Three Dutch specialist talk about their assistance in Natalee Holloway case.

The case of Natalee Holloway draw a lot of attention from the media this summer. There is a Dutch suspect; F-16’s were deployed and 3 Dutch investigators from Utrecht were also involved.

Ron de Ruiter from the investigating bureau in southern Utrecht, Hans Burgwal from JZZ and Wim Henzen from the investigation division, are just finishing with some formalities and will put an end in the case of Natalee Holloway.

Natalee is an 18 year old American student that on the night of 29 and 30 May disappeared in Aruba, after being with suspect Joran v/d Sloot and the Suriname brothers Kalpoe friends of Joran who also became suspects. After few court hearings and legal presentations, the 3 suspects were set free and Natalee still not found.

Professional Interrogators:Less than 2 months after the Holloway’s disappearance flew the 3 Utrecht specialist, on request from the ALE, to support during interrogations of the main suspect. Later their tasks were broadened with the 2 other suspects. This because Ron and Hans were professional interrogators (TPV). Wim went too for coordination and as facilitator.

“We work close with the Dienst Nationale Recherche Inlichtingen” said Wim, “behavior specialist Bram van der Meer was there for a few weeks already. The behavior of the suspect and the help of Bram were very important to this case.”

And so the three Utrecht men got tangled in the media circus. “It was strange and it did not stop”, told Hans, “CNN spent 90 days long with daily reports on the case, Larry King did the story twice a week. When we got outside we were surrounded by camera crew, journalists and photographers.”

What else did we get? “A skeptical Aruban colleagues” said Hans, “But this was a normal reaction, handling and investigating the case for two months and suddenly new Dutch investigators helping in your case. Then you were forced to show that you were good in your job you are doing. The ice was quickly broken, the cooperation with the ALE was good and became even better.”

“The Aruban police force had done a great job already” said Hans, “as well as quality job and a quantity job. There was so much information on documents. Some Aruban police officers worked for 80 consecutive days on the case. The result was impeccable."

Did your assistance helped in the case? Yes, a definite yes, even though not much information was new in the interrogations. But was that not your main speciality? “Correct”, reacted Hans, “Within all the declarations done, we looked for new facts and inconsistencies. That gave up a lot of information.”

But the case is not yet closed. Was it necessary? Are you satisfied? Hans: “Of course is unrehearsed interrogations from the suspects not satisfying and that the girl is not yet found also. Specially for the family is this very dramatic. But the F.B.I., that followed the investigation, told us that they would not have done this otherwise. That was a very nice compliment. Emotionally, this case will stay with you till the girl is found because this is an once-in-a-lifetime investigation. No matter the result in this case, we have done a lot with the Aruba Police and cooperated well with them and therefore not dissatisfied.

Source: Korpskrant, Politie Utrecht jaargang 7 nummer 14. Published in Aruba 29-10-05.