Holloway case solved, says tv journalist

January 31, 2008

Peter de Vries

Thursday 31 January 2008

Dutch tv crime journalist Peter R de Vries claims to have solved the mystery surrounding the disappearance of US teenager Natalee Holloway.

De Vries said he had used a hidden camera to answer most of the questions surrounding the girl’s disappearance. Holloway vanished while on holiday on the former Dutch colony of Aruba in May 2005.

Holloway’s mother Beth Twitty was in the Netherlands on Thursday to discuss the case with De Vries. ‘It was very emotional,’ the reporter told tv programme Hart van Nederland.

In a press release published on De Vries’ website, the Aruban justice ministry says the new information ‘may shed new light on the way Natalee Holloway died and the method by which her body disappeared.’ It says the office is currently investigating the ‘reliability and value’ of the information.

De Vries has refused to go into further details. The full results of his investigation will be broadcast during his Sunday night tv show.

Dutch student Joran van der Sloot has twice been arrested in connection with the case. He is the last person to have seen Natalee but says he left her on the beach the night she disappeared.

Reporter were unable to find Van der Sloot at his Arnhem address. Van der Sloot and De Vries had a confrontation on another tv programme earlier this month which ended with Van der Sloot throwing a glass of wine at the reporter.

TV programme Nova says it has spoken to three different sources who claim that Van der Sloot has confessed to an un-named Aruban man that Natalee died in an accident and that he hid her body. The conversation was recorded, news agency ANP claims. Two brothers who have also twice been arrested in connection with Natalee's disappearance were not involved, Nova says.

De Vries, who says he worked with eight people on the case, refused to comment on Nova's claims.