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CHEERLEADER Natalee Holloway was enjoying the holiday of a lifetime when she mysteriously vanished on a graduation trip to the Caribbean paradise of Aruba.
And almost 17 years on from her disappearance the case remains shrouded in mystery – with theories ranging from murder to her being sold as a sex slave.
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FBI agents are still hunting for information on Natalee – with US law enforcement continuing to urge people to come forward to help them find out what happened to the teen.
“Holloway’s whereabouts remain unknown,” the case file reads on the FBI website.
Authorities were alerted when 18-year-old Natalee failed to show up for her flight home – hours after she’d been spotted getting into the back of car with three men on the night of May 29, 2005.
The case sparked a media sensation after the prime suspect in the case suggested that the teen had been sold as a sex slave while later claiming she’d been buried in building foundations.
Three men Joran van der Sloot, 17, and brothers Satish and Deepak Kalpoe, 18 & 21, became suspects in the case and were arrested and quizzed by cops after being the last people to see the teen alive.
All were later released but Joran remains a key suspect in the case after he went on to murder 21-year-old Stephany Flores Ramírez in Lima Peru – five years to the day of Natalee’s disappearance.
He beat the Peruvian woman unconscious before smothering her with his bloodied shirt in a hotel room in what he said was an “impulsive act”.
Natalee and 124 of her classmates arrived on the Caribbean island of Aruba, a Dutch territory, on May 26 along with seven adult chaperones for the unofficial graduation trip.
The group had enjoyed four nights of wild partying on the north of the island, staying at the Holiday Inn resort, before their final night of fun at the Carlos’n Charlie’s bar, in Oranjestad.
Natalee was spotted climbing into Deepak Kalpoe’s car long with his brother 18-year-old Satish and then 17-year-old Dutch national, Joran.
It would be the last time that Natalee was ever seen.
The following day her passport and packed bags were found untouched at the hotel when she failed to show up for her flight.
Aruban authorities would be the first to search the island but found no trace of the American before her mum and stepdad, a prominent Alabama businessman, flew in on a private jet to look for her.
Within days stepdad, George Twitty, was able to present cops with Joran’s address after a night manager recognised the teen from the hotel’s CCTV footage.
When initially questioned Joran and Deepak said that they had driven to Arashi beach because had ‘wanted to see sharks’ before dropping her back at the hotel at 2am.
But they claimed they had seen a man in a black shirt, similar to those worn by security staff, approaching Natalee as they drove away.
HUNT FOR NATALEE
A huge search operation for the teen began, hundreds of volunteers from Aruba and the States offered to help – with the island’s government even giving workers the day off to assist.
Dutch authorities even sent 50 of its own marines and three Air Force F-16s with infrared sensors to aid the search the shoreline and $20,000 was raised to help fund the desperate search.
Mum Beth was housed in not just the same hotel but the very room that her daughter had stayed in during the ill-fated trip.
Natalee was not picked up on the hotel lobby’s cameras that night, but Police Commissioner Jan Van der Straaten she that the student would not have needed to enter the reception to return to her room.
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The case was hampered by false leads and despite an extensive search for evidence, no clues came to light.
A local gardener also came forward after he had claimed to have spotted Jovan near a pond near the Marriott Hotel beach – it was drained but nothing was found.
A jogger also told cops that he has seen a blonde-haired girl near a landfill on the afternoon of May 30, the day after she was last seen, but no evidence was found.
A piece of duct tape was spotted
However, on June 5 security guards Nick John and Abraham Jones were arrested at the nearby Allegro Hotel on suspicion of kidnap and murder.
The pair were said to have a history of ‘picking up women’ in the area but were both released without charge eight days later.
On June 9, the Kalpoe brothers and Jovan are arrested and accused of being involved in Natalee’s disappearance.
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But the investigation took a bizarre turn was DJ Steve Gregory Croes and Jovan’s dad, Paulus van der Sloot, were also taken into custody, before they were released on June 26.
The three detained men would change their story, with the brothers claiming Joran had been left alone with Natalee at a fisherman’s hut where he then claims to have left her on the beach.
But Joran would change his story a third time, saying he’d been dropped at home leaving the Kalpoe brothers to drive away with the teen.
His story failed to stack up and the brothers were released on July 4, while Jovan was released on September 3, all under the condition that they should remain available to cops as the investigation continued.
TELL-ALL INTERVIEW
In 2006, Jovan sat down with Fox News to do a tell-all interview because he wanted to ‘share another side to the story.
He claims to have first seen Natalee at the casino inside the Holiday Inn resort after trying to help one of her friends win her money back, he was then invited along to the bar by the group.
He told Fox that Natalee wanted to come back to his house but they never went inside, that she asked to go look for sharks at the nearby beach
REWARD FOR CLUES
Natalee’s desperate family offered a $175,000 reward for anyone who could shed light on her heartbreaking disappearance, which they later increased to $250,000.
Her heartbroken also refused to believe that her teen daughter was dead, despite a US judge
Cops have been unable to solve the mystery with no one ever being charged over her disappearance and no remains ever being uncovered.
And this year Natalee’s mum Beth returned to Aruba as she continues to hunt for answers as part of a documentary series by Inside Edition.
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