The Dana Pretzer Show – Thursday, May 16, 2019 – Please Join Dana Pretzer Tonight at 9 PM ET with Special Guest: Dawna Kaufmann

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Tonight’s Guest:

• Author Dawna Kaufmann discussing former FOX TV Empire actor Jussie Smollet, the disappearance of 4 year old Maleah Davis and discussing her upcoming TV talk shows regarding Dick Clark and Phil Hartman.
• Dawna Kaufmann and Dr. Cyril Wecht’s book, ‘Final Exams: True Crime Cases of Cyril Wecht’

Beth Holloway Oxygen Media over a TV Series “The Disappearance of Natalee Holloway” of Her Daughter’s 2005 Disappearance in Aruba

BETH HOLLOWAY SUES OXYGEN MEDIA FOR 35 MILLION …

As reported at the WAPO, Beth Holloway, he mother of Natalee Holloway, is suing Oxygen media for $35 million of what she contends was a fake television documentary about the case. Natalee Holloway, a Mountainbrook, Alabama teen went missing during her senior trip to Aruba in 2005. Holloway is seeking $10 million in compensation and $25 million in punitive damages against Oxygen Media, an arm of NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment, and the Los Angeles-based Brian Graden Media. The suit contends that rather than being a documentary or true investigation, the show was a “scripted, pre-planned farce calculated to give the impression of real-time events.

All I can say is I hope Beth is successful. I thought the TV series was pretty much nonsense after the first 15 to 30 minutes. I painfully watched it to keep informed, but much of it became unwatchable. It did seem contrived, like reality TV of a missing persons case, which I find a bit disgusting. Having been involved in this case from the very beginning and having actually searched for Natalee Holloway in Aruba and knowing the family personally, the TV series seemed shameless. In full disclosure, I have to say that I have never really found T.J. Ward’s premises and conclusions credible. We shall see how this law suit develops, I hope she wins. Let’s be serious folks, we know who did it, we know how it most likely happened. Keep in mind, Joran Van der Sloot all but admitted it, the Aruba legal system just decided not to prosecute.

Law suit

Last August, when Oxygen Media debuted a six-part documentary series on the case, the first episode pulled in a cumulative 1.1 million viewers, reportedly the highest true crime show premiere in the network’s history.

But that series — “The Disappearance of Natalee Holloway” — is now at the center of a $35 million federal lawsuit filed by Natalee’s mother, Beth Holloway.

According to a legal complaint filed Feb. 2, the show was “not a realtime or legitimate investigation into new leads,” as the program claimed to be, but a “pre-planned farce.” Holloway claims she was duped into providing her DNA to be tested against remains found by producers —  without being told that the testing was for a television show. Entertainment and ratings were the priority, not investigation, the lawsuit suggests.

The lawsuit argues that the network and Brian Graden Media, the show’s production company, knew “prior to filming their Series that they would not find Natalee because the Series was pre-conceived and was not a real-time investigation discovering new facts.”

Oxygen addresses the lawsuit:

“We were disappointed to learn of the complaint and its inaccurate depiction of how the series was produced, and we want to reiterate our deep compassion and sympathy for all members of the Holloway family,” the statement said.

“The documentary series was developed by a production company in close collaboration with Dave Holloway and his longtime private investigator. The show followed his continued search to find answers about his daughter Natalee from a lead he had received. We had hoped, along with Mr. Holloway, that the information was going to provide closure.”

Brian Graden Media did not immediately return a message for comment.

Did Oxygen media exploit a desperate family looking for answers finally in the case of missing Natalee Holloway? You make the call.Was it really an attempt to find answers or just make money and exploit the case that so many want answers too?

The six-episode Oxygen series was billed as another attempt to find answers. The series followed Natalee’s father — Beth Holloway’s ex-husband Dave Holloway — and private investigator T.J. Ward as they re-tackled the case.

The key moments involved discussions with informants, including one who claimed “to have known Joran van der Sloot, to have exhumed Natalee’s body at van der Sloot’s bidding, to have ‘crushed’ Natalee’s remains into little pieces, and to have burned her skull before disposing of her remains,” the legal complaint stated.

The show’s participants took possession of the bone fragments identified by the suspects. On Aug. 10 2017, Dave Holloway contacted his ex-wife, explaining they needed her DNA to see if the human female remains were Natalee’s. He did not tell her the testing was part of a television production, the lawsuit said. She provided the DNA sample — but then heard nothing, until she learned about Oxygen series. The legal complaint alleges producers already knew the remains would not match the missing girl before making the request.

“Defendants further preyed and capitalized on Beth’s desperate need and desire to find her daughter by claiming directly to Beth that they may have found Natalee’s gravesite and asking for .?.?. Beth’s DNA to test against the remains they claimed to have spontaneously discovered there,” the suit says. “To obtain Beth’s DNA, Defendants misrepresented and omitted facts surrounding their ‘discovery’ of remains.”

Much more to follow …

AMBER ALERT Issued for 3 Year Old Mariah Woods Missing in Onslow County, Jacksonville, NC Since 11/26/17

A statewide AMBER ALERT has been issued in North Carolina for 3 year old Mariah Woods. According to reports, Mariah Woods was last seen Sunday night, 11/26/17, around 11:00 p.m. when her mother checked on her in their trailer on Dawson Cabin Road in Onslow County, NC.  Mariah’s mother, Kristy Woods, says they discovered her daughter missing around 6:30 a.m. Monday from her Onslow County home on Dawson Cabin Road around 6:30 a.m. Monday. That alert states that the toddler is a victim of a child abduction; however, the abductor is unknown.

Anyone with information on Woods’s whereabouts is encouraged to call the Onslow County Sheriff’s Office immediately at (910) 455-3113, or to call 911.

Authorities are searching for a three-year-old girl who has last seen Sunday evening after being put to bed by her mother.

Onslow County Sheriff Hans Miller says an Amber Alert has been issued for Mariah Woods. That alert says the toddler is a victim of a child abduction, and that the abductor is unknown.

The child is white, approximately 2’9″ tall and weighs 30 pounds. She has blond hair and blue eyes.

Monday afternoon, FBI agents were in the neighborhood assisting with the child’s disappearance.

Melissa Hunter, Mariah’s grandmother, says the mother put Mariah to bed at their Dawson Cabin Road home and she checked on her about 9 or 10 p.m. Hunter says this morning the mother went to check on her and Mariah was gone.

Hunter says the toddler normally wears orthopedic braces on both feet and when she is without them she doesn’t walk straight.

UPDATE I: Search Continues for Missing Toddler.

Kristy Woods is overwhelmed with emotion as search crews desperately look for her little princess who is missing.

“She’s three years old and goes by Mariah,” said Woods. “She has walking difficulties, so please, if anybody sees her.”

Mariah has long brown hair and blue eyes. She was last seen Sunday night on Dawson Cabin Road in Jacksonville, N.C. The mom says her boyfriend saw the toddler around midnight after he told her to go to bed.

Monday morning Mariah was missing. Since then K9 units are sniffing for clues around the trailer where she was last seen. Multiple agencies are helping a mother desperate to find her daughter and to bring her home.

UPDATE II: FBI involved after Amber Alert issued for missing NC 3-year-old girl.

The FBI is now involved in the search for a missing 3-year-old girl who disappeared in the middle of the night in Onslow County.

An Amber Alert was issued Monday for Mariah Kay Wood, who was last seen Sunday night when her mother put her to bed at their home on Dawson Cabin Road in Jacksonville.

The Dana Pretzer Show – Thursday, August 31, 2017 – Please Join Dana Pretzer Tonight at 9 PM ET with Special Guests: Michael Bishop, Marcel Danesi & T.J. Ward

THE DANA PRETZER SHOW

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Tonight’s Guests:

• Author Michael Bishop will be discussing his new book, ‘A Murder in Music City’
  • Nashville 1964. Eighteen-year-old babysitter Paula Herring is murdered in her home while her six-year-old brother apparently sleeps through the grisly event. A few months later a judge’s son is convicted of the crime. Decades after the slaying, Michael Bishop, a private citizen, stumbles upon a secret file related to the case and with the help of some of the world’s top forensic experts–including forensic psychologist Richard Walter (aka “the living Sherlock Holmes”)–he uncovers the truth. What really happened is completely different from what the public was led to believe.Now, for the very first time, Bishop reveals the true story. In this true-crime page-turner, the author lays out compelling evidence that a circle of powerful citizens were key participants in the crime and the subsequent cover-up. The ne’er-do-well judge’s son, who was falsely accused and sent to prison, proved to be the perfect setup man. The perpetrators used his checkered history to conceal the real facts for over half a century.

• Author Marcel Danesi will be discussing his new book, ‘Murder in Plain English’
  • This is the first book to examine murder through the written word–not only the writings of the killers themselves, but also the story of murder as told in literary fiction and the crime dramas that are now a staple of film and television. The authors–a criminologist specializing in cold cases, written evidence, and forensic science, and an anthropologist who has dealt with the signs and ciphers of organized crime and street gangs in his previous work–are widely recognized experts in this emerging specialty field. Based on extensive research and interviews with convicted murderers, the book emphasizes the often-overlooked narrative impulse that drives killers, with the authors explaining how both mass and serial murderers perceive their crimes as stories and why a select few are compelled to commit these stories to writing whether before, during, or after their horrific acts.The book also analyzes the written work of killers, using a combination of machine-based linguistic patterning, predictive modeling, and symbolic interpretation, to make sense of the screeds of everyone from the Son of Sam and the Zodiac Killer to the Columbine attackers, the Unabomber, and the recent spate of mass shooters using social media as their preferred narrative platform.

• T.J. Ward – Private Investigator will be discussing the latest in the Natalee Holloway case and the discoveries in the case of the missing and delared deceased Alabama teen who went missing on Aruba in 2005. The latest discoveries are being documented on Oxygen TV.

Has Natalee Holloway Finally Been Found After Missing in Aruba for 12 Years? (VIDEO)

AFTER 12 YEARS, HAS NATALEE HOLLOWAY FINALLY BEEN FOUND?

Dave Holloway, the father of missing and deceased Natalee Holloway, is stating along with private investigator T.J. Ward that they may have finally found her remains.  According to Dave Holloway and TJ Ward, remains have been discovered in the long-unsolved disappearance of Natalee Holloway in Aruba and they have been determined to be human. Now, DNA tests will have to be conducted. The new lead was a product of the individual known as Gabriel.  This new discovery  was the result of an 18-month investigation with Ward, a search that was documented for an Oxygen TV show that debuts Saturday, “The Disappearance of Natalee Holloway.” I can only hope for the family’s sake that this is legitimate and will finally bring closure for Beth, Dave and the rest of Natalee’s family. Natalee Holloway went missing on May 30, 2005 in Aruba. But I have my doubts.

Remember the original post from 2005: This Can’t Be Good For Tourism, Where’s Natalee Holloway.

For much more and discussion, go to Scared Monkeys forum: Natalee Holloway.

The father of Natalee Holloway said he and a private investigator found human remains in Aruba and he thinks his daughter’s body may have finally been found.

Holloway was 18 years old when she disappeared in Aruba back in 2005 while on a graduation trip.

Dave Holloway said he was contacted by an informant named Gabriel, who said he had some information that may lead to finding Holloway’s body. With the help of a private investigator, they targeted where the human remains were found. The remains are now being tested for DNA, which could take weeks.

Natalee Holloway’s Father Talks About Possible New Lead In Case

The Story Behind the Story: New Clues in the case of Natalee Holloway