Beth Holloway addresses missing American college student, urges 'full circle' safety plan

FIRST ON FOX - PUNTA CANA, Dominican Republic - The mother of an American teenager who was murdered while on vacation in Aruba in 2005 is speaking out on the search for missing American college student Sudiksha Konanki.

"The family is so fortunate to have an American embassy there to work with. I did not have that in Aruba," Beth Holloway, mother of Natalee Holloway, told Fox News Digital exclusively about the search for Konanki in the Dominican Republic. 

"Surely they are checking cameras from hotel, gas stations, traffic lights, store fronts and wherever they had dinner, any casinos they visited, the beach areas," Holloway continued.

Natalee Holloway, 18, was murdered during a Mountain Brook High School, Alabama, senior trip in Aruba in 2005.

Since her daughter's murder, Beth Holloway has been advocating on her behalf and said that the disappearance of Konanki, 20, should be a warning for travelers.

"I have created the full-circle safety plan for travelers and citizens of all ages to remind them to spend as much time planning the end of their outing as they do planning where to go, what to wear and who they are going with," Holloway said.

"By planning the end of the outing, this brings everything full circle. They can decide where and what time to meet, how to leave together and make a conscious and deliberate plan to stay safe."

Natalee Holloway was last seen alive on May 30, 2005, leaving a bar with van der Sloot. He was the prime suspect in her disappearance for the following 18 years and finally admitted to killing her in an Oct. 3, 2023 confession made public after he pleaded guilty to the extortion case.

The plea deal required van der Sloot to submit to a polygraph test - which he did. 

He accepted the deal, confessed to killing Holloway on the beach after she refused his sexual advances, and later passed a polygraph test. And he might have got away with it if the Holloway family, supporters, the FBI and an international team of investigators didn't doggedly pursue the case for nearly two decades.

"After 18 years, Natalee's case has been solved," Holloway's mother previously told reporters outside the courthouse immediately following the 2023 hearing. "Joran van der Sloot is the killer."

Decades later, another family is going through what could potentially be an eerily similar situation to the Holloway's. 

La Policia Nacional, the country's national police force, said a male friend who was with Konanki around the time of her disappearance is under investigation.

It is unclear who the "young man" is, but police said he was in the water at the same beach, and they are questioning him in an attempt to corroborate his version of events, according to a translation of a Spanish-language statement.

When asked about a Monday report that Konanki may have drowned, a spokesperson for the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office told Fox News Digital authorities "have heard this and have seen no evidence presented at this time."

"As of last night, investigators were still actively interviewing persons who may have seen or been with her last Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, as well as reviewing surveillance video and phone records to help ascertain what happened and why," spokesperson Thomas Julia said.

Fox News' Michael Dorgan, Greg Norman, Lorraine Taylor and Audrey Conklin contributed to this report.