Fox & Friends
October 4, 2007

 

Brian Kilmeade:  Joining us in studio is Natalee's Mom, Beth Holloway. Her new book "Loving Natalee: A Mother's Testament of Hope and Faith" is out now. Its excellent.

Beth, why do you think it was important to write this book right now?

Beth:   Well, I had 3 reasons of why I wrote the book and you know fist, I wanted to tell the one, true story of what actually happened while we were in Aruba. You know there was a lot of misinformation and speculation regarding her disappearance and secondly, I wanted to share with people how my face sustained me, the message of hope and thirdly I want to give parents the benefit of what I've learned about being involved in a crisis in a foreign country and I've established a foundation, it's Safe Travel Foundation .org and we are excited about the information that we're pulling together.

Steve Doucy:  Beth, I read the book yesterday. What happened to you is all messed up. You were in a meeting and people effectively said there's been a cover-up here.

Beth:  Oh absolutely, I was in a meeting with the, you describe it very well, with the hotel industry, the persons that represent it and yes, the CEO he actually quietly nods as I say 'come on, you know"

Doucy:  Is most of the island in on this? How many people on the island know what happened to your daughter?

Beth:  I know that, I know that her perpetrators that took her from the establishment that night, I know they do. I suspect, strongly suspect that on of the primary suspect's father has information as to what happened to her.

Gretchen:  Joran van der Sloot

Beth:  Yes

Gretchen:  The father of Joran van der Sloot, Paulus

Beth:  Ahum, yes

Gretchen:  You also had a conversation with one of the other suspects, one of the Kalpoe brothers and up until this point you were not really able to share the details, now in the book you do. What happened in that conversation?

Beth:  Well in the book, I describe it very clearly and I think that it shows that a parent will do anything to get to the bottom of what happened to their child. I don't think that there's anything that, you know we would be afraid of or you know, I felt as if you know, if I had a chance, you know to get with him, meet with him to see if there's any information that he had, just to see if he might have a, you know, a change of heart to tell me if he doesn't have anything to do with her disappearance then, you know, please talk to me. I think it just shows we were doing everything we possibly could.

Gretchen:  You don't believe that she potentially ever went to the beach that night, do you?

Beth:  I really don't and I think in writing the book it became pretty clear what was happening, I had a lot of revelations about things that were happening right in front of us but we didn't see it. It was as if they were two steps ahead of us the whole time but we, you know, we had no idea. We went in as Americana’s with expectations to be treated fairly and honestly and you know, we were just naive.

Brian Kilmeade:  Did the FBI let you down?

Beth:  The FBI has not let me down, the FBI would have done anything, anything that Aruba asked them to do but that's the real issue here that when you're a sovereign country, I mean you, the FBI could only participate once they had an invitation to investigate, to participate in Natalee's investigation. This issue is that that government has to require, has to ask for assistance and has to ask for your valuable resources and technology to be utilized.

Doucy:  Beth, my family will never go to Aruba again, how many people have come up to you and said that?

Beth:  Actually, I've had a lot of persons that expressed that you know, it concerns them, it concerns them because if you find yourself outside of our borders in a crisis situation, you need response, you expect assistance from competent professional individuals and I think that it's brought it to the forefront that safe travel is all up to individuals that's embarking on this destination. It's up to you to be prepared and ready just in case there's a crisis.

Gretchen:   Obviously you went through so much personal tragedy in losing your daughter, but this has also brought so much other pain in the relationships in your life. You were married and now that is no longer; you're living with your son in Alabama which is wonderful, but talk about how this whole thing has eroded other aspects of your life

Beth:  Well of course I think everyone sees that nothing has remained intact. I mean, my marriage, my career, my family, you know nothing has remained intact except my faith and in my experience my face has only deepened.

Brian:  Do you have a theory about what happened to Natalee? What do you think is the closest thing you know to what happened?

Beth:  I really try to be careful to only lay the facts out and stay away from speculation and misinformation just as the tabloids have done, been reprehensible in what their speculation has been

Doucy:  I see, you don't want to do that.

Beth:  I don't

Doucy:  The tabloids say that you're dating John Ramsay, JonBenet father?

Beth:  You know, my entire life has been completely exposed and I think for my future personal, I think I want to keep it quiet.

Doucy:  Good!

Beth:  Okay

Doucy:  The book is called "The Search for Natalee", we thank you very much for joining us today.

Beth:  Thank you so much