The Disappearance of Natalee Holloway (2017) s01e04 Episode Script
Aruba
1 He's already admitted that he was involved in moving Natalee's remains.
You know, I need to get justice for Natalee.
That's been my goal from the very beginning.
He he's emotionally drained over this.
This has been his whole goal - Yeah.
- To find out the truth.
We're finding out the truth.
You know, John, he he's up to something.
Gabriel, so what's going on with John? Nobody knows what I have to put up with him on a daily basis, the stress he causes me.
I know that you've gone the extra mile.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC.]
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
[UPBEAT MUSIC.]
My investigators and I are planning to go to Aruba to begin the next phase of the investigation.
But over the last few weeks, we've had issues with Gabriel planning to quit on us.
John takes his money.
He's a loose cannon.
He's got issues.
He's got real issues.
Yeah, I got a long email message from him.
You can read it.
"I was so close but I had to walk away.
"I don't have a choice.
"I'm very pissed off.
"I'm very sorry.
I really tried.
I really did.
Please forgive me.
Take care, my friend.
" You know, it's a problem because we need him to bring John to Aruba to show us exactly where this location that he claims Natalee was buried at.
And now, I'm afraid that this whole thing could fall apart.
Even if we don't have John or Gabriel on the island - Oh, yeah, yeah.
- Yeah, we need to go see 'em.
Ten days from now to go to Aruba? I guess the first thing we'll do is be looking for - those spots, right? - Yep.
The plan we had been talking about all along was to go to Aruba, identify these potential target areas where we feel like that Natalee's grave could be.
Originally John said Natalee was buried in the National Forest.
Now, he's saying that she's buried near one of the aunt's rental houses.
We asked Gabriel to circle an area on a map of where John told him the grave was located.
I subsequently pulled up an aerial photograph and matched that with the area that he had circled.
There's a cul-de-sac that goes to a hill.
That's what he described in his statement.
But we need to go check these spots out.
I don't know.
I'll have to think about that for a while.
There are a lot of cul-de-sacs within a ten-mile radius of the aunt's house.
Finding the exact spot would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
It's gonna make it a little bit more difficult, but we believe the information that John shared with Gabriel of what he was instructed and paid to do by Joran van der Sloot is is true.
We have to move forward regardless if they come or not.
We can't give up.
We need to get justice for Dave and his family.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
My team and I are gonna follow up with information that we obtained from John and Gabriel's statement.
Once we've narrowed down all the locations, Dave will join us here in Aruba.
We need to identify the gravesite, which is up in the air between two different areas, one being the National Forest and the other location he talked about in New Orleans, the road at the end of the cul-de-sac.
There's probably more of a chance that we can pinpoint that.
So Gabriel is not coming? No, I don't even want to get into that.
Damn.
If we can identify where we think the remains were, that a perfect that's a perfect world.
If I send you up a particular trail or whatever, and you're looking for a cactus and a rock, without John actually saying.
"X" marks the spot, it's it's futile.
We've come too far, and I think we go out today and try to gather some of this information.
Let's see if we can confirm it.
It's worth a shot.
Yeah.
Before you go on a location for surveillance, you do as much work as possible.
I had a certain amount of information.
I knew where the aunt lived, because Gabriel had circled it on a map, and that house is a key part because the perpetrator mentioned to Gabriel the burial site is within ten minutes walking distance of his aunt's house.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
All right, the house we're looking for is the last house on the left.
Last house on the left.
Correct.
You're not kidding about that.
- Is that it? - Correct.
Let's move on and check out the cars.
See if the aunt still has the same car that he claims he used to transport the remains.
I want to get the tag on that car.
There it is.
That's the blue Mitsubishi, the same one he described in his confession.
- You got it? - Got it.
Okay.
Are we gonna turn around? No, it can go right.
We've located that house.
We verified that information as being true.
From there, we can draw a radius to find the cul-de-sac.
We shouldn't be too far away.
Keep an eye out for any cul-de-sacs or or roads that might fit that description.
- He said it's up on a hill.
- Right.
Is that where he's talking about? There's a hill.
It don't look like the end of a cul-de-sac.
Well, it doesn't look like there's a way to really walk through.
There's a lot of cactus.
You don't think it's not here.
I don't think [INDISTINCT.]
cactus.
See, we're on a witch hunt.
Now, there is another possibility of a cul-de-sac.
Where? If we make the next left, that would be previous to the aunt's house but still within ten minutes' walking distance, and that goes kind of up a hill from what I can tell.
Where's the next left? Right around this bend.
Bingo.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
Look at here.
There's a path.
[GASPS.]
Cul-de-sac and a path.
Yeah, so this one I think is viable, this path directly ahead of us.
I think we need to go walk up here a minute.
We went up the mountain on foot and started checking it out, just looking around.
Things started to kind of click and I was like, ooh, you know, this feels good.
Yeah, I'm looking for the cactus that he was describing.
Wow.
Oh, hang on.
Hang on.
Look at this one.
There's another little one.
I think this location is plausible.
I mean, if I were to bury a body, who's gonna see it here? I mean, the location seems ideal as far as going up a path, homes on either side, up on a hill.
All that fits.
But are we gonna find the perfect place until John leads us there? Yeah, the aunt's house is right there.
Yeah, I know.
I think we're in the right area, but again, pinpointing unless he gets here with him We might as well be in Kansas.
Right.
We need John.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
- Hey, Dave.
- Hey, T.
J.
We went out in the neighborhood around John's aunt's house.
We think we may be in the right area.
But without John and and Gabriel being here, it might be hard to find the exact location.
To locate the DNA.
I've tried to reach out to Gabriel, and he's not returning my calls.
- Okay.
- Maybe you can reach out to him and tell him that we're trying to get a hold of him.
Okay.
Well, I'll give it a shot.
There's a power struggle that's developed between Gabriel and T.
J.
I think T.
J.
wants to run the investigation because he is the investigator.
However, Gabriel thinks that he best knows how to control John, so therefore, he wants to call some of the shots on how we proceed forward.
It's falling apart.
I feel like I've gotta step in and try to rectify the situation, get it back on the tracks.
Because if we don't have Gabriel going to Aruba with John to show us this location, we're dead in the water.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
Oh.
I think our expert's here.
- Jason, good morning.
- Good morning.
- How are you? - Good.
Thank you.
- T.
J.
Ward.
- How are you? My name is Dr.
Jason Kolowski.
I'm the principle consultant with Forensic Insight Consulting.
My major background is DNA analysis, especially in relation to victim identification.
Well, we're glad to have you and we're glad - to have you on board.
- Thank you.
I know you know a little bit of background about this case.
Mm-hmm.
I get asked about three major cases all the time: O.
J.
Simpson, JonBenét Ramsey, and Natalee Holloway.
Each of these cases played in being a mystery, in being a forensically viable case.
We have a perpetrator, and in 2010, he was here on the islands with van der Sloot and apparently was asked to go get the remains.
I decided to bring on a forensic expert to give us advice about the remains, what the composition of the body would be and what would be left in the gravesite if the remains were removed in 2010 after she had been there since 2005.
Did it smell? He said when he opened the burlap bag he saw blond hair, a musty odor, and he said when he pulled it up out of the ground that there was some some fluid or something that settled back into the into the ground.
He said it was messy, so.
He said he doesn't remember what it was.
"It was brown already, "like really, really dark black brown.
It was on the bone.
" So from your standpoint, you're really questioning, right now, the forensic value of what may be left behind.
- Exactly.
- Okay, no problem.
Exactly.
From what I can tell you based on this, everything that is described as far as the the disinterment of the remains in 2010 fits with what we would expect for the normal decomposition of a human body, especially in this type of an environment and this type of a locale.
As soon as the death occurs, eventually fluids will leak out of the body.
If you're talking about a burial, those fluids, they tend to seep out into the ground, and especially in something like a burlap bag where it's porous.
That bag is, itself, definitely going to let all of what's called that leachate out into the surrounding soil.
Now that the remains may have been disinterred, that leachate still may be there.
Every contact leaves a trace.
That's a mantra, that's a tenet within forensic science, and we are always going to be able to go back and find something, something left behind, something to help us identify that missing individual.
In a clandestine gravesite, you're typically going to have the undisturbed dirt underneath, and then there's the disturbed dirt all around where ultimately the body would be.
At that second phase, you're starting to get that leachate, that sort of the fluid coming out of the bottom of the body.
And if they're describing it like a black tar material, that's entirely correct.
The lead is interesting, but it's one part of a lot of other things that still have to fall into place to really give this investigation the legs in which to then move forward in handing this over to the Aruban police.
At the end of the day, the real question is, unless you're pointed directly at the dig site and you are able to get down into the dirt and start looking for that presence of sort of that black tarry, soapy material, I mean, you could dig and dig and dig but until you're actually at the site, you're never gonna know for sure.
If we're looking at, just say hypothetically, a 20-yard area, you have to be within that dig site of that 20-yard area, so it's not as if the dog will hit wherever.
It'll you're gonna have to really narrow it down - to that particular hole.
- Yeah, I think so.
That's gonna be the that's gonna be the trick.
Now, the $100 question that you're not asking is, is that material biologically active and can we use it to identify Natalee? That's kind of where the problem comes in.
It's decomp material.
It's not exactly blood.
It's not exactly bone or hair or anything like that.
Should we find bone, hair, even soft tissue still in that gravesite, that's your biological material.
That's what we want for the DNA comparison.
All right, well we discussed at the beginning we're gonna go out to the National Forest and try to to pick some areas and see what your thoughts are.
- Okay.
- And then we'll travel to the area what behind the aunt's house.
Sounds good.
- All right? - Cool.
Good deal.
If the biological material could be recovered from a gravesite, could be recovered from the trunk of a car, it gives us an ability to positively identify Natalee and give her family that sense of closure, well, I think not only do we owe it to the family, but we owe it to the world to let it know that a missing girl has been found.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
There's two different locations that John talks about in his story, one of them being the National Forest.
We brought our expert out with us today to search and get his feel for the terrain where Natalee may have been buried.
Here.
From 2005 to 2010, Natalee Holloway is decomposing essentially inside of a burlap sack in a shallow grave in what we have to assume is very loose, sandy, loamy style soil.
That's pretty heavily compacted right there.
That's really hard to dig up.
Right.
We were looking at that really hard packed clay with a lot of that rocky material.
It would be a very challenging place to come into and expect to successfully hide a body for a long period of time.
I mean, what's the simplest answer here? You come into the park, you have Natalee's remains in a bag in your trunk, you need to get rid of it quickly.
- Quickly, exactly.
- You know you need to find a very easy spot to dig.
And then you remember it well enough that you're able to give the instructions to a friend five years later.
This has got to be a very remarkable spot.
And if you're talking about a 110-pound girl, dismembered, you're not talking about anything bigger than a hole about the size of this bush.
Imagine trying to find that if you're giving your basic instructions of go past the big cactus, past the little field of Turk's caps, and it's like ten steps further.
Ten steps in which direction? - Right.
- You know? - There's no way.
- Look how exposed we are.
I mean, you can see that home's right over there.
You can see, you know, other cars driving right past.
You're gonna be very visible.
You have no cover right here other than just a couple bushes.
So this is not ideal.
Bringing a dog out here or any type of search party I think would be futile.
You're not gonna drive this far with a with a dead body in the car.
I call bullshit on this.
Maybe the other location will will be a little bit better but this one, I just can't see it.
Go to the next spot? Sounds good.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
The first location, while interesting, it just wasn't the right spot for getting rid of Natalee in the way that the suspect is claiming it happened.
Okay, the second location makes a little bit more sense than the forest.
So these homes are new, but they so they weren't here.
- So these houses weren't here.
- Okay.
And here's the end of the cul-de-sac.
- Okay.
- Okay? Here's the dirt road that goes up a hill he talks about.
That path right there actually goes - to the aunt's house.
- Yeah, I was gonna say there's a pathway back there.
Yeah.
Right, yeah.
So we're gonna hike up here.
Okay.
Interesting.
Well, I mean, you definitely have got a unique spot up here.
- You're secluded.
- Right.
You definitely have got some very visible - Landmarks.
- Markings.
- Landmarks, for sure.
- Yeah.
So you park up here, right? You can get the car up to that spot.
Yeah, you can bring the car up here.
And then you are taking the body somewhere.
Yes.
And in the middle of the night you're not still not wanting to go far.
Well, you gotta remember, the houses were not there.
Right.
And if you, you know, if this area was familiar, you know Yeah, if no one else is here, you could have all the time in the world.
Right.
- It's digable.
- Yep.
It might be even more so in other areas.
See, nobody would see you.
If you if you got a body, drug a body down here, nobody would see you.
Jason, take a look over here and tell me what you think.
Okay What'd you see, Eric? See, you got you got your little triangular rock, you got some good vantage points, and you've got your little area right up in here.
Okay, if you were ducking underneath these trees right here, that's a clearing, and then look at all the cactus around it.
Right, exactly.
And look at all that open dirt.
Yeah, completely protected down here, no one, even if they parked in the circle, they would probably have a hard time seeing you down here.
Is the ground soft enough to dig three feet deep? I would say so.
I can go down an inch easy with my shoe.
It's definitely feasible.
And what was Joran's connection to this spot? Well, that's kind of a lookout point, so he might have been familiar with it and knew that nobody goes in here because of all the cactus.
They just sit up there, make out, - or whatever, nobody ever - Or worse.
- He had a reputation.
- Right.
What do you think, T.
J.
? I think this is probably the most potential area yet that we've seen.
For sure.
This best describes the scenario.
Exact it really does.
I think all of us are like, boy, we sure hope this is it.
If this is really going to lead us to that big "X" on the ground, maybe this can actually come to an end.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
I made an emotional plea to Gabriel to come back on board.
I know we can't do it without him.
Gabriel called me and said he's still on board as long as he can deal with John in his own way and not have T.
J.
interfere.
And I just hope and pray that it all works out.
I'm getting ready to go to Aruba.
It's tough.
It stirs up so many of the past memories of searching and coming up empty.
But there's no turning back.
I've gotta find the truth.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
[UPBEAT MUSIC.]
Now that we know John and Gabriel are coming to Aruba, I'm getting the rest of my team in place to take action when they lead us to the burial site.
- Hi, Tracy? - Hi, Eric.
- Hi.
- Eric Bryan.
- How are you doing? - Good to meet you.
- Good to meet you.
- Come on in.
My name is Tracy Sargent.
I'm a canine handler and investigator from the Atlanta, Georgia, area.
I was contacted through T.
J.
Ward and Dave Holloway to get involved in the case.
Chance is my cadaver dog, technically known as a human remains detection dog.
So we work together as a team to find missing persons dead or alive.
How long did he say the body was buried in this location? Well, since the father and him, van der Sloot, buried it, - Five years.
- Five years? - 2005.
- Okay, good.
And the body was broken up - Okay.
- And put in a burlap sack.
Okay, so whatever is in there is if they broke it up, so it'll come through that burlap sack - and go in the ground.
- Okay.
Even after 10 or 12 years that she's, you know, been missing, what the dog is looking for is scent, and the scent's still going to be there.
The dog has found remains from just a few hours old to up to 250 years old.
- So - Wow.
Yeah.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
David convinced Gabriel to come back on board and to bring John back to Aruba, and then we start incorporating everybody else: The girlfriend, the Gabriel's girlfriend.
And it's not supposed to work like that.
We need to get a plan down of what we're gonna do.
[COMPUTER RINGS.]
Hey, how are you? Good.
What is your plans when you get here? The first day, I think I want to go over his house, his aunt's house, and just feel the place out.
The second day, Saturday, is when I'm going to go to where the body used to be at, where he removed the body.
Okay.
I got a GPS I'm gonna give you.
I want you to carry the GPS with you, okay? When you get there, I want you to shoot pictures of the landmarks he shows you and then shoot the actual spot if you can, and then you send 'em to me.
I just don't want to rush him.
I don't want to push him, because when I push him, he thinks something's up.
I gotta just be normal, act normal, and let and feel him out, you know? - Right.
- He's the one that told me.
He goes, well, you know, we're gonna go here.
We're gonna go there.
So if I can get him to do that in one day, fine, but I don't want to push him all in one day, you know? Well, we need to try to lock it in and let me know, 'cause I gotta make plans, all right? Text me when you land, okay? [DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
Eleventh hour.
They've departed Miami.
They're due here somewhere around 3:00 and 3:30.
Then we can track 'em from the airport to the hotel.
So what I can do is get closer to the airport door and then give you a heads-up they're on their way.
I'll hop out and I'll just go inside and watch for them and give you a heads-up and then just follow them out.
Then we get the GPS with him also.
Then we'll be able to track him.
When they go out to the gravesite, he's gonna mark the area.
When they leave, we're going to bring cadaver dogs in to try to see if the dogs alert on human remains being in that area.
Once we get that, we'll set up for a crime scene.
Let her do her reports, everything.
Later that day, bring it back here, then we'll compile the rest of the reports and information in our notebooks and be prepared to go to law enforcement on Sunday.
Boom, boom, boom.
Yep.
All right, showtime.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
Today is D-day, so everything is high gear.
They just landed.
Oh, okay.
I'll let T.
J.
know.
We have 91 hours before John and Gabriel leave the island of Aruba.
We need to get John to show Gabriel exactly where he dug up the body so we can find DNA or physical evidence to be able to use later for a conviction.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
Excuse me, what flight did you just come in on? What airline? Okay, yeah, I got John and the two girls but no Gabriel.
I guess he's in renting a car.
So hopefully he'll start moving in the next few minutes.
Okay, they're moving.
Heading out to the hotel where Gabriel and John are staying.
I think I see his car backing up.
Okay, 4:20 4:25 they just pulled up.
I don't see John.
Got it.
Okay, John is out on foot.
John is out on foot.
John's in the hotel.
Gabriel's standing outside there.
Gabe says John and his girlfriend just went upstairs.
So I'm gonna go talk to Gabe and find out what's going on.
Gabriel.
Gabriel.
Can you follow me? Right.
[SIGHS.]
All right.
When I spoke with Gabriel, he was totally stressed out.
He was like, man, nothing's working out the way it's supposed to.
John is wanting more money and If Gabriel gave John money, then Gabriel's fucked.
He's letting the inmate run the asylum.
But, I mean, I don't I don't know.
I mean, if he didn't have a choice, John wasn't gonna get on the flight.
Oh, boy.
I'm Gabriel's new BFF.
This is gonna be fun.
It's a really long text.
Now, he's gonna be burning up my phone.
Uh-oh, here's T.
J.
Hey, T.
J.
I'm gonna put you on speaker so that Eric can hear this, too.
I'll I'll forward to you what he he sent to me.
Okay.
Gabe said when he came back on board that he wanted to do things his way.
At the end of the day, though, it's T.
J.
's investigation.
But Gabe has his opinion as to how he thinks he can get the information out of John, so it's tricky.
I've got both of them yelling at me.
I'm in the middle.
Tell him - Okay.
- Okay? I'll let him know.
Yeah, I think he's pissed.
He's pissed Okay.
Yeah.
All right, bye-bye.
Ooh.
Oh, I don't want to be in the middle of this.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
Huh.
They're going to the bar apparently, huh? Okay.
Well, I really don't know what's happening.
I mean, Gabriel said that John wants to do all this stuff.
I don't I don't know if it's gonna affect the plan about taking Gabriel to the site or not.
T.
J.
Yeah, they left about five minutes ago on foot.
Looked like they might have been going to get something to eat.
Yeah.
Have you heard anything? This was my investigation, and the informer is not gonna loop me out.
I need to be in the know.
All right, what's the game plan, just hold tight? [DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
- Hey, T.
J.
- Dave Holloway.
- Hey, Dave, how you doing? - Hey, Dave.
You made it.
Welcome.
I'm tired.
I'm a walking zombie.
I hadn't slept in about three days.
- Oh, wow.
Stress or? - None last night.
Oh, I just you know.
- A lot on your mind.
- Yeah.
So I was able to talk to Gabriel yesterday.
We talked about everything.
At 11:00 am tomorrow is when John and Gabriel are supposed to go to the site and John is supposed to - Show him the spot.
- Show him the exact spot.
Well, let me ask y'all this, do you think John may be playing Gabriel? Do you think he would throw Gabriel off like he did the last time? And he circled that spot and then in New Orleans he said, well, you know, I'm not gonna tell you? Do you think this is real? - Yep.
- Yeah.
Yeah.
He swears now I mean, he swears, he said, "I'm sorry I lied to you", but I swear this is this is the exact location.
" He said it wasn't in the National Forest.
Just something about this case that and it may be that I just don't want to get into a situation of getting burned, is this a con or is this an elaborate scheme or or what? I just can't put my finger on it, or is this the real deal, you know? You just just move forward and see what happens.
I think if we just go to the police, we'll work something out with them.
The foundation that we got laid out and all the information we have, all the videos we have of him confessing that he was involved, which also ties.
- Joran van der Sloot in - Yeah.
If they get interested in all that, and then we tell them, "They're here" It would be less than thorough law enforcement if they didn't bring them in for questioning.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
I mean, if push comes to shove, we got all this done, Monday morning we could be at the prosecutor's office or whatever.
Yeah.
And they're here till Tuesday afternoon so so they're not getting off the island.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
Gabriel just sent me a text.
He said, "I'll meet you soon.
I'm just going to get ready.
" I said, "9:30 will be good.
" - Okay.
- He says, "You just don't understand what I'm going through.
" He says, "I hate him with my soul" but I have to act like he's my buddy.
" Today, our plans are to give Gabriel a GPS to drop on the location where John Ludwig claims that the body was buried.
He just he's so stressed out trying to get John keeping John happy.
I said, okay, I'll just meet you in the McDonald's.
This is for Dave Holloway, okay? This isn't about us.
It's about what the whole thing from the beginning, why he called Dave.
Gabriel is is a good guy, and he's he's tried hard, but he got out of focus of what this was all about.
We're still fighting an uphill battle and it remains to be seen what's gonna happen in the near future.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
Is there any way you can hop in the van with me? T.
J.
is not with me.
I'd like to show you how to use the equipment but not in a public place.
I want to drive around once, see if I see him.
Oh, there he is.
He's over there by the McDonald's sign talking on the phone.
I'll park over here by this white van [DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
I was just you know, I am just so fed up with John, you know? T.
J.
doesn't know John.
He does not live with John.
He doesn't know what he thinks and all that, what makes him pissed off and not.
I do.
It has to be John's way.
- Yeah.
- And if we don't do John's way, then we ain't gonna get nothing.
I'm just tired of it.
- I hear you.
- You know? I cannot wait until he gets arrested.
Hopefully he'll be in jail tomorrow.
Who knows? Maybe tonight.
I don't know.
I mean, let's not rush it, - because when he - Right.
When we rush things, that's gonna look make it look suspicious.
All right, well, I still need to give you the GPS tracker.
Well, we can just walk over.
You can get in the passenger's seat.
Oh, here it is.
All right.
- You're supposed to meet him? - Meet him and then right after that, we're taking off - Okay.
- To the location.
Okay.
- So I'm doing my best.
- Okay.
Where's the GPS? - Right here.
- I'll let you play with it, but if you just watch the lights, you can see when it's coming on.
- The record button.
- Mmhmm.
- That's an external battery.
- Mm-hmm.
- And then that's - And this goes into there.
- Okay.
- Yeah, you got it.
All right.
So drop it at the gravesite.
Let me know.
We don't know when they're going to go to the grave.
We're gonna try and get that done as soon as possible and hope to have a conclusion shortly.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
We've done all we can do right now.
We've just got to sit here and wait until Gabriel drops the GPS.
Who knows how long? It could be an hour.
It could be tomorrow.
We'll just have to wait it out and see.
Dave, can I make an observation? I today, you look exhausted.
I am exhausted.
You look exhausted.
And and I don't know if I've ever told you this, Dave, but I'm just so sorry that you're having to go through this.
I truly am.
[SOMBER MUSIC.]
Yeah, it's tough.
When you get when I landed on the island, it's just kinda had that sinking feeling of, oh, here we go again.
Well, we're all gonna be there with you, too.
Oh, I know.
I know.
I know absolutely, and I appreciate it very much that everyone's worked so hard and put a lot of effort in it.
A lot of effort has been put into this trying to resolve it.
Then let's just say this is it.
You spent the last 12 years consumed by this, Dave.
Oh, yeah.
What do you do with the rest of your life after this? Well, we're not there yet.
No, there's no what ifs with me, so it's it's either black or it's white.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
[SOMBER MUSIC.]
She'd be 30 years old today.
31 on her birthday.
I always thought Natalee's future would be in the medical profession.
I always thought that someday we would call her.
Dr.
Holloway or Dr.
whoever if she was married.
All of those future dreams and aspirations are now gone.
Yeah, she had so much potential.
It it's hard.
In 2012, I decided that we'd have Natalee declared deceased.
It was the the right thing to do.
I mean, it had been almost seven years.
I prepared myself for this day 6 1/2, 7 years ago.
The words of a father who just heard a judge declare his daughter dead.
He says the judge's order closes one chapter in a long ordeal.
Adding that the Holloway family still has a long way to go to get justice.
We have not had an official memorial service because we're still searching for Natalee, and I think it would be too premature to have a memorial service and her not be there, because we want to bring Natalee back to Birmingham.
If we can locate Natalee's remains, we can bring Natalee home.
I just hope that this works out, but I know that.
I can't get myself to that point where you can't touch home until you touch home.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
Y'all have the tracker on? Nothing new.
We just got information from Kathy that John and Gabriel have just left the hotel and they're on their way to the burial site.
I'm gonna go and film and see what I can find out as quickly as I can so I can make it back.
Okay.
All right.
You might want to get around there and see if you can get some footage of them going in and out of the cul-de-sac.
Yeah, I'm gonna film the whole daylights - out of that whole area.
- I'm gonna stay here.
I'll let you know when they get out there and when the GPS is stationary.
Kathy, let me know when he calls you and tells you the GPS has been placed.
How accurate is this? - Within 50 feet.
- 50 feet.
Yep.
They didn't move very far.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
Oh, my stomach is upset.
[LAUGHS.]
Nerves.
[SIGHS.]
It's like watching a snail crawl.
Refresh.
Now, back to satellite.
Same place.
[CELL PHONE BEEPS.]
Hey, it looks like they've stopped at his aunt's house.
They're on the street.
We're I'm at John Ludwig's house, aunt's house.
Wow, this this is this is nice.
That desert's huge right out there.
There's big boas and pythons.
I want to take a picture of the house.
This is a nice house.
Okay, they're moving again.
Oh, okay, he's on the move again? Yeah, he's on the move.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
They're on the street.
Okay, they're going up the road.
- Kathy.
- Yeah? You need to communicate with Gabriel and and let him tell you when he gets there, okay? - Yeah, yep.
- And then then call me back, okay? - Yeah, yeah.
Okay.
- All right.
Bye.
- Hey, T.
J.
- Yeah.
Does your GPS have a backup? I mean, does that battery have any kind of backup? No, it's it's gonna run till it runs out.
I mean, it's they're in the area.
Yeah, they're in the area.
Check your power.
My my phone's showing that the battery is down to 1%.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC.]
The battery is down to 1%? - Yeah.
- God.
Why didn't he charge that motherfucker up? I don't know why he didn't charge that.
Wow.
Let me call her.
Yeah.
Okay, go go meet him then.
Be en route.
Are they out of there? Okay, then he's dropped the GPS.
We need to get to the scene so we can still find that GPS.
Let me let me go with them.
Okay, all right.
Let's go out to the scene.
Let's go, let's go, let's go.
We're down to 0%.
It's showing zero battery life, but it's still throwing out a signal.
You're probably gonna need to bring Gabriel back out there.
It's gonna be real close.
FEMALE NARRATOR: For more information on "The Disappearance of Natalee Holloway," go to oxygen.
com
You know, I need to get justice for Natalee.
That's been my goal from the very beginning.
He he's emotionally drained over this.
This has been his whole goal - Yeah.
- To find out the truth.
We're finding out the truth.
You know, John, he he's up to something.
Gabriel, so what's going on with John? Nobody knows what I have to put up with him on a daily basis, the stress he causes me.
I know that you've gone the extra mile.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC.]
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
[UPBEAT MUSIC.]
My investigators and I are planning to go to Aruba to begin the next phase of the investigation.
But over the last few weeks, we've had issues with Gabriel planning to quit on us.
John takes his money.
He's a loose cannon.
He's got issues.
He's got real issues.
Yeah, I got a long email message from him.
You can read it.
"I was so close but I had to walk away.
"I don't have a choice.
"I'm very pissed off.
"I'm very sorry.
I really tried.
I really did.
Please forgive me.
Take care, my friend.
" You know, it's a problem because we need him to bring John to Aruba to show us exactly where this location that he claims Natalee was buried at.
And now, I'm afraid that this whole thing could fall apart.
Even if we don't have John or Gabriel on the island - Oh, yeah, yeah.
- Yeah, we need to go see 'em.
Ten days from now to go to Aruba? I guess the first thing we'll do is be looking for - those spots, right? - Yep.
The plan we had been talking about all along was to go to Aruba, identify these potential target areas where we feel like that Natalee's grave could be.
Originally John said Natalee was buried in the National Forest.
Now, he's saying that she's buried near one of the aunt's rental houses.
We asked Gabriel to circle an area on a map of where John told him the grave was located.
I subsequently pulled up an aerial photograph and matched that with the area that he had circled.
There's a cul-de-sac that goes to a hill.
That's what he described in his statement.
But we need to go check these spots out.
I don't know.
I'll have to think about that for a while.
There are a lot of cul-de-sacs within a ten-mile radius of the aunt's house.
Finding the exact spot would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
It's gonna make it a little bit more difficult, but we believe the information that John shared with Gabriel of what he was instructed and paid to do by Joran van der Sloot is is true.
We have to move forward regardless if they come or not.
We can't give up.
We need to get justice for Dave and his family.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
My team and I are gonna follow up with information that we obtained from John and Gabriel's statement.
Once we've narrowed down all the locations, Dave will join us here in Aruba.
We need to identify the gravesite, which is up in the air between two different areas, one being the National Forest and the other location he talked about in New Orleans, the road at the end of the cul-de-sac.
There's probably more of a chance that we can pinpoint that.
So Gabriel is not coming? No, I don't even want to get into that.
Damn.
If we can identify where we think the remains were, that a perfect that's a perfect world.
If I send you up a particular trail or whatever, and you're looking for a cactus and a rock, without John actually saying.
"X" marks the spot, it's it's futile.
We've come too far, and I think we go out today and try to gather some of this information.
Let's see if we can confirm it.
It's worth a shot.
Yeah.
Before you go on a location for surveillance, you do as much work as possible.
I had a certain amount of information.
I knew where the aunt lived, because Gabriel had circled it on a map, and that house is a key part because the perpetrator mentioned to Gabriel the burial site is within ten minutes walking distance of his aunt's house.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
All right, the house we're looking for is the last house on the left.
Last house on the left.
Correct.
You're not kidding about that.
- Is that it? - Correct.
Let's move on and check out the cars.
See if the aunt still has the same car that he claims he used to transport the remains.
I want to get the tag on that car.
There it is.
That's the blue Mitsubishi, the same one he described in his confession.
- You got it? - Got it.
Okay.
Are we gonna turn around? No, it can go right.
We've located that house.
We verified that information as being true.
From there, we can draw a radius to find the cul-de-sac.
We shouldn't be too far away.
Keep an eye out for any cul-de-sacs or or roads that might fit that description.
- He said it's up on a hill.
- Right.
Is that where he's talking about? There's a hill.
It don't look like the end of a cul-de-sac.
Well, it doesn't look like there's a way to really walk through.
There's a lot of cactus.
You don't think it's not here.
I don't think [INDISTINCT.]
cactus.
See, we're on a witch hunt.
Now, there is another possibility of a cul-de-sac.
Where? If we make the next left, that would be previous to the aunt's house but still within ten minutes' walking distance, and that goes kind of up a hill from what I can tell.
Where's the next left? Right around this bend.
Bingo.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
Look at here.
There's a path.
[GASPS.]
Cul-de-sac and a path.
Yeah, so this one I think is viable, this path directly ahead of us.
I think we need to go walk up here a minute.
We went up the mountain on foot and started checking it out, just looking around.
Things started to kind of click and I was like, ooh, you know, this feels good.
Yeah, I'm looking for the cactus that he was describing.
Wow.
Oh, hang on.
Hang on.
Look at this one.
There's another little one.
I think this location is plausible.
I mean, if I were to bury a body, who's gonna see it here? I mean, the location seems ideal as far as going up a path, homes on either side, up on a hill.
All that fits.
But are we gonna find the perfect place until John leads us there? Yeah, the aunt's house is right there.
Yeah, I know.
I think we're in the right area, but again, pinpointing unless he gets here with him We might as well be in Kansas.
Right.
We need John.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
- Hey, Dave.
- Hey, T.
J.
We went out in the neighborhood around John's aunt's house.
We think we may be in the right area.
But without John and and Gabriel being here, it might be hard to find the exact location.
To locate the DNA.
I've tried to reach out to Gabriel, and he's not returning my calls.
- Okay.
- Maybe you can reach out to him and tell him that we're trying to get a hold of him.
Okay.
Well, I'll give it a shot.
There's a power struggle that's developed between Gabriel and T.
J.
I think T.
J.
wants to run the investigation because he is the investigator.
However, Gabriel thinks that he best knows how to control John, so therefore, he wants to call some of the shots on how we proceed forward.
It's falling apart.
I feel like I've gotta step in and try to rectify the situation, get it back on the tracks.
Because if we don't have Gabriel going to Aruba with John to show us this location, we're dead in the water.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
Oh.
I think our expert's here.
- Jason, good morning.
- Good morning.
- How are you? - Good.
Thank you.
- T.
J.
Ward.
- How are you? My name is Dr.
Jason Kolowski.
I'm the principle consultant with Forensic Insight Consulting.
My major background is DNA analysis, especially in relation to victim identification.
Well, we're glad to have you and we're glad - to have you on board.
- Thank you.
I know you know a little bit of background about this case.
Mm-hmm.
I get asked about three major cases all the time: O.
J.
Simpson, JonBenét Ramsey, and Natalee Holloway.
Each of these cases played in being a mystery, in being a forensically viable case.
We have a perpetrator, and in 2010, he was here on the islands with van der Sloot and apparently was asked to go get the remains.
I decided to bring on a forensic expert to give us advice about the remains, what the composition of the body would be and what would be left in the gravesite if the remains were removed in 2010 after she had been there since 2005.
Did it smell? He said when he opened the burlap bag he saw blond hair, a musty odor, and he said when he pulled it up out of the ground that there was some some fluid or something that settled back into the into the ground.
He said it was messy, so.
He said he doesn't remember what it was.
"It was brown already, "like really, really dark black brown.
It was on the bone.
" So from your standpoint, you're really questioning, right now, the forensic value of what may be left behind.
- Exactly.
- Okay, no problem.
Exactly.
From what I can tell you based on this, everything that is described as far as the the disinterment of the remains in 2010 fits with what we would expect for the normal decomposition of a human body, especially in this type of an environment and this type of a locale.
As soon as the death occurs, eventually fluids will leak out of the body.
If you're talking about a burial, those fluids, they tend to seep out into the ground, and especially in something like a burlap bag where it's porous.
That bag is, itself, definitely going to let all of what's called that leachate out into the surrounding soil.
Now that the remains may have been disinterred, that leachate still may be there.
Every contact leaves a trace.
That's a mantra, that's a tenet within forensic science, and we are always going to be able to go back and find something, something left behind, something to help us identify that missing individual.
In a clandestine gravesite, you're typically going to have the undisturbed dirt underneath, and then there's the disturbed dirt all around where ultimately the body would be.
At that second phase, you're starting to get that leachate, that sort of the fluid coming out of the bottom of the body.
And if they're describing it like a black tar material, that's entirely correct.
The lead is interesting, but it's one part of a lot of other things that still have to fall into place to really give this investigation the legs in which to then move forward in handing this over to the Aruban police.
At the end of the day, the real question is, unless you're pointed directly at the dig site and you are able to get down into the dirt and start looking for that presence of sort of that black tarry, soapy material, I mean, you could dig and dig and dig but until you're actually at the site, you're never gonna know for sure.
If we're looking at, just say hypothetically, a 20-yard area, you have to be within that dig site of that 20-yard area, so it's not as if the dog will hit wherever.
It'll you're gonna have to really narrow it down - to that particular hole.
- Yeah, I think so.
That's gonna be the that's gonna be the trick.
Now, the $100 question that you're not asking is, is that material biologically active and can we use it to identify Natalee? That's kind of where the problem comes in.
It's decomp material.
It's not exactly blood.
It's not exactly bone or hair or anything like that.
Should we find bone, hair, even soft tissue still in that gravesite, that's your biological material.
That's what we want for the DNA comparison.
All right, well we discussed at the beginning we're gonna go out to the National Forest and try to to pick some areas and see what your thoughts are.
- Okay.
- And then we'll travel to the area what behind the aunt's house.
Sounds good.
- All right? - Cool.
Good deal.
If the biological material could be recovered from a gravesite, could be recovered from the trunk of a car, it gives us an ability to positively identify Natalee and give her family that sense of closure, well, I think not only do we owe it to the family, but we owe it to the world to let it know that a missing girl has been found.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
There's two different locations that John talks about in his story, one of them being the National Forest.
We brought our expert out with us today to search and get his feel for the terrain where Natalee may have been buried.
Here.
From 2005 to 2010, Natalee Holloway is decomposing essentially inside of a burlap sack in a shallow grave in what we have to assume is very loose, sandy, loamy style soil.
That's pretty heavily compacted right there.
That's really hard to dig up.
Right.
We were looking at that really hard packed clay with a lot of that rocky material.
It would be a very challenging place to come into and expect to successfully hide a body for a long period of time.
I mean, what's the simplest answer here? You come into the park, you have Natalee's remains in a bag in your trunk, you need to get rid of it quickly.
- Quickly, exactly.
- You know you need to find a very easy spot to dig.
And then you remember it well enough that you're able to give the instructions to a friend five years later.
This has got to be a very remarkable spot.
And if you're talking about a 110-pound girl, dismembered, you're not talking about anything bigger than a hole about the size of this bush.
Imagine trying to find that if you're giving your basic instructions of go past the big cactus, past the little field of Turk's caps, and it's like ten steps further.
Ten steps in which direction? - Right.
- You know? - There's no way.
- Look how exposed we are.
I mean, you can see that home's right over there.
You can see, you know, other cars driving right past.
You're gonna be very visible.
You have no cover right here other than just a couple bushes.
So this is not ideal.
Bringing a dog out here or any type of search party I think would be futile.
You're not gonna drive this far with a with a dead body in the car.
I call bullshit on this.
Maybe the other location will will be a little bit better but this one, I just can't see it.
Go to the next spot? Sounds good.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
The first location, while interesting, it just wasn't the right spot for getting rid of Natalee in the way that the suspect is claiming it happened.
Okay, the second location makes a little bit more sense than the forest.
So these homes are new, but they so they weren't here.
- So these houses weren't here.
- Okay.
And here's the end of the cul-de-sac.
- Okay.
- Okay? Here's the dirt road that goes up a hill he talks about.
That path right there actually goes - to the aunt's house.
- Yeah, I was gonna say there's a pathway back there.
Yeah.
Right, yeah.
So we're gonna hike up here.
Okay.
Interesting.
Well, I mean, you definitely have got a unique spot up here.
- You're secluded.
- Right.
You definitely have got some very visible - Landmarks.
- Markings.
- Landmarks, for sure.
- Yeah.
So you park up here, right? You can get the car up to that spot.
Yeah, you can bring the car up here.
And then you are taking the body somewhere.
Yes.
And in the middle of the night you're not still not wanting to go far.
Well, you gotta remember, the houses were not there.
Right.
And if you, you know, if this area was familiar, you know Yeah, if no one else is here, you could have all the time in the world.
Right.
- It's digable.
- Yep.
It might be even more so in other areas.
See, nobody would see you.
If you if you got a body, drug a body down here, nobody would see you.
Jason, take a look over here and tell me what you think.
Okay What'd you see, Eric? See, you got you got your little triangular rock, you got some good vantage points, and you've got your little area right up in here.
Okay, if you were ducking underneath these trees right here, that's a clearing, and then look at all the cactus around it.
Right, exactly.
And look at all that open dirt.
Yeah, completely protected down here, no one, even if they parked in the circle, they would probably have a hard time seeing you down here.
Is the ground soft enough to dig three feet deep? I would say so.
I can go down an inch easy with my shoe.
It's definitely feasible.
And what was Joran's connection to this spot? Well, that's kind of a lookout point, so he might have been familiar with it and knew that nobody goes in here because of all the cactus.
They just sit up there, make out, - or whatever, nobody ever - Or worse.
- He had a reputation.
- Right.
What do you think, T.
J.
? I think this is probably the most potential area yet that we've seen.
For sure.
This best describes the scenario.
Exact it really does.
I think all of us are like, boy, we sure hope this is it.
If this is really going to lead us to that big "X" on the ground, maybe this can actually come to an end.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
I made an emotional plea to Gabriel to come back on board.
I know we can't do it without him.
Gabriel called me and said he's still on board as long as he can deal with John in his own way and not have T.
J.
interfere.
And I just hope and pray that it all works out.
I'm getting ready to go to Aruba.
It's tough.
It stirs up so many of the past memories of searching and coming up empty.
But there's no turning back.
I've gotta find the truth.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
[UPBEAT MUSIC.]
Now that we know John and Gabriel are coming to Aruba, I'm getting the rest of my team in place to take action when they lead us to the burial site.
- Hi, Tracy? - Hi, Eric.
- Hi.
- Eric Bryan.
- How are you doing? - Good to meet you.
- Good to meet you.
- Come on in.
My name is Tracy Sargent.
I'm a canine handler and investigator from the Atlanta, Georgia, area.
I was contacted through T.
J.
Ward and Dave Holloway to get involved in the case.
Chance is my cadaver dog, technically known as a human remains detection dog.
So we work together as a team to find missing persons dead or alive.
How long did he say the body was buried in this location? Well, since the father and him, van der Sloot, buried it, - Five years.
- Five years? - 2005.
- Okay, good.
And the body was broken up - Okay.
- And put in a burlap sack.
Okay, so whatever is in there is if they broke it up, so it'll come through that burlap sack - and go in the ground.
- Okay.
Even after 10 or 12 years that she's, you know, been missing, what the dog is looking for is scent, and the scent's still going to be there.
The dog has found remains from just a few hours old to up to 250 years old.
- So - Wow.
Yeah.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
David convinced Gabriel to come back on board and to bring John back to Aruba, and then we start incorporating everybody else: The girlfriend, the Gabriel's girlfriend.
And it's not supposed to work like that.
We need to get a plan down of what we're gonna do.
[COMPUTER RINGS.]
Hey, how are you? Good.
What is your plans when you get here? The first day, I think I want to go over his house, his aunt's house, and just feel the place out.
The second day, Saturday, is when I'm going to go to where the body used to be at, where he removed the body.
Okay.
I got a GPS I'm gonna give you.
I want you to carry the GPS with you, okay? When you get there, I want you to shoot pictures of the landmarks he shows you and then shoot the actual spot if you can, and then you send 'em to me.
I just don't want to rush him.
I don't want to push him, because when I push him, he thinks something's up.
I gotta just be normal, act normal, and let and feel him out, you know? - Right.
- He's the one that told me.
He goes, well, you know, we're gonna go here.
We're gonna go there.
So if I can get him to do that in one day, fine, but I don't want to push him all in one day, you know? Well, we need to try to lock it in and let me know, 'cause I gotta make plans, all right? Text me when you land, okay? [DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
Eleventh hour.
They've departed Miami.
They're due here somewhere around 3:00 and 3:30.
Then we can track 'em from the airport to the hotel.
So what I can do is get closer to the airport door and then give you a heads-up they're on their way.
I'll hop out and I'll just go inside and watch for them and give you a heads-up and then just follow them out.
Then we get the GPS with him also.
Then we'll be able to track him.
When they go out to the gravesite, he's gonna mark the area.
When they leave, we're going to bring cadaver dogs in to try to see if the dogs alert on human remains being in that area.
Once we get that, we'll set up for a crime scene.
Let her do her reports, everything.
Later that day, bring it back here, then we'll compile the rest of the reports and information in our notebooks and be prepared to go to law enforcement on Sunday.
Boom, boom, boom.
Yep.
All right, showtime.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
Today is D-day, so everything is high gear.
They just landed.
Oh, okay.
I'll let T.
J.
know.
We have 91 hours before John and Gabriel leave the island of Aruba.
We need to get John to show Gabriel exactly where he dug up the body so we can find DNA or physical evidence to be able to use later for a conviction.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
Excuse me, what flight did you just come in on? What airline? Okay, yeah, I got John and the two girls but no Gabriel.
I guess he's in renting a car.
So hopefully he'll start moving in the next few minutes.
Okay, they're moving.
Heading out to the hotel where Gabriel and John are staying.
I think I see his car backing up.
Okay, 4:20 4:25 they just pulled up.
I don't see John.
Got it.
Okay, John is out on foot.
John is out on foot.
John's in the hotel.
Gabriel's standing outside there.
Gabe says John and his girlfriend just went upstairs.
So I'm gonna go talk to Gabe and find out what's going on.
Gabriel.
Gabriel.
Can you follow me? Right.
[SIGHS.]
All right.
When I spoke with Gabriel, he was totally stressed out.
He was like, man, nothing's working out the way it's supposed to.
John is wanting more money and If Gabriel gave John money, then Gabriel's fucked.
He's letting the inmate run the asylum.
But, I mean, I don't I don't know.
I mean, if he didn't have a choice, John wasn't gonna get on the flight.
Oh, boy.
I'm Gabriel's new BFF.
This is gonna be fun.
It's a really long text.
Now, he's gonna be burning up my phone.
Uh-oh, here's T.
J.
Hey, T.
J.
I'm gonna put you on speaker so that Eric can hear this, too.
I'll I'll forward to you what he he sent to me.
Okay.
Gabe said when he came back on board that he wanted to do things his way.
At the end of the day, though, it's T.
J.
's investigation.
But Gabe has his opinion as to how he thinks he can get the information out of John, so it's tricky.
I've got both of them yelling at me.
I'm in the middle.
Tell him - Okay.
- Okay? I'll let him know.
Yeah, I think he's pissed.
He's pissed Okay.
Yeah.
All right, bye-bye.
Ooh.
Oh, I don't want to be in the middle of this.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
Huh.
They're going to the bar apparently, huh? Okay.
Well, I really don't know what's happening.
I mean, Gabriel said that John wants to do all this stuff.
I don't I don't know if it's gonna affect the plan about taking Gabriel to the site or not.
T.
J.
Yeah, they left about five minutes ago on foot.
Looked like they might have been going to get something to eat.
Yeah.
Have you heard anything? This was my investigation, and the informer is not gonna loop me out.
I need to be in the know.
All right, what's the game plan, just hold tight? [DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
- Hey, T.
J.
- Dave Holloway.
- Hey, Dave, how you doing? - Hey, Dave.
You made it.
Welcome.
I'm tired.
I'm a walking zombie.
I hadn't slept in about three days.
- Oh, wow.
Stress or? - None last night.
Oh, I just you know.
- A lot on your mind.
- Yeah.
So I was able to talk to Gabriel yesterday.
We talked about everything.
At 11:00 am tomorrow is when John and Gabriel are supposed to go to the site and John is supposed to - Show him the spot.
- Show him the exact spot.
Well, let me ask y'all this, do you think John may be playing Gabriel? Do you think he would throw Gabriel off like he did the last time? And he circled that spot and then in New Orleans he said, well, you know, I'm not gonna tell you? Do you think this is real? - Yep.
- Yeah.
Yeah.
He swears now I mean, he swears, he said, "I'm sorry I lied to you", but I swear this is this is the exact location.
" He said it wasn't in the National Forest.
Just something about this case that and it may be that I just don't want to get into a situation of getting burned, is this a con or is this an elaborate scheme or or what? I just can't put my finger on it, or is this the real deal, you know? You just just move forward and see what happens.
I think if we just go to the police, we'll work something out with them.
The foundation that we got laid out and all the information we have, all the videos we have of him confessing that he was involved, which also ties.
- Joran van der Sloot in - Yeah.
If they get interested in all that, and then we tell them, "They're here" It would be less than thorough law enforcement if they didn't bring them in for questioning.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
I mean, if push comes to shove, we got all this done, Monday morning we could be at the prosecutor's office or whatever.
Yeah.
And they're here till Tuesday afternoon so so they're not getting off the island.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
Gabriel just sent me a text.
He said, "I'll meet you soon.
I'm just going to get ready.
" I said, "9:30 will be good.
" - Okay.
- He says, "You just don't understand what I'm going through.
" He says, "I hate him with my soul" but I have to act like he's my buddy.
" Today, our plans are to give Gabriel a GPS to drop on the location where John Ludwig claims that the body was buried.
He just he's so stressed out trying to get John keeping John happy.
I said, okay, I'll just meet you in the McDonald's.
This is for Dave Holloway, okay? This isn't about us.
It's about what the whole thing from the beginning, why he called Dave.
Gabriel is is a good guy, and he's he's tried hard, but he got out of focus of what this was all about.
We're still fighting an uphill battle and it remains to be seen what's gonna happen in the near future.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
Is there any way you can hop in the van with me? T.
J.
is not with me.
I'd like to show you how to use the equipment but not in a public place.
I want to drive around once, see if I see him.
Oh, there he is.
He's over there by the McDonald's sign talking on the phone.
I'll park over here by this white van [DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
I was just you know, I am just so fed up with John, you know? T.
J.
doesn't know John.
He does not live with John.
He doesn't know what he thinks and all that, what makes him pissed off and not.
I do.
It has to be John's way.
- Yeah.
- And if we don't do John's way, then we ain't gonna get nothing.
I'm just tired of it.
- I hear you.
- You know? I cannot wait until he gets arrested.
Hopefully he'll be in jail tomorrow.
Who knows? Maybe tonight.
I don't know.
I mean, let's not rush it, - because when he - Right.
When we rush things, that's gonna look make it look suspicious.
All right, well, I still need to give you the GPS tracker.
Well, we can just walk over.
You can get in the passenger's seat.
Oh, here it is.
All right.
- You're supposed to meet him? - Meet him and then right after that, we're taking off - Okay.
- To the location.
Okay.
- So I'm doing my best.
- Okay.
Where's the GPS? - Right here.
- I'll let you play with it, but if you just watch the lights, you can see when it's coming on.
- The record button.
- Mmhmm.
- That's an external battery.
- Mm-hmm.
- And then that's - And this goes into there.
- Okay.
- Yeah, you got it.
All right.
So drop it at the gravesite.
Let me know.
We don't know when they're going to go to the grave.
We're gonna try and get that done as soon as possible and hope to have a conclusion shortly.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
We've done all we can do right now.
We've just got to sit here and wait until Gabriel drops the GPS.
Who knows how long? It could be an hour.
It could be tomorrow.
We'll just have to wait it out and see.
Dave, can I make an observation? I today, you look exhausted.
I am exhausted.
You look exhausted.
And and I don't know if I've ever told you this, Dave, but I'm just so sorry that you're having to go through this.
I truly am.
[SOMBER MUSIC.]
Yeah, it's tough.
When you get when I landed on the island, it's just kinda had that sinking feeling of, oh, here we go again.
Well, we're all gonna be there with you, too.
Oh, I know.
I know.
I know absolutely, and I appreciate it very much that everyone's worked so hard and put a lot of effort in it.
A lot of effort has been put into this trying to resolve it.
Then let's just say this is it.
You spent the last 12 years consumed by this, Dave.
Oh, yeah.
What do you do with the rest of your life after this? Well, we're not there yet.
No, there's no what ifs with me, so it's it's either black or it's white.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
[SOMBER MUSIC.]
She'd be 30 years old today.
31 on her birthday.
I always thought Natalee's future would be in the medical profession.
I always thought that someday we would call her.
Dr.
Holloway or Dr.
whoever if she was married.
All of those future dreams and aspirations are now gone.
Yeah, she had so much potential.
It it's hard.
In 2012, I decided that we'd have Natalee declared deceased.
It was the the right thing to do.
I mean, it had been almost seven years.
I prepared myself for this day 6 1/2, 7 years ago.
The words of a father who just heard a judge declare his daughter dead.
He says the judge's order closes one chapter in a long ordeal.
Adding that the Holloway family still has a long way to go to get justice.
We have not had an official memorial service because we're still searching for Natalee, and I think it would be too premature to have a memorial service and her not be there, because we want to bring Natalee back to Birmingham.
If we can locate Natalee's remains, we can bring Natalee home.
I just hope that this works out, but I know that.
I can't get myself to that point where you can't touch home until you touch home.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
Y'all have the tracker on? Nothing new.
We just got information from Kathy that John and Gabriel have just left the hotel and they're on their way to the burial site.
I'm gonna go and film and see what I can find out as quickly as I can so I can make it back.
Okay.
All right.
You might want to get around there and see if you can get some footage of them going in and out of the cul-de-sac.
Yeah, I'm gonna film the whole daylights - out of that whole area.
- I'm gonna stay here.
I'll let you know when they get out there and when the GPS is stationary.
Kathy, let me know when he calls you and tells you the GPS has been placed.
How accurate is this? - Within 50 feet.
- 50 feet.
Yep.
They didn't move very far.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
Oh, my stomach is upset.
[LAUGHS.]
Nerves.
[SIGHS.]
It's like watching a snail crawl.
Refresh.
Now, back to satellite.
Same place.
[CELL PHONE BEEPS.]
Hey, it looks like they've stopped at his aunt's house.
They're on the street.
We're I'm at John Ludwig's house, aunt's house.
Wow, this this is this is nice.
That desert's huge right out there.
There's big boas and pythons.
I want to take a picture of the house.
This is a nice house.
Okay, they're moving again.
Oh, okay, he's on the move again? Yeah, he's on the move.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
They're on the street.
Okay, they're going up the road.
- Kathy.
- Yeah? You need to communicate with Gabriel and and let him tell you when he gets there, okay? - Yeah, yep.
- And then then call me back, okay? - Yeah, yeah.
Okay.
- All right.
Bye.
- Hey, T.
J.
- Yeah.
Does your GPS have a backup? I mean, does that battery have any kind of backup? No, it's it's gonna run till it runs out.
I mean, it's they're in the area.
Yeah, they're in the area.
Check your power.
My my phone's showing that the battery is down to 1%.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC.]
The battery is down to 1%? - Yeah.
- God.
Why didn't he charge that motherfucker up? I don't know why he didn't charge that.
Wow.
Let me call her.
Yeah.
Okay, go go meet him then.
Be en route.
Are they out of there? Okay, then he's dropped the GPS.
We need to get to the scene so we can still find that GPS.
Let me let me go with them.
Okay, all right.
Let's go out to the scene.
Let's go, let's go, let's go.
We're down to 0%.
It's showing zero battery life, but it's still throwing out a signal.
You're probably gonna need to bring Gabriel back out there.
It's gonna be real close.
FEMALE NARRATOR: For more information on "The Disappearance of Natalee Holloway," go to oxygen.
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