Elizabeth Ann Holloway (née Reynolds; born 1960) is an American speech pathologist and motivational speaker. She became widely known in the international media after the disappearance of her teenage daughter Natalee during her high school graduation trip to Aruba in 2005. Subsequently, Holloway became a speaker on the topic of personal safety. She founded the International Safe Travels Foundation—to educate the public to help them travel more safely— and the Natalee Holloway Resource Center to aid families of missing persons.
Background
Early life and education
Holloway was born Elizabeth Ann Reynolds and raised in the town of Pine Bluff, Arkansas to parents Ann (née Nichols) and Paul Mundell Reynolds. She later lived and worked in Tennessee. She received her bachelor's degree in speech pathology with a minor in special education from University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She continued her studies at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, where she received a master's degree in speech pathology.
Personal life
Beth Reynolds married college classmate David Holloway and settled in Jackson, Mississippi. They had a daughter Natalee Ann, who was born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1986, and a younger son Matthew. After the couple divorced in 1993, she raised her two children on her own. In 2000, Holloway married George "Jug" Twitty, an Alabama businessman, and moved with her children to Mountain Brook, Alabama. On December 29, 2006, Jug Twitty began divorce proceedings, stating the two have "such a complete incompatibility of temperament that the parties can no longer live together." Beth now lives in Birmingham, Alabama with her son Matthew and become grandmother of Matthew's daughter in 2015.
Daughter's disappearance
In May 2005, Holloway's daughter Natalee was in Aruba on a graduation trip with fellow students from Mountain Brook High School. Natalee was scheduled to fly home on May 30, but failed to appear for her flight. She was last seen by her classmates outside Carlos'n Charlie's, a Caribbean restaurant and nightclub in Oranjestad, in a car with locals Joran van der Sloot and brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe.
Involvement in investigation
Immediately after receiving word about Natalee's missed flight, Jug and Beth Twitty flew to Aruba with friends by private jet. Within four hours of landing in Aruba, the Twittys presented the Aruba Police Force with the name and address of Van der Sloot as the person with whom Natalee left the nightclub. Twitty stated that Van der Sloot's full name was given to her by the night manager at the Holiday Inn, who supposedly recognized him on a videotape. The Twittys and their friends, with two Aruban policemen, went to the Van der Sloot home looking for Natalee. Van der Sloot initially denied knowing Natalee's name, but he then told the following story, with which Deepak Kalpoe, who was present, agreed: Van der Sloot related that they drove Natalee to the California Lighthouse area of Arashi Beach because she wanted to see sharks, before dropping her off at her hotel around 2:00 a.m.
Beth Twitty alleged in televised interviews that Joran van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers knew more than they told, and that at least one of them sexually assaulted or raped her daughter. Holloway stated that she received copies of police statements stating that van der Sloot admitted having sex with Natalee at his home and described intimate details of her. She has never released copies of the alleged statement, though she characterizes them as admissions of "sexual assault" However, Vinda de Sousa, former Holloway/Twitty family attorney from Aruba understood that the admission may have been for consensual sex. In addition, former Aruban deputy police commissioner Gerold G. Dompig denied that any such statement was made, stating that Van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers consistently denied having sex with Natalee.
On June 12, 2005, three days after the arrest of van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers, and in response to a nationally televised address by Aruba Prime Minister Nelson Oduber reaffirming Aruba's commitment to solving the case, Twitty stated, "I'm not getting any answers." She added, "I don't feel any further along than the day I got here." Twitty subsequently stated that her complaints were not addressed specifically at the Aruban government, but arose from frustration at not knowing what happened to her daughter.