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'The Abrams Report' for July 26

Coming up, what could be a major break in the investigation in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway in Aruba. A lot of police activity going on down there. It's heating up. We've got the details coming up.

And her family hopeful with all of these new leads in the case. They have now upped the reward money to $1 million for information on her safe return. Natalee's uncle tells me what's keeping them so optimistic.

DANIELS: And welcome back. We have breaking news right now out of Aruba. Police activity at a pond near where a witness claims to have seen the three suspects in Natalee Holloway's disappearance. Let's go straight to NBC's Michelle Kosinski for the very latest.

Michelle, what's going on there?

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Once again today it's all about witness statements. And we are seeing developments in this case based specifically on the words of one man, a gardener. He says that as we speak, confirmed by multiple sources now, that authorities are getting ready to pump the water out of an area where this witness claims on the night that Natalee Holloway disappeared, he spotted the Kalpoe brothers and Joran van der Sloot in the Kalpoes' car parked along a dirt road.

Now this area is a big open field with several dirt roads running through it. There are some bushes there too. Parts of it are hidden. People use it as a cut through to get from one road to another. Also it's very close to the Marriott hotel where the Kalpoe brothers claim they dropped off Joran and Natalee early that morning that she vanished. Also the Kalpoe brothers claim that they were home well before 3:00 in the morning, and that's the time this witness says he came upon these three in the car in this area.

We know that authorities are waiting for a fire truck to arrive to help them pump the water out of this area that was flooded when the last storm rolled through here. This is the same witness, by the way, whose statement sparked a large-scale reenactment yesterday involving the FBI and local authorities. And today we were able to sit down with the private investigators hired by the local newspaper who were able to track this witness down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ART WOOD, INTERVIEWED WITNESS IN HOLLOWAY DISAPPEARANCE: Maybe four weeks ago, I heard that there was—had been a domino game at the prison where one of the Kalpoe brothers had been told that someone saw him behind the Racquet Club the night that Natalee disappeared. And that he became ashen and white and turned the dominoes over and left the game. We spent four weeks trying to track the lead down, and eventually last Friday we located a gardener who was working at a residence not far from the Racquet Club.

He lives in that area, but he has no air conditioning. About 2:30 -- between 2:30 and 3:00 in the morning, on the night that Natalee disappeared, he left his residence and went across a dirt road to go to a residence where there's air conditioning. He—when he went around the one turn on this dirt road, there was a car blocking his way. He had to slow down to almost a stop to go over a little hill to get past them.

When he got to that car, he noticed that Joran van der Sloot was driving, and Joran tried to cover his face. The other passenger in the front seat was one of the Kalpoe brothers, who also put his hands up like this, and the back seat passenger ducked down. This witness is a simple man that was just trying to get to an air-conditioned apartment at the time. He didn't come forward to claim a reward or anything like that. His story doesn't change.

He's steadfast in what he saw, who he saw, the car he saw, and where it happened. We believe that all three, the Kalpoe brothers and Joran Van Der Sloot, are involved in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway. And this witness destroys the timeline of their alibi. There is no way they could have been home and in bed by 3:00 a.m. if they were in that field behind the Racquet Club at quarter to three.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSINSKI: Obviously, investigators are putting some store in what this witness has said. Yesterday during his reenactment, they actually brought the Kalpoe brothers' car out and put it in this location. And also today these private investigators were able to confirm for us that there is a second witness out there who claims he saw something happen at the landfill here on the island, one of the few places that has not been searched, and that this witness claims he knows where Natalee Holloway's body was placed. We know that the volunteer searchers are headed back to this island. They want to look at that area, as well as this one, where as we speak investigators are ready to get the water pumped out so that they too can take a closer look. Back to you.

KOSINSKI: All right. These are huge developments, possibly huge developments we should say. Michelle Kosinski—thanks so much Michelle. We appreciate it.

So just going to recap quickly. We're talking about tips from one witness, a gardener, who, first of all, pokes a hole in everyone's timeline here. He says that at 2:45 in the morning, he sees these three guys outside a Racquet Club and now—right now they are clearing—pumping out the water outside of the Racquet Club near a pond. So very interesting developments.

Let's turn to Jossy Mansur, managing editor of Aruba's “El Diario”, the newspaper that hired those two private eyes. Is this it? Is this the break that we're waiting for?

JOSSY MANSUR, “EL DIARIO” MANAGING EDITOR: I think it is a very important break, not only in the sense that these guys' alibis are gone, but it also pinpoints that the story they've been holding onto, that they dropped Joran and Natalee over here at the beach and then went home just doesn't fit. Because in the declaration of Joran on the 13th of June, he said very distinctly that at 2:00 a.m. he was over here with Natalee.

They went to the beach. They laid down. The girl fell asleep and he walked back, and then Deepak—what's Deepak doing there if they claim that he was home. But Deepak walked over to where the girl was sleeping on the beach and that was it.

DANIELS: I mean, there are so many thoughts running through my mind right now, but, first of all, how credible is this guy? Why is the gardener coming forward on Friday? Why wait this long?

MANSUR: Because he was finally found on Friday by the people that we hired. We did bring in a retired ex-special service agent from the U.S. to work with our team of the “Diario” on this case. And they were looking for him for three and a half weeks. Of course, the man was scared because this is a high-profile case. There are so many implications in it for him personally. He has got to be on stand by for the police. He's got to go to the police every time they have to do a reenactment or whatever, so he was a little afraid—very afraid to come forth.

DANIELS: So he's not responding to any type of monetary reward. Let's be clear. You found him?

MANSUR: Of course not. Of course not. We found him. We convinced him to present himself to the police to lay off a sworn statement, and that's what he did. There's no money being claimed here of any sort.

DANIELS: Let's back up here, Jossy. You're managing editor of “El Dario”.

Why are you so involved in this case?

MANSUR: I am involved for many reasons. Number one, I feel a strong affinity to this Alabama family that came here. I studied in Alabama. I went to college in Mobile, Alabama. I also went to high school in Mississippi, so I do feel a strong affinity to them. I know the people of those two states were very nice people to me when I was there at school, always invited on any holiday to one family or another's home for Easter or Christmas or whatever, and I found them to be very fine and very classy people.

DANIELS: OK, but bottom line...

(CROSSTALK)

DANIELS: ... and I'm not trying to be a cynic here, bottom line is you're spending a lot of money on this investigation and you're coming up with a lot of things. Why are you spending the money? Is it to sell the papers?

MANSUR: No, we don't have to sell the paper. This is the largest paper on the island. We don't have to prove ourselves on this market. That's not the reason.

(CROSSTALK)

MANSUR: The reason is she is an American girl, a U.S. citizen that's disappeared from our island, and it's up to us, every single Aruban to contribute and help and do whatever is necessary to find her.

DANIELS: I mean just—congratulations to you that your investigation seems to be leading to so much more than the Holland authorities, the FBI at this point, the Aruban authorities. You're the person unearthing a lot of this.

MANSUR: Yes, we are. We have a good team of people dedicated to this. From the beginning we assigned our reporters to this, and later we assigned these three, the one that we brought in from the U.S., a very experienced man...

DANIELS: Yes.

MANSUR: ... and they are doing what they have to do, and we have our contacts also here locally that we've built over 25 years, so we have access to certain information no one else has.

DANIELS: Well you definitely have that, I'll tell you. Jossy Mansur, we're going to have to see where this one leads us. Thanks so much for joining me. I do appreciate it. We'll be talking to you soon I'm sure.

MANSUR: Quite welcome.

DANIELS: Now we're going to move to former FBI special agent Don Clark.

Don, I need your expertise here. What do you make of all this?

DON CLARK, FORMER FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Well you know, Lisa, in all due respect to the Holloway family, I hope this lead or the next lead will be the one that helps to solve this crime. But now looking back at this as an investigator, you know you've got to look—I've been down this path before, and I'm not suggesting that I want to really measure the credibility of this witness that's coming about, but I have to look at the circumstances. While at the same time I cannot totally throw out this information until I can do something to check it out, so their hands are sort of tied.

They've got to do something. They, being the law enforcement officials, they've got to do something with the evidence. But at the same time they've got to continue on with their path of trying to make sure that they are taking a logical progression to trying to solve this case.

DANIELS: Let's be cynics for a moment, shall we? Here is a guy in the middle of the night he's in his car, he says he needs the air conditioning; he's driving somewhere. He comes across three guys who are ducking; they're trying to avoid being seen. It's dark outside, he nearly crashes into them, and what amazes me is that he says that he can identify them. Does that sound fishy to you?

CLARK: Well, you know it sounds a little bit unusual to me that someone may be able to pick that out, but I wouldn't just judge my—make my decision based on that. When you get that type of information, unless it's just absolutely so outlandish that you know that you don't have to go any further, but something like that, I think you do have to do some checking out. The law enforcement community cannot afford to just let that piece of information pass, Lisa. They've got to do something with it and you just hope that this person is credible and that they have not fabricated a story. Because certainly that would be something that's in my mind.

DANIELS: I agree. I mean it's hard to assess who is credible, who's not. It's not like people have signs on. You really have to put together pieces of a puzzle. Don Clark, thanks for clearing up a lot of this situation. But again, I think we're going to have to wait on this one and see what happens.

CLARK: Yes, they're going to look and see a bit more.

DANIELS: Yes. All right. Thanks so much Don.

Coming up, Natalee's family is pretty happy that investigators in Aruba seem to be making progress in the investigation. It's been two months. Natalee's uncle gives me the family's reaction to the latest developments.

That's next.

DANIELS: Coming up, new details in Aruba where authorities are reportedly preparing to pump a pond near the Marriott hotel. But first, the headlines.

DANIELS: Aruban authorities are reportedly expected to pump a pond on the island tonight. It's a pond near the area where a witness says he saw Joran van der Sloot and Deepak and Satish Kalpoe right after they say they were home and in bed in the early morning hours of Alabama teen Natalee Holloway's disappearance, so a lot of questions here.

Joining me now, Paul Reynolds, Natalee's uncle. And Paul, we hope you're holding up OK. What is your reaction to the developments about this pond?

PAUL REYNOLDS, NATALEE HOLLOWAY'S UNCLE: We're glad that something is finally happening in the investigation. You know we don't know how important each piece of information will be, but, you know, we're glad it's finally moving. You know there were—my sister delivered the suspects to the police the day that Natalee was missing. Ten days went by with no activity in the investigation, and finally things are happening. More information is coming in. People seem to be moving in the direction that hopefully will bring us that information we need.

DANIELS: Paul, I could never possibly put me in your situation right now, because I don't know what your family is going through, but I imagine I would have two very conflicting emotions at this point. I want to know the answers. At the same time, hearing about a pond or a body, that would just horrify me.

REYNOLDS: It certainly—you know, it's certainly not the outcome we would like to have and you know we don't know yet what's going to happen. But we know we have to follow up every lead. You know we're just determined to get to the bottom of this, to get the truth and find out what happened.

DANIELS: Does it concern that you it seems like the most number of pieces of information, we don't know if they are credible, but a lot of information seems to be coming from private sources, private investigators. You don't really hear about the Aruban authorities coming up with this information. Is this just that we're not hearing from them, or does it worry you?

REYNOLDS: Well, I think some of it is that we're not hearing from them, but you know the 10 days in the beginning, where the suspects weren't picked up, they weren't questioned, evidence wasn't taken, it certainly caused us a great deal of concern. We're glad that private citizens are coming forward and wanting to solve this case. It's—tremendous support we have received from so many different places.

DANIELS: If I were to speak to your sister Beth, what do you think she would want if she had a magical wand and could get something from investigators, some answer, some piece of knowledge, what does she want at this point that she's not getting?

REYNOLDS: Well of course what she really wants is her daughter. You know she wants her daughter back. But, you know, right now she is willing to receive information that will help her find her daughter and find out what happened, and that's what we all want.

DANIELS: You know, you're in the United States, your sister is in Aruba. How does this work in terms of giving her comfort, giving her support and the other way around too?

REYNOLDS: You know, we've always been a close family. We talk several times a week, offering support. She knows I'm there for her, and I know she's there for me. And I am going to Aruba this week. I'm looking forward to spending some time with her, and, you know, just being with her.

DANIELS: What does your gut say? Do you think that some of these answers are going to be coming forward in the next couple of weeks?

REYNOLDS: This is the most optimistic I have felt in some time that we're moving forward, that information will come out. I think that things are in place that will take us where we need to go.

DANIELS: Well you know, everyone is constantly thinking of your family, and you seem like a very strong family. We appreciate your coming on the show, Paul.

REYNOLDS: All right. Thank you.

DANIELS: All right. Paul Reynolds, thanks.