The final search for Natalee Holloway has come to a close, but the family of the missing Alabama teen still does not have closure.
Four bone fragments that were found, and could have possibly belonged to Holloway, were not a match. The fragments discovered on Aruba did not belong to the high school senior, who disappeared in 2005 during a graduation trip to the island.
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The search, which was filmed for the Oxygen docu-series, The Disappearance of Natalee Holloway, determined that three of the fragments were not human. As for the fourth bone fragment, it did belong to a human but did not have the same mitochondrial DNA as Holloway’s mother, Beth.
“Out of the four individual bone samples, only one was found to be human,” Dr. Jason Kolowski said. “The mitochondrial DNA bone sample was not a match to Beth Holloway, and so it was ruled out as being Natalee Holloway.”
Dr. Kolowski went on to say that the bone fragment offered little other information other than that it did not belong to Holloway.
“We don’t know if the person is male or female,” Dr. Kolowski continued. “We don’t know how old that person is. We don’t know how long that person has been dead.”
Back in August, Holloway’s father, Dave Holloway, announced the investigation that he helmed alongside private detective TJ Ward was going to be his last attempt to find his daughter’s remains.
The Biggest Break in the Case
One of the biggest breaks in the case came when Dave and Ward were able to track down John Ludwick — the man that allegedly helped get rid of Holloway’s remains alongside Joran van der Sloot, the long-alleged killer.
In an interview that aired this past weekend, Ludwick confirmed that he did help van der Sloot dispose of Holloway’s body after her death. He explained that he and van der Sloot had Natalee’s remains cremated and then they scattered her ashes in the ocean, Daily Mail reports.
Ludwick also confessed during an interview with Ward that he burned Holloway’s skull himself. He admitted to dousing it in gasoline and then setting it on fire inside a cave in order destroy the possibility of identifying her hair fibers.
“The idea was to crush everything to the point where it wasn’t recognizable as her bones or skull or anything like that,” Ludwick said. “The only thing that got burned was the skull to burn the hair fibers. It was doused in gasoline in a fire pit in a cave.”
After Holloway’s Remains Were Burned
Once Holloway’s remains were burned, van der Sloot allegedly added in dog remains. Ludwick then took the remains to a crematorium and told the worker that he had lost a pet.
“I went in there with $200 cash, and said: ‘This dog means a lot to me and, freakin’, I don’t want anyone to be the last one to touch it except me. If I give you $200, can I push it in myself?’ ” Ludwick said.
The two men then reportedly took a fisherman’s boat and took the ashes out to sea.
Ludwick’s interview with Ward was a stark contrast from the previous interviews in which he remained quiet on the subject. However, when Ludwick did speak, he was intent on defending van der Sloot against the claims or allegations that he had murdered Holloway.
Holloway’s Friend Opens Up About Her Disappearance
Jessica Caiola, Holloway’s friend who was also on the Aruba trip, recalled frequently spotting van der Sloot around the group during their vacation.
“I remember seeing Joran van der Sloot at the casino at our hotel. That was the first time I saw him and I remember chatter of him. ‘He’s so cute,’ ‘Who’s going to hook up with him?’ Those sort of things were floating around. That was probably the extent to which I got close to him,” Caiola said.
“I don’t even remember if Natalee with him at that point, or if any of us were necessarily with him. What I can tell you is that he was there multiple nights of our trip. I believe it was the second to last night I saw him at the casino,” she continued.
Caiola is certain that she saw van der Sloot on the night of Holloway’s disappearance.
“He was absolutely at Carlos ‘n Charlie’s, 1000 percent,” Caiola said. “Natalee and I were actually talking at the bar and interacting and having a good time.”
More on the Alleged Killer
Van Der Sloot is serving a 28-year prison sentence in Peru. He was convicted of killing 21-year-old student Stephany Flores Ramírez in 2010. The murder took place five years to the day after Holloway’s death.
When his sentence is complete in 2038, van der Sloot is set to be extradited to the US. He is facing charges of trying to extort money from Holloway’s family.
Beth Holloway alleges that van der Sloot told her that he would reveal the location of her daughter’s body was located for $25,000.
In July of 2010, van der Sloot married Peruvian Leidy Figueroa. The following month, he was sent to the infamous Challapalca prison.
