After more than a decade since 18-year-old Natalee Holloway disappeared without a trace during a graduation trip to Aruba in May 2005, In Touch Weekly reports that her body has reportedly been found.
The publication reports to have seen an advance screening of a new six-part series “The Disappearance of Natalee Holloway”, in which an informant for the show named Gabriel claims that “[Joran van der Sloot] tried to kiss [Holloway], but she was foaming at the mouth. He panicked, and she choked on her own vomit.”
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“She died, and within two to three hours [Joran, with help from his late father, judge Paul van der Sloot] buried her.”
Van der Sloot reportedly admitted that information to an acquaintance named John Ludwick five years after Holloway disappeared. Gabriel told Holloway’s father, Dave, that Van der Sloot worried about the body being found, so he paid Ludwick “$1,500 if you go and dig the body up.”
“[They] uncovered the body in the national forest, dug it up and took it to the morgue. The body got cremated, and then they threw it in the ocean, low tide. That’s what John told me,” Gabriel said.
According to In Touch, Gabriel also claims that Ludwick told him Van der Sloot spiked Natalee’s drink with “date rape” drug GHB, before she died, which may account for her “foaming at the mouth.”
Van der Sloot reportedly then called his father, Paul, who “stomped on her legs and folded her over,” so he could fit her into a burlap sack and bury her.
Five years later, when Van der Sloot paid Ludwick to move Holloway’s body, Ludwick reportedly only had to dig down three feet to find her bones, which according to Gabriel, “were moldy. There was two inches of black lard from the body… and her blond hair.”
Next, Ludwick and Paul reportedly brought the dug-up body to a morgue, where a contact of Paul burned it. Afterward, Ludwick and Paul reportedly dumped the ashes in the Caribbean.
Holloway’s father, Dave, with his longtime private investigator, T.J. Ward, reportedly launched an 18-month sting operation after hearing Gabriel’s accusations.
“Twelve years and we still have nothing, until now,” Dave said. “This is the most credible lead I’ve ever seen.”
Dave and Ward say their investigation has brought them closer than ever to finding evidence that will lead to Van der Sloot’s conviction.
“Justice will be served,” Dave told In Touch.
Van der Sloot is currently serving 28 years in a Peruvian prison after pleading guilty to an unrelated murder, but has tormented the Holloways since Natalie’s disappearance. He was even charged with extortion and fraud in the U.S. after he was caught demanding money from Natalee’s mom, Beth, in exchange for details about where he’d buried her body.
As for why Van der Sloot hasn’t been charged with Holloway’s death? Dave Holloway says the legal system is different in Aruba. “If you confess to a crime here you might be behind bars for a long time,” he told In Touch. In Aruba, “it has to be in writing and there has to be [supporting] evidence.”
