, downtown here.
Like, was it your prized joy to meet van der Sloot.
Like, what What went through your head? That's the part I don't understand.
- [CELL PHONE RINGS.]
- - Where is it? - I I don't get it.
What did you do with all that money when When he When Joran gave you the What was it, $2,000? What did you do with all that money? [CELL PHONE RINGS.]
I'm f ing asking you a question! No sh Why? But I'm curious, you know? - Mm-hmm.
- - [CELL PHONE RINGS.]
- John is just freaking out, because his girlfriend keeps calling, and hanging up.
He's totally distracted.
Uh, and Gabriel you know, he's he's desperately trying to get this information.
I mean, he's got a list of things we want him to ask without being obvious.
If you don't want, uh, me to ask, I won't.
I was just f ing curious, dude.
I just wanted to know.
You're you're like my good friend, and, you know, you told me already.
Kind of.
[WHISPERS.]
Come on.
Gabriel's really trying, but I think we need more.
I'm asking to To follow your footsteps, you know? You you you conquered, what what Joran did, and then you You made something out of it, you know what I'm saying? You follow what I'm saying? You were part of that, you know? - I know.
- Like, how can you be part of something that important - you know what I'm saying? - Well, yeah, that's yeah, that's the kind of people - you don't f ing Don't say sh - [STAMMERS.]
Obviously, I to me, it's like a It's not like a challenge to me, it's like a Bitch, don't be turning the f ing light off! [DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Oh, my lord.
It did, and that's concerning.
There's so much at stake.
This is messed up.
Why would he lie about all that stuff? I mean, why would he fabricate an entire story? Let me here the, um, details about yesterday.
At 11:24, he started speaking of Aruba and then the conversation shifted.
I mean, they were just all over the place, and and Gabriel was just trying to get what he could get when he could.
The new information as to where the body was buried just a different area.
- Is it in the forest? - And you know more.
No, it's It's not in a forest.
He kept saying "Oh, no, it's not in a forest," and Gabriel was like "Well, why did you lie to me?" Why did you lie to me?" He's like, "Well, you know, I'm just" "I need to make sure You know, "I don't want to give out all my information, 'cause I don't know who I can trust.
" So the new place that he described It's actually a neighborhood, and then there's a cul-de-sac.
He knew this area well, because his aunt had a property here.
Why would van der Sloot in '05 know about this spot? Good question.
There there's something not right.
There's something not right.
Gabriel knows he's supposed to get all this information, so he fel I'm sure he felt like he had to push and push and push, so if John got whiff that he was being grilled, he could have changed his story, and the first story is correct.
Hmm.
Let's do this, Dave needs to know about it immediately, and then I can direct questions, shortly after that, back to Gabriel, that he needs to try to pull out tonight or today.
We need to find out what's the truth and what's not the truth.
"For more information on "The Disappearance of Natalee Holloway", go to oxygen.
com.
My daughter went missing in Aruba in May, 2005.
Joran was the last person seen with my daughter.
He knows what happened, and now he's free and clear.
I never dreamed that 12 years, and we still have nothing, up until now.
John Ludwig was involved with Joran van der Sloot in 2010, and had knowledge to your daughter's remains.
Our goal is to build the evidence to bring charges against the individuals responsible for your daughter's death.
- There's DNA evidence still.
- Correct.
There should be DNA evidence at the grave.
She should rot in her grave over what she did to my guy.
Trashing a human that's lost their life is that That's just perverted.
Sick.
And now he's saying he did something to Natalee and he knows where she is.
If I have a lead, I've got to pursue it.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
[SWEEPING STRING MUSIC.]
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
Over the last several weeks, I've been pursuing a lead that could solve my daughter's case.
We have a guy by the name of John who states that he helped Joran van der Sloot remove Natalee's remains.
Now, all we have to do is prove it.
We're working with our informant, Gabriel, who has continued to gather information from John, who now lives with him.
This guy knows something, and I'm gonna find out what.
I spoke to Gabriel last night, and he reiterated again that he's adamant 150%, that what John's telling him is the truth.
This is real, then this is This is, uh, the best-case scenario that I've ever seen since the beginning of her Natalee's disappearance.
You know, the first part of our investigation is to get John's statements recorded on tape.
Pretty tricky, because he does not know we're involved at this point in time, and we've got the Enlisted Gabriel's help to get him to start talking.
Well, today, we need to lock the perpetrator in to his story be able to build a criminal case, and to turn it over to the Aruban authorities and possibly the FBI.
So the plan for our sting operation is to convince John to come to New Orleans for a fun, free vacation with all expenses paid.
We've established New Orleans because it's a one-party state.
This trip that we're doing to New Orleans is critical.
- Mm-hmm.
- Okay.
So we have got to get out certain things to lay the foundation of a criminal case.
Okay, so he he's aware that y'all are going to New Orleans, uh, on Monday? Correct.
And I know you're going there to take him to gamble and so on and so forth.
But one of the critical things that That we're trying to accomplish here - Mm-hmm.
- Is we need John to talk about what he's already communicated to you in the past.
I've been undercover, working with John.
He is not a person that you want to be around, because he's not mentally stable.
To get more, uh More out of John, I actually started living with him three months ago.
That's when he told me everything.
How did you meet him? How Well, before I ever moved to Aruba My aunt gave me the opportunity to move to her house there and take care of business for a while and to live alone, so I took the opportunity and went, and I meet Joran.
We bumped into each other one day.
He gave me his number and we ended up chilling and sh He was my friend at the beginning, but then I I find out what kind of individual he really, really was.
She should rot in her grave over what she did to my guy, putting him in jail for all these years.
I should piss on her f ing grave for that sh It's really hard to To listen to somebody talk that way, you know? He disgusts me, because me as a father I have two girls, and if I was in Dave Holloway's position, I would do anything to try to find my daughter.
You guys do not know what it is to live with John.
You guys don't have no Well, I-I watched the videotape of him - Yeah.
- Last night.
Unbelievable.
Yeah.
I know where you coming from, from all this.
You're going to get Yeah.
What you deserve, you know? Your peace, and they're gonna get what they deserve.
I'm wiring the room that you all are gonna be staying in.
Could be used for law enforcement.
- Mm-hmm.
- And possibly the FBI.
- Okay.
- I need details.
What he was paid, what he went out there - and did at the grave site - Mmhmm.
When he took the remains to the to the mortuary.
Once Gabriel gets John to New Orleans, his mission is to extract information from John as to his involvement to discard Natalee's remains.
What we're doing is building a criminal case - Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
- Against him, okay? This is the most critical part of the investigation right here.
If we don't get the confession, as far as this, uh, this lead's concerned, it's done.
The first day, what I'm gonna do I'm going to see how I feel him out, and I'm gonna push to get out almost everything that day.
- Yeah.
- He's a smart guy.
You got to beat him at his game.
- Yeah.
- You know? But you got to be smart how you do it.
I honestly, I don't think I'll have a problem.
- Okay.
- Just If there's one person that could f this whole thing up, it's his girlfriend, Lauren, uh Turnlock.
She went ahead and called me and said.
"John confessed something to me," and I wanted his girlfriend to tell me what he told her, so I decided to record her.
When did you find out about John and what he was involved in? You know, so I started asking him questions and he basically confessed about everything.
Where was the body hidden, and and, uh - What did he tell you? - He told me that it was cremated in Aruba.
And what else did he tell you? Did he tell you where - he got the bones? - Yes, um - Or the body, or whatever.
- That, um, it was in a park, but the park wasn't, like, a normal National Park.
It was kind of just like a desert.
- Okay.
- And that, um, the body was actually under a patch of cactuses.
She said, "If I tell you, what John told me", don't ever tell nobody, or call the cops," because she doesn't want him to get in trouble.
The thing that kind of scares me a little is that I don't think she trusts me.
Does she already know that he's going to - Yeah.
Yeah, she knows.
- New Orleans? John's girlfriend is already suspicious of Gabriel.
I'm concerned that she's gonna ask John not to tell Gabriel any other information.
If John already has suspicions about Gabriel, this whole thing could fall apart.
We've had so many disappointments throughout the past, and you know, you're always thinking, you know, "Is this the great big con?" But it's moving towards You know, its being real, and then this morning I received a text from my my wife, and she does not know that we're going to New Orleans to investigate this lead, and neither does my ex-wife, Natalee's mother Beth.
You know, you just can't put somebody through anticipation, anxiety.
I realize now that, uh, you know, I should have been a lot more protective of her emotions and And all of our family's emotions throughout this process, and I didn't want to put her through that.
[SOMBER MUSIC.]
I'm Robin Holloway, and Dave and I He's my husband, and we have been married for It'll be 22 years in July, and I've had a pleasure of being Natalee's stepmother, until that terrible day when she disappeared.
Hey, camera! - Hey, Natalee.
- Where's your Santa Claus hat? I promise, he's I never forget when I first met Natalee, after Dave and I started dating.
I was so nervous, so I drive over and I get there, and, um, this little blond-headed girl comes running out, and she just hugs me, and I'm like, "Oh, this is great," and it's just one big, happy, blended family, and we One of the last vivid memories of Natalee was how excited she was about going to Aruba, And the last words I said was "Be careful," and "I love you.
" And I never talked to her again or saw her.
After Natalee disappeared, all these random leads kept coming in, and Dave got his hopes up that we would finally get the truth, and, um, nothing panned through.
It hurts to see Dave suffering but he'll never give up looking for Natalee.
This latest lead, um, I'm hopeful, but I looked at it, and I looked at it with apprehension, because we'd been through so many.
To see the hurt that, uh [SOMBER MUSIC.]
[CLEARS THROAT.]
To see all the people hurting, just It's tough.
Uh, you know, my my wife and my immediate family.
So We get through this New Orleans operation, you know, I'm hoping that we can finally get justice for Natalee's death.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
There's two things that we need to get out of this sting operation in New Orleans.
First of all, we need to get John's confession on tape, so we can use that against him in a criminal case.
Second, we need to get John to give Gabriel more specific details of where he dug up.
Natalee's remains, so we can go to the spot to try to find Natalee's DNA.
That may lead to a conviction of Joran van der Sloot and these other individuals involved.
I have with me Eric Bryan, one of my associates, and Katherine Wainscott.
Kathy and Eric both will be conducting physical surveillance on the perpetrator and also on Gabriel.
They are experts with surveillance, they're experts with gathering information, and they're experts with using covert cameras and being able to get close without getting caught.
I've been an investigator since 2003.
I've known TJ since 2004, and we know each other very well as far as how the other person thinks and how we function.
I've been following the Natalee Holloway case since it happened, on a personal level and a professional level.
I'm a retired FBI agent.
Uh, I was involved in the undercover program for over 20 years.
I've done hundreds of covert meets with hundreds of sources over the years.
My role is provide surveillance and also to provide, uh, some security in the event something goes wrong.
My old squad, we worked kidnappings.
You never think that, you know, when your kid goes out the door, it'll be the last time you see them.
As a parent, I don't think anything can be worse than, uh, losing a child, and I think what's even worse is not knowing what happened to your child.
Today, we're going to talk about what our plans are of hopefully getting the confession that we need.
We're gonna position two rooms in that hotel where they're going to be, one next door to each other.
Today, we're going to go wire that one room with all our cameras.
And then we'll put a room right next to it, to where they can control the cameras.
So what's Gabriel's marching orders? Well, Gabriel knows he's being being filmed.
He's going to lure, um, the perpetrator to start talking about Aruba to capture what he knows about Joran van der Sloot and his knowledge that he claims that he was instructed by van der Sloot and paid, uh, to go remove the remains somewhere from the National Forest.
Right now, all we have is a general location, the Aruba National Park, but we need to narrow it down so we can find the exact spot.
We've got a whole National Forest to search, and that's a lot of area if you're looking for a grave, and, uh, you'd never be able to search all that with the dogs, I don't believe.
I probably know that island better than most of the residents who live there, because I've covered all of it.
Paulus van der Sloot always said Joran had nothing to do with Natalee's disappearance, but the police actually thought that Paulus was involved in the actual covering up of the death of my daughter.
A couple of days after Natalee went missing, a witness saw Paulus van der Sloot in the middle of the night, in that same area, coming out of the National Forest; And they met head-on.
He knew who Paulus was and he goes, "What the heck is he doing out here at 4:00 in the morning?" If Paulus van der Sloot buried her in that location, it was a brilliant move on his part, because most foot searchers would not travel through an area where there's a lot of cactus.
So we're anticipating that the perpetrator is going to take Gabriel back to the original crime scene? Yes, 'cause he's excited about wanting to show him where he said, "I know exactly where the crime scene is", "and I'm gonna take you to it, and I'll show you exactly where.
" What we really need is a confession from the perpetrator to Gabriel - Right.
- All on tape, so we can then go to the next stage, see if we can find the physical evidence.
Looking at the evidence that TJ has discovered, I would say that I'm 99.
999% sure that van der Sloot killed her.
Proving it is a different story, So what we're here to do now is prove it.
Right now, we're monitoring the camera installation crew and putting in the hard wires for the cameras and the audio.
- You got it to go through now? - Uh, yeah.
I think.
- Okay.
- Uh, let me go next door, make sure that's clear on that side.
They are experts with surveillance and they're experts with using covert cameras without getting caught.
- Dave! What's going on? - Hey.
- Doing okay.
- Come on in.
Yeah, thanks.
These guys have been working all day to get the sound and the, um, video in play.
You guys are pros.
Yep.
Putting cameras up in the corners, and microphones.
In the other room, right next door, we'll monitor everything here.
Who's gonna be manning the, uh, ships? Kathy and Eric will be doing it.
- When Gabriel notifies you - Yeah.
- You're gonna notify him.
- I'm gonna send a message, - uh, or call Eric.
- Yeah, we'll-we'll be - We'll be close by.
- Yeah.
What kind of signals are they going to get? Oh, I'm gonna do it by text.
- Oh, by text.
- By text.
'Cause he's got me set up in his phone, something else, so he can text back and forth.
- Just be careful.
- I am.
Be careful.
I would say the most concerning part for me would be, you know, if John happens to walk out of the room and sees a door that somebody opened in the camera room and there's cameras in there, and and, you know, just any small thing will cue him off that something's just not right.
I guess if, uh plan B, if something goes sour, then we're just flat-footed then, huh? We gotta get something tangible.
You know, if John happens to become suspicious or whatever, then it's probably over.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
Being successful in this operation in New Orleans sets up the stage for the Aruban operation, so, uh, it we still got a long ways to go, but we're moving forward as we had planned, and if we get through this, then it's on to Aruba.
Find the grave site, and hopefully that will resolve all of this.
I have a question.
Um, what is your end result? I mean, what do you want the most? Do you want someone in jail? Uh, or do you just want to know what happened, to have it documented? - How do you see this? What's - I, well, I mean, my number one goal is to find Natalee and and find out what happened, and then the second go priority and goal is Joran van der Sloot was responsible for her death, then I want to see, um, him dead, and then, number three is John, uh, committed a crime where he disposed of her body, so those three things are my priorities.
You know, Joran, for what he did, he needs to serve his time for Natalee's murder.
He's just an evil person.
Evil.
I think Joran van der Sloot knows what happened to Natalee, and I just want to know the truth.
Right now, my hope is that they'll arrest John, hold him for disposal of human remains, and then formally bring Bring charges against him.
- [PHONE RINGS.]
- Is that him? Yep.
- Can you hear me? - Hello? Yeah I hear you.
How are you? Okay, well, are you gonna prompt him about his girlfriend and all? Why he told his girlfriend or what he told his girlfriend? Uh She went ahead and told John that, "Don't go to New Orleans.
" The girlfriend has a suspicion about this trip to New Orleans, and she doesn't trust Gabe, and I think that she's trying to convince John not to trust Gabriel as well.
You know what our goal is, correct? I mean, Gabriel'll complain all the time, "You just don't know how hard it is to take care of this guy.
"He's stolen a lot of money.
He's he goes off "and he's outside committing crimes, and I'm having to bail him out.
" And that's all it is.
John's a handful.
Well, you're coming here to have fun, Gabriel.
- Okay, l - .
Okay, listen to me.
I know I know you're working hard at this, and I know you're having to tolerate a lot.
I want you to text me when you get to the hotel.
- Okay? - .
All right.
Have a good trip tomorrow, and, uh, just just stay in touch with me, okay? - All right, thank you.
- .
Whew.
[CLEARS THROAT.]
That's what I'm worried about.
Oh, I know.
I mean, the guy He's put up with a lot with this guy.
I mean, he's, um He's off the wall.
Well, Gabriel is ready to give up and you've already come this far.
- So close.
- Yeah, don't fail me now.
- Yeah.
- If they don't show up in New Orleans, we have no evidence.
No taped confessions and no chance to charge this guy.
All the hard work that we'd done, over all these years, it all comes down to Gabriel now.
Gabriel and John are due to arrive this morning.
We have, um, two rooms: One for Gabriel and John and one room to monitor what is going on in their room, in hopes to get the confession on tape and on film so we can utilize it in Aruba.
[PULSING MUSIC.]
So we just got word that John and Gabriel just landed in New Orleans, and are on their way to the hotel.
Yeah, it's a huge relief that they're here, and now all we need to do is get John to confess to Gabriel.
We're all in our positions, spread out uh, so that we can get exactly the information that we need efficiently.
Okay, Gabriel's wearing a long-sleeved white T-shirt.
He walked over to John.
All right, they're walking back towards me, so gonna go into the mall and wait for them to pass.
It's a very fluid situation.
These things change on a dime.
The surveillance, it's never scripted, so you have to be prepared for anything.
Yeah, they're at least 100 feet ahead of me.
Okay, he's checking in right now? Yeah, they're just acting like two buddies, like they made amends.
- All right.
- I'll I'll let you know if they go to the elevator, - or what.
- Okay, sounds good.
- [INDISTINCT.]
F - What? Well, dude [SIGHS.]
Wow, you got a really hard life, don't you? [BLEEP.]
All right.
Did van der Sloot ever shoot up with you, or he just snorted? What'd he do? So what was his drug What was his drug of choice? So then how How did he do drugs and When he used to go and, you know Like, when he went to f those girls? When he used to go rape all those girls? How many times did you do it with him? So that Gabriel, brought up how they met women.
Some they would drug, some they would have sex with unconsensually, so, uh, he does confirm that that was what they used to do on the island.
[MUMBLING INDISTINCTLY.]
But don't you, like, felt bad that the girls were just laying there, unconscious, and you guys would f them? You know, Aruba is portrayed as one happy island.
There's an ugly side to it.
There's a lot of men who have taken advantage of a lot of girls on the island, and, uh, it's something you don't want to think about the details, but I feel like that Joran van der Sloot tried to take advantage of Natalee.
In the early 2000s, the Aruban tourism board decided that they were gonna concentrate on these high school graduation trips, and started advertising to these high schools and sorts to, "Bring your kids on down", we've got a safe environment.
" It sounded like it was safer than Disneyworld.
When I arrived on the island, the police told me, said, "GHB is a problem here.
" GHB is a date-rape drug.
Basically what it does is if you put in a drink, they drink it, within 20 minutes, you're walking them out the door like you're leading a dog on a collar.
She wakes up the next morning and has no recollection of what happened.
She knows she's been violated, but she can't remember who, what, when, or where.
It just kind of erases your memory.
You can pay the bartender $25 to have one of them spiked.
He reaches under the bar, pulls out a clear bottle, pours some stuff into one glass, girl drinks it, 15, 20 minutes, they're walking out, and I had a number of parents contact me and say, "Hey, my daughter was in Aruba, this happened to her.
" You have a child, and they go on this vacation, 18 years old, they're so innocent and naive and gullible.
Natalee was a very intelligent young girl who had her life ahead of her, and one incident of not being careful can cost you your life.
I've got eyes on John and Gabe.
Looks like they're sitting down with a fortune teller.
[SIGHS.]
[PANTING.]
I took the stairs.
Okay, Kathy, I'm gonna go outside.
- You want to take it? - [EXHALES SHARPLY.]
Yeah.
Eric and I have now switched, so I'll be monitoring the cameras, and Eric's on foot.
I'm just waiting for my phone to get charged.
Dude, about 30 minutes, and we'll go.
When I had filmed them earlier, they had seen some kind of, uh, fortune teller, what-do-you call, psychic.
I don't understand.
For what? I ain't I haven't Well, you can't say it on TV.
Like what? Like what? Be more specific, dumbass.
Like That's pretty messed-up.
Ever since Natalee went missing, we've had a lot of people trying to take advantage of the situation.
People who got obsessed watching Natalee and Natalee's case.
Huge reward is now being offered to find missing Alabama teen, Natalee Holloway.
The media attention after Natalee disappeared ballooned.
It attracts people looking to capitalize on the situation, through either a reward or a book deal.
I saw Natalee Holloway on the last night that she was alive.
I was the eyewitness.
As anything else, you had all the cons who wanted to come in and And get a free trip, or get some money, or something out of it, and when you're in desperation, like we were, uh, sometimes you would fall for those.
It's easy to allow somebody to convince you, you know, maybe this could be it, and I've answered those type calls over and over and over from different people, and it opened my eyes on how many people are motivated by money, inserting themselves into this case, but I can't rule it out of my mind because I need to resolve what happened to my daughter.
It's just what I've got to do.
[LINE TRILLING.]
- Hey, TJ.
- Hey.
Um, Dave's here with me.
Tell me a little bit real quick.
Okay, um evidently.
John went and spoke with a psychic, and the psychic told John that he has a way to make money right in front of him.
Talking all about how he can make money off of the whole Aruba story.
So, it was a really How he can make money off the Aruba story? - Yeah.
Yeah.
- John or Gabriel? - John.
- Are they out of the room? Yes, the perpetrator and the informant just went into Bonefish Grill.
TJ, wait a second.
The monitor just went out.
I can't see a thing.
Looks like everything just went down.
What can you see on the monitor? [STAMMERS.]
What? Can you see? Anything on the On the cameras? Can you send me a picture of the monitor? - Let me see.
- Mm-hmm.
- Show it to Dave.
- Yeah.
You can't see anything there.
We're gonna send our tech guys in as soon as we can.
Yeah, I walked all the way down Bourbon Street, I'm going about 20 yards behind them.
Okay, towards the French Quarter.
- All right.
- Yeah.
Hopefully they don't come back - to the hotel anytime soon.
- [DRILL WHIRRING.]
[DRILL WHIRRING.]
Um, the Command Center's calling.
Kathy.
Hold on, Kathy.
- Hello.
- Hey, TJ.
Eric followed them to a restaurant.
- Right.
- Um, and they sat at the table for about five minutes and then got up and looked like they were going to use the restroom, but there was a back door, so at the moment, we do not know where they are.
Okay, let me call you right back, and I'll see if I can, uh, find out, so we can, um, get a visual on them.
Okay? Call you right back.
Why would he do that? They went out the back door.
He knows that we're monitoring their activity.
Why would he go out the back door, and not let me know? That's not good.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
Why would he do that? They went out the back door.
He knows that we're monitoring their activity.
Why would he go out the back door, and not let me know? So, uh, Eric's lost him? - [CELL PHONE RINGS.]
- Hey, TJ.
Hey, any update? Eric just called and he has not found them.
Have you heard anything from Gabriel? No, I just sent him a message.
He's not responded back.
I'll let you know just soon as I, um, make contact with him.
- Okay.
That sounds good.
- All right.
Thanks.
Uh-huh.
Can I pull the entire strap? Oh, my Lord! It's up, I can see it! [CELL PHONE RINGS.]
- They got it.
It's back up.
- Good.
Have Eric go to the hotel, in the lobby.
Yeah.
Okay, yeah.
We're ready on this end, so if they do walk in, we're ready to roll.
I'm letting Eric know.
Yeah, let Eric know, if you don't mind.
Yeah, I'm sending him a message right now.
- Okay.
- All right, sounds good.
Let's do it.
Coming in.
Stuff like this, you guys did, in - In, uh, Aruba? - .
Like this.
Like like You know, like, downtown here.
Like, was it your prized joy to meet van der Sloot.
Like, what What went through your head? That's the part I don't understand.
- [CELL PHONE RINGS.]
- - Where is it? - I I don't get it.
What did you do with all that money when When he When Joran gave you the What was it, $2,000? What did you do with all that money? [CELL PHONE RINGS.]
I'm f ing asking you a question! No sh Why? But I'm curious, you know? - Mm-hmm.
- - [CELL PHONE RINGS.]
- John is just freaking out, because his girlfriend keeps calling, and hanging up.
He's totally distracted.
Uh, and Gabriel you know, he's he's desperately trying to get this information.
I mean, he's got a list of things we want him to ask without being obvious.
If you don't want, uh, me to ask, I won't.
I was just f ing curious, dude.
I just wanted to know.
You're you're like my good friend, and, you know, you told me already.
Kind of.
[WHISPERS.]
Come on.
Gabriel's really trying, but I think we need more.
I'm asking to To follow your footsteps, you know? You you you conquered, what what Joran did, and then you You made something out of it, you know what I'm saying? You follow what I'm saying? You were part of that, you know? - I know.
- Like, how can you be part of something that important - you know what I'm saying? - Well, yeah, that's yeah, that's the kind of people - you don't f ing Don't say sh - [STAMMERS.]
Obviously, I to me, it's like a It's not like a challenge to me, it's like a Bitch, don't be turning the f ing light off! [DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Oh, my lord.
It did, and that's concerning.
There's so much at stake.
This is messed up.
Why would he lie about all that stuff? I mean, why would he fabricate an entire story? Let me here the, um, details about yesterday.
At 11:24, he started speaking of Aruba and then the conversation shifted.
I mean, they were just all over the place, and and Gabriel was just trying to get what he could get when he could.
The new information as to where the body was buried just a different area.
- Is it in the forest? - And you know more.
No, it's It's not in a forest.
He kept saying "Oh, no, it's not in a forest," and Gabriel was like "Well, why did you lie to me?" Why did you lie to me?" He's like, "Well, you know, I'm just" "I need to make sure You know, "I don't want to give out all my information, 'cause I don't know who I can trust.
" So the new place that he described It's actually a neighborhood, and then there's a cul-de-sac.
He knew this area well, because his aunt had a property here.
Why would van der Sloot in '05 know about this spot? Good question.
There there's something not right.
There's something not right.
Gabriel knows he's supposed to get all this information, so he fel I'm sure he felt like he had to push and push and push, so if John got whiff that he was being grilled, he could have changed his story, and the first story is correct.
Hmm.
Let's do this, Dave needs to know about it immediately, and then I can direct questions, shortly after that, back to Gabriel, that he needs to try to pull out tonight or today.
We need to find out what's the truth and what's not the truth.
"For more information on "The Disappearance of Natalee Holloway", go to oxygen.
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