Natalee Holloway News: Witness, Jurriën de Jong, Says He Knows Where Holloway Is Buried

A new witness has come forward in the Natalee Holloway case, claiming he knows where Holloway’s body is buried.

Who Is Jurriën de Jong, New Natalie Holloway Witness?

Jurriën de Jong, a Dutch citizen, has come forward as a witness, claiming that he saw Holloway in Aruba on the night of May 30, 2005 – the night she disappeared. He claims he was near Marriott’s Aruba Surf Club, conducting some kind of illegal activity, when he saw a young woman being chased through a construction site by a young man. De Jong says the two disappeared from sight, and when they reappeared, the woman appeared to be unconscious and limp, carried by the young man who then stuffed her into a crawl space in the construction before leaving.

After reports of Holloway’s disappearance spread, de Jong deduced that he must have seen Holloway that night, but he hesitated to come forward due to his “illegal activities.” He told CNN he was afraid of what his criminal bosses might do if he went to the police as well as prosecution for his undisclosed crimes.

In 2008, three years after Holloway’s disappearance, de Jong felt compelled to speak out after watching an undercover interview with Joran van der Sloot, believed to have killed Holloway, in which he admitted to the killing and confessed to dumping Holloway’s body in the ocean – van der Sloot has since recanted. De Jong claims to have been angered by the lie, and his anger inspired him to reach out to Holloway’s father, Dave Holloway. At the time, Mr. Holloway believed de Jong to be another false lead or hoax, and he dismissed the story.

De Jong continued to speak out, contacting prosecutors in Aruba and even going to the press. “I was running out of possibilities. I tried to convince the head prosecutor, the parents, then I tried to convince the other head prosecutor, but he didn’t listen,” de Jong told CNN.

It wasn’t until Mr. Holloway read a police report filed by de Jong that he believed him, and the two have been trying to get authorities to take de Jong’s version of events seriously. One major flaw in de Jong’s story is that the Marriott claims the construction on their property had not begun when Holloway went missing, but neither de Jong nor Mr. Holloway believe them.

“I can tell you for a fact. I was there on June 1, and there was definitely construction in that area. June 1, 2005, because it was all chained up. And that’s one of the areas we never searched because we assumed it’s locked up and secured at all times, and they have construction workers on the site. It was something we assumed that that would never need to be searched and it wasn’t,” Mr. Holloway told CNN.

Mr. Holloway added that he would like to see authorities search the area with a dog. And, while he is hopeful that de Jong is telling the truth, he is being cautious: “I want to believe it, but I don’t want to get myself into a situation where I put all the marbles into this story and then it doesn’t pan out and then I’m in a situation mentally where it’s going to take a while to get over so I’m just cautiously watching and thinking, ‘How does this story fit in with what he is saying?’”

Article by Olivia Truffaut-Wong

Olivia Truffaut-Wong was born and raised in Berkeley, California, where she developed her love of all things entertainment. After moving to New York City to earn her degree in Film Studies, she stayed on the East Coast to follow her passion and become an entertainment writer. She lives on a diet of television, movies and food.

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