One of the Alabama high school students who joined Natalee Holloway on the 2005 trip to Aruba during which she went missing is speaking out for the first time.
Jessica Caoila revealed in an interview with Oxygen for its new series ‘The Disappearance of Natalee Holloway’ that she was with Holloway on the group’s final night of the trip, and that the two girls even left local bar Carlos’n Charlie’s together in hopes of catching a shuttle back to the hotel.
It was while stopping to get some street food that Caoila said she suddenly looked up and saw Holloway being driven away in a white car.
She did not comment on who else was in the car, but did say that she had spotted Joran van der Sloot at the same club that night – and earlier in the week at the casino inside their hotel.
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Opening up: Jessica Caiola (above) was one of the high school students from Birmingham, Alabama who went on a graduation trip to Aruba with Natalee Holloway
Final hours: She was with the missing teen at Carlos’n Charlie’s, a local bar, on the last night of the trip (Holloway above dancing at the bar)
Caiola said in her two-part interview that she and Holloway were not close friends, but that there group of friends would hang out at the same places.
That final night in Aruba though, she and Natalee did spend time together according to Caoila, who described her classmate at Mountain Brook High School as ‘beautiful, kind smart and generous.’
Caiola is also the person who took what are believed to be the last photos of Holloway at the bar, which show her dancing with friends and smiling just hours before she and the others were set to fly home to Birmingham.
‘I never took a photo of Natalee before that night,’ said Caiola, who went on to explain that after some drinking and dancing, she and Holloway left the bar together to head to the hotel.
‘We decided that we were going to leave and wait for the shuttle and then while waiting for the shuttle grab some street food,’ said Caoila,
‘While we were waiting for street food I remember seeing Natalee in a white car driving away, the window was down so we could see it was her in the back of the car. My impression was “Oh, great, she found a ride back to the hotel.”’
She admitted she was similarly blasé the following morning when no one could find Holloway, as were the other students on the trip.
The group laughed about her being out too late or possibly oversleeping until no one could get in touch with her, and the seriousness of the situation dawned on her and the other teenagers.
None of the students were allowed to stay on the island however, and instead they were put on a flight back to Alabama while the investigation got underway on the tiny Caribbean island off the coast of Venezuela.
That investigation soon lead police to van der Sloot, who Caiola said was frequently spotted around the group during the week they were on the trip.
Last picture: Caiola says that after a night of drinking and dancing she and Holloway left the bar to take the shuttle back to the hotle together (Caiola above at the hotel before the group headed to the bar)
Public suspect: Caiola said that Joran van der Sloot was around the group throughout the week (van der Sloot above in 2010 after being arrested for the murder of Stephany Flores)
‘I remember seeing Joran van der Sloot at the casino at our hotel. That was the first time I saw him and I remember chatter of him. “He’s so cute,” “Who’s going to hook up with him?” Those sort of things were floating around. That was probably the extent to which I got close to him,’ revealed Caiola.
‘I don’t even remember if Natalee with with him at that point, or if any of us were necessarily with him. What I can tell you is he was there multiple nights of our trip. I believe it was the second to last night I saw him at the casino.’
And she is certain she saw home on that final night.
‘He was absolutely at Carlos’n Charlie’s, 1000 percent,’ stated Caiola, who added that for the next few years she would frequently be called in by the FBI to recount her final night with Holloway.
‘Natalee and I were actually talking at the bar and interacting and having a good time,’ recalled Caiola of the hours before Holloway disappeared on the island.
She also revealed that while she believes van der Sloot killed her friend, she is not certain when that death happened, believing it was likely after she was reported missing.
‘I thought she was still alive and she had been sold or traded, something of that nature and we could find her,’ said Caiola.
‘The reason I though this is there was no tinge of her clothing.’
New lead: Van der Sloot alleged revealed the details of Holloway’s o his best friend John, who then repeated the information to his roommate (Natalee’s hotel and last known location in Aruba)
Tragedy: Natalee was just 18 when she went missing on the tropical island and has never been found
She also spoke about the two final pictures she took of Holloway, including one of her dancing with friends at the bar.
‘This is a picture in which Natalee is standing on the left side of the picture and she’s talking to a boy. I’m not able to identify who the boy is because his back is turned. So you just see Natalee talking to a boy on a stage,’ said Caiola of the first image, later questioning why she even snapped the picture.
‘I think I took it cause everyone was on the stage and it was hilarious and awesome and everyone was having an amazing time. There’s one of my friends wearing a sombrero, we were having an amazing time and I just remember being like I want to remember this moment, I want to capture this and I want to remember us all together in Aruba before we all go our separate ways.’
She then added: ‘But like I said what I find so interesting about these pictures is never in my life before this moment had I taken a picture of Natalee, she was never in my pictures. So I definitely think that that night there was something – that I wanted to be around her.’
The other photo is sentimental for Caoila as well, who explained: ‘The second picture was taken before we got to the club, Carlos and Charlie’s, we are still at our hotel, it is the night Natalee went missing. She’s still wearing her same blue jean skirt and that green teal shirt.’
She went on to recall: ‘We had just finished taking pictures on the beach with all of our friends and she is sitting right across from me and we’re talking and she’s sitting on one of our other mutual, good friends. She’s sitting on her lap and it’s a beautiful moment of friendship and it just it reminded me that she was my friend, she wasn’t my best friend, she was my friend.’
In addition to the new Oxygen series, Caiola’s interview was also featured on the Martinis & Murder podcast.
Meanwhile, a new tip in the Natalee Holloway investigation has led to the discovery of human remains in Aruba, 12 years after the teenager disappeared while vacationing on the tropical island to celebrate her high school graduation.
A former roommate of van der Sloot’s best friend told Holloway’s father Dave that the young woman was buried in a park near her hotel on the island.
That man, Gabriel, said van der Sloot disposed of the body with help from his father Paulus after Natalee choked to death on her own vomit soon after she was given a drink that had been spiked with GHB.
Van der Sloot revealed this to his best friend John, who then repeated the information to Gabriel while the two were living together over a decade ago.
Dave announced on Wednesday while appearing on Today that he followed up on that tip, and soon after remains were found.
Those remains are now undergoing DNA testing and results should be back in the next month, which could finally lead to some closure for the family of the missing Alabama teenager.