Hey everybody welcome back to Cole Case Murder Mysteries. I'm your host Ryan Kraus

returning for yet another trip down the true crime rabbit hole.

In this episode, we'll be chasing the elusive outcome of one of the more sensational crimes

in recent decades, the 2005 disappearance of Natalie Holloway in Aruba.

On May 24th of that year, 18-year-old Natalie graduated with honors from Mountain Brook High School in Mountain Brook, Alabama, an affluent

suburb outside Birmingham.

She was headed to the University of Alabama in the fall as the recipient of a full scholarship and planned to enter a pre-med track in her

studies.

Natalie's parents are Dave Holloway, an insurance agent in Mississippi at the time, and Beth Twitty, who worked for the Mountain Brook

school system.

The pair divorced in 1993, with Beth taking custody of their two kids and subsequently remarrying a successful local businessman named Jug Twitty in 2000.

Two days after graduation, Natalie leaves for what is described as an unofficial graduation trip,

meaning it has no affiliation with the school itself, but approximately 124 students from the Mountain Brook class of 2005 are attending,

along with seven chaperones. The chaperones aren't intended to accompany the young people

everywhere they go, but are more so a safety

valve in case anything goes wrong.

The chaperones just meet with the group each morning to be sure everything is okay and are available at any time to offer assistance.

So this isn't a supervised trip, meaning the newly minted 18-year-olds, and even those who are still 17 are going to be on their

own outside their parents house for the first time on a Caribbean island. More specifically, an island where the drinking age is 18,

as opposed to 21 in the US.

Allowing these young people to let loose in the absence of their parents influence for perhaps

the first time ever.

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