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Intrigue! An intricate sting operation! A trip to… New Orleans? The plot thickens during Episode 2 of Oxygen’s true-crime docu-series The Disappearance Of Natalee Holloway.
Last week’s episode introduced us to Gabriel, an informant who came forward with new information about the unsolved disappearance of Natalee Holloway. Gabriel claims that his roommate John was paid $1,500 by Joran van der Sloot to dig up the remains of Natalee’s body. According to John, those remains were then taken to a morgue and cremated. If he’s telling the truth, this new information could finally lead to Natalee’s father, Dave Holloway, finding the answers he so desperately seeks.
Episode 2 premieres Saturday night at 7:00 p.m. on Oxygen, or you can stream it for free on Oxygen.com. Here are 5 takeaways from the latest episode of The Disappearance of Natalee Holloway.
1. Dave and T.J.’s ‘You Won a Free Trip to New Orleans’ plan is… not super great.
Episode 2 revolves around a plot to get John into a bugged hotel room in New Orleans where, hopefully, he’ll once again confess his involvement in moving Natalee’s remains to Gabriel. New Orleans is a one-party state, meaning you can record conversations with the consent of just one of the parties present. The piece of cheese they use to entice this rat is the ol’ “You won a random free trip to New Orleans” caper.
You’d think John would be a little suspicious about a random free trip in which his good friend Gabriel continuously wants to have a casual chit-chat about a high-profile murder mystery, but nope! He even discusses the possibility of emulating O.J. Simpson, always a terrific idea, by talking about the case in a hypothetical manner similar to Simpson’s infamous If I Did It book.
Even though I’m 99% certain this scene was staged for dramatic effect, I do appreciate that the series featured a shot in which the key players in the sting operation are standing around a map of Aruba like they’re planning an intricate heist.
2. The seedy side of Aruba is further explored.
During the sting operation, John confirms that he and Joran slipped GHB in multiple women’s drinks while partying in Aruba. What’s even more reprehensible is how certain bartenders in Aruba helped to create a culture that directly led to innumerable sexual assaults. During his investigation into Natalee’s disappearance, Dave discovered that it was common practice to pay a bartender $25 to clandestinely spike someone’s drink with GHB.
3. Paul van der Sloot’s role in the potential cover-up is broached.
Police have long suspected that Joran’s dad, the now deceased Paul van der Sloot, helped his son cover-up the disappearance of Natalee Holloway. During last week’s premiere, Gabriel tells Dave and T.J. that John told him that Paul not only helped his son bury Natalee’s body in the National Forest back in 2005, but he actually cracked her bones so that he could make her body fit into a burlap sack.
In Episode 2, Dave Holloway reveals that days after Natalee’s disappearance, a witness saw Paul van der Sloot exiting the National Forest during the middle of night. That sounds like a promising lead but…
4. John now claims he lied about the original whereabouts of Natalee’s remains.
Ugh. This guy. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that a noted liar lied, but here we are.
After a bit of prodding from Gabriel, John now says that the remains were never in the National Forest but were actually buried in a cul-de-sac located about ten minutes from his aunt’s house. This revelation raises additional questions, but the one most germane to the case is how Van der Sloot knew of this location back in 2005. The real-time update of this case from last week notes that authorities “discovered human remains behind a house in Aruba.”
Looks like we’ll have to wait until Episode 3 for additional information.
5. Finally, I’m no cracker-jack private eye but…
… maybe be a bit more inconspicuous with your covert sting operation, T.J.
