Alison's case in 'Saint X' has striking resemblance to real-life disappearance of Natalee Holloway
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Hulu’s new adaptation of Alexis Schaitkin’s 2020 novel, ‘Saint X’, has opened to an average response from the viewers. On the face of it, ‘Saint X’ appears to be your run-of-the-mill ‘missing’ girl story who is either find murdered or never found at all. In this series, Alison Thomas is a 19-year-old on vacation at a remote Caribbean island with a family who dies before age. The suspects, Edwyn and Gogo (Clive Richardson), work on the beach resort and are rounded in by the police but eventually released due to lack of evidence.
The psychological thriller covers themes of the psyche of young males and females, black and white problems, sexuality, gender, race, and privilege to a certain extent but its arguments are outdated and over-explored in various other shows in a better capacity. The show has a simple plot - a girl is killed. Who is the killer and why was she killed? It’s explored in two timelines - the past and the present. The past shows us the events leading up to the murder of the young woman and the present is an arduous journey for the deceased’s sister to find the truth about the murder. This kind of story has been far too common, and the media has vividly covered such stories in the past. Given the storyline of the show, many are comparing it to a real-life incident that transpired back in 2005, when a young woman on a trip to Aruba with her friends disappeared without a trace. It’s a classic example of facts meet fiction. But how close is the real-life story of Natalee Holloway, the 18-year-old who went missing from a beach resort in Aruba to Alison’s destiny in the show? Let’s find out.
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Who is Natalee Holloway?
As reported by E! News, Natalee Holloway was born in the wealthy suburb of Birmingham, Alabama. She was an honors student and an active member of the dance team at Mountain Brook High School. Before starting college, Natalee decided to go on a trip to Aruba with her friends. It was there where she fell went missing and never returned home.
What happened to Natalee Holloway?
After spending five days in Aruba, Natalee was supposed to return home with her friends but she failed to make it to the airport. Her friends were concerned and immediately informed the authorities who searched but couldn’t find Natalee. Her parents flew to Aruba to aid in the search but Natalee was never found. She was last seen leaving a bar late at night with three young men. The three men namely 17-year-old Joran van der Sloot, 21-year-old Deepak Kalpoe, and his brother, 18-year-old Satish Kalpoe were arrested multiple times during the investigation but were released due to lack of evidence against them. Natalee was later pronounced dead by the court and her case remains a mystery to date.
What are the similarities between ‘Saint X’ and Natalee Holloway?
Like Alison in ‘Saint X,’ Natalee too was last seen leaving a bar late at night with two other men. She was also a woman on the cusp of adulthood, about to enter college and make a life for herself, just like Alison is on the show. Both are two young white victims of a gruesome murder on an island. There is no doubt that the case of Natalee Holloway resembles Alison’s in ‘Saint X’ but one can make an assumption that Alison’s story is only loosely based on the disappearance of Natalee and not entirely adapted from it.
There are still five episodes left to air. The next few weeks will tell us how closely Natalee’s case is related to Alison’s in ‘Saint X.’ ‘Saint X’ airs every Wednesday exclusively on Hulu.