The Trial

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 SlootIn the months following his release, Joran van der Sloot gave several interviews, expanding upon his version of events and in each, maintained his story that he had left Holloway on her own on the beach after saying that he had to go to school in the morning and her insisting she would be fine left alone by herself.The FBI and Aruban authorities started interviewing several of Holloway's fellow graduates back in the United States in January 2006 and also searched sand dunes on the northwest coast of Aruba for her body, as well as areas close by the Marriott beach but she was still not found.On 31 January 2008, Dutch crime reporter Peter R de Vries claimed that he had solved the Holloway case and revealed a supposed confession from Joran van der Sloot, which had been secretly filmed whilst he was under the influence of marijuana. In the tape, van der Sloot said that he was with Holloway when she became unresponsive after drinking too much and he had tried to revive her but with no success. He then claimed he called a friend who told him to go home and disposed of her body for him. The Aruban authorities tried to get an arrest warrant for van der Sloot following the airing of the filmed confession but their request was denied and van der Sloot has since denied that what he said was true.