Dave Holloway Responds to Dr. Phil’s “Natalee’s alive” comments

Scarborough Country for November 3, 2005

But, first, for more than five months, Natalee Holloway’s family has been desperately searching for the truth about what happened to her the night she vanished in Aruba on a senior high school trip. We are going to be talking to her father, Dave, in just a minute.

But first, a pretty remarkable suggestion last night from Dr. Phil on “The Tonight Show.” Watch what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, “THE TODAY SHOW”)

DR. PHIL MCGRAW, HOST, “DR. PHIL”: We have reasonable belief and some credible evidence that Natalee Holloway is alive.

JAY LENO, HOST: Is alive?

MCGRAW: Is alive. We can’t—we cannot prove that at this point. And we don’t know where she is, but, you know, there is a huge sex slave underground in some of those countries down there. Young women have disappeared from that part of the world before. And we have—we have reasonable cause to believe that she may well be alive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Dave Holloway during his interview with Joe Scarborough takes the high ground and does not directly comment on Dr. Phil’s comments nor that if they were ever discussed with the family first prior to Dr Phil making them. The only assertion that Dave Holloway makes is that the premise is just one of many the theories that has been discussed over the past five months. Once again Dave Holloway takes the high road.

SCARBOROUGH: Let me bring in Natalee’s father, Dave Holloway. He joins us on the phone right now from Aruba.

Dave, thank you for being with us.

DAVE HOLLOWAY, FATHER OF NATALEE HOLLOWAY: Thank you.

SCARBOROUGH: You got Dr. Phil going on TV, saying he has reason to believe—or he says, we have reason to believe Natalee is still alive. Did that announcement on an entertainment show last night come as a shock to you and Beth?

HOLLOWAY: Well, no, not really.

I had a lengthy conversation, in fact, just yesterday morning with the FBI, and based on material they read from Aruba, the lady—or an individual is a homicide investigator, and she point-blank told us, this has been going on five months, since June the 10th. We have not changed our position. We are 99.9 percent sure that we are looking at a homicide, but, you know, you still have a 1 percent chance or one-tenth of 1 percent.

And, you know, I have heard those theories before, and I hope Dr. Phil is right.

SCARBOROUGH: Well, have you talked to Dr. Phil? Do you have any insight for us tonight? When he goes on national TV, and he keeps talking about we—we have reason to believe that Natalee Holloway may still be alive. Does Dr. Phil—what, does the guy have a gang of investigators following him around? What is he talking about?

HOLLOWAY: Well, he does.

There’s a group of people that are investigating that aspect of it as well. So, without going into any further details, I have talked with an individual who has that same theory, and has had that for a long period of time. But, you know, we have checked some places and have come up empty-handed.

SCARBOROUGH: So, Dave, there’s no new information out there right now that you know of that would suggest, as Dr. Phil suggested last night, that Natalee is in the middle of some sex trade in Central and South America?

HOLLOWAY: Well, based on the information that I know, at this point in time, it’s a theory. But, you know, they have pulled rabbits out of the hats before, so, you know, maybe they know something that I don’t know.

SCARBOROUGH: Can you give us a quick update on the investigation down there? Obviously, a lot of frustration. You have the chief of police down there, who sounded like he was going to be helpful before you all got there, but, since you have been there, it doesn’t sound like he is willing to go the extra mile to uncover the truth of this case. What is the status tonight?

HOLLOWAY: Well, I am not sure what the exact status tonight is, but we delivered a letter there asking for the removal of all the investigators all the way up through the prosecuting attorney.

And we—Dompig knows. We had one last hope to resolve the case, that one last witness to possibly interview, and I really didn’t want him to mess up on it. And I asked Mr. Dompig to handle it himself. You know, and that didn’t happen. And I don’t know whether they have lost the case now or not. So…

SCARBOROUGH: All right.

All right, Dave, well, thanks a lot for being with us, as always. And we are certainly thinking about you and your family tonight. Good luck with everything down there.