A movie sequel about Natalee's disappearance. A ten part reality series. Is Beth Holloway the new face of the Lifetime cable network? Or is Limetime becoming the Natalee Holloway network.
Lifetime is clearly moving heavily back to the "women in danger" programming genre with recent titles like "The Craigslist Killer" and “Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy”. But the all time ratings winner on the network remains April 2009's "Natalee Holloway", watched by 3.2 million people.
The sequel, “Justice for Natalee Holloway" will reportedly focus on Beth Holloway's efforts to get Joran van der Sloot indicted for extortion and wire fraud. Those indictments were handed down by a federal grand jury here in Alabama last year after van der Sloot allegedly promised information about Natalee's fate in exchange for money. The FBI says van der Sloot took the money but never came through with the information.
Shortly after the alleged extortion, but before the FBI sought his arrest, van der Sloot was arrested in Peru after the corpse of a Peruvian student was found in his Lima hotel room. Peruvian police say van der Sloot admitted he killed Stephany Flores after she found material about Natalee on his laptop. In the kind of grisly coincidence Lifetime can script a movie around, Flores' body was found five years to the day of Natalee Holloway's disappearance on a high school trip to Aruba. She was last seen leaving a nightclub with van der Sloot and two of his friends.
Another element that makes van der Sloot seem typecast for Lifetime: the well off Dutch national was questioned by Aruban authorities but never charged. Many, including Natalee's family suspect undue influence with Aruban authorites by van der Sloot's late father, an attorney.