Natalee Holloway: Dave Holloway Responds to the release of Paul Van der Sloot as a Suspect

From Fridays interview with Dave Holloway and Greta Van Susteren ‘On The Record,’ November 11, 2005. The fact that Dave Holloway was not surprised that Paul Van der Sloot would be released as a suspect says a lot as to why he may have at this point and time favored a boycott of Aruba. Just more of Dave Holloway’s frustration in trying to search for his missing daughter, Natalee Holloway.

Greta: Dave, I am sure you just heard that the judge has cleared and closed the case against Paul Van der Sloot. Your thoughts?

Dave: Well about three weeks ago I was on the island and I heard he was planning on doing this. I knew right then based on what this case has done so far; I knew that he was probably going to get off. There is another strike against the prosecution that supports our case for the removal of the entire team.

Greta: Now did you talk to the prosecutor about this before she argued it on the 21st? Because she argued that the case continues against Paul, obviously having lost today.

Dave: No, when I got on the island that wasn’t even mentioned. I heard about it in the news reports. But I was called in by the police detective the following day. He took a statement and I went over all the conversations I had with Paul VDS at the prison and went into minute details. When that statement was printed out, I was disappointed that it had a one liner on there that I met with Paul and Anita at the prison. And that was it. I thought that was a statement that was being taken to defend against Paul’s release as a suspect and apparently it was not.

Greta: Dave, you live and breathe this so you remember the details so intimately but the viewers may have forgotten. But you actually confronted Paul Van der Sloot when he was visiting his son Joran at the jail. When was that?

Dave: I did and I asked him all these questions. Why he ran? Was he involved? Did he have any information as to whether Joran was involved? Were the Kalpoe brothers involved? Did he hire the attorneys? Did he coach the kids? Exactly what his involvement was. The last statement he said was “I’ll do anything to protect my son.” None of that was included in this statement.

Greta: Did he answer any of those questions you just listed?

Dave: He did answer all of them and he denied he was involved in any of it.

Greta: In terms of … did he say anything about his son in that conversation at the jail?

Dave: Yes, he said Joran wasn’t involved and had nothing to do with Natalee’s disappearance.
The only thing that he said was that Joran lied and the reason he did was because he felt like he should have dropped her off at the Holiday Inn rather than just leaving her on the beach.

Greta: During the course of the summer from about May 31st when Natalee was reported missing and that conversation did the police or prosecutor ever say anything else to you to suggest that Paul Van der Sloot was involved in the disappearance of your daughter?

Dave: They really didn’t get into that. One of the things I really had a concern with was the FBI was contacted and the FBI wanted to come to the island. The FBI wanted to get involved due to the fact that we had an American citizen missing on their island. I recently found out that decision was made by the prosecutor and the police department to not allow the FBI to become involved as they should. In fact they sent a dive team up approximately a week later and they ended up going home. They didn’t even step foot in the ocean.

Rest of the interview