Birmingham, Alabama (AP) - The parents of Natalee Holloway looked grim as a judge said Thursday that her daughter died, more than six years after the American teenager who disappeared during the course of a high school graduate from the Caribbean island of Aruba.
Natalee Holloway disappeared in Aruba on May 30, 2005. 18 years old was last seen leaving a bar in the morning with a young Dutch, Joran van der Sloot. His body was never found and the subsequent search of the girls will get tremendous media scrutiny and attention from around the world.
"We're dealing with his death during the last six years and a half," Dave Holloway said after the brief hearing. He said the judge's order to close a chapter in a long ordeal, but added: "We still have a long way to go for justice.
On Thursday, the hearing was scheduled long before Van der Sloot - Holloway suspect questioned vanished - pleaded guilty Wednesday in Peru in 2010 murder of a woman who met at a casino in Lima. Stephany Flores, 21, was killed five years to the day after Holloway, 18 years old, wealthy suburb of Birmingham, Mountain Brook, disappeared.
Some time after the death of Flores on May 30, 2010, van der Sloot told police that he killed a woman in Peru with rage after finding your laptop to your relationship with Holloway's disappearance. Police forensic experts have disputed that claim.
Dave Holloway, said in September the judge believed her daughter died and he wants to stop paying the insurance and the use of college funds $ 2,000 to help her sister.
The original Mother teenagers, objected, but his lawyer, Charlie DeBardeleben, said that after he changed his mind once you understand the purpose of her husband.
Natalee Holloway's parents divorced in 1993 and Beth Holloway sat in the back row of the courtroom, often looking at her hands in her lap, listening to the afternoon of Thursday in probate court in Birmingham.
Although Beth Holloway refused to speak to reporters, his lawyer said was a difficult time for him to witness the judge signs the order stated his daughter was dead.
"I am ready to graduate," he said DeBardeleben.
Mark White, an attorney Dave Holloway, the judge said before announcing his decision, there is no evidence that Holloway is still alive.
"Despite everything that there was no evidence found Natalee Holloway is still alive," said the judge, noting that an exhaustive search, the leaves of the international media coverage and even offered a reward of what is newly discovered.
The king decided in September that Dave Holloway will meet with the legal presumption of death of his daughter and it is for someone to prove that he did not die on graduation trips. It has set a hearing after a period of several months in case someone can present new information.
However, the researchers worked long assumed that the girl died in Aruba, which is officially classified as a case of murder investigations.
That the investigation remains open, although no recent activity, said Attorney General Taco Stein, an official from the prosecutor's office in the Dutch Caribbean island.
"The team that this research is still working as a team and together whenever they have information or items required in the case or the back to come," Stein said in a telephone interview Thursday.
Dave Holloway said he expects 24-year-van der Sloot's, awaiting trial in Lima, is a 30-year prison sentence requested by prosecutors in Peru.
"Everyone knows his personality. I think he is beyond rehabilitation, "said Holloway.
Lawyers say the parents expressed the hope that the next stop van der Sloot in Birmingham, where he faces federal charges accusing him of extorting $ 25,000 from Beth Holloway to show the location of her daughter's body.
Prosecutors said the money was paid, but was released in the presence of missing women.
"I hope to see in Birmingham," Dave Holloway said Thursday.
