- 12 minutes ago
The Netflix documentary left out more than you'd think. Join us as we explore the lesser-known twists, dead-end leads, and media controversies surrounding Natalee Holloway's disappearance that "Taken: Natalee Holloway" never covered. From premature death announcements to a Lifetime movie and a deep-sea search that ran out of money, the full story is even more haunting.
Transcript
00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at the lesser-known twists, dead-end leads
00:05and media controversies surrounding Natalie Holloway's disappearance.
00:09I wish I had a real date.
00:11I wish I could find someone I actually liked.
00:13You have all the time in the world for that.
00:17The investigation briefly swept up several other people.
00:20We get about a hundred leads tips every day, and what we do is basically, on the basis
00:27of that, search certain areas.
00:30We couldn't find forensic evidence, etc.
00:33But we had so much publicity, so much pressure on Aruba, so we put it on steroids, we go.
00:39The first people detained in the case were not Jeroen Vanderslaut or the Culpo brothers.
00:44Taken does cover the fact that on June 5th, police arrested former Allegro Hotel security
00:49guards Nick John and Abraham Jones on suspicion of murder and kidnapping.
00:53They were released without charge on June 13th.
00:57Everybody looking from the outside was only focused on Jeroen, but the investigation has
01:04a certain tactic that you first eliminate the noise.
01:09The security guard was noise.
01:10But to exclude them, we have to investigate.
01:14Vanderslaut and the Culpos were arrested four days later, on June 9th.
01:18What Taken doesn't get into is that police then arrested disc jockey Steve Gregory Cruz
01:23on June 17th, followed by Vanderslaut's father Paulus on June 22nd.
01:28Both were released on June 26th.
01:30Later arrests included other people in Aruba and the Netherlands, among them Gita Waver,
01:35the son of a former Aruban politician.
01:38Nunn was charged in Natalie's disappearance.
01:40Paulus could hardly look at me.
01:46He was sweating so profusely, I thought, wow, he knows what happened.
01:53I felt that a thousand percent at that time, at that moment, at that table.
01:57An Aruban official prematurely announced that Natalie was dead.
02:01We have suspects, they are being interrogated, and we are at a very crucial, very important
02:07moment in our investigation.
02:10I was there when they arrested Jeroen and the Cuckoo brothers.
02:14There was a sense of relief.
02:16On the island, people really thought that it's going to be the end of it.
02:21They're going to tell the story, what really happened.
02:23On June 11th, 2005, David Cruz, a spokesman for Aruba's Justice Ministry, told reporters
02:30that Natalie was dead, and authorities knew where her body was.
02:34Cruz later retracted the statement, saying he had been misled by a misinformation campaign.
02:39That same day, Deputy Police Chief Gerald Dumpig told the Associated Press that one detained
02:44man had said, quote, something bad happened to Natalie after the group went to the beach.
02:49In a missing person case, 48 hours waiting time, that's the universal thing.
02:55But when something happens to a tourist, it has priority, because tourism is very important
03:03to Aruba.
03:04That same man was supposedly leading investigators to the location.
03:09Prosecutors did not confirm that account, and to this day, Natalie's remains have never
03:14been recovered.
03:15I had to get to work.
03:16It was time to give justice for my daughter.
03:19The search used F-16s and satellite images.
03:23I knew in my gut Iran was lying.
03:29I looked at that gray Honda, and I thought, could Natalie be in that trunk?
03:36Could she be in that Vandersloat home?
03:39I'm clutching her picture, and I just said, give her back now.
03:45On July 4, 2005, the Royal Netherlands Air Force sent three F-16 aircraft equipped with
03:51infrared sensors to assist in searching for Natalie.
03:54The aircraft didn't find her.
03:56In March 2006, investigators compared satellite photographs with newer images to look for
04:02changes in the ground that might indicate a burial site.
04:05She's a straight-A student, and our primary goal is to bring Natalie back home.
04:10I'm not leaving Aruba without her.
04:13The satellite comparison was described as a possible way to identify shifts in terrain,
04:18rather than a confirmed discovery of a specific location.
04:21The broader search also involved Dutch marines, Aruban volunteers,
04:25and other search teams combing the island and surrounding waters.
04:29As we now know all too well, their efforts were in vain.
04:33We've done so much to try to locate the body, the government, police, ambulance, the military.
04:39What else do you want us to do?
04:40If this would have happened to an Aruban girl in the States,
04:44I wonder how many people would have taken a day off from their work to go search.
04:48Media coverage was eclipsed by Hurricane Katrina.
04:51Katrina, as most of you know, has become a monster of a hurricane,
04:55a Category 5 storm with winds of 160, 165 miles an hour.
05:01Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast on August 23rd, 2005,
05:06shifting U.S. news coverage away from Natalie's disappearance.
05:09Her parents later argued that the storm reduced
05:11scrutiny when Vonderslaut and the Culpo brothers were released on September 3rd.
05:15In Aruba, two of three young men held in the disappearance of Natalie Holloway are now free.
05:20After changing their original story, they eventually told authorities they drove Natalie
05:25and 17-year-old Joran Vandersloak to the beach where they last saw the couple together.
05:30The release followed months of intense coverage,
05:32with major U.S. networks devoting substantial airtime to the case.
05:36Every time he gets on camera or grants an interview,
05:39he tells another lie and then more lies just evolve from that.
05:43So I think that eventually, you know, who knows?
05:47Maybe that the prosecuting attorney could get to the bottom of this just by
05:50the series of lies that Joran tells because, I mean, he certainly has a string of them.
05:56Critics had already questioned the scale of that coverage.
06:00CNN's Anderson Cooper called other networks' saturation coverage, quote,
06:04downright ridiculous.
06:05The case's media attention later became part of the debate over why missing white women
06:10often receive more coverage than missing people of color.
06:13This is criminologist Zach Summers.
06:15In 2016, he conducted a research study on missing white woman syndrome.
06:19It found that African Americans who go missing receive less coverage
06:23or are less likely to appear in the news at all.
06:25Dr. Phil and the Skeeters tape.
06:27I want to warn you, Beth, that there are some things that are going to be hard for you to
06:34hear.
06:35But I think it's important to hear what this person has to say,
06:41and then we're going to react to that because some of it's out there. Let's take a look.
06:46On September 15, 2005, Dr. Phil aired part of a secretly recorded conversation between private
06:52investigator Jamie Skeeters and Deepak Culpo. In the broadcast excerpt, Culpo appeared to affirm
06:58a suggestion that Natalie had sex with him, his brother Satish, and Vanderslaut.
07:02If it was an accident, I can help Paul. And if you guys were partying,
07:07even if somebody had given her an aid drug, I'm sure she had sex with all of you.
07:12Aruban police later provided a fuller version in which Culpo's response appeared different.
07:17An Aruban-affiliated commentator said the longer footage showed Culpo shaking his head and denying
07:22the claim. An MSNBC report said the key words were inaudible. The Culpo brothers sued Skeeters,
07:28Dr. Phil, and CBS, alleging the recording had been altered. The TV host and CBS denied wrongdoing.
07:35The suit was ultimately dismissed in 2015.
07:49The media bombshell that shook the case. Finally, some candor from authorities here
07:54who say this is a murder investigation. I don't believe we're going after this,
08:01and I think we're going after human remains. That was a turning point. It was a heavy load.
08:10On July 3, 2007, the Curacao newspaper Amigo reported claims from interviews with former
08:15deputy police chief Gerald Dumpig and journalist Julia Renfro. They alleged that U.S. officials had
08:21obstructed Aruban investigators, describing an unauthorized medical jet that had arrived shortly
08:26after Natalie disappeared. Renfro also said she and Beth received a call from an unknown woman
08:31offering information about Natalie's location for money. Renfro claimed she and another American went to
08:37a supposed trap house with money, but found that Jug Twitty, Natalie's stepfather, had already been there.
08:42The Twitty family disputed Renfro's account. It's important to note, though,
08:47that these were reported claims, not verified findings. And that was what was so devastating,
08:53and it was hard to ride these roller coasters out. We're about to find Natalie, and then there would
09:00be nothing, and over and over again. A deep-sea search led by Dave Holloway ran out of money.
09:07I just kept it to myself, but I knew that I was going to Aruba for recovery,
09:12because I knew that after 24, 48 hours, you hadn't heard from them. It's not a good situation.
09:19After Vonderslaut and the Culpo brothers were re-arrested in November 2007,
09:24Natalie's father, Dave Holloway, announced another search for Natalie's remains.
09:28The search used a vessel called the Persistence, and focused on water deeper than the roughly 330
09:33feet covered in earlier searches. The work continued into early 2008, but investigators
09:39found nothing significant. I'm not going to allow myself to be disappointed. I've been disappointed
09:44for the last 12 years. I'm not going to allow it to affect my family, because you can just imagine,
09:50you go into something believing it's true and believing this is going to be the end, and it's not.
09:57It's like you open the same wound over and over and over again. The operation was abandoned at the
10:04end of February because the team had run out of funds. This was separate from the extensive early
10:09searches around Aruba, which had involved Dutch military personnel, local volunteers, and other
10:15investigators. Ultimately, the high-cost deep-sea expedition joined the long list of exhausting leads
10:21that left the Holloway family without the answers they desperately sought. It's tough.
10:26You know, I've been through this for the last 13 years, had a lot of delays where, you know,
10:33we thought we had the answer, and then we got crushed. You know, you get your hopes up high,
10:38but you prepare for the worst. Natalie Holloway, the movie?
10:43For Aruba, you already have two bathing suits. You're only going to be there three and a half days.
10:47But I'm going to be swimming all the time. You do not need that.
10:51In 2008, Lifetime Movie Network announced a television movie based on Beth Holloway's book,
10:57Loving Natalie. The film, titled simply Natalie Holloway, starred Amy Gumenick as Natalie,
11:03Tracy Pollan as Beth, and Jacques Stridham as Joran Vonderslaut.
11:07It was directed by Mikhail Solomon and filmed in Cape Town, South Africa.
11:11I knew quite a bit about Natalie's story prior to working on the project. I remember when it happened,
11:15and was very affected by it when it happened because it was so real and so current. And Natalie and
11:22I are
11:22almost the same age. The movie dramatized events before Natalie disappeared and the investigation
11:28that followed, using accounts from people involved, including Vonderslaut. Needless to say, it did not
11:34crack the case. Its April 2009 premiere drew 3.2 million viewers, then a ratings record for the network.
11:41A sequel film, Justice for Natalie Holloway, aired in 2011.
11:46I read Beth's book, which was really helpful and very well written, and she's a real hero.
11:53I think that she's just a fascinating person, and it's a fascinating story, and it has everything.
11:59It's sad, but it's also very inspiring. Natalie was legally declared dead.
12:05The hearing just ended, by the way. The judge just signed the order, and Natalie's mother,
12:11Beth, was in the courtroom along with her attorney, Dave Holloway, Natalie's father,
12:15with his attorney. It was a united front in that courtroom today. Both parties were in
12:21agreeance to the judge signing the order. In June 2011, six years after Natalie disappeared,
12:28Dave Holloway petitioned an Alabama court to have her declared legally dead. Beth initially said she would
12:33oppose the petition because she had no proof that Natalie was dead, and wanted to retain the
12:38possibility that she was alive. At a hearing in September, the probate judge ruled that Dave had
12:43met the requirements for a legal presumption of death. There was nothing to show that Natalie was
12:48actually dead, and she was clinging on to that hope. Secondly, she's doing so much work for missing
12:53children and missing people all over the country, and she felt that she would let those families down
12:59if she would have her own daughter declared dead. So that's another reason that stopped her.
13:04A second hearing took place on January 12, 2012, when the judge signed the order. Dave cited practical
13:11matters including insurance and Natalie's college fund. By the hearing, Beth's lawyer said Beth had
13:16changed her position. She sat quietly at the back of the courtroom, staring down at her hands.
13:21Has every avenue been exhausted at this point? Do you still try to pursue new information?
13:27Pretty much we have done it all. Every avenue has been explored.
13:31An earlier documentary led Beth Holloway to sue its producers.
13:35We still have a fairly active investigation going. The timing with this series kind of,
13:43we kind of got backed up. And you know, it's like this, we're going to do our own investigation,
13:49you do what you have to do. So that's where we're at today.
13:52You might be surprised to learn that Netflix didn't make the first Natalie Holloway
13:56documentary. In 2017, Oxygen aired The Disappearance of Natalie Holloway,
14:02following Natalie's father, Dave, and private investigator TJ Ward as they pursued a lead.
14:07An informant connected to Joran Vonderslout's friend, John Ludwig, claimed that Ludwig had
14:11helped dispose of Natalie's remains. The search did turn up bone fragments, but its mitochondrial DNA
14:17wasn't a match for Beth Holloway. Beth sued the producers in 2018, alleging they misled her about
14:23the search and about why they wanted her DNA sample. Oxygen disputed her account,
14:28but Beth said the experience left her with weeks of renewed hope and anguish.
14:33I hope it will give families that are searching for either their, you know, either their loved
14:38one's perpetrator, or maybe they're just searching for the remains of their loved one or what happened
14:43to them. But I hope that in some way it will give them hope and encouragement to persevere.
14:49Which overlooked details surprised you most? Have you seen Netflix's documentary?
14:54Tell us in the comments and share another documented part of the case that you think deserves more attention.