Clues with Morgan Absher and Kaelyn Moore - Natalee Holloway: Vanished in Paradise

Episode Date: December 10, 2025

In 2005, Natalee Holloway, an 18 year-old from Alabama, vanished during a graduation trip to Aruba. Her disappearance became one of the most infamous true crime mysteries of the 21st century: a story of conflicting accounts, failed searches, and international media obsession. Morgan and Kaelyn follow the clues that led investigators from island beaches to secret confessions, uncovering the truth about what really happened to Natalee. Head over to our Clues YouTube channel to WATCH this episode: https://www.youtube.com/@CluesPod If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Clues to never miss a case! For Ad-free listening and early access to episodes, subscribe to Crime House+ on Apple Podcasts. Clues is a Crime House Original Podcast, powered by PAVE Studios.  🎧 Need More to Binge?  Listen to other Crime House Originals including Crime House Daily, Crimes Of…, Killer Minds, Murder True Crime Stories and more wherever you get your podcasts! Follow us on Social YouTube: @CluesPod | @crimehousestudios Instagram: @cluespodcast | @Crimehouse TikTok: @Crimehouse Facebook: @crimehousestudios X: @crimehousemedia Clues is hosted by Morgan Absher & Kaelyn Moore  Instagram: @morgsyabsher | @itskaelynmoore TikTok: @twohottakes | @heartstartspounding Episode Sponsors:This month only, take 50% off any new system. This is one of the best prices you will ever see for SimpliSafe—don’t miss it. Hit https://www.SimpliSafe.com/CLUES and lock in your discount. There’s No Safe Like SimpliSafe. Exclusive $35 off Carver Mat at https://on.auraframes.com/CLUES. Promo Code CLUES To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I'm Dr. Hrini-Bot, host of Hidden History. Every Monday, I go where history gets uncomfortable. Vanished civilizations, doomsday prophecies, and events that science still can't fully explain. Listen to and follow Hidden History, available now wherever you get your podcasts. This is Crime House. Today, we're going to cover the mysterious disappearance of an 18-year-old aspiring doctor named Natalie Holloway. Natalie vanished during her high school graduation trip to Aruba in 2005, and her family has been fighting for justice ever since.

The international search for Natalie was one of the biggest news stories of 2005, garnering worldwide attention while also sparking plenty of controversy. Nearly 20 years later, shocking developments brought Natalie's name back into the headlines, while leaving some of the case's biggest questions still unanswered. Hi guys, welcome back to Clues, where we sneak past the crime scene tape to explore the key evidence behind some of the most gripping true crime cases. Also, are you subscribed? Make sure you subscribe.

Wherever you are. Give it a peek. I'm Kayla Moore. I'm going to be the one digging deeper into the timelines, the backstories, and the court files related to these cases. And I'm your internet sleuth, Morgan Abshur. I'm going to be the one who's diving into Reddit forums and other rabbit holes I find online,

hitting my head a few times on the way down, and then seeing what is just not adding up. At Crimehouse, we value your support. Follow clues and share your thoughts on social. For ad-free listening and early access, subscribe to Crimehouse Plus on Apple Podcasts. And if you can't get enough true crime, go search and follow Crime House daily. Our team's twice a day show bringing you breaking cases, updates, and unbelievable stories from the world of crime that are happening right now. Let's get into this case and the clues that defined it.

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This is a big one. this is actually one of the cases that I do remember, you guys, I do remember seeing this in tabloids as it was happening, at the grocery store for months, for months. And this was, I mean, 2005 was still a really like big time in the U.S. Like I saw one, like, headline on this case that this case got more attention in the news than the war in Iraq. Isn't that wild? I know. I read that too when we were researching for this episode and I couldn't believe it. But it was everywhere. It was everywhere, everywhere everywhere. And I think, I mean, her family fought so hard for justice and really made sure Natalie's story was getting out there. Definitely. And you said that you really fell down the rabbit

hole on this one. I got bumped up hard. Yeah. So I'm going to be asking you a lot of questions about that kind of as we go, because I think you're going to know a lot about this that maybe I haven't seen. I have a lot of weird tidbits I'm going to be throwing in. Yeah. Apologies in advance. Good. And just a quick reminder, if you're watching this episode on YouTube, you're going to see some photos and images and maps and stuff that will help you visualize this case. And if you're listening, you can find all of those same assets on our social media. That's at Clues Podcast. And a quick content warning. This episode contains brief but graphic descriptions of attempted sexual assault and murder. Please listen with care. All right. So we're going to start the story

on Sunday, May 29, 2005. 18-year-old Natalie Holloway is soaking up her last 24 hours on the island of Aruba. She's on her high school's unofficial graduation trip. She's accompanied by 124 fellow graduating seniors and seven adult chaperones from Birmingham, Alabama. This is a trip her high school does every year for their seniors. And if you were going to let your 18-year-old go anywhere to party, Aruba seems like a good place to stay. It's a Dutch constituent. It's 20 miles long. It's about the same size as Washington, D.C. And at the time that this all took place, the homicide rate was similar to that of the United States. So when Natalie went off on her trip, her mom wasn't necessarily all that worried about her. Natalie was a great student. She was a really good kid. She followed

the rules. She rarely got into trouble. And this trip started out the exact same. Along with most of her graduating class, Natalie spent the first three days, mostly at the beach, at the pool. She hung out by the hotel casino a little bit. The legal age for drinking and gambling in Aruba is only 18 years old. So the students when they were there. I mean, like we did on our senior trip, too, to Spain. They were like taking full advantage of that. That Sunday is Natalie's last day in Paradise. It starts with a concert on the beach featuring Lauren Hill, Boys to Men. Then the party moves to the casino before heading over to Carlos and Charlies, which is a Mexican-themed chain bar and restaurant that's about a five to ten minutes drive off of hotel property in Oranistad Aruba. There's a photo that

was captured during the night of Natalie dancing. She has this really, really blissful expression on her face. And after the bar closes that night, Natalie and a friend, Jessica Cuyola, grabbed some street food outside before they head back to their hotel, the holiday inn. They're both a little tipsy from a night of partying. And that's when Jessica turns around and sees that Natalie is darting off. She's getting into what Jessica would describe as a white car. And that was later identified as either a gray Honda or a silver Nissan. At the time, Jessica thinks that Natalie must have found someone to give her a ride back to the hotel. Over the course of their trip, they'd learned that taxis are pretty hard to get in

Aruba, especially after the bar is closed. So Jessica doesn't really blame her for taking the ride. And everyone who knows Natalie knows that she's a responsible person. So Jessica just figures she'll see Natalie back at the hotel and doesn't really think about it more than that. However, Natalie doesn't make it back to her room that night. Her roommates, at the time, at the time, time didn't necessarily find it strange. Students in the group had been spending nights in each other's room the whole trip. They would sometimes party or just hang out whatever. And in fact, the group had been having such a good time that the hotel had already decided that the school was not welcome back the following year. Natalie's absence, that's to say, doesn't really sound any alarms in the moment.

That is until the following morning when it's time for the group to head back to the airport and go home. The plan for everyone was to meet at the Holiday Inn lobby before 10 a.m. So all the students could head back to the airport for their flight. Natalie, however, is a no-show. And that is very strange for her because she's never late to anything. When the chaperones go back and check her room, they see that her passport and her suitcase are there, but Natalie is not. And that's when the chaperones call her mother, Beth, back in the United States. And the instant that Beth here, she was, that Natalie didn't show, she calls 911 and then later the FBI. While all of the other students had home, one of the chaperones decides that they're going

to stay behind in Aruba, thinking that maybe she got lost or she was out that night, whatever. Like at some point, she's going to come back and apologize for being late for this flight. But that, as we know, is not going to be the case because Natalie is never seen alive again. Now, just a little bit of backstory on Natalie's family kind of leading up to this. When Natalie was around seven, her parents, Beth and Dave got a divorce. It seems like her parents didn't necessarily both agree on her going on this trip in general. Dave, her dad, thought that a nearly $1,000 trip was a little much for an 18-year-old. He was also concerned, we kind of mentioned this in the beginning, but there was a very low ratio of chaperones to students.

It was about seven chaperones to 124 students. Which is, the kids are really outnumbering the shaperones. Really outnumbering them. Yes. Especially Aruba. Yeah, it's close. It's a foreign country. Still foreign country. Yeah. And they're all partying. Like, they're going out. That's why they go there. So I get it. Yeah. Beth, on the other hand, though, felt like her teenager deserved a vacation. She had maintained this 4.15 GPA the entire school year. She had received a full scholarship to the University of Alabama. She was going there to be premed. Beth believed that this trip was actually going to be good for. For Natalie, it was something that Natalie wanted to do more of. She wanted to travel. Plus, she would be, in theory, surrounded by her peers, even some adults, even though it wasn't a lot of adults. So to Beth, this trip felt relatively low risk. And eventually it seems like her dad allowed her to go on

this trip as well. He even gave Natalie half of the cost of the vacation as a graduation gift. He tried to not worry too much about the kind of trouble that she might get into while she was there, but he never expected that he was going to have to go to the island himself to look for his missing daughter. Now when Beth got the news that Natalie was missing, she was in Hot Springs, Arkansas. After she learned that news, she raced back to Birmingham where she had a friend of the family who actually was able to arrange a private jet for her to go to Aruba and search herself. In 2000, Beth married a man named George Twitty, who goes by Jug. He was a big wig in Birmingham.

him. He worked in the Alabama metals industry, actually. So he had some pretty good connections, and that was what was able to allow him to, like, get this private jet. Beth and Jugg took two of their friends who they thought would be helpful in the search, but they left one seat open on the plane because they were pretty confident that they were going to go get Natalie and bring her back. They landed in Aruba at around 10 p.m. that same night. It was May 30, 2005, less than 12 hours after everyone realized that Natalie was missing. And now their plan was they were going to be. going to get whatever information they could on Natalie's possible whereabouts and get help from the local authorities in finding her. So Beth and Jug did speak with the Aruban police when they landed there

that night, but they felt that the response wasn't what they expected. Police didn't appear to be as concerned or moving fast enough for the Twitties, but hey, they're there in Aruba, so they're going to go try to find out anything they can and find Natalie. They weren't going to just sit idly by. So they started doing their own digging. Pretty much immediately, they came across clue number one, the final sightings of Natalie. Some of Natalie's classmates, who are now back home in Alabama, told the family that they saw Natalie talking to a cute, tall Dutch guy before her disappearance. Now, this didn't necessarily mean that the guy was a tourist. A lot of Dutch families actually live in Aruba.

Because the island is a part of the kingdom of the Netherlands, some of the kids said that they had spotted him in that car that Natalie got into outside of Carlos and Charlie's, along with two other guys that none of them did recognize. The Dutch teen seemed to be around the same age as all of the Mountain Brook students and had kind of been hanging out around this group all week. In fact, a lot of the students had been gossiping about which one of them is going to hook up with him, but not everyone was impressed by this guy. One student on the trip, Brian Reynolds, remembered the Dutch guy nearly getting into a fight with one of his friends, and Brian actually had to break it up.

And this was just a few hours before Natalie vanished. Brian also remembered that night that before the fight, the Dutch teen was talking to Natalie. And so Beth and Jugg know that they have to find this guy right away. Luckily, Jug had a nephew on the trip, who remembered the Dutch teen introducing himself as Yoran during a game of poker at the hotel casino. So Beth asked a hotel employee

if she knew a tall Dutch teenager named Yoran who hung around the casino. And not only did the employee recognize the description, she knew his full name, he's a regular. Yorin van der Sloot, a 17-year-old local. And according to Beth, she shared something troubling, saying, quote, he tends to prey upon young female tourists.

So after Beth gets this tip, she really focuses on finding this guy, Yorin. They convince a manager at the casino to show them the security footage of Yorin's last poker game. They think that this will show them exactly what he looks like. And they can see in this footage that he has short brown hair, these thick low eyebrows, dark eyes, and what seems to be a permanent smirk on his face. It was around this time that Beth also met up with the Arruban entrepreneur Charles Cruz who offers to help search for Yorin. Charles knew where to find all the local teenagers.

They often hung out at this nearby lighthouse where they would drink, hook up, watch the waves. And there, Charles found a group of teens who said that they knew Yorin and even showed Charles where Yoran lived in the town called Nord, about five minutes away. Charles then called Beth and told her to meet him at the police department in Nord. They should get the police involved if they're going to confront this guy. And this first meeting is actually our second clue. Beth and Jug, along with some friends and the Arruban police, go to the Vandersluat home in Nord that night.

Yorin's father, 53-year-old Paulus Vanderslute, answers the door. And Paulus is an attorney, an aspiring judge in Aruba. while Yorin's mother Anita teaches art. Pallis says that Yoran isn't home, but he brings the group to where he thought they could find him, a nearby Wyndham Casino. But what's weird, Yorin isn't there either. And so they go back to the Vander's Sleut house,

and now Yorin's mysteriously home all of a sudden. He's there with a friend, 21-year-old Deepak Calpo. And when questioned, Yoran initially denies even knowing Natalie, or recognizing her name. But eventually, Yorin changes his tune and admits that he was with Natalie Sunday night the evening she was last seen.

And here's the story he tells. According to him, after they met at the hotel casino where Natalie was staying, Natalie invited him to Carlos and Charlie's. Later, he got a ride there from Deepak and Deepak's 18-year-old brother, Satish Kalpo. Yorin said that Natalie got very drunk and was aggressively coming on to him,

and after the bar closed, she wasn't ready to go back to her hotel and wanted to drive around with Yoran. So they all piled into the Calpo Brothers car. They drove towards the lighthouse and parked, and Yorin said that Natalie performed oral sex on him in the car. After that, Yoran insisted that he took Natalie back to her hotel. He even watched as she fell over drunk, stumbling back into the lobby. But no, he didn't get out and help her because he saw a security guard assisting her,

so he left. After this statement, Yoran agreed to go to the Holiday Inn with Beth and Jugg and said that he would even point out the security guard that he saw helping Natalie. But when they got there, Yoran couldn't find the guard. And things at this point started to get really intense. And according to one source I saw, Paulus just ends the interrogation. I mean, he's a lawyer, aspiring judge. He knows that they can't keep harassing him like this. There's a a lot of legal analysts that even say that this is a botched moment if you want to have one. Like Natalie's family probably shouldn't have been there during an interrogation of a potential suspect. And so Paulus ends this. He basically alludes to, hey, no body, no case.

Now, Beth finds this pretty suspicious, but she can't do anything about it. She's going to need the police to officially open an investigation. So after, a first exhaustive night of searching. Her and Jugg head back to their hotel at around 5 a.m. with plans to meet the police in just a few hours. She feels confident that as soon as they hear her story, the police are going to pick Yoran up and really interrogate him officially.

But as we know, Yorin wasn't questioned the next morning. And there's a few different versions as to why that was. So multiple sources that are close to this case, including members of law enforcement, confirmed that the Aruban police did not open a missing person's investigation until three days after Natalie disappeared. The Twitties say that the police initially didn't seem to care very much about finding Natalie. Beth even recalled how there was this one local detective named Dennis Jacobs, who insisted on having a bowl of frosted flakes before he even took her statement down.

Extremely rude. So rude. No rush at all. Natalie's dad, Dave, who arrived on the island that morning of June 1st, said that when he went to the police to ask about Natalie, that same detective, Dennis Jacobs, flat out asked him, how much money do you have? And I see you picking up the boxboard on that one. Yeah, there's a botched in here somewhere. I mean, the three days thing is absolutely absurd. We all know the first 48 hours is crucial. And then straight up asking the dad, how much money do you have? How much money do you have? What do you insinuating? That'll make us move faster. Yeah. Beth, in. Dave agreed that the police seemed to just think Natalie was off partying somewhere. Maybe she left her group and she's still like having this big party and she's going to be back at some point. But the authorities told a very different version of the story. They were not going to admit that that's what they were thinking. They said that they agreed with the Holloways from the beginning

that Yorin and the CalPos were suspects, but they were just trying to do the smart thing by waiting for them to slip up instead of arresting them right away. They hoped that this would somehow lead them to Natalie. The Arabian police claimed that starting on the third day of Natalie's disappearance, Yorin and the Cow Post phones were tapped. Their emails were monitored and they were surveilled everywhere they went. Now, whichever version of events is actually correct, Beth and Dave decided that they were just going to search the whole island for Natalie themselves.

They didn't want to sit and wait 48 hours for the police to start searching. Yeah, and this is where you do get a lot of, of the he said she said of it all. Like one of the main detectives on this case said that like, no, they came in guns blazing and even threatened to burn the place down if Natalie wasn't returned. And so that really rubbed them the wrong way. But at the same time, how can you not expect that out of two worried parents? Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Well, at this time, Beth and Juggs pursuing really another theory. They think that there's a chance Natalie was drugged at the bar and then maybe kidnapped by someone involved in the drug trade.

It had been mentioned to them that there were a lot of dealers in the area who could have either sold drugs to Natalie directly or to urine who drugged her. They started visiting houses where illegal drugs were sold and they would offer between $5 and $100 for people to give them information, but all of the tips that they got went nowhere. A group of about 100 concerned locals even gathered to help search them. on June 2nd, the day that they finally officially opened the investigation, there was a $55,000 reward for information

leading to her return. And that was a lot of money at the time. Meanwhile, the rest of the world starts taking notice of this case as well. Natalie's photo starts being plastered all over the news. And I'm sure it's the one that you guys have seen as well. It's her high school photo,

very nice headshot of her, and it's everywhere all over the news. That's the one that you were talking about was being shamed. shared more than images of like Iraq. In her dad's words, quote, Natalie had become everybody's child. This episode is brought to you by Quince. So lately, I feel like I've wanted to be more intentional about the stuff that I've been

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These two men denied that they had ever seen Natalie, but they had worked for a hotel near the holiday end where Natalie stayed. Their work contracts ended the day before Natalie vanished. They were picked up because the police decided that they were now suspects in this case. In Aruba, suspects don't have to be charged with a crime until 116 days after an arrest takes place unless a judge finds that there's not enough evidence to hold them longer without charges. So these two security guards do get arrested, but they're not officially charged with a crime just yet. The police also don't necessarily reveal why they're right.

arrested these two guys either. Their lawyer told the media that the arrests seem to be based on very vague witness statements about seeing Natalie get helped by two security guards at her hotel, which, I mean, now we can assume came from Yorin. They took him for his word. Yeah. And you're going to trust him, the last person to see her. Yeah. Versus two random security guards who did not even work at her hotel. Yes. And their contract ended the day before she went missing. Right. They did not work at that holiday inn. Right. And this made Beth furious.

She felt like police were looking in all the wrong places and also just taking ridiculous tips and running with them. So she decided she was going to speak her mind. Beth began giving TV interviews openly, accusing the Arruban government of covering for the Vanderslupe family because of Pallas's high-ranking status as a lawyer on the island. And also, it seemed like Yorin had some sort of impunity before Natalie even arrived in a number.

Aruba. See, at 17, he wasn't old enough to legally drink or legally gamble, yet everyone in Nord, police included, seemed to know that he was a regular at these bars and casinos. And no one did anything about it. The person at the hotel knew exactly who Beth was talking about as she described him. Yeah. And immediately is like, you should also know that he preys on young female tourists. He's got a reputation. Everyone knows this guy's a problem. And the hallways are now starting to realize this too. And they believed that by putting pressure on the tourist dependent Aruba through the U.S. news cycles, that that's the only way to get Natalie's case solved. Because remember, tourism is a huge industry there. So if they start making the tourism industry look really bad,

that's not good for Aruba. So they think that this plan will at least help put some pressure on them. They wanted basically the whole island to feel this pressure. Now, the same day that the two security guards were arrested, June 5th, 2005. Aruba requested help from FBI diving teams to help search for Natalie offshore. They felt like maybe it was possible something had happened to Natalie, and maybe her body had been left out at sea. The government also announced thousands of civil service workers would be let off work early on Monday, June 6th, to join in a massive search for Natalie. So it did seem like the pressure was actually producing results. Yeah, the whole country kind of came together in helping, providing rewards.

Yes. Yes. They really showed up. A big, big effort. Now, whether it was because they wanted to help or because they felt this pressure, who knows, but ultimately a lot of people came out to help. And then on Wednesday, June 9th, that's 10 days after Natalie vanished, all three of the prime suspects, that is 17-year-old Yorin Vanderslute, 21-year-old Deepak Kalpo, and

18-year-old Satish Kalpo. They're all arrested. But there was a problem. Police didn't have enough evidence to charge any of them with Natalie's disappearance. And without evidence, the clock was ticking. It would only be a matter of time until they were released. And there's another interesting detail that we found here, but plea bargains don't exist in the Dutch legal system. So you couldn't even get one of them to take a deal.

Like maybe they could give some implicating information in exchange for being let go, but that wasn't an option. I'd love for people to chime in if you're familiar with the Dutch system or like Aruba. But from what I could see, like there's also only a one judge panel that decides over a case. And again, guilt has to be beyond reasonable doubt. Yeah, and that makes me nervous that if his dad was already this like high status lawyer and training to be a judge. Aspiring judge. Aspiring judge. And all of this rests on the opinion of one judge.

judge, like already the justice system seems like it's not going to work in this case. It would have been tough. So all the police could really do was question them repeatedly, hoping to get just something incriminating out of them. And under interrogation, all three suspects did change their story about what happened that night with Natalie. But they all changed it to the same new story. So are you ready for this new version of events, aka our third.

clue. It goes like this. Similar to the first version, Yorin and Natalie danced together at Carlos and Charlie's until it closed. Then they got a ride from the Calpo brothers. This time, it was said that the Calpos dropped Yoran and Natalie off at a beach, about a half mile north of her hotel. And then the Calpos went home, leaving just Yorin and Natalie alone. Natalie was extremely drunk. She was passing out repeatedly on the beach, but didn't want to go back to her hotel. So Yoran eventually just left her there and walked home. Just bye. And, you know, it is only about a two-mile walk, so it's not out of the question.

But to police, it was looking pretty unlikely that the story was accurate and that he actually walked home. Well, also, it's an entirely different story from the first one. It's like not even close. What happened to the security guards that helped her in? Yeah. So they're like, well, actually, the logistics of this one don't make sense. So maybe now he's lying. Of course he's lying.

Of course. Yeah. And no witnesses came forward and saw him walking home in the middle of the night, you know? So it gets even weirder when Yorin's parents cannot confirm what time he got home either. So he doesn't really have a strong alibi. And so at the prime minister's urging, the local police brought the FBI in to consult on the interrogation and to actually create a psychological profile of the suspects. and they got some chilling insights into Yorin's mind.

The psychological profile that they created is actually our fourth clue here. And the FBI found Yoran had a great deal of superficial charm, but they believed he could be explosive if rejected or told no. Yoran totally dominated his parents. They kind of treated him like he was their boss. They never corrected any wrong behavior. I mean, he spent his evenings at the casinos well before he was even 18. Yeah, just doing a legal activity that everyone knew about.

So his parents must have known that he was also gambling and drinking and doing all this stuff. Yeah, and on at least one occasion, Paulus actually gave him money to go gamble. Yeah, they're totally complicit in all of this. Yeah, exactly, kind of seemingly like above the law. Yeah. And so profiler Mary Ellen O'Toole participated in the FBI's evaluation. of Yoran in 2005 and later recalled some more disturbing traits. Here's a quote from an interview she actually gave about 17-year-old Yoran.

Quote, I saw that cold-bloodedness about him. He did have some traits that I'm used to that I've worked with before. He was very glib and charming. He was an extroverted person and he could turn on the charm, end quotes. When she talks about other traits she's worked with before, Mary is referencing her past work on high-profile cases involving mass murderers and serial killers. So despite the lack of clear evidence against urine or the cow pose, one thing was becoming obvious.

Those security guards we talked about earlier were not involved in this at all. That's why I got a little mic here. Which is why it's on the watchboard. On June 13th, two weeks now after Natalie vanished, both of them were released. They were not ever charged with a crime. Beth also felt like they were innocent. But then five days after this, the police were onto another person of interest.

On June 18th, the police spent five hours questioning Yorin's father, Paulus van der Sloot. And then five days after that, on June 23rd, they took him into custody. Now, the authorities didn't release any information on exactly why Paulus was arrested, but they confirmed that he was going to be held separately from his son, who at this point is also in jail with the Calpo brothers. Three days later, on June 26, a judge ordered Pallas to be released, and there's not any details given as to why. Afterwards, Beth confronted Pallis as well as Yoran's mother, Anita,

at the family's home, accusing them of covering for their son. Though they admitted Yoran was a troubled teen and they had been unable to stop him from drinking and gambling, the Vandersluits denied any knowledge of what happened. to Natalie. Paulus sweated so heavily during this conversation with Beth, though, that Anita had to wipe him down with a kitchen towel. And Beth obviously sees all of this happen, and she interprets this as very clear evidence that someone is lying. Whether he was actually hiding something then or not, Paulus stood by his son's story, and there was still more bad news coming for the Holloways. On July 4th, a judge ordered the CalPos to be released. They decided there just

wasn't sufficient evidence to keep them locked up any longer. The judge did allow prosecutors to continue holding Yorin, though, but only for 60 more days unless they could charge him with something. The pressure was on at this point, but as the weeks ticked by and Yorin's interrogations continued, nothing new really emerged. So Natalie's parents tried an old-fashioned way of loosening lips, money, basically. On July 25th, the Holloways announced that they were raising the reward for Natalie's case to a million dollars. That is life-changing money here in the States. It's even more so in Aruba. Anywhere. Anywhere. Life-changing money. And the very next day, it seemed like someone might actually get that reward. So on July 26th, the next day, a gardener

named Carlos came forward claiming he saw Yorin blocking the road near the Marriott Hotel a little bit before three in the morning the night Natalie disappeared. Carlos led the police to a vacant lot near the Marriott where he said that he had seen Yorin, the Calpos, and two large mounds of dirt. By the time the police arrived, these mounds of dirt were gone, but there was a pond there, so the authorities decided they were going to drain it. Unfortunately, that lead went nowhere. It was just full of trash at the bottom of the pond. Chances were that the tip was made up in hopes of claiming the reward and unfortunately that is something that happens, especially as you raise the stakes on reward money too. And you know, there was a few more dead-end leads over the

summer as well. A park ranger turned in some human hair that he found on a piece of duct tape on a beach. DNA testing did not connect it to Natalie. There was also a witness statement from an unhoused man who had passed a polygraph test. The man said he saw a woman's body in a landfill. But again, after they did some actual digging, nothing was found. Another popular theory was that Natalie's body had been thrown into the ocean, but there were these offshore searches that all came back unsuccessful. The island's search and rescue team determined that there was only two ways that Natalie's body could have been dumped in the water without washing back up. If it was dropped more than two miles from the coast, or if it had been weighed down significantly. Now, either of those were a possibility, but there was not any hard evidence of them taking place.

The closest that they came was a report of a stolen machete and possibly a metal lobster trap, taken from a fisherman's hut near the Marriott around the time of Natalie's disappearance. A metal lobster trap was heavy enough that it could have been used to tie a body down and sink it. The timing was also a little suspicious, but that was all evidence that seemed impossible to recover. Now, by mid-August, the police were getting pretty desperate. Time was running out to hold Yoran without charging him with a crime. However, Yorin did offer up some information that got the Kalpo brothers re-arrested on August 26, 2005. During his time behind bars, Yoran had made a pretty damaging admission.

He said that Natalie had passed out multiple times while he was fondling her, which, you know, could be charged as sexual. assault. So the police confronted the Calpos, threatening that they could be charged as accessories to sexual assault for being in the car while it happened. Mostly the police were hoping that this would be the thing that got the brothers to confess to finally tell the police what happened the night Natalie disappeared, but it didn't work. Not only did neither of the Calpo brothers turn on Yorin, but a judge ordered Yorin and the Calpo brothers to be released on September 3rd. They had to remain available to police, meaning that they could be arrested if they tried to leave Dutch territory. However, you can probably see where this is going.

The Netherlands counts as Dutch territory. So on September 6th, Yorin left Aruba to go start college in the Netherlands. Then on September 14th, an appeals court removed the restrictions altogether, which meant that the suspects could travel around the world as they pleased. Beth, obviously, was furious. She was devastated. Dave was incredibly angry as well. And now the prime suspect was out of custody

and in a whole other country. Natalie's parents were starting to lose hope. Hey, before we jump back into the show, let's take a quick break. But not just any break. This is a refreshing break with Snapple. We all know about Snapple's iconic, real facts. So let's take a minute to go

over some of my favorites. Snapple Real Fact, 964. It is illegal in the United Kingdom to handle salmon in suspicious circumstances. Snapple Real Fact 1013. It is illegal to sing off-key in North Carolina. Snapple Real Fact 2033. Americans consume 150 million hot dogs on July 4th. Snapple Real Fact 705. Every ton of recycled paper saves about 17 trees. So grab a Snapple, take a second, and enjoy the moment. Because let's be honest, this might be the most refreshing part of your day. Snapple. Make your break more interesting. All right, now let's get back to clues. One of this week's partners is Grooons. I'm using Spring as a reset button. I'm changing at my routines, getting back to being consistent, and really focusing on my health this year. That is where Grooons comes in.

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Dave seems to have reached a breaking point, and he decided he was going to leave Aruba and pretty much accept that he may never find Natalie's body. But before he could get on a plane, he actually gets a tip that changes his his mind on the subject. A deputy police chief told the family about a tip that said to stop searching on land and quote, out in the sea three to five miles. That made Dave think about that stolen lobster trap we had been talking about. Maybe Yoran had somehow taken Natalie out to see that night. Maybe he borrowed or even stole a boat. So along with a PI that he had hired, Dave hatched a plan to go and find that lobster trap. It would take more than two years for that plan to come to fruition,

but in the meantime, there were plenty of new developments. Beth felt that punishing Aruba's tourism industry was really the only way to keep Natalie's case from being forgotten. So in November of 2005, she joined Governor Bob Riley of Alabama and calling for the entire United States to boycott all travel to Aruba. Beth was not very popular in Aruba anymore after nearly six months of living in an Aruban hotel while bashing the country on American television. Yeah, that was kind of fighting words an act of war. Yeah, a risky move. She also had falling outs with her most loyal Aruban allies over her criticism of the island. Yeah, so I have a quote here from Charles Cruz who helped them search on that first initial day on the island. And this quote is like, it's not a good quote,

you guys, but this is what he said. Quote, they're killing Aruba. That girl, Natalie, I wish she'd stayed home. I hope she's found alive there because no one would care. No one. The kid is just not worth all this trouble, this heartache. Is Natalie worth it? Is she? End quote. Oh my God. Which buddy. That's fucking horrendous. That's a really, that's rough to hear. People in Aruba were just very, very unhappy, especially, I mean, the country did, in their eyes, arrange such a vast search party. They offered money.

I saw in one source, Beth was living in the hotels there for free. So they felt they had, you know, been trying. No, we talked about this too, like in other cases we've covered where unfortunately there is, like a political, not in like the governmental sense, but political in the people pleasing sense side to every case where sometimes parents do have to play ball with investigators just to keep them on your side so they keep looking. Like if you're going to upset the whole country, that can have devastating consequences. But Beth really did not care if everyone hated her as long as they kept looking for her daughter. And those two things are kind of antithetical, which we see in this

case. Her husband seemed to feel differently from her, though. In a letter to the Alabama governor, Jug Twitty advised against a boycott, fearing that it would further strain his family's relationship with the Rubin officials, and they really needed them to be on their side. But even with the tension growing between Beth and the Arruban government, she and Dave find a new way to try and hold the Vandersuits accountable for this. On February 17th, the following year 2006, Beth and Dave sued Paulus and Yoran van der Sloot in civil court seeking unspecified damages. The two defendants were served in person in New York shortly after they arrived from the Netherlands.

One reason for their U.S. trip, actually, was a three-night interview with Fox News's Greta van Cestrian, which aired from March 1st to March 3rd, 2006. This part's crazy to me. Greta's program on the record was Beth's preferred place to give interviews throughout 2005. So now Yorin, who had turned 18 since Natalie's disappearance, was getting a chance to tell

his side of the story. Which story? And that's actually our fifth clue. Yorin's on the record interview. During this tell-all, Yorin stuck pretty close to the story he had told while in custody, the one about going with Natalie to the beach and then

just leaving her there alone. There was a pretty big change in this story, though, where Yorin now said that Satish picked him up in Deepak's car and drove him home. And that what he lied about was actually walking the two miles back home from the beach that night. He continued to insist that there was no penetrative sex between him and Natalie, mostly because he, quote, didn't have a condom. As for why Yorin would leave a drunk foreign teenager alone on a beach in the middle of the night, he had an explanation for that too.

He had tried repeatedly to accompany Natalie back to her hotel, but she just refused, saying she wanted Yoran to stay with her all night on the beach. Yoran claimed he didn't know anything bad had happened to Natalie until he got a call from his father the next night. At which point, Deepak, Satish, and Yoran agreed to lie and say that they had taken her back to the holiday inn. Throughout this three-part interview, which is way too many parts, Yorin seemed to just go out of his way to criticize the Holloways, Natalie, all of their supporters.

He even went as far to criticize the Aruban police, claiming that they hit him during one of his interrogations. And our sixth clue comes shortly after this interview, if we're going to call it that. About 10 months after Natalie was last seen, the Aruban police said that they had a new tip. The deputy chief said that he had received credible info about Natalie's possessing of illegal drugs. Their new theory was that Natalie went back to the van der Sludes home where she used drugs and then died of an overdose. After that, police theorized the young men disposed of the body to avoid being blamed, possibly re-bearing her multiple times all over the island. But nobody who actually knew Natalie believed this theory, but they see. still hoped a new investigation would bring her body home. It also seemed to come out of

left field for a theory. Where is this coming from? Yeah, where is this coming from? Well, a couple of arrests were made after this new tip comes in, but none are really worth mentioning here because they didn't result in any leads about Natalie. So once again, the case just went cold. In August of 2006, the Holloway's civil suit against Yorin and his father was dismissed. Beth seemed to think an American court would be far more favorable in pursuing justice and damages. but the court ruled that there wasn't a good reason for the suit to proceed in New York rather than in Aruba where the crime had taken place. By December, the case had warned the family so thin that Beth Halloway and her second husband, Jug Twitty, officially separated and divorced in 2007.

And at this point, I mean, I can imagine Yoran was feeling pretty confident that he would really never be charged in this case because that is when he starts making really wild decisions. In April of 2007, Yoran published a book about the case. It was only ever released in Dutch, but we do know that in it, he apologized to the Holloway family for lying. He even wrote, quote, I hope every day that Natalie will be found. He also stuck to this news story, too, that he had told Fox News about,

about leaving Natalie alone on the beach. And then in the book as well, which is kind of bizarre, but Yoran even describes himself as a pathological liar. You know what it's giving the same energy as? What? Peter Madsen. Yeah. Where he's like, would I know a psychopath? Does the psychopath know he's a psychopath?

It's like, I'm a pathological liar. Okay, so you're admitting that you are one and how can anyone then believe anything that comes from your mouth? I know. It's even like in the staircase case where the. husband makes a whole documentary about himself. I mean, regardless of if he did it or not. He said he had a purple heart, never did. Yeah, but a lot of people will go on record and write books about things and make documentaries about things about how innocent they are fully knowing that they're guilty or that they're lying or that if you look into them more like the story's

going to fall apart, which I've never understood, but it must be a pathological liar thing. Sure, something. Well, on April 20th, 2007, a Rubin police searched the Vandersluets home again. They didn't give a good reason for this search, but they were extremely thorough and they even dug up the backyard. They took samples of dirt from the backyard too during the search. From inside the house, they seized diaries and a computer. Those two things were later returned. And less than a month later, on May 12, 2007, not quite two years after Natalie disappeared, the CalPo residents was also searched again. No big announcements were made at the time, but they must have felt like they had something new because on November 21st, Yorin was arrested for a third time.

And at this point, he was in the Netherlands, along with the Calpo brothers who were in Aruba. But these arrests were all on suspicion of sexual assault and murder. They must have not really had that much evidence against them, though, because then on December 1st, the Calpos were released again. and on December 7th, Yoran was ordered to be released as well. Then on December 18th, the authorities gave up, and they officially ordered the investigation to be closed. And even though the investigation was closed, there was like a little bit more movement afterwards.

I know at one point, Dave was able to use a boat to kind of go looking at part of the ocean where they felt like there was a lobster trap, like maybe the one that he thought he was looking for in the water. And like in December of that year, they saw what they thought was skull near this lobster trap, but that ended up not really leading to anything. So ultimately, the case just went cold after that. Yeah, we actually don't get our seventh clue until a few months later, February 2008, when a Dutch news program aired some hidden camera footage. And it appeared to show Yorin confessing to disposing of Natalie's body. So it was all a part of this sting operation by a Dutch crime reporter who had just kind of taken up the cause of trying to prove Yorin was guilty.

And now this guy fully committed to the bit. He went undercover, claiming to be a drug dealer and just befriended Yorin, I think over the card tables, if I'm remembering correctly. And so in this video that this reporter releases, Yorin is smoking cannabis in his new friend's car. and while he still says he never killed Natalie, he does admit that she died while in his company. He says that they had sex on the beach and she started shaking and just suddenly died. Then Yorin says, he panicked, called a friend for help, loaded Natalie onto the friend's boat,

and dumped her body in the ocean, without even making sure that she was actually dead. The video includes the chilling, quote, She'll never be found. Now, you guys are going to see a little snippet of this clip. Want you to kind of like pick up a vibe of what Yorne is acting like. In one year, Patrick. Glilla?

Yeah, man. And I'm going to go in here. And I'm so cool, what is this all my, you know? What is this all right? Yeah. Didn't seem like he was being pressured to admit any of this. The friend provided a comfortable space, asked questions, and he just willingly answered. and Beth Holloway ended up seeing this footage as well.

And afterwards, she responded, quote, I hope his living hell is about to begin, and he never gets another night's sleep. But when interviewed about this hidden camera footage, Yoran claimed he was just high and telling his friend what he wanted to hear. After Yorin's denials, the Dutch court ruled that the hidden camera footage wasn't enough to justify a new arrest. At this point, Yoran had told so many lies and had made so many false statements,

the police discounted this new version too, saying that there was no way of corroborating any new evidence. And I don't know about you guys out there listening, but to me, this feels like a botched where it's like, he's clearly the only one connected. He's the only one that keeps continuing to tell new stories about her, and now he's admitting that, oh, he actually saw her. her die. He's the only lead you have. The only one. The last person seen with her by witnesses who keeps lying and changing his story and there's, yeah, there's nothing. It seems like you would at least try. But, you know, maybe double jeopardy is a thing in Dutch courts as well. And so there

was really nothing for the courts to do at this point. One silver lining for the holloways, though, Yorin reportedly had to go in hiding, fearing for him. his life because after people all around the world saw this confession, they were, they were sure it was him and they hated him. But Yorin was still going to go on to tell wild stories despite being in hiding, which is actually our eighth clue. On November 24th, 2008, Yorin went back on the Greta Van Susteren's Fox News program on the record to share a shocking, take a wild guess, new version of events. Totally new story. New story.

Who would have thought? Which, can I just say, like, why are we giving this man so much airtime? So much airtime. So much air time. Oh, my God. A three-night interview also, to start with, just seems so wild. Read his book, Greta, if you want to know his story. And he just knew that they could make money off of telling his story.

It's so unfortunate. Yeah, it is. And so this time, when Yoran goes on, he claims to have sold Natalie into sexual slavery. for less than $10,000 in cash, and this was just handed to him by a stranger on the beach. Before Natalie disappeared, Yorin had reportedly described himself on social media as a pimp. So some people were inclined to actually believe this story. This was also 2005 where I felt like, I feel like everyone was using pimp as like a, I'm so cool. Like that, it was like much more in the lexicon of what people were saying.

Well, and I heard a clip of him on this show, and like, to me, listening, it's like he's not even telling a cohesive story to her. He's like, yeah, some guy just asked me to get him a blonde girl, blonde-haired blue-eyed girl. And then Greta was like, well, what was his name? I don't know. Like, he just, you get the vibe. Yeah. He's lying yet again. And the only evidence he could really offer up to support this was a recording.

It had what he said were three phone calls between himself and his father. in which they discussed Yorin's involvement in human trafficking. And in the recording, Paulus orders his son not to talk to anyone about what he's done. Fox News allegedly paid him $25,000 for an interview and access to those recordings. And while American experts couldn't determine whether or not the recordings were real, Dutch News just kind of went ahead and reported them as fake. Many actually believed that the tapes were made solely by Yorin, and he just recorded himself speaking in two different voices.

But on the other hand, Jim Hammer, a former assistant DA in San Francisco, says Paulus did not deny that the recordings were authentic. So he kind of took this to mean, well, he's a lawyer. He's not denying it. Yeah. Maybe they are real. Like they could have been real.

They could have been. Afterwards, the case goes quiet for a while. But then there is another unexpected twist. On February 10, 2010, Paulus van der Sloot died of a heart attack while playing tennis in Aruba. He was just 57 years old. Yorin went back to Aruba for the funeral. And while he was there, it seems like he thought up another way that he could kind of profit off of this notoriety he was starting to get. In March of 2010, he actually contacted Beth Holloway's lawyer.

and he offered to tell them the truth about what happened to Natalie once and for all in exchange for $250,000. Now, Beth made a smart move, and she immediately contacts the FBI when this offer rolls in. And the FBI encourages her to go forward with the payment to Yorin and hopes that it might reveal something real, which now that we've read about all of the lies that he's been spewing feels like insane advice, that they're telling her to spend this much money on getting potentially just more lies from him, nothing. Yeah. So Beth's representative told Yoran that he would get a 10% down payment on the $250,000,

and the rest would be delivered after he revealed the location of Natalie's body. And of course, Yoran agrees to this. On May 10, 2010, he received $10,000 in cash as well as a $15,000 wire transferred to his Dutch bank account. Now, if you could believe the FBI was not the one that provided this money, this all came from Beth. They were like, you should definitely do this. We think this could result in something. However, we're not going to foot the bill. Yeah, it's totally your risk.

So she is the one that sends him the $25,000. And Yorin led Beth's representative to really just a random house where he said that he'd concealed Natalie's remains in the foundation while it was being built. He even managed to blame his recently deceased father saying that, Paulus actually helped him bury Natalie. But records and satellite images very quickly proved that workers did not even break ground on this house until long after Natalie vanished. So this was not just a lie. It was very obviously a lie. There was no effort even put into the lie to begin with.

Yorin eventually confirmed in an email that he knew the information he provided was, quote, worthless. However, he did say he was going to keep meth's $25,000 anyways. But what's interesting about this, though, is this is actually a crime to do this. And Yorin had just committed extortion. Theoretically, he could be arrested for that in Aruba and then extradited to the United States to face trial. However, according to the FBI, the real true rock stars of this whole thing, the case was, quote, not sufficiently developed to bring charges immediately. a.k.a. we're not the ones that lost our money, so we don't really care about this. I'm sure if it was there $25,000, they would have acted a little bit. It's getting more hastily. It feels a little slimy.

They decided that they were going to buy their time. But now, at this point, Yorin has $25,000 extra dollars to live on. He decides that he's going to leave Aruba, and he's going to head to Peru. And that's where another tragedy is about to occur. In 2010, I'm going to leave Aruba. I'm going to 10, after this extortion incident, Yorin's mother claims that he was supposed to return to the Netherlands for an inpatient mental health treatment. But instead, he went to Peru to gamble. After he arrived in Peru, he promptly gambled away the $25,000 he had extorted from Beth. And this is kind of something that everyone has said about Yorin and records show that even though he gambled a lot, he was also very bad at it. And he lost exorbitant amounts of money. So the $25,000 goes away immediately. And by May 30th, 2010, the fifth anniversary of Natalie's disappearance, he was broke. But he was still hanging out near poker tables, just looking for a chance to be able to buy back in. Maybe he was hoping that he could just win all the money back and that he'd be fine. But before he could get back to playing,

Yoran left a casino in Lima, Peru, with a 21-year-old named Stephanie that he had met just a few hours earlier. And that brings us to our ninth clue. Stephanie Flores Ramirez. Stephanie was a pretty promising young poker player. In fact, she'd reportedly just won 5,000 Peruvian Soles, which is a little under 2,000 USD from a tournament. Still, she wasn't ready to go all in as a professional poker player just yet. She was in her junior year at the University of Lima,

studying business administration. In her free time, she also loved to play soccer and honed her business skills by helping her four brothers run their event planning business. Now, we don't know why she left the casino with Yorin or why she went with him to his hotel room, but we do have surveillance videos of this. Tell me what you guys think of her body language. I mean, the news really speculates on this part. So watch it and put it in the comments.

Like, what do you get from this? So to me and a lot of others, Stephanie looks really apprehensive. She's hunched over, not looking up, but she still follows Yoran into his room at about 5 a.m. in the morning. A little after 7 a.m., Yoran left briefly and then returned with bread and two cups of coffee. But at 8.36 a.m., he leaves the hotel room for good, after telling staff not to bother, quote, his girl in the room. No one was allowed to enter the room, actually. In one source I saw,

Yoran had like prepaid for the room for two weeks and like made it very clear to hotel staff, like, do not go in my room. Right, right. And so it's not until three days later on June 2nd that hotel staff do find Stephanie dead in Yorin's hotel room. She's faced down with a broken neck

and bruising on her body. Her credit cards were missing. Along with the 5,000 solas that she had just won plain poker. And in this crime, the evidence against Yorin was overwhelming this time. I mean, there's surveillance footage that you guys saw. There's witnesses. There is a body in a hotel room with his name on it. Yeah.

And that, again, this is why there's a botched mark for that. Yeah. You know, had he been charged with the extortion, he wouldn't have gone to Peru. Yeah, FBI. I hope you're watching this. Right there. Plus, Stephanie's father was a retired race car driver who had run for president in Peru. So her family was well known. They had high level connections to the government and to law enforcement. So in this situation, the police move a lot faster. There's a lot more on the line. They immediately launch a manhunt across South America with every expectation that they're going to find you're in,

especially because they already knew which way he went. Yoran had tricked two Peruvian taxi drivers into taking him across the border into Chile, and then he cheated them out of payment. And now those two drivers were cooperating with the police. One day after Stephanie was found dead in that hotel room, Yoran was arrested about 2,000 miles away in Chile. A police convoy transferred Yoran all the way back to Peru after his arrest, and they arrived there on Saturday, June 5th.

Yoran pretty quickly confessed to killing Stephanie, claiming that he did it in a rage because she used his laptop without permission. But again, we know how much he lies about literally everything. But he does say in this confession that when she was using this laptop, she discovered information about his connection to the Natalie Holloway case. And when he makes his confession, it pretty much immediately gets reported as fact in U.S. tabloids. but it raises eyebrows in Peru. Killing in a sudden fit of rage carried only a three to five years sentence there. Crazy.

Three to five years. Crazy. Premeditated murder could bring up to 35 years. Still not a lot, but up to 35 years. So it seemed like Yorin maybe came up with this confession specifically because he knew that and he knew that he could get an incredibly short sentence. Plus, according to police,

a search of Yorin's laptop proved that there was nothing on that laptop in connection to Natalie that Stephanie could have discovered, and therefore she most likely did not confront Yorin about this. Yoran's attorney, of course, disagrees with all of these conclusions. Now, Yorin's participation in numerous TV interviews over the years made law enforcement very skeptical of this story. If he was so afraid to be publicly connected to Natalie's case, why did he keep talking about it all the time and like on such big platforms? Why did you write a book? Why did you write a book?

Police, therefore, mostly ignored this confession. They believed that Yoran planned to murder and steal Stephanie's poker winnings. That was his intent the entire time. So it didn't look like Yoran was going to get the manslaughter charge that he wanted. And he was now public enemy number one in Peru. On his way to be arranged for the first degree murder and robbery, Yorin was briefly marched past members of the public and they pelted him with rotten vegetables. By June 10th, Yorin was desperate to get out of Peru before he could be tried, so desperate that he offered to trade information on the location of Natalie's body for extradition to Aruba.

Yeah, we've been down that road before. Yeah, yeah. He just feels like this is a bargaining chip that he has that he can use whenever he needs it. Except neither the Peruvian nor the Aruban authorities were interested in this deal at all. They did not trust Yorin to tell the truth. So Yoran was going to have to stay in Peru and be tried there. It took 18 months before Yoran finally pled guilty to the charges of murder and robbery on January 11th, 2012. He received a 28-year sentence that's close to maximum, and he was ordered to pay 200,000

solace of restitution to Stephanie's family. At the time, that was about $75,000, accounting for the time served while he was awaiting trial that would leave 24-year-old urine free to be extradited to the U.S. in 2038. There, he would finally face the extortion charges that had since been pressed against him for what happened with Beth. Like we talked about. The day before Yorin's sentencing, an Alabama judge declared Natalie dead. And that was because of Dave's request. And Beth, it seems like, objected to this, but it was something that Dave wanted.

He wanted Natalie's little brother to be able to use her college fund. He wanted to be able to take Natalie off of his family's health insurance plan. Constantly having to see these little reminders was absolutely agonizing for him. At this point, I mean, your family's not able to grieve really because you don't know what happened. And I could totally see how they were ready to kind of start being able to process and move on as a family. He still had these two little girls with his second wife, Robin, to think about as well. But one thing that Dave did agree with Beth on, even though they disagreed on this point, was this was not going to be the end of the search for Natalie. And again, you guys know I went on the rabbit hole on this one. I just have like two little tangents here for us.

One, I really want to commend Stephanie Flores' family. Yeah. In the wake of this tragedy, her dad was doing interviews and basically being like, I hope that this tragedy and losing my daughter brings the Holloway family something. peace and justice. He knew exactly what this meant and like really went above and beyond. And then point number two, while Yoran is in this Peruvian prison, jail, whatever it is there, they call it maximum security. I think we have a different definition here in the States. Yoran actually married a woman while in prison in July 2014. They met while she was visiting a relative at the prison, and she actually ended up becoming pregnant with his child and gave birth to a daughter

in September of 2014. That is wild. Yeah. And there's so much more to that rabbit hole. He eventually asked for a divorce, and his lawyer started doing interviews to be like, yeah, Yorne wants to get divorced because he has a hot new younger girlfriend. What? Rabbit hole, don't do it.

I mean, he should not be the father of a young daughter, so maybe that's... for the best, but oh my gosh, that's wild. Very. So over the next few years, Natalie's case continued to accumulate a lot of other dead-end tips that just didn't go anywhere. And in 2018, Beth actually sues oxygen media for $35 million over a docu-series that they made called The Disappearance of Natalie Holloway. And this was like also kind of an upsetting tidbit to go down.

But Beth claimed that she was tricked by production into providing. a DNA sample for comparison with remains that were found in Aruba. They did not apparently tell her that this was for a television show. She also claims that this raised her hopes under false pretenses by letting her believe that they might have found Natalie's remains when in fact the series was scripted and the producers knew that the bones they were testing were not her daughters. In fact, in this lawsuit, allegedly, the producers knew that the bones were not even human. They turned out to be pieces of wild boar skull allegedly planted by a supposed witness that was

seen in the documentary. Oh my God. Yeah. And what's upsetting too, and I've seen a lot of people debate this online, so the stars of that documentary were Dave and his private investigator. There's a lot of debate online as to how much Dave knew about this. I cannot imagine from everything we've read about him so far. That he would have participated in this docu-series if he knew from the jump, that these were wild boar bones. I literally just got the chills. I feel like that must have been a bait and switch or just he didn't know. It's an interesting, just like the media angle of this whole case the entire way.

You just see how many different times the media decided they could make money on this case. So they continued to share lies and platform urine and then also do insane stunts like this, like potentially plant animal bones. Yeah. I mean, the media went wild with this. I believe it was Greta's show even that moved to Aruba for a while. Yeah. And her ratings shot up by like 60%. Like they were really capitalizing on Natalie's case.

Yes. On January 10th, 2020, however, it seems, at least from some sources, that this lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice, though, meaning that it can't be filed again. And that is really where things stood until 2023, just two years ago, when the case took a final surprising turn. In December of 2022, Peru got a new president, Dina Boloarte. And in May of 2023, she agreed to temporarily extradite Jorin van der Sloot to the United States, though he would have to eventually return and finish his sentence in Peru. Yeah, no more conjugal visits for him during that time period, which brings us to our 10th and final clue, Yorin's only official confession. Yoran arrived in the U.S. in June, 2023. Finally, U.S. prosecutors had some leverage over him.

There was ample evidence in the extortion case, so if Yoran wanted any kind of leniency, he was going to have to give them something in return. On October 18, 23, as a part of a plea agreement, 36-year-old Yoran pleaded guilty to extortion and wire fraud charges. He was sentenced to 20 years to be served concurrently with his 28-year sentence for killing Stephanie Flores. And this meant he'd basically be adding just seven years to his total sentence and set for release in 2045 at the age of 58. The U.S. could have insisted on a consecutive sentence, but Yoran gave prosecutors what they really wanted, his formal confession to murdering Natalie in recorded form.

And I will say, according to a lot of the sources I read, like, Beth did work really closely with the FBI, and like they consulted her on all of this to make sure that whatever plea deal they gave him, she was comfortable with. So, yeah, that's great. It's maybe a half mark off for him there. But this is the final story Yoran gives. Yorin claimed the Calpo brothers left Yoran. and Natalie alone on the beach near the Marriott Hotel. Natalie rejected Yoran's attempts to have sex with her. He then attempted to sexually assault her. Natalie fought back, kneeing Yoran in the crotch with all of her strength. Outraged at being rejected, Yoran kicked Natalie in the face hard enough to knock her unconscious. Yorin then said, he noticed a cinder block nearby, grabbed it, and used it to smash her head in.

He says that despite being on a dark beach, he could see that her face was caved in. After that, he dragged her body into the ocean and pushed her in. I guess that kind of goes back to what the original profiler was saying about that becomes explosive when told no. That kind of aligns with it. Yeah, right on the money. Unfortunately, the statute of limitations for homicide in Aruba has since expired, so Yorin will never be charged with Natalie's murder. Ultimately, though, both of Natalie's parents believe Yoran is guilty and that his final confession

mostly accurately describes the murder itself. Beth issued a statement right after Yoran's confession and she said this. Let's play the tape for you guys. Today, I can tell you with certainty that after 18 years, Natalie's case, it's solved. As far as I'm concerned, it's over. It's over. She then goes on to say that Yorin's confession has allowed her to reach the end of a never-ending nightmare. She said, quote, and for me, reaching the end of the nightmare, being over is better than closure.

It's been a very long and painful journey, but we finally got the answers we've been searching for all these years. That whole video of her coming out of the courtroom and, like, giving her statement is so powerful. I recommend you guys watch the rest of it in full. but we also have her victim impact statement that she read during sentencing. And I just want to read a couple excerpts from that as well. Quote, Natalie would be 36 years old now. I think about what kind of doctor she would have become. She would be married, have children, my grandchildren,

but you destroyed all of this. You terminated her potential, her dreams, and her possibilities when you bludgeoned her to death in 2005. You took away my son's big sister. You changed the course of our lives and turned them upside down. You are a murderer. Remember that every time that jail door slams shut, you are a killer. And we will be posting the full impact statement on Instagram.

It's extremely powerful. She absolutely drags him. I mean, it is worth going over there and reading. But that is all we have. on our Natalie Holloway case. That's the most closure that anyone's going to get on it. It seems to be enough for the family. So that's what's important.

Family feels really good about it. Both Beth and Dave, they finally feel like they can heal and move forward with their lives a little bit. Yes. And I think with that, let's talk about our missing person of the week. This one actually comes from you guys in the community. We love hearing from you guys about cases that you want us to highlight. So keep sending us those. We have a whole list going.

at this point of ones that we want to highlight. So thank you for that. Absolutely. We want to know the cases that people aren't talking about. The best way is getting them from you who you're connected to them locally because if they're on the national news, the word is already getting out. So we want to amplify voices that are not. This week we want to highlight the case of Tony Turner. Tony was last seen at the Dobritae House located at 1937, Murray Ave in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The circumstances of her disappearance are unknown. However, a few of her belongings were approximately three miles from the location she was last seen. She's described as being 28 years old now. After the Dobra Tea House, she then headed home. Tony got off at her regular bus stop that evening on the corner of Hazelwood Avenue

and Gidding Street. She got off where she normally gets off to walk to her house. But then, after that, it's a mystery. Later that evening, Tony's belongings, her phone, her wallet, her keys, and her bag were found on the Homestead Gray's Bridge, which was about two miles away from her bus stop. When her sister Sidney went to Tony's home, she found it empty, and Tony's boyfriend and roommate were both out of town, and there was no sign of her. Sydney reported her missing just after midnight on New Year's Day 2020. The Pittsburgh police continued to investigate, but there's been no major updates. Tony's sister believes someone in the community might know more about what happened that night. Tony's described as being 5'2, around 130 pounds,

chin-length black hair and a tattoo of a spiral on her left shoulder. She was last seen wearing a black jacket, gray Abla Español, shirt, and gray cargo pants. She would be 28 now. She's also described as being black with medium complexion, black hair, and brown eyes. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Pittsburgh Police Department at 412-3-2-3-7-1-441. And that is all we have for this episode of Clues. Thank you for joining us on this case. Back next week with another one.

Thank you so much for joining us this week. And now we want to hear from you guys, thoughts, theories, opinions, all of it. We love hearing from you guys. And it's all of that that makes this community so special. Absolutely. At Crime House, we really value your support. So again, share those thoughts on social media. And remember to rate review and follow clues and subscribe.

And subscribe to help others discover our show. If you want more of us, I'm over on two hot days. And I am at heart source pounding. Until next time. Bye. Every week we dive into the pieces, both hidden and obvious, behind some of the biggest true crime cases. Subscribe to Clues Pod with Morgan Absher and Kaelin Moore on YouTube.

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