Judge Declares Missing Natalee Holloway Dead … Natalee Went Missing in Aruba in 2005

An Alabama judge has declared Natalee Holloway legally dead.  Although many of us have presumed that Natalee Holloway was dead and was killed the night that she drove off with Joran van der Sloot, Deepak Kalpoe and Satish Kalpoe from Carlos n’ Charlies that fateful night in 2005, the finality and legality of Natalee’s death being declared is a sobering experience. I cannot even imagine the range of emotions that Beth Holloway and Dave must have felt, as well as the rest of Natalee’s family.

Rest in Peace Natalee

The parents of Natalee Holloway, the American teenager who disappeared in Aruba in 2005, say their ordeal hasn’t ended with a judge declaring their daughter dead. Their lawyers say they hope a young Dutchman seen leaving a bar with Holloway on the last day she was seen alive might ultimately be brought before a U.S. court on charges stemming from the case.

Joran van der Sloot, 24, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Peru to the 2010 slaying of a young woman he had met in a Lima casino. That plea from the Dutchman described as the prime suspect in the Holloway case came hours before Thursday’s hearing in a Birmingham court where Dave and Beth Holloway watched the difficult step of a judge ruling their daughter legally dead.

“We’ve been dealing with her death for the last six and a half years,” Dave Holloway said after Thursday’s hearing. He said the judge’s order closes one chapter in the ordeal, but added: “We’ve still got a long way to go to get justice.”

Our prayers go out to the family of Natalee Holloway, so many of them that I personally know and have met. I had always hoped that this day would never come, sadly we knew it was inevitable.