It was nearly five years ago that American student Natalee Holloway disappeared on a class trip in Aruba.
Holloway’s fate has never been determined. The parties last known to see Holloway alive have posited many scenarios for the girl’s likely demise, most recently in February when Joran Van Der Sloot said he left Holloway’s body “in a swamp” while claiming not to be responsible for her death. Police were skeptical that the story held any weight, in light of the many accounts provided by Van Der Sloot over the years about the events of the night Holloway is thought to have died.
An American couple vacationing in Aruba last fall has come forward with a picture they believe may show Holloway’s remains underwater in Aruba. John Muldowney, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, spoke to LancasterOnline.com about the vacation photo:
John Muldowney has a gut feeling the skeleton could be that of Natalee Holloway, the 18-year-old Alabama honors student whose mysterious disappearance in Aruba in May 2005 continues to make international headlines.
“It just seems so strange that that girl never showed up, and here we are right off the shoreline, right where she disappeared, and there’s a body lying there,” said John Muldowney, 78, a retired propane inspector with the state Department of Labor and Industry and owner of the Pinch Pond Family Campground.
“I hate to say I wish it was her, but it would give that family some closure.”
The FBI confirms that the photo is being investigated, but declines to say whether the remains are believed to be those of Natalee Holloway:
The FBI in Philadelphia sent the picture to its senior investigators who work in the Caribbean.
“We did receive that photo, and it was sent to the lead agent down in Miami who handles that area in the Caribbean,” said Special Agent Frank Burton Jr., a spokesman for the FBI’s field office in Philadelphia.
Holloway’s case was officially closed in 2007.