The search for Natalee Holloway

Chris Hansen Correspondent • Profile

ARUBA - She was a visitor in an island paradise. A young woman who wanted to be a doctor. Whose life was filled with promise.

Her disappearance has led to a different type of promise -- from her mother, her father, and a man haunted by his own loss.

It is a promise to do everything in their power to find Natalee and bring her home. It's the Natalee Holloway story you haven't heard -- the story of parents who even now will go anywhere -- and endure anything -- to find answers.

Dave Holloway: My goal has always been to find my daughter. That's been my ultimate goal, from day one.

Beth Holloway: Not knowing is-- is-- that's the daily torture.

Tim Miller: How could you imagine a family being put through anything worse? I mean, they've literally been tortured.

The story began early in 2005, in Mountain Brook, Ala., near Birmingham.

The seniors at Mountain Brook high were planning the annual graduation trip to Aruba.

But not everyone thought it was a great idea.

Dave Holloway: And I thought it was, my opinion, too extravagant. And I said, "No, we're-- we're not going to do this." And I told her flat out she was not going to Aruba if I had anything to do with it.

But Natalee didn't give up and eventually Dave Holloway relented.

After all, if anyone deserved a reward it was Natalee.

In school, she'd been a straight A student, a member of student government, even a counselor in a peer group called the Natural Helpers.

That fall, she was planning to attend the University of Alabama on full scholarship.

Her mom, Beth Holloway Twitty, who had been divorced from Dave since 1993, knew it would be a great opportunity for her daughter.

Beth Holloway: I was excited the Mountain Brook students had been there the previous two years. Even my step-son -- the year 2003. And there were going to be over 150 plus classmates. So, we felt like, you know, there's safety in numbers.

She felt good about it except for one troubling piece of information about a nightspot down there, a bar called Carlos ‘n Charlie’s.

Beth Holloway: My step-son had had an encounter at Carlos 'n Charlie’s during 2003.

Chris Hansen: During his senior class trip?

Beth Holloway: Yes-- yeah. Tere were some locals there. And they had coaxed some young females into leaving the establishment with them… and he stepped in at the last minute because just didn't feel good about the situation, you know, with them--

Chris Hansen: He saw--

Beth Holloway: --leaving.

Chris Hansen: --trouble brewing?

Beth Holloway: Yeah, he did.

But class member Laraine Watson, who's never spoken publicly about their trip, or Natalee's last night, until now, says it couldn't have started better.

Laraine Watson (Natalee’s friend): We were so excited. I mean, it was a tropical paradise... without our parents! Together.

Claire Fierman had been friends with Natalee since they met in junior high.

Claire Fierman: We were on the beach. We stayed outside all day. You'd usually take a nap, get dressed, go eat dinner, and then go to one of the bars. Come home whenever you wanted to.

On the last night of the trip, Sunday, May 29, Natalee and her friends headed down to the hotel casino.

They soon struck up a conversation with a young man. He said he was 19 years old, a tourist visiting from Holland. His name was Joran.

Laraine Watson: I met him in the casino and I didn't shake his hand or anything, I just said, "Who's that?" when my friends introduced me.

Chris Hansen: What did you make of him?

Laraine Watson: He just looks like an average, normal high school guy. I mean, I remember he's really tall. I remember looking at him thinking, "Oh, who's that guy?" You know, he's hanging out with my friends.

Chris Hansen: What was the 'buzz' on him with the rest of the gang?

Laraine Watson: You know, I don't know if he initially came up to my girlfriends and said, "Hey." and started talking to them. Or if they approached him. But Natalee was in there when I saw him near the blackjack table. And I don't know if they were even talking. I just remember seeing him and wondering what he was doing hanging out with my friends.

Chris Hansen: Did he create any suspicions?

Laraine Watson: Not really. I just was curious to see who the boy was. I wasn't really suspicious. I mean, he's going to come out with us later.

In fact, Joran did join Natalee and her friends later at that same well-known nightspot that had worried Natalee’s mom.

Laraine Watson: It was fun. I mean, when you go with a big group of your friends out to a bar, it's fun. And we were legal. You know, we were 18 and we could drink. So--

Chris Hansen: No fake IDs required.

Laraine Watson: Exactly. It was a lot of fun.

Joran seemed to fit right in with the hundred-plus kids from Mountain Brook, who essentially took over the bar Sunday night.

Chris Hansen: Did you see him at Carlos ‘n Charlie’s that night?

Laraine Watson: I did see him. I didn't talk to them. I just saw him dancing.

Chris Hansen: Did you see him have any interaction with Natalee at all?

Laraine Watson: No.

Chris Hansen: What time did you wrap it up at the bar that night?

Laraine Watson: I think the bar closed at one. So, we pretty much left when the bar closed. So, you know, the last song came on. And "Sweet Home Alabama" came on. I think they all knew we were from Alabama, so they played it for us.

And we went outside and started trying to get in taxi cabs to get back to our hotel. And it was kind of chaotic.

Chris Hansen: Did you think that's how Natalee got separated from the rest of the crowd?

Laraine Watson: I do. I do. I didn't see her in the car that she was last seen in.

But some other members of the group did see who Natalee had gone off with. They didn't think anything of it at the time but she had gone off with Joran and some of his friends.

The next morning, Monday, the group was scheduled to catch flights taking them all back home. But at the Holiday Inn, no one had seen Natalee.

Claire Fierman: So, I’m boarding my plane. One of our friends, Francis Ellen, comes running through the airport, grabs me as I’m getting on my plane and says, "Natalee is not coming home. We can't find her." And I say, "Beth is going to be so mad." Because my initial reaction is she's overslept. Where is she? You know, it wasn't panic.

But as Natalee’s plane pulled away from the gate panic did begin to set in.

Chris Hansen: What was it like to be on that plane and have it take off from that island without Natalee onboard?

Laraine Watson: It-- it felt like I was leaving something behind. It was just a horrifying feeling knowing that she was supposed to be there and she wasn't.

Video   Mom: Too late for Natalee, but... Beth Holloway Twitty tells Chris Hansen what she is doing to help protect teens traveling  overseas. Dateline NBC

Back in the United States, Beth Holloway Twitty was in her car when she got a call on her cell phone telling her Natalee had not shown up in the hotel lobby to go to the airport.

Beth Holloway: I knew instantly when I received that call that just from Natalee’s history and character and just her record, I-- I knew instantly that she'd either been kidnapped or murdered. There was no hesitation. Absolutely none-- absolutely none.

She raced towards home and frantically called 911.

Beth Holloway: I’m saying, "My daughter's been kidnapped or murdered in Aruba. Help me. I need some help, you know?" And then the calls turned into I’m calling 911 and I’m telling them I’m driving a 120 miles an hour down the interstate and don't anybody stop me.

She finally did get pulled over -- and a state trooper got her in touch with the FBI.

Back at his home in Mississippi, Dave Holloway also got the frightening news:

Chris Hansen: This is not a young woman who missed airplane flights.

Dave Holloway: Right. It hit me. And grown men don't usually cry. But I knew this is bad. I knew then that I was going to have to go to Aruba to find her.

It was the beginning of a quest that would transform two parents from small town America into international investigators, who even today are trying to answer the question: what happened to Natalee?

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