NEED TO KNOW
- Natalee Holloway disappeared on a high school graduation trip to Aruba on May 30, 2005
- Her parents, Beth and Dave Holloway, stopped at nothing to get justice for their daughter
- In October 2023, Joran van der Sloot confessed to killing Natalee
Natalee Holloway’s parents, Beth and Dave Holloway, have been coping with the disappearance and death of their daughter for 20 years.
Natalee was taking a high school graduation trip with friends in Aruba when she went missing on May 30, 2005. Both of her parents led the search for Natalee for 18 years, but her case remained cold until October 2023, when Joran van der Sloot, who was the last person seen with her, confessed to killing her.
Since Natalee’s disappearance, both Beth and Dave have tried to move on while also continuing to talk about and honor their daughter.
The two first met in college and got married shortly after graduating. In addition to Natalee, they also share a son, Matthew.
The former couple divorced in 1993, and Beth raised their children in Alabama. Dave has since remarried, while Beth was married to George “Jug” Twitty from 2000 to 2006, per Fox News.
Here’s where Natalee Holloway’s parents, Beth Holloway and Dave Holloway, are now, 20 years after her disappearance.
Beth has made it her “mission” to advocate for personal safety
Beth turned her daughter’s disappearance into a larger message by advocating for personal safety and helping families who have gone through similar challenges.
In March 2025, Beth used her experience to speak at AdvocacyCon 2025, a crime conference dedicated to bringing together families and friends of missing and murdered people fighting for justice.
“In 2005, my daughter Natalee disappeared during her graduation trip to Aruba. It was a moment in time that turned my world upside down, and it’s the reason why I’m here talking with you today,” she said in an Instagram video message ahead of her speech. “Since that tragic event occurred in my family’s life, I’ve made it my mission to deliver my message of hope and personal safety to people all across the United States.”
In October 2007, Beth released her best-selling autobiography, Loving Natalee: A Mother’s Testament of Hope and Faith. In it, she wrote about Natalee’s life before her trip to Aruba, her disappearance and the investigation up to that point.
Beth and Dave became grandparents in 2015
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In addition to their daughter Natalee, Beth and Dave also share a son. Matt, who was 16 at the time of his sister’s disappearance, “had to become a man” after Natalee didn’t return home, Beth told PEOPLE in 2023.
Matt welcomed his first child, Rylee, in December 2014, making Beth and Dave grandparents.
“I had no idea the love I could have for a grandchild,” Beth told B-Metro in 2015, per Bustle. “It was beautiful.”
Meanwhile, Dave said that his grandchild helped him heal.
“I have three other children and now a grandchild and time has a way of healing,” he told the Daily Mail in 2015. “The first three years were pretty tough as people came up with one theory after another.”
Beth had a relationship with John Ramsey, JonBenet Ramsey’s father
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In the midst of her daughter’s disappearance, Beth struck up a friendship with John Ramsey, the father of the late murdered child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey.
“They share common interests and concerns related to their children, particularly with respect to the actions of law enforcement and the media in response to those tragic losses,” Ramsey’s attorney, Lin Wood, told the Daily News in 2007.
Ramsey later echoed that sentiment and told Denver’s Channel 9 in 2007, “I have great respect for Beth and how she’s handled her terrible situation. We’ve developed a friendship of respect and admiration.”
Beth later claimed that they “were dating” for a period but decided they were better off as friends.
“He is a dear friend of mine, he is. We were dating, I would say. But now I think we really just support each other,” she told Oprah Winfrey in 2008. “I feel as if he has a lot of miles on me, as far as into his journey. I feel like he was a really good source of support and strength.”
Dave remarried and has two daughters
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Two years after Dave and Beth divorced, he married his second wife, Robin, in 1995. The couple moved to Meridian, Miss., and welcomed two daughters, Brooke and Kaitlyn. Before Natalee disappeared, both she and Matt were living in Mountain Brook, Ala., with Beth, but they’d visit Dave and Robin.
“Prior to Natalee’s sixteenth birthday and obtaining her driver’s license, she and Matt had been coming to our home every other weekend and more frequently during their summer vacations from school,” he wrote in his memoir, Aruba: The Tragic Untold Story of Natalee Holloway and Corruption in Paradise, per ABC .
He continued, “But, during Natalee’s senior year in high school, her visits were a bit less frequent due to her many extracurricular activities. So Robin and I made it our business to visit her and watch her dance at football games with her dance team, the Dorians.”
Dave and Robin’s daughters have since grown up, and Kaitlyn — who was 2 years old at the time of her sister’s disappearance — was present when van der Sloot faced the Holloway family in October 2023 in an Alabama court.
“He is a monster and even laying eyes on him made me feel sick inside,” Kaitlyn told the New York Post. “He did apologize and he said something along the lines that he gave himself to God and that he’s a Christian — that he’s a changed man.”
She added, “I really don’t think that’s true. I don’t think it was a sincere apology considering all the damage he has done. I think it was some BS.”
Dave and Beth tried to solve Natalee’s disappearance themselves
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In the 18 years after Natalee’s disappearance in Aruba, both Beth and Dave stopped at nothing to try and find their daughter, working with the FBI and Aruban police and spending months at a time on the island.
“The first year Natalee went missing, I was there three or four months off and on. And then I would go there several times a year in the following years as new leads would come up,” Dave told The Meridian Star in 2015.
When van der Sloot finally confessed to Natalee’s murder in October 2023, both Dave and Beth were present for his day in court and gave victim impact statements.
“Extreme emotional loss and pain really can’t be comprehended by those who haven’t lived a devastating tragedy like ours, and I have also suffered great professional and financial loss,” Beth said. “When you killed Natalee, I lived in Aruba trying to find her and lost my teaching license and my tenure, I had to go back to school to get my license reinstated, and then had to work harder to get my tenure back.”
Beth said her “nightmare was over” after van der Sloot confessed
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Shortly after Natalee’s family finally learned what happened to their daughter, Beth spoke to PEOPLE about how she felt like van der Sloot’s confession was a “huge victory.”
“My never-ending nightmare is over,” Beth told PEOPLE in October 2023. “All those never-ending swirling theories and scammers and informants — no, it’s over. Everyone has their own wishes and desires: mine was answers. I’ve been desperately seeking those answers for so long. It was a huge victory to finally have them.”
Beth — who was persistent throughout the investigation that van der Sloot was the murderer — explained that he previously “had this power over me, because he had all the answers, and I had none.”
“Even though knowing the answer from such a brutal confession can just blister and burn your soul, I needed to know what happened,” Beth shared. “The not knowing is more tortuous than knowing.”
“Joran van der Sloot is no longer the suspect in Natalee’s murder, Joran van der Sloot is her killer,” Beth concluded. “That is the answer that I needed. I am now able to begin to move my life forward.”
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