The search for Natalee Holloway

Throughout the summer of 2005, the whole world seemed to be wondering what had become of Natalee Holloway.

While her parents were grateful for the attention -- hoping it might prompt people with information to come forward -- it became increasingly difficult to separate good leads from bad.

Beth Holloway: I mean, I’ve had calls since, you know, I couldn't even-- just-- you know? I'm-- from—“Natalee’s in a freezer at the van der Sloot house” to “Natalee’s in a boat in Venezuela or Colombia.” It was hell at first.

Chris Hansen: How do you cope with that?

Beth Holloway: You just become numb to it.

The search to find Natalee had been massive. Hundreds took part -- volunteers, the Dutch marines, and even government employees who were given time off to take part in the effort.

But even with all of those resources Natalee’s family wanted to do more.

So they brought in a hard-charging, hard-living Texan named Tim Miller. If anyone could find Natalee, they thought that perhaps he could.

Chris Hansen: It would not be unreasonable to say that you are obsessed with this case.

Tim Miller: I’m obsessed with every missing person case. Every one. This one just went a little bit farther.

Tim Miller knew the Holloways' pain all too well.

Two decades earlier, his 16-year-old daughter Laura disappeared. From the start -- Miller suspected that she'd met with foul play and was probably dead. But weeks, then months, passed with no leads or information. All Tim Miller could do was wait.

Tim Miller: Police said that she was a runaway. We couldn't get any help. There weren't any search teams. And I just felt helpless.

Eventually Tim got the worst call a parent can face. His daughter's body had been found in a field just two miles from his home. Her murder remains unsolved.

Tim Miller: I felt then that I had really let Laura down for not doing anything. Wasn't the father I should have been.

He couldn't help his daughter, but he could help others. In 2000,taking time from his construction business, he organized Texas Equusearch as a memorial to Laura.

The goal was to help other families find the loved ones they'd lost.

In the years since, he says, the group has conducted more than 800 searches, found 250 people alive, and located the remains of 80 missing persons.

Experience in so many searches, he says, has given him more insight and more resources than many large police departments.

Now he's frequently called in to aid high profile searches, like the recent one in Illinois for Stacy Peterson.

Tim Miller: I’ve got to say no sometimes. The next time that phone rings, I want you to answer it and listen to the mother on the other end. You tell her no. I can't. You tell her. Law enforcement tells them no. We can't.

And his first conversation with Beth Holloway Twitty was no different .

Tim Miller: When I heard her voice-- you know, it kind of reminded me back when Laura was missing. And I made a promise to God and to Laura that I’d never leave another family alone again ... but I didn't think it would take us to Aruba.

Little did Tim Miller know, but he'd spend nearly a year of his life in Aruba knocking on doors, hunting down leads, sifting the sand -- and the sea.

Along the way he became close friends with Natalee’s father, Dave, who joined him on many searches.

Dave Holloway: Two of those weeks were at least, spent digging' in a garbage dump.

Tim Miller: And I’ll never forget that day when Dave Holloway's in the bottom of that well on Natalee’s birthday, putting trash in a bucket, and I’m pulling it up thinking, "Maybe they put Natalee in a well and threw trash on top of her." And I said, "It's a hell of a way to spend your daughter's birthday." I said, "Dave, get out of that hole." And so, he got out, and I went down. And then he said, "Tim, get out of that hole." He said, "I’m leaving Aruba. I will never come back here again."

But Tim Miller says that very day, in October, 2005, there was a turning point.

The deputy police chief saw Miller and Dave Holloway and shared a hunch.

Tim Miller: And said, "There's no need for you all to be searching the landfill anymore." He said, "I think you all need to be out in the sea, three to five miles."

Video   The unknown Holloway vigil Feb. 22: Get an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the search for Natalee Holloway that you haven’t heard about. Dateline NBC

Soon, there was another tip -- one that seemed to add credibility to that theory. On the night Natalee disappeared, Miller learned that there had been a break-in at a fisherman's hut on the beach. Among the missing items --- a metal and wire box --- a fish trap.

Miller wondered if they could have used it to dispose of Natalee's body and weigh her down at sea so her body couldn't be discovered.

Tim Miller: Well, we talked to a lot of people in Aruba. And they say 90 percent of anybody that drowns on that side of the island, their bodies will float up to the banks of Venezuela. I don't think that they was willing to take a risk on Natalee’s body floating.

Miller was determined to launch a search, but one sophisticated enough to find a target so tiny -- a fish trap -- in an area so vast seemed just about impossible.

Until Louis Schaefer entered the picture.

Louis Shaefer: I’ve been following the story ever since it happened. And I felt so sad for Dave and Beth because they just didn't seem like they were getting the cooperation and everything they needed.

Schaefer is a self-made multimillionaire who made his fortune in the underwater exploration business.

Schaefer was one of the few people in the world with the expertise to help find Natalee’s body if Tim Miller's theory was correct. And he was offering his services free of charge.

The plan was to use high-tech equipment to map the ocean floor off Aruba, and then, step-by-step, use state of the art equipment to scan the bottom for anything that looked like it could contain Natalee’s remains.

Just before Thanksgiving, 2007, Dave Holloway came to see the Persistence -- the vessel that he hoped would bring Natalee home.

It was the beginning of another heartbreaking turn -- one that would take them from heights of hope to depths of despair.

Dave Holloway: There's been times, I’ll be honest with you, you look up at the sky at night, or get up and you can't sleep. Look up at the stars. Think, God help us. Answer some prayers for us.

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