TV crime reporter Peter R. de Vries has won the international Emmy award for best current affairs programme for his investigation into the disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway on the Caribbean island of Aruba in 2005.

The show, screened on Dutch television in February, featured secret recordings of the main suspect, Dutch teenager Joran van der Sloot talking about how Holloway died and how he got a friend to dump her body at sea.

Almost half the Dutch population watched the programme. The show, or fragments from it, was also broadcast in the US.

De Vries accepted the award at a glittering ceremony in New York on Monday together with Natalee’s mother Beth. They dedicated it to the memory of the dead girl.

‘This is the prize of prizes,’ De Vries is reported as saying. ‘You only win this once.’

(Link: dutchnews.nl)