Natalee Holloway grew up in the well-heeled Birmingham, Ala., suburb of Mountain Brook. The teen was the oldest child of Dave and Beth Holloway (later Beth Twitty), who divorced in 1993.

Natalee Holloway grew up in the well-heeled Birmingham, Ala., suburb of Mountain Brook. The teen was the oldest child of Dave and Beth Holloway (later Beth Twitty), who divorced in 1993. She and her younger brother, Matthew, lived primarily with Beth. Natalee was an honors student and member of the school dance team and American Field Service, which helps exchange students adapt to life in the U.S. She had earned a full academic scholarship to the University of Alabama, where she planned to get on the pre-med track.

She was also a regular churchgoer, according to her uncle Paul Reynolds, who told the AP days after his niece went missing, "Natalee's naive. She hasn't dated a lot. She doesn't party a lot."

After graduating from high school on May 24, 2005, the 18-year-old went to Aruba for a celebratory trip with more than 100 other classmates. "We were on the beach. We stayed outside all day. You'd usually take a nap, get dressed, go eat dinner, and then go to one of the bars. Come home whenever you wanted," friend Claire Fierman told NBC's Datelinein 2008.

They were due to return to Alabama on May 30, but Natalee didn't show up for the flight home. Her passport, cell phone and packed bags were still in her room at the Holiday Inn.

"Natalee being late is a tip-off," her aunt Marcia Twitty also told reporters, noting how reliable Holloway was known to be.

When the plane took off without Holloway, classmate Laraine Watson told Dateline, "It felt like I was leaving something behind. It was just a horrifying feeling knowing that she was supposed to be there and she wasn't."

Remembering the phone call that informed her Natalee had missed her flight, Beth Holloway told Dateline, "I knew instantly when I received that call that just from Natalee's history and character and just her record, I knew instantly that she'd either been kidnapped or murdered. There was no hesitation. Absolutely none. Absolutely none." Separately, she and Dave, who lived in Mississippi, flew to Aruba, as did Beth's husband at the time and some friends.

Investigators soon determined that Holloway was last seen by classmates leaving a popular nightspot called Carlos 'N Charlie's with soon-to-be household name Joran van der Sloot, then 17, and two brothers, Deepak Kalpoe, 21, and Satish Kalpoe, 18. Numerous witnesses saw her leave with the three young men