Judge to decide soon whether to proceed with declaring Mountain Brook's Natalee Holloway dead

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama

Dave Holloway

A Jefferson County judge said he would decide later today or early next week if a petition to officially declare Natalee Holloway dead should proceed, after the father tearfully described efforts to find his missing daughter.
Holloway, who would be 25 next month if she is still alive, disappeared during a 2005 trip to Aruba of graduating seniors from Mountain Brook High School.
The petition to have Natalee officially declared dead was filed in June by her father, Dave Holloway. The father has continued to pay his daughter's insurance and other expenses and wants to transfer to Natalee's brother, Matt, some $2,000 Dave Holloway had set aside for his daughter's college education.
A lawyer for Beth Holloway, Natalee's mother, asked Probate Judge Alan King for a continuance on the initial hearing set for today on the father's petition. King denied the request for a 30-day delay.
Beth Holloway was very upset by the petition to declare Natalee dead, and still holds out hope her daughter is alive, said Charles DeBardeleben, who represented her in today's hearing. Testifying for about 45 minutes Friday morning, Dave Holloway described the months-long search for his missing daughter in Aruba. Based on statements by the prime suspect in the case, Joran van der Sloot, the father believes his daughter is dead, Dave Holloway testified today.
"This is one case we'd like to lose," said Mark White, one of Dave Holloway's lawyers.
"We would like to have someone come forward. You hope to have some closure personally. Our job is to try to get some closure legally.
If King allows the case to proceed, notices will be published seeking proof that Natalee is still alive, and a hearing to review that information will be held, probably in early 2012.