Replies

The Search For Natalee Holloway: A Producer's Diary - Day 1

Natalee Holloway disappeared while on vacation in ArubaThis is the first in a series journal entries written by AMW correspondent Rick Segall as he searched in Aruba with Dave Holloway, Natalee Holloway's father, and the EquuSearch team.

10/25/05

I'm in Aruba and for days, I've been talking with Tim Miller, the director of EquuSearch - a Texas-based search and recovery team. Hopefully today, Tim will introduce me to Dave Holloway, Natalee Holloway's father.

I can't even fathom what Dave is going through -- returning to Aruba five months after his daughter was last seen alive, still holding onto the hope of finding her. Dave came back to the island with the EquuSearch team, an amazing group of volunteers and experts who travel the world to locate missing persons, and this time they're hoping to find some answers.

It has been rumored on the island that Natalee was at a series of shacks known as "the fishing huts" the night of her disapperance. It's an area on the beach close to the Holiday Inn, where she was staying, and now, locals say that Natalee was there with the three boys who have been the focus of the investigation.

Yesterday, Dave went went back to the fishing huts to look around for himself. He wanted to see things first hand, and I still can't wrap my head around what he discovered.

Dave said that seeing the cross unraveled the thread of hope
Memorial To Natalee

Dave Holloway at the makeshift memorial for his daughter, NataleeAs Dave walked down the beach, he happened upon a small wooden cross. When he looked closer, Dave noticed a rosary and the initials "N.H." carved in the corner. I wouldn't have wanted to be in Dave's shoes for anything in the world at that moment.

Today, the crew and I went back with Dave Holloway to the makeshift memorial. It was a touching dose of reality - Natalee is probably never coming back. Dave said that seeing the cross unraveled the thread of hope - the thread of hope that the Holloway family has been holding on to, the thread of hope that Natalee may still be alive.

What's The Reason?

Knowing what we know about that area, that a gardener had spotted the boys in the wee hours of the morning right near that spot, knowing that the boys may have taken Natalee to those fishing huts, knowing that a large steel fishing cage and a knife were stolen from those fishing huts and knowing that tips have come into Aruban police that a boat left from those spots -- all of those things combined, that cross means something to the investigation, something yet to be discovered. The memorial is not close to any of the places where people have gathered to memorialize Natalee, like the church and the lighthouse. So why there?

Mere Coincidences?

AMW correspondent, Rick Segall, accompanied Dave Holloway to the makeshift cross As hard as I try, I can't imagine that the makeshift memorial is just a random coincidence. Yes, there is widespread media attention on the fishing huts a few hundred yards away. But why would someone put the cross there unless they knew the significance of this area? It certainly adds credibility to the tips indicating that something sinister happened from that very spot.

The cross has become a sort of headstone by default for Dave. It's the closest thing that the Holloways have to a grave. The emotion while we were there was just overwhelming, and Dave was doing his best to hold it together. That cross was obviously put there by someone that knows something or maybe someone with a guilty conscience.

But it now becomes obvious why Deputy Police Chief Dompig wants the EquuSearch team to search the waters off this stretch of beach. That search is now underway. I will join it tomorrow in the hopes that the ocean floor holds some answers and some closure.

http://www.amw.com/features/feature_story_detail.cfm?id=827