First 25 of 51 pages of Beth's amended complaint (1 of 2)
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ALABAMA SOUTHERN DIVISION
ELIZABETH ANN HOLLOWAY,
Plaintiff,
v.
OXYGEN MEDIA, LLC, and BRIAN GRADEN MEDIA, LLC,
Defendants.
) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) )
CIVIL ACTION FILE NO. 2:18-CV-00176-KOB
Jury Trial Demanded
___________________________________
FIRST AMENDED COMPLAINT FOR DAMAGES
COMES NOW, Elizabeth Ann Holloway, and files her First Amended Complaint for
Damages against Defendants Oxygen Media, LLC and Brian Graden Media, LLC, showing this
Honorable Court as follows:
INTRODUCTION
1. On May 30, 2005, Natalee Holloway (“Natalee”) disappeared on the last night of
her high school senior class trip to Aruba. In the thirteen years since Natalee’s disappearance,
Plaintiff Elizabeth Ann Holloway (“Beth”), Natalee’s mother, has desperately and endlessly
sought to find Natalee, alive or dead.
2. Oxygen Media, LLC and Brian Graden Media, LLC (collectively, “Defendants”)
took advantage of Natalee’s disappearance and Beth’s desperation when, between August 19,
2017, and September 23, 2017, Defendants published for profit a six-part “true crime” and
“unscripted” “documentary” entitled The Disappearance of Natalee Holloway (the “Series”)
wherein Defendants made the knowingly false declarations that they had discovered how Natalee
died, where she was buried, that her body was exhumed five years after her death, and that her
FILED 2018 Jul-31 PM 06:30 U.S. DISTRICT COURT N.D. OF ALABAMA
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remains were then desecrated. After this lawsuit was instituted, Defendants have republished for
profit their Series as a marathon to coincide with the anniversary of Natalee’s disappearance, as
well as republished individual episodes, with all of the attendant flaws and with actual malice.
3. Defendants’ purported “true crime documentary” Series and their false claims
regarding the murder of Natalee and disgusting desecration of her remains were based solely on
the word of a self-admitted heroin addict, Mr. John Ludwick, and Defendants admitted in their
Series that they believed that sole source to be a liar.
4. On April 25, 2017, after at least two occasions during which Mr. Ludwick was
unable to lead Defendants to any remains or burial site, Mr. Ludwick returned to Aruba and,
outside of Defendants’ presence, “discovered” four bone fragments in a Ziploc bag on his aunt’s
property that he claimed belonged to Natalee and that he kept as a trophy (the “Bone
Fragments”).
5. On or around June 14, 2017, Defendants were advised by Aruban authorities that
their expert found that the four Bone Fragments were animal bones, not human bones.
Ultimately, following suspect DNA analysis addressed below, Defendants claimed that just one
of the four Bone Fragments was human (the “Purported Human Bone Fragment”).
6. On August 10 and August 11, 2017, days prior to the Series premiere,
Defendants’ agents contacted Beth privately and claimed to Beth that they discovered human
remains in a grave site in Aruba that they believed to be Natalee, and that they needed Beth’s
DNA to test against those remains to definitively determine whether the remains belonged to
Natalee. In doing so, Defendants knowingly and intentionally raised Beth’s hopes for a
resolution to Natalee’s disappearance after all of these years.
7. Neither Defendants nor their agents disclosed to Beth during these conversations
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that the purported human remains were found by a paid participant in a television show who was
an admitted heroin addict, that Defendants were involved, or even that a television show was
being made or existed and that Beth and Natalee’s DNA would be used on that show for
Defendants’ profit. Beth did not discover the existence of the Series until Defendants’
promotional tour began in earnest just prior to the Series premiere, and only after she was
(falsely) told that the Series found human remains in a grave site in Aruba following a legitimate
investigation by Natalee’s father and private investigator.
8. According to the sworn statement of a Series participant, Gabriel Madrigal, the
“human remains” Defendants claimed to have found were actually pig bones from the skull of a
wild boar that died in 2013 in Florida (the “Pig Skull”). To repeat, in a “true crime
documentary” about one of the most famous unsolved mysteries in this country, Defendants
claimed to have discovered human remains and used that as a basis to obtain Beth’s DNA
without disclosing the existence of a television show for profit. They had pig bones. Nothing
more.
9. In particular, Mr. Ludwick brought to Mr. Madrigal the Pig Skull and stated that
he broke off the four Bone Fragments from the Pig Skull and planted them in Aruba for the
purposes of Defendants’ Series. Mr. Madrigal taped this conversation. The Court and
Defendants may choose to watch a video of this recorded conversation at the following link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK8R0UHqRhI (last visited June 12, 2018).
10. Beth’s counsel is now in possession of the Pig Skull. The Bone Fragments, and
most especially the Purported Human Bone Fragment, clearly match the appearance and
dimensions of the Pig Skull, and the Purported Human Bone Fragment appears to have come
from the top of the Pig Skull. Both contain the same green color caused by fungus growth and
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the same brown plant growth in certain areas. The Purported Human Bone Fragment is convex
in the same manner as the top of the Pig Skull, each contain the same striations and cracks, and
the length and size of the Purported Human Bone Fragment closely match the length and size of
this portion of the Pig Skull.
11. Following their private declarations and misrepresentations to Beth causing her to
believe that the Series was legitimate, and as mere examples of Defendants’ reckless and
outrageous claims, Defendants published – and made Beth hear, watch, and read – that: Natalee
was likely drugged, raped, killed, and her body buried after her legs were “cracked” so she could
fit in a burlap sack that would hold her buried body; that five years later, after being “dug up,”
her remains were “crushed” and “pummeled . . . throughout a few hours” “to the point it was not
recognizable”; her skull was “doused in gasoline in a fire pit” “to burn the hair fibers”; and her
crushed bones were then mixed with a dog’s before being “cremated.” It was not until the end of
the six-week Series that the suspicious circumstances under which the Bone Fragments were
discovered were revealed. As a result of Defendants’ prior misrepresentations and because these
gruesome depictions appeared on the self-branded go-to network for true crime documentaries,
Beth believed these descriptions to be true.
12. After Defendants received the Bone Fragments from the Aruban authorities,
where they were told that the Bone Fragments uncovered by this unreliable witness were animal
bones, Defendants provided the Bone Fragments to their DNA analyst, Dr. Jason Kolowski. Dr.
Kolowski first tested the Bone Fragments for nuclear DNA – the type of DNA that makes
humans human and the type of DNA that would allow for a definitive identification of the person
to whom the remains belonged. That test came back negative for the presence of human DNA.
Despite this result, Dr. Kolowski then elected to test the Bone Fragments for “mitochondrial
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DNA.” That test, according to Defendants, revealed the presence of human mitochondrial DNA
belonging to a Caucasian individual.
13. However, the mitochondrial DNA test performed by Defendants does not
determine species, it determines only the presence of mitochondrial DNA, which all living beings
possess. Even if the mitochondrial DNA sequence obtained by Defendants is human specific, it
does not follow that the Bone Fragments or the Purported Human Bone Fragment are, in fact,
human. Such a finding would mean only that there was human mitochondrial DNA found on the
tested Bone Fragments, a finding that is not at all surprising – and may even be expected – given
that the Bone Fragments were handled and likely contaminated by Mr. Ludwick, a Caucasian
and a heroin addict. Further, whereas tests for nuclear DNA can genetically identify individuals
and family lineage, mitochondrial DNA tests cannot uniquely identify one person under any
circumstances. The most that Defendants’ mitochondrial DNA test could have done is exclude
the Bone Fragments as belonging to Natalee or determine that the bones belonged to an
individual with a mitochondrial DNA sequence similar to Natalee’s, a sequence that is
presumably shared very widely amongst humankind. At best, Defendants could have used the
test to determine that Natalee’s DNA was not excluded by the test. Accordingly, there was no
reasonable basis to conclude that any of the Bone Fragments – in the face of the Aruban
authorities’ declaration that the bones were animal bones and in light of the likelihood of
contamination – were human, and certainly not that the Bone Fragments belonged to Natalee.
Defendants could have done a speciation test or submitted the Bone Fragments to an
anthropologist to determine whether they were human; they did not do so despite Mr. Ludwick’s
lack of credibility.
14. It appears to have been Defendants’ conduct that substantially caused Dr.
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Kolowski’s errors: they did not disclose to Dr. Kolowski how the Bone Fragments were
discovered and the associated and resulting contamination of the Bone Fragments. In Dr.
Kolowski’s own words to Beth:
I feel that in hindsight, I was kept out of the loop of the origin of the bone samples on purpose. I was told they were recovered in the course of the investigation and were in the possession of the Aruba authorities, who turned them over to TJ [Ward] and Dave for further analysis. I was not told that John [Ludwick] and Gabe [Madrigal] recovered the bones by themselves, which is a huge conflict. . . . While the testing and my handling of the bones was done professionally and ethically, I could also be ‘burned’ professionally for having done testing on samples that were known to be compromised . . .
Dr. Kolowski was told by Defendants that T.J. Ward, the Series’ private investigator, recovered
the Bone Fragments from a pet cemetery; he was not told that a heroin addict handled and found
the Bone Fragments in a Ziploc bag without any independent corroboration.
15. It was only after Beth was told of an allegedly credible find of human remains by
seemingly credible individuals in a private investigation, which remains were being tested by a
seemingly credible DNA expert for private purposes, that Beth was forced to hear and watch the
gruesome depictions of Natalee’s desecration in a so-called documentary. When Beth heard that
Natalee’s skeleton was exhumed and broken into tiny pieces before being mixed with the
remains of a dog, among the many other descriptors, she was not privy to the litany of reasons
showing Mr. Ludwick to lack all credibility in Defendants’ possession at the time of publication.
Defendants could have waited a matter of weeks to air their show to first conclusively determine
whether they had found Natalee’s bones – they did not – and thereby spare Beth, but for their
own purposes and designs, Defendants recklessly rushed to publish their farcical Series.
16. Further, according to a lawsuit filed by the Series’ creator, rather than being an
unscripted and true-crime documentary as Defendants portrayed to Beth and their viewers,
Defendants’ Series was preconceived and written in advance. The Series was not a real-time or
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legitimate investigation into new leads, and Defendants’ purported discovery of Natalee’s
remains was not spontaneous. Instead, the Series was a pre-planned farce, and its publication
was outrageous.
17. In addition to the publications in the Series, Oxygen Media, LLC made the same
outrageous claims before, during, and after the Series via its website, Oxygen.com.
18. The impact of Defendants’ deceit on Beth was profound. Through their claims
directly to Beth, through their Series, and through their media publications, Beth truly believed
Defendants had found Natalee but she was forced to wait nearly two months to discover the
truth, and even longer to discover that her suffering was consciously and wrongfully inflicted
and that Defendants’ Series was a hoax. In Beth’s own words, having to wait without knowing
what would happen next while Defendants repeatedly proclaimed what heinous acts had been
visited upon Natalee and her body “completely and utterly destroyed me.”
19. Accordingly, this Complaint is brought against Defendants for their publication of
gruesome and consciously false descriptions and images of the manner in which Natalee died
and the desecration of Natalee’s remains, and for their fraudulent involvement of Beth by
obtaining her DNA under false pretenses. Defendants’ conduct is so extreme and outrageous as
to go beyond all bounds of decency and is not to be tolerated in a civilized society. Defendants
recklessly disregarded the likelihood that their claims were false, and in doing so, intentionally
caused or recklessly disregarded a probability that they would cause Beth grievous emotional
suffering.
PARTIES, JURISDICTION, AND VENUE
20. Plaintiff Elizabeth Ann Holloway is an individual who resides in Jefferson
County, Alabama.
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21. Beth is a schoolteacher in Cullman County, Alabama, and a mother of one son. In
2007, Beth authored a book regarding Natalee’s tragic disappearance, her own suffering, and
how she survived in the immediate aftermath of losing her daughter. Beth opens her book by
describing herself as follows:
I’m the parent who got the dreaded call. The parent no one wants to be. The one whose phone rang out of the blue in the middle of the day, and the voice on the other end said, “Your daughter is missing.” I’m that desperate mother on TV holding up pictures of her missing child, pleading for help, describing the details surrounding an unthinkable crime. My daughter is Natalee Holloway. She disappeared in Aruba on the last night of her senior-high graduation trip in 2005 and hasn’t been seen since. I never imagined that I would be “that parent,” living an endless nightmare in front of the whole world. But I was, and I still am, because I will always search for her. I will forever be Natalee’s mom.
Beth Holloway, Loving Natalee: A Mother’s Testament of Hope and Faith XV (1st ed. 2007).
22. Defendant Oxygen Media, LLC (“Oxygen”), a wholly owned subsidiary of NBC,
is a limited liability company organized and existing under the laws of the State of Delaware
with its principal place of business being located at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, New York
10112.
23. Oxygen’s slogan is “The New Network for Crime.” According to NBC
Universal’s website,
Oxygen Media is a multiplatform crime destination brand for women. Having announced the full-time shift to crime programming in 2017, Oxygen has become the fastest growing cable entertainment network with popular unscripted original programming that includes the flagship “Snapped” Franchise, “The Disappearance of Natalee Holloway,” “The Jury Speaks,” “Cold Justice,” “Three Days to Live,” and “It Takes A Killer.” Available in more than 77 million homes, Oxygen is a program service of NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment, a division of NBCUniversal, one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience.
See
http://www.nbcuniversal.com/business/oxygen-media (last visited Nov. 29, 2017).
24. Defendant Brian Graden Media, LLC (“BGM”) is a limited liability company
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organized and existing under the laws of the State of California with its principal place of
business being located at 6855 Santa Monica Blvd., Suite 406, Los Angeles, California 90038.
25. There is complete diversity of citizenship between Beth and Defendants and the
amount in controversy exceeds Seventy-Five Thousand Dollars ($75,000.00), exclusive of
interest, costs, and attorneys’ fees. Therefore, this Court has subject matter jurisdiction pursuant
to 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a).
26. Defendants transact business in the State of Alabama and have committed tortious
acts in the State of Alabama.
27. Defendants published the Series in the State of Alabama.
28. Oxygen published its offending articles in the State of Alabama.
29. Defendants published their offending statements directly to Beth in the State of
Alabama.
30. Defendants sought and obtained Beth’s DNA in the State of Alabama.
31. Defendants directed their conduct at Beth, a citizen of Alabama.
32. Oxygen owns and operates the Oxygen Network and an Internet publication at
Oxygen.com, and its publications are regularly made throughout the State of Alabama.
33. Defendants have intentionally sought and obtained benefits from their tortious
acts in Alabama.
34. Defendants are subject to the jurisdiction of this Court pursuant to Rule 4.2 of the
Alabama Rules of Civil Procedure.
35. Venue is proper in this District pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1391(b), based on the fact
that Defendants are subject to personal jurisdiction in this District and a substantial part of the
events giving rise to this claim occurred in this District.
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FACTUAL BACKGROUND
Natalee’s Disappearance and Beth’s Search for Her Daughter
36. Natalee was one of approximately 120 students from Mountain Brook High
School who took a senior class graduation trip to the island of Aruba in May 2005.
37. The students began their trip on May 26, 2005, and were scheduled to return
home on May 30, 2005.
38. Natalee was last seen entering a car with Joran van der Sloot, Deepak Kalpoe, and
Satish Kalpoe at approximately 1:30 a.m. on the morning of May 30, 2005.
39. Later that same morning, Natalee failed to meet her classmates for their return
flight to the United States.
40. Joran van der Sloot, Deepak Kalpoe, and Satish Kalpoe have been repeatedly
arrested and released from prison as suspects in Natalee’s disappearance.
41. In June of 2011, Natalee’s father, Dave Holloway, filed paperwork in Alabama
seeking to have her declared dead.
42. Natalee was declared legally dead in January 2012, but her whereabouts and body
remain unfound. Thus, whether she is actually dead remains unknown.
43. Beth disagreed with Dave Holloway’s decision to have Natalee declared dead and
has been quoted as saying that she “will always hope and pray for Natalee’s safe return.”
44. The manner of Natalee’s death, if she is dead, also remains unknown.
45. Natalee’s disappearance was the subject of nearly unprecedented media coverage
with round-the-clock coverage of the investigation by members of both the print and broadcast
media.
46. In the immediate aftermath of Natalee’s disappearance, Beth took all measures
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available to her to locate her daughter.
47. Beth worked with a multitude of individuals to find Natalee, including but not
limited to: American, Aruban, and Netherlands authorities; Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands;
Aruba Prime Minister Nelson Oduber; Aruba Minister of Justice Rudy Croes; Aruba Chief
Prosecutor Karin Janssen; Aruba Minister of Tourism Ruben Trappenberg; Aruba Police Chief
Gerold Dompig; the Royal Netherlands Air Force; Aruba attorneys Vinda de Sousa and Helen
Lejuez; President Bill Clinton; U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; U.S. Secretary of
Homeland Security Michael Chertoff; FBI Agent William Bryan among other agents; FBI Legal
Attache Doug Shipley; DEA Agent Eric Williams among other agents; International Victims’
Assistance representatives Kathleen Hall and Dahlia Williams; American Consulates; the
American Consulate General; Alabama Senator Richard Shelby; Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions;
Alabama Congressman Spencer Bachus; Alabama Governor Bob Riley; GA Governor Sonny
Purdue; Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee; Alabama Lieutenant Governor Luther Strange;
New York City Attorney John Q. Kelly; Ross Perot; the Florida State University Dive Team;
Texas Equusearch; private investigators; and many other authorities; as well as the media,
celebrities, and countless others in her ongoing efforts to find Natalee.
48. Despite repeated searches of Aruba and its waters, neither Natalee nor her
remains have ever been located.
49. Beth continues to work to discover her daughter’s fate.
The Actors in the Series
50. The Series was acted out by a number of paid participants, including, among
others: Gabriel Madrigal (“Madrigal”), John Ludwick (“Ludwick”); Dave Holloway (“Dave”);
T.J Ward (“Ward”); and Jason Kolowski, Ph.D. (“Kolowski”).
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51. Ludwick is referred to as the “suspect” in the Series. Ludwick claims, among
other things, to have known Joran van der Sloot, to have exhumed Natalee’s body at van der
Sloot’s bidding, to have “crushed” Natalee’s remains into little pieces, and to have burned her
skull before disposing of her remains.
52. Defendants claim that Ludwick was unaware of their involvement, the Series, and
the investigation into Natalee’s disappearance until after he made his confessions during a
“sting” operation depicted in the Series.
53. Madrigal is referred to as the “informant” in the Series. Madrigal is depicted by
Defendants as spurring the “new lead” into Natalee’s disappearance.
54. Dave is depicted in the Series as Natalee’s grieving father.
55. Ward is depicted in the Series as the private investigator leading the investigation
into Natalee’s disappearance.
56. Kolowski is depicted in the Series as a forensic expert.
The Creation and Marketing of the Series
57. Defendants represented in promotional materials and in the Series itself that the
Series was an “unscripted” “real-time investigation” and “documentary” following “a new lead
that could deliver justice for Natalee once and for all,” including “the specifics of what happened
to her and the remains of her body.”
58. Contrary to Defendants’ representations, the Series was not an “unscripted”
“documentary” or “real-time investigation.”
59. Rather, upon information and belief, the Series – and its resolution – was a
scripted, pre-planned farce calculated to give the impression of real-time events.
60. Accordingly, upon information and belief, Defendants knew at the outset that they
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had not discovered, and would not discover, Natalee’s remains.
61. Beth, distraught by the Series, its claims, and her interactions with Defendants
and their agents, only discovered the true nature of the Series following an investigation by
counsel.
62. In the matter styled Kramer v. Brian Graden Media, LLC et. al., Case No. 2:17
CV-5990 (C.D. Cal. Aug. 11, 2017) (the “Kramer Matter”), the plaintiff, Edward Kramer, seeks
compensation for services he claims to have rendered to Oxygen and BGM.
63. In particular, Mr. Kramer asserts in the Kramer Matter that he worked with Ward
to create the Series, and that Kramer authored the Series, its plot, and its resolution more than a
year before its publication.
64. According to Mr. Kramer, he created the plans, scenarios, and episode guides
used by Defendants to “script” the Series. Mr. Kramer asserts that the “resolution” of the Series
was pre-conceived, and that he wrote it. (Kramer Matter, ¶¶ 16-21, 27).
65. Mr. Kramer claims to be responsible for signing Madrigal and Ludwick to non
disclosure agreements and recording his conversations with them, which agreements were signed
by BGM, and for selecting Kolowski as the Series’ forensic scientist. (Kramer Matter, ¶¶ 15,
19).
66. Madrigal purportedly contacted Dave in September 2015 claiming his roommate,
Ludwick, knew the location of Natalee’s remains. Madrigal was again purportedly interviewed
by Ward on May 29, 2016.
67. Accordingly, upon information and belief, these interviews and all events in the
Series took place only after Madrigal and Ludwick had already signed non-disclosure
agreements and otherwise agreed to roles as paid participants in the Series.
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Timeline of the Series Versus Real Time
68. A review of the purported “real time” events in the Series and those events that
took place in real life reveals that the Series was, in fact, scripted, that Defendants consciously
delayed the results of their DNA testing, that Defendants knowingly preyed on Beth’s hope for
finding her daughter, and that Defendants consciously misrepresented their “discovery” of
“human” remains to hoodwink Beth into providing her DNA for comparison and publication for
profit.
69. As early as the fall of 2014, Mr. Kramer had already created the Series. (Kramer
Matter, ¶¶ 8, 11).
70. In June 2015, Ward and Dave “signed a Memorandum and Paid Participant
Agreement” to participate in the Series. (Kramer Matter, ¶ 14).
71. In September 2015, Madrigal called Dave claiming to have a lead – through
Ludwick – on Natalee’s remains.
72. According to Defendants, this September 2015 call was “unsolicited,” and
therefore a fortuitous break for Defendants’ Series.
73. Dave states that it was when he received that call from Madrigal that he “picked
up the phone and called” Ward.
74. However, according to Mr. Kramer, he was concurrently preparing “non
disclosure agreements and recordings of conversations” with Madrigal and Ludwick, and Dave
and Ward were already signed up as paid participants. (Kramer Matter, ¶¶ 14, 15).
75. In May 2016, Ward interviewed Madrigal remotely, and was told much of the
information later published in the Series.
76. On February 8, 2017, Madrigal was interviewed by Dave in person. This
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interview was aired in the Series and Defendants conveyed that it was a live and unscripted
interview wherein Dave learns of Madrigal’s purported information for the first time.
77. On February 13, 2017, Defendants staged a “sting” operation in which Madrigal
allegedly took Ludwick to gamble in New Orleans with the intent of getting him to admit on tape
to his participation in the exhumation and desecration of Natalee’s remains. Ludwick was
purportedly enticed to go because it was an “all expenses paid” vacation.
78. During this “sting” operation, Defendants claim to have surreptitiously surveilled
Madrigal and Ludwick’s hotel room without Ludwick’s knowledge. Indeed, Dave himself
claims that Ludwick “does not know that we are involved at this point in time.”
79. By this time, however, Ludwick had already signed a non-disclosure agreement
and had his conversations with Mr. Kramer regarding the case recorded. (Kramer Matter, ¶ 15).
80. Accordingly, upon information and belief, Ludwick was a paid participant in the
Series and was aware at all times during the Series that he was being taped for publication.
81. On March 15, 2017, Defendants introduce Dr. Jason Kolowski to the Series.
Kolowski is a forensic scientist and his “major background is DNA analysis.” He focuses “on
mitochondrial DNA and the forensic application of mitochondrial analysis.” See
http://www.oxygen.com/the-disappearance-of-natalee-holloway/blogs/meet-the-forensicscientist-whos-helping-in-the-search (last visited Nov. 1, 2017).
82. As of March 15, 2017, Madrigal had allegedly “quit” being Defendants’
informant.
83. On March 16, 2017, Madrigal allegedly agreed to come back on board, to go to
Aruba, and to bring Ludwick with him to lead Defendants to the burial site.
84. By March 19, 2017, Madrigal and Ludwick – and each of their girlfriends – were
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already in Aruba.
85. Defendants continued during this trip to represent that Ludwick was unaware of
their involvement, that their video footage of Ludwick was covert surveillance, and that
Madrigal was still acting as their informant.
86. On March 19, 2017, Ludwick took Madrigal to identify the grave site where he
allegedly dug up Natalee’s remains (the “first search”).
87. Ludwick was unable to identify the grave site during the first search.
88. On March 26, 2017, Ward interviewed Ludwick in person.
89. Accordingly, by March 26, 2017, Defendants could no longer claim that Ludwick
was unaware of their involvement. When and how Ludwick became so aware is not mentioned
in the Series.
90. On April 6, 2017, Dave and Ward met with Madrigal to “get a plan going on what
we are going to do next,” stating that “John has indicated to Gabriel that he is willing to pinpoint
the exact location and cooperate with the Aruban authorities in showing the exact location and
hopefully solving this case.”
91. On April 8, 2017, Madrigal and Ludwick re-appeared in Aruba to “pinpoint” the
grave site to Defendants (the “second search”).
92. Ludwick was again unable to identify Natalee’s grave site during the second
search.
93. Ludwick was further unable during the second search to identify the alleged
“cave” near his aunt’s property where he and van der Sloot allegedly burned Natalee’s skull.
94. After the failed second search, Defendants confirmed that “Dave and the team cut
ties with Gabriel and John” because they believed the lead to have been false and unfounded.
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95. Nonetheless, Defendants then claimed that “[t]wo weeks later, [Dave and Ward]
receive[d] word that Gabriel and John have returned to Aruba on their own.”
96. Madrigal and Ludwick then return to Aruba with Madrigal filming their trip via
his cell phone. According to these unverified video clips, Madrigal and Ludwick returned to
Aruba for a third time to “bring Natalee home” and because Ludwick knew where her remains
are because “he kept [them] as a trophy” (the “third search”).
97. During the third search, Madrigal and Ludwick purport to go to Ludwick’s aunt’s
house.
98. Within seconds, Ludwick takes Madrigal directly to the foot of a wall enclosing
his aunt’s property.
99. By this time, it had been approximately seven years since Ludwick allegedly
exhumed and desecrated Natalee’s remains.
100. Madrigal films while Ludwick purports to uncover a Ziploc bag from just beneath
the ground surface containing the four Bone Fragments.
101. The Ziploc bag, supposedly buried for seven years, appears fairly new, clean, and
in good condition.
102. On April 25, 2017, Dave received a text message from Madrigal containing a
photograph of the Bone Fragments and stating “Hey Dave just in case you think I’m lying I got
evidence[.] That what this sick f*** gave me as he uncovered it[.]”
103. Madrigal and Ludwick further claim that the remainder of Natalee’s remains were
buried at a pet cemetery.
104. Although the date is not given, Madrigal documents via his cell phone Ludwick’s
attempt to identify the grave site with the rest of Natalee’s remains at the pet cemetery (the
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“fourth search”).
105. Ludwick was unable to identify the grave site during the fourth search.
106. Defendants delayed traveling to Aruba to obtain the Bone Fragments from
Aruban authorities for a period of seven weeks.
107. On June 14, 2017, Dave and Ward met with Aruban authorities to obtain the Bone
Fragments.
108. Although Defendants obtained the Bone Fragments on June 14, 2017, Defendants
did not deliver the bone fragments to their already-retained forensic expert, Kolowski, until July
6, 2017.
109. The Series, however, states that “[up]on their arrival into the U.S., the bones were
handed off to forensic expert Dr. Jason Kolowski to conduct testing.”
110. Kolowski delivered the bone fragments to a third-party lab (the “Laboratory”) on
the same day, July 6, 2017.
111. On August 10, 2017, prior to the next scene in the Series, Dave contacted Beth
and advised that he and Ward may have discovered Natalee’s “remains.”
112. During this call, Dave advised Beth that “remains” were discovered in Aruba, and
that DNA analysis has shown that the remains are “human female remains” from a “single
individual” of “Caucasian Eastern European origin.” Dave further advised that the remains are
at least ten years old – the general timeframe that Natalee disappeared.
113. Accordingly, no later than August 10, 2017, Defendants had informed Dave that
the Bone Fragments were human.
114. During this call and a subsequent text message of the same date, Dave asked Beth
for a DNA sample.
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115. On the same date, August 10, 2017, Kolowski telephoned Beth to confirm the
discovery and analysis of the remains.
116. During this call, Kolowski advised that there would be no gray area – the results
of Beth’s DNA compared to the human remains would either be a match or a full exclusion.
Kolowski further stated that the analysis would be complete within 30 days.
117. On August 11, 2017, Kolowski contacted Beth via text and overnighted a DNA
kit to Beth.
118. Neither Dave nor Kolowski disclosed Defendants’ involvement to Beth.
119. Kolowski initially instructed the Laboratory on July 6, 2017, to process all four
Bone Fragments together into one extract, rather than examine each of the four Bone Fragments
individually.
120. Later, on August 11, 2017, Kolowski delivered to the Laboratory the remaining
portions of the four Bone Fragments for individual testing.
121. On August 12, 2017, Beth received, completed, and returned the DNA kit to
Kolowski.
122. The next event depicted in the Series was a meeting between Dave, Ward, and
Kolowski on August 17, 2017, at least one week after Dave was already informed of Kolowski’s
findings.
123. Defendants convey in their Series that this is the first time that they and their paid
participants, Dave and Ward, learn the results of the DNA testing.
124. It is during this August 17, 2017, meeting that Defendants convey to their viewers
that: (1) some or all of the Bone Fragments are human; (2) the Bone Fragments belong to a
Caucasian of European descent; and (3) that Beth’s DNA is needed to definitively determine
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whether the Bone Fragments belong to Natalee.
125. However, as set forth above, Kolowski had already conveyed the results of this
initial DNA testing to Defendants and Dave at least a week prior to the August 17, 2017,
meeting.
126. Accordingly, the August 17, 2017, meeting in the Series was not an unscripted
documentary as conveyed by Defendants.
127. In keeping with Mr. Kramer’s allegations in the Kramer Matter, Defendants
staged this scene to appear as though it occurred in real-time when, in fact, it was preconceived.
128. Beth was unaware that the purported “remains” were merely four Bone Fragments
found in a Ziploc bag by Madrigal and Ludwick until she watched the Series itself.
129. Then, in its last episode, the Series shows a meeting between Kolowski, Ward,
and Dave on September 11, 2017, wherein Kolowski conveyed additional results of the DNA
testing.
130. During this scene, Kolowski and Defendants convey that they were expecting one
of three possible outcomes: a match, inconclusiveness, or a full exclusion.
131. Defendants further conveyed that “we are not seeing a match, but [Kolowski is]
not prepared to call this a full exclusion yet” because they only had access to the DNA profile
obtained from the combined sample of all four Bone Fragments rather than each of the four Bone
Fragments being tested individually.
132. Defendants, through Kolowski, convey that the testing is “comfortably”
inconclusive.
133. This was the sixth and final episode of the Series and aired September 23, 2017.
134. Defendants concluded their Series without divulging the results of the DNA
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testing.
135. Defendants received a written report from the Laboratory on September 22, 2017,
stating, among other things, that the results for the Purported Human Bone Fragment were “not
reportable.”
136. Accordingly, Defendants knew prior to the publication of their last episode that
they could not match the Bone Fragments to Natalee.
137. In fact, Defendants knew all along that they could not match the Bone Fragments
to Natalee as soon as they received confirmation that the Bone Fragments did not contain human
nuclear DNA, and thus that they had to rely on mitochondrial DNA.
138. Accordingly, Defendants received no new information from which they could
have determined that the Bone Fragments did or did not belong to Natalee after they aired their
final episode claiming that the testing was “inconclusive.”
139. Nonetheless, rather than stating that the results were “inconclusive” as was aired
to the world and to Beth specifically, Kolowski’s final report, issued September 30, 2017, stated
that the fact that the combined bone DNA sequence did not match Beth’s was “the first proof of
an exclusion.”
140. Kolowski’s final report further stated that the fact that the remaining three Bone
Fragments were determined not to be human “is the second and final proof of exclusion.”
141. Further, the Laboratory reports relied upon by Kolowski and Defendants also
stated that the sample was suitable for exclusion purposes only.
142. Accordingly, Defendants and Kolowski knew that they would not be able to
compare the Bone Fragments to Beth’s DNA to obtain a match, i.e., determine that they had
found Natalee’s remains, because the mitochondrial DNA was not of sufficient quality according
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to the Laboratory.
143. In truth, despite their representations to Beth, in the Series, and in the media,
Defendants never had a DNA sample from which they could determine whether the Bone
Fragments were Natalee’s remains. As set forth above, mitochondrial DNA cannot provide a
genetic match to a particular person.
144. In truth, despite their representations to Beth, in the Series, and in the media,
Defendants knew prior to concluding their Series that the Bone Fragments did not belong to
Natalee.
145. In truth, despite their representations to Beth, in the Series, and in the media,
Defendants knew prior to filming their Series that they would not find Natalee because the Series
was pre-conceived and was not a real-time investigation discovering new facts.
146. Defendants had the results necessary to confirm that the Bone Fragments did not
belong to Natalee no later than September 11, 2017, but chose to publish to the world and to
Beth that the results remained “inconclusive.”
147. Defendants did not disclose the results of the DNA testing until October 2, 2017,
via their website, Oxygen.com.
148. On October 2, 2017, Defendants admitted that they did not discover Natalee’s
remains.
149. Defendants attempted to delay their receipt of the Laboratory’s findings – that
they had not discovered Natalee’s remains – so that they could continue to hype their Series as
having discovered Natalee’s remains, and to maximize their ratings and profits.
Publication of the Articles
150. Between August 16, 2017, and September 21, 2017, Oxygen further published via
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their website Oxygen.com seven absurd, grotesque, and knowingly false articles regarding the
manner of Natalee’s death and the desecration of her remains.
CAUSES OF ACTION
COUNT ONE: FRAUDULENT MISREPRESENTATION AND SUPPRESSION
151. Beth reasserts and incorporates by reference paragraphs 2-19, 36-49, and 68-145
of this Complaint as if fully restated herein.
152. Defendants obtained Beth’s DNA through her reliance on their fraudulent
misrepresentations and suppressions made with an intent to deceive.
153. Defendants lured Beth in with false, omitted, and misrepresented information, and
later used Beth’s DNA on their Series without her permission (or seeking her permission).
154. Defendants claimed to have found “human female remains” when, in fact, the
remains they had in their possession were pig bones.
155. As set forth in paragraph 14, Defendants also misled their own retained DNA
consultant, Kolowski, as to the origin of the Bone Fragments, who Defendants “kept out of the
loop of the origin of the bone samples on purpose.”
156. August 10, 2017, was the first time Beth was told by anyone that Dave and Ward
were pursuing this lead into Natalee’s disappearance.
157. On August 10, 2017, Dave contacted Beth by telephone to advise Beth that he and
Ward had discovered “human female remains” in Aruba.
158. On August 10, 2017, Dave contacted Beth to ask that she provide a DNA sample
for forensic analysis to determine if the human female remains he and Ward discovered were, in
fact, Natalee’s remains.
159. Upon information and belief, Dave contacted Beth on August 10, 2017, at the
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direction of Defendants and in furtherance of their business.
160. Defendants did not disclose to Beth prior to her delivery of her DNA that her
DNA results would be broadcast to the world for Defendants’ benefit.
161. Defendants knew that to continue their Series – which was set to air less than ten
days after they sought Beth’s DNA – they needed Beth’s DNA to give the appearance of
determining whether the Bone Fragments were Natalee’s.
162. On August 10, 2017, to induce Beth into providing her DNA, Defendants, by and
through their agent Dave, misrepresented to Beth material facts regarding the origins and
circumstances of their purported discovery of Natalee’s remains.
163. Defendants knew, or should have known, that by making such misrepresentations,
they would raise Beth’s hopes and prayers for the return of her daughter and closure to this
tragedy. Indeed, Defendants forced Beth to wait through six episodes of the most heinous
descriptions of what happened to her daughter, and let Beth suffer through it.
164. Defendants knew, or should have known, that they would destroy those hopes and
prayers because they knew they could not return Natalee or her remains.
165. On August 10, 2017, to induce Beth into providing her DNA, Defendants, by and
through their agent Dave, misrepresented to Beth that they may have discovered Natalee’s
remains.
166. As set forth herein, Defendants knew that they had not discovered Natalee’s
remains prior to contacting Beth.
167. On August 10, 2017, to induce Beth into providing her DNA, Defendants, by and
through their agent Dave, misrepresented to Beth that the discovery of the remains was a
spontaneous, rather than pre-planned, event.
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168. As set forth herein, Defendants’ Series and its resolution was scripted.
169. On August 10, 2017, to induce Beth into providing her DNA, Defendants, by and
through their agent Dave, misrepresented to Beth that the remains they discovered were “female”
remains.
170. Defendants knew that the DNA testing they had conducted could not determine
gender.
171. On August 10, 2017, to induce Beth into providing her DNA, Defendants, by and
through their agents Dave and Kolowski, misrepresented to Beth that the DNA sample in their
possession could be matched to Beth.
172. As set forth herein, and upon information and belief, Defendants knew that their
DNA samples were “below the limit of detection” and ultimately could be used “for exclusion
purposes only.”
173. As set forth herein, the mitochondrial DNA test employed by Defendants is
incapable of “matching” the Bone Fragments to Natalee even if they had pristine,
uncontaminated bone fragments.
174. On August 10, 2017, to induce Beth into providing her DNA, Defendants, by and
through their agent Dave, misrepresented to Beth that the remains were discovered in a “grave
site” near Ludwick’s relative’s home.
175. As Defendants knew, the Bone Fragments were not discovered in a “grave site.”
Instead, just four Bone Fragments were discovered in a small hole in the ground at the foot of a
fence in a plastic Ziploc bag.
176. Defendants, including through their agents Dave and Kolowski, consciously
failed to disclose to Beth that the persons who “discovered” the Bone Fragments were paid for
to be continued...