Natalee Holloway

On 5 June 2005 Aruban police detained Antonius ‘Mickey’ John and Abraham Jones, former security guards for the nearby Allegro Hotel, which had been closed at the time of Holloway's disappearance.The two were well-known locally for hanging around hotels and picking up women. After being interrogated by police for several days, they were released without charge on 13 June 2005.

Joran van der Sloot, Deepak Kalpoe, and Satish Kalpoe were arrested on 9 June 2005 on suspicion of kidnapping and murdering Holloway. The three had been identified with her outside Carlos 'n Charlie's club, the last confirmed sighting of the teenager before she disappeared. Police Commissioner Gerold Dompig, who succeeded Jan van der Straten after his retirement in mid-2005, stated that the trio had been suspects from the outset and had been under police surveillance through telephone wiretaps and email monitoring.

On 17 June 2005, a fourth suspect, Steve Gregory Croes, was arrested based on information provided by one of the three detainees. On 22 June 2005, police also arrested Paulus van der Sloot, Joran van der Sloot's father. Both Paulus van der Sloot and Croes were released a few days later.

The accounts given by the three detained suspects repeatedly changed. All initially agreed that van der Sloot and Holloway had been dropped off at the Marriott Hotel beach near the fishermen's huts. Van der Sloot claimed he left Holloway unharmed on the beach. During later interrogations, he altered his story again, claiming he had been dropped off at home while the Kalpoe brothers drove away with Holloway. Dompig rejected this version, believing van der Sloot changed his account because he feared the Kalpoe brothers were blaming him and decided to shift the blame onto them.

On 4 July 2005, Deepak and Satish Kalpoe were released from custody following court hearings, while Joran van der Sloot was held for an additional 60 days.

The Kalpoe brothers were rearrested on 26 August 2005 along with a new suspect, 21-year-old Freddy Arambatzis, who was suspected of having inappropriate contact with an underage girl in an incident that allegedly occurred before Holloway disappeared and involved van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers. Van der Sloot's mother, Anita, commented, "It's a desperate attempt to get the boys to talk."

On 3 September 2005, all detained suspects were released by a judge. On 14 September 2005, the Combined Appeals Court of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba removed all restrictions on them after determining there was insufficient evidence to support convictions.

Between April and May 2006, three additional people were arrested on suspicion of involvement in Holloway's disappearance. Despite extensive questioning, all were released without charge.

By 2006, the Aruban authorities had exhausted their investigative leads and requested that the Netherlands take over the case. The Dutch National Police reopened the investigation in September 2006. A new search of the van der Sloot family home was conducted in April 2007. A month later, investigators refocused on the Kalpoe brothers, and on 21 November 2007, the three original suspects—Joran van der Sloot, Deepak Kalpoe, and Satish Kalpoe—were rearrested. By December 2007, all three had been released after the court again concluded there was insufficient evidence linking them to Holloway's disappearance.

On 18 December 2007, Holloway's case was officially declared closed. In total, ten people had been arrested on suspicion of involvement in her disappearance, but no charges were filed and no one remained in custody.

No trial has ever taken place in the Natalee Holloway case, as no one has been charged with her disappearance and her body has never been found.

“I would have liked to have seen a trial so that everything could be out in the open.” – Joran van der Sloot

In the months following his release, Joran van der Sloot gave several interviews in which he expanded on his account of events. In each interview, he maintained that he had left Holloway alone on the beach after telling her he had to go to school the next morning and that she insisted she would be fine by herself.

In January 2006, the FBI and Aruban authorities interviewed several of Holloway's fellow graduates in the United States. They also searched sand dunes on the northwest coast of Aruba, along with areas near Marriott Beach, but Holloway's body was not found.

On 31 January 2008, Dutch crime reporter Peter R. de Vries claimed to have solved the Holloway case and released what he described as a secretly recorded confession by Joran van der Sloot, filmed while he was under the influence of marijuana. In the recording, van der Sloot said he was with Holloway when she became unresponsive after drinking too much. He claimed he tried unsuccessfully to revive her before calling a friend, who told him to go home and disposed of her body for him. Following the broadcast, Aruban authorities sought an arrest warrant for van der Sloot, but the request was denied. Van der Sloot has since denied that his statements in the recording were true.