Couple Believes They Have Underwater Photo of Natalee Holloway's Remains/ Natalee doubts it's his daughter

The photo taken by John and Patti Muldowney of Manheim last fall was turned over to the FBI, because John says he has a gut feeling it may be the missing Alabama honor student who disappeared in Aruba nearly five years ago.



In this October 2009 underwater photo provided by John F. Muldowney, shows a portion of the ocean floor off the coast of Aruba. Muldowney feels the photo, taken by his wife, Patti, while the couple was on vacation in Aruba, may show the remains of Natalee Holloway, the Alabama honors student who
disappeared in Aruba nearly five years ago. (AP Photo/Patti Muldowney)

A Pennsylvania couple believes an underwater snapshot they took off the coast of Aruba reveals human remains on the ocean floor that could be those of Natalee Holloway, Lancasteronline.com reported.

The photo taken by John and Patti Muldowney of Manheim last fall was turned over to the FBI, because John Muldowney says he has a gut feeling it's the missing Alabama honor student who disappeared in Aruba nearly five years ago.

"We did receive the photo, and it was sent to the lead agent down in Miami who handles that area in the Caribbean," Special Agent Frank Burton Jr., a spokesman for the FBI's field office in Philadelphia, told the newspaper.

However, it's a mystery as to what happened to the photo after that.

The Miami office and the FBI's legal attache in Barbados, which has control over the Aruba area, both told the newspaper they have no record of getting it.


Patti Muldowney took the shot while snorkeling near the Caribbean island. Only later did the couple notice one photo shows what could be a human corpse or skeleton..

"It just seems so strange that that girl never showed up, and here we are right off the shoreline, right where she disappeared, and there's a body lying there," John Muldowney, 78, told the newspaper.

A teen at the time, Joran van der Sloot 22, was last seen with Holloway before her disappearance in 2005 while on her high school's graduation trip. He has since gave various confessions as to what happened to her, but prosecutors in Aruba say they lack evidence to charge Van der Sloot.

In December 2007, authorities officially closed the case.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/03/18/couple-believes-underwater-photo-natalee-holloway-remains/?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a4:g4:r1:c0.000000:b0:z5

What do you think? I'm not sure that it is a skeleton, but it does look like one.

It looks like one. Have they sent divers to check it out? I doubt it. They need to.

Wow. Beth Holloway would be so relieved to finally have closure. I am sure this is not what she wanted but if Natalee is dead then Beth could bury her properly.

When was the picture turned over to the FBI.

The article says that they turned it over to the FBI in the fall...That it was sent to the office in Miami that covers the Aruba area, BUT they claim that they never received it...Nobody knows what happened to it. That's why the couple has gone to the media with it. It may have been discounted as just being some rocks or other underwater formation, but they at least could let the people know what and how they came to their conclusions! If I were the Holloways, I would be all over this, demanding an investigation and a report of the results!

Top Pathologist: Investigate Possible Holloway Find
By Joshua Rhett Miller - FOXNews.com
Authorities in Aruba have an "absolute obligation" to investigative an underwater photograph that may show the remains of Natalee Holloway, the Alabama high school student who disappeared in Aruba in 2005, a renowned forensic pathologist told FoxNews.com.
In this October 2009 underwater photo provided by John F. Muldowney, shows a portion of the ocean floor off the coast of Aruba. Muldowney feels the photo, taken by his wife, Patti, while the couple was on vacation in Aruba, may show the remains of Natalee Holloway, the Alabama honors student who disappeared in Aruba nearly five years ago. (AP Photo/Patti Muldowney)
Authorities in Aruba have an "absolute obligation" to investigative an underwater photograph that may show the remains of Natalee Holloway, the Alabama high school student who disappeared in Aruba in 2005, a renowned forensic pathologist told FoxNews.com.
Dr. Michael Baden, a former chief medical examiner for New York City who has followed the high-profile Holloway case, said a photo taken in October by a Pennsylvania couple off the coast of Aruba could depict skeletal remains and should be treated as a potential lead.
"It could be a body," Baden told FoxNews.com. "The odds are it isn't, but it absolutely could be a body and there's an obligation to pick it up and investigate."
If the figure in the photograph is in fact a body, Baden said it appears to be laying face down with the back of the skull in view.
And if the photograph shows a body -- Holloway's or otherwise -- the remains appear to be in good shape and could provide useable tissues to investigators, potentially leading to toxicology tests for the presence of drugs. Investigators may even be able to identify any potential body using dental records, he said.

"If it is a human, the teeth will be excellent," Baden said regarding their condition.
Patti Muldowney, of Manheim, Pa., took the photograph while snorkeling with her husband, John, during an October vacation in Aruba. They noticed that the photograph resembled a skeleton partially obscured by sand and recently forwarded it to the FBI's Philadelphia office.
"It's been sent to our legal attache in Bridgetown [Barbados] and they will work with local authorities in the matter," FBI spokesman Brian Herrick told the Philadelphia Inquirer on Friday.
The FBI will assist only if requested, Herrick told the paper.
Deputy Chief Adolpho Richardson of the Aruban police told the Birmingham News that authorities will investigate.
"We try to leave no stone unturned, so we will look into it," he said, "although the chances are very slim that it will lead to any results."

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/03/19/pathologist-investigate-possible-holloway/

I would not leave this in the hands of those Aruban authorities...We know how they handle things...Get some private company to investigate this, if the FBI can't do it!

Don't let Ven der SLUT know what they are up to, either.

This was the big news of the day on NG. I hope it is Natalee. Her family needs some closure and Ven der slut should be arrested.

I don't understand why the diver's didn't notify the authorities immediately upon finding the human skeleton and it IS human..you don't have to be a forensics expert to see that. I would like to know just how long it took these divers to let LE know. And, if it were me, I would have called LE in her hometown first before LE in Aruba.

I hope it's her. Her poor mother has been through hell and back!

They didn't see the skeleton shape until later when they were looking at the photos, not when they were actually snapping the pictures...I think they did give the photo to the FBI as soon as they realized what it could be.

OK, thanks, Lisette. Now, if the FBI has had these photo's since Oct 09, what is the hold up? This case has gone on way, way too long w/NO justice!

Probably because they are working with Aruban authorities! What a joke! Bypass them, I say, and bring in private investigators!!

Natalee Holloway's father doubts the underwater photo taken by a Rapho Township snorkeler off the coast of Aruba shows his daughter's remains, a spokesman said.
But Dave Holloway also reportedly told John and Patti Muldowney — who believe their picture shows a skeleton near where the teenager disappeared about five years ago — to keep pressing ahead for answers.
"He said, 'Jack, you've got my blessing. Any publicity we can get in the case the better,' " Muldowney said Holloway told him during a telephone conversation.
Holloway could not be reached for comment.
But author Larry Garrison, who collaborated with Holloway on a 2006 best-seller about the case, spoke to the missing teen's father about the photo Friday.
Garrison, who has served as a spokesman for Holloway, said Holloway believes the picture likely shows just a rock formation.
"Dave did receive the picture. We have received pictures in the past that have been a lot of rock formations that look like they could be human," Garrison said in a telephone interview.
"If Dave Holloway said to me, 'I'm excited by this, let's get involved,' he'd be the first person to hire people to go down and look," Garrison said. "Dave dismissed this."
Garrison added that he wasn't trying to negate the Muldowneys' attempts to get authorities to look into the matter.
"But when you get so many people over the years coming to you with so many things, you become overwhelmed," Garrison said. "If this turns out to be Natalee, then God bless them."
An attorney for Holloway's mother told NBC Philadelphia that she was aware of the photo and was choosing not to comment.
The Muldowneys say they believe a photo Patti took while snorkeling off the coast of Aruba last fall revealed a skeleton that could belong to Natalee Holloway, an Alabama honors student who disappeared during a high school trip to the island in 2005.
Nationally renowned forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden said in an interview that he believes the photo might depict skeletal remains and that police should act quickly.
"You can't tell from that picture if it's real or not real, and it would require somebody going down and picking (the objects) up. I would assume they're doing that," he said. "There's enough there to be concerned.
"If it is a head, it's facedown, and you see the skull. The rest? I don't see any other bone. … If it is a body, it's a decomposing body with clothing on it. It's not skeletonized, except for the head."
Baden, a former chief medical examiner for New York City, told FoxNews.com that authorities in Aruba have an "absolute obligation" to investigate, and that the remains — if that's what they are — appear to be in good condition and could provide useable tissue to investigators.
The Muldowneys retold their story in a taped appearance on the HLN network's "Nancy Grace" show Friday evening. Grace, a former prosecutor, called the photo a "bombshell" and was critical of Aruban authorities for not acting quickly on the Muldowneys' tip.
Asked what his reaction was upon seeing the picture for the first time, John Muldowney said: "When I looked at that photo, I said, 'By darn, that certainly does look like a skeleton.' … You can almost see fingers. On the one sleeve it looks like some kind of clothing that's deteriorating."
Experts appearing on the same broadcast, though, would not commit to saying the photo shows a skeleton. They would only say it's possible.
"When I look at this, I wonder, Is this a human body?" said Dr. Marty Makary, a surgeon who serves on the faculty at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and School of Public Health. "There are some things in favor of it, and some things that tell me it may not be."
Makary acknowledged what appear to be a skull profile and, perhaps, limbs. "What I don't like about the photo," he said, "is there's no spinal cord or vertebral column."
Heather Walsh-Haney, a forensic anthropologist at Florida Gulf Coast University, said "it looks as though there is something on top of what may be the skeleton."
Muldowney, reached for comment Friday, said that's the last TV interview he's giving — at least until authorities begin searching the Aruban waters for whatever is in the picture.
"We're not going on any until they start looking," Muldowney said. "And if they find something and it's not her, somebody else gets closure. That's the deal."
Meantime, FBI agents have made two separate trips to the Muldowney household on Aaron's Lane in northern Lancaster County.
The first visit to the house, on Thursday, was thwarted because there were television trucks in front of the house. So John Muldowney met the agents at a campground he owns across the street, where he handed over another picture — one that will be digitally scanned and e-mailed to the agency's legal attaché in Barbados, which has jurisdiction over Aruba.
The initial picture was delivered via mail and is believed to still be in transit.
FBI agents returned Friday and interviewed John Muldowney for about an hour. The questions centered on details of the Caribbean cruise and the snorkeling trip.
"They're trying to find out which catamaran took us out," John Muldowney said.

http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/250080

Patti went snorkeling, taking pictures of pretty little fish with a disposable camera. Little more to the right, little more to the left, turned over upside down and the image in the picture changes into something else.
If the picture turns out to be the remains of Natalee or some other missing person, that means Patti traveled thousands of miles away from home and dipped her body in the sea to cross paths with them! WOW!

lindamarie wrote:It looks like one. Have they sent divers to check it out? I doubt it. They need to.

and it shouldn't be that hard to locate the spot. The Muldowney's were on a local chartered boat, that has probably dropped hundreds of tourist into the same waters since then.

Baden said that if it was a skeleton, it was face down, but in the negative view upthread, I see what looks like teeth and eye sockets...I am not a medical person, but it looks like there are pelvic/hip bones, and that there could be something on top of where the spine/vertebrae would be, blocking them from the camera's view...Perhaps sand that washed over it, or something that was used to weight the body down. And, then again, I can look at it and just see a rock formation, so... :idk:

Yes, Lisette-I can see what looks like teeth and a possible eye socket in the negative. And, now when I go back to the colored pic I can see them too, although did not initially.

Van der Slut does not have his Daddy to hide behind now.
Wonder if the authorities are not so scared to investigate further now that the judge is dead.

The lead investigator for Aruban police said Saturday night that divers will resume searching Sunday in an area where a couple snorkeling took an underwater picture they believe may be the skeleton of missing Mountain Brook teen Natalee Holloway.
Deputy Police Chief Adolpho Richardson told The Birmingham News that nothing was found in the area searched Saturday.
"The FBI is helping Aruban authorities by conducting more interviews with the Pennsylvania couple who took pictures," Richardson said. Also being interviewed are members of the group on the snorkeling trip, he said.
"We are trying to narrow down the search area," Richardson said. "We have an idea of where it could have been but we are just guessing based on the information we have. The moment we have more accurate information, you can conduct a more thorough search."
The search is the latest of many that authorities have launched since Holloway disappeared in Aruba in 2005 while on a school trip. The 18-year-old was last seen leaving a bar with Joran van der Sloot on the final night of a high school graduation trip.
Richardson said the dive team will remain on the scene as long as it takes.
"The FBI has been in contact with the Holloway family," he said.
Efforts to reach Holloway's parents, Dave Holloway of Mississippi and Beth Twitty of Mountain Brook, were unsuccessful Saturday.
Larry Garrison, who has been a spokesman for Dave Hollway, said Natalie's father has received similar pictures in the past only to find out they are rock formations.
"He is more or less dismissing this," Garrison said Saturday. "I think they've found the same thing other people have found in the past, rock formations."
Aruban spokeswoman Ann Angela told the Associated Press it is too early to say whether the Pennsylvania ouple's underwater photo is more viable than other tips authorities have received.
"It could be a skull, it could be a stone, it could be anything," she said. "That's what we're trying to figure out."
The couple cannot pinpoint the exact location, but an Aruba resident believes he can find the spot, Angela said.
"We are a very small island with lots of people diving or snorkeling, so it's not unusual for one of us to see an underwater picture and recognize the location."

http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2010/03/aruban_divers_in_first_look_fo.html