this is "nightline." >> tonight justice for natalee. a shocking discovery that could finally shed light on the disappearance of natalee holloway. >> 12 years and we still have nothing until now. >> possible new clues from the night she went missing. >> it would bring the first step in closure for natalee's family. >> we go inside the undercover investigation that her father says may have uncovered what the police never did. plus, "whitney can i be me." ♪ one moment in time the new documentary revealing never before seen footage of whitney houston. an intimate glimpse into the struggles behind her clean-cut image, and the relationship that

some say could have saved her life, and her struggles raising her daughter bobbi kristina. >> i tried to talk to her at least three times a week. >> first here are the "nightline" five. >> number one is coming up in just 60 seconds.

>> good evening. we'll start with the breaking news out of phoenix, arizona where president trump held a

raucous, unscripted rally tonight in which he revisited his response to the violence in charlottesville, virginia, and defended himself against charges of bigotry. outside protesters gathered and when the rally ended, police say rocks and water bottles were thrown at them. the officers then responding with pepper spray. tom llamas is right on the scene. >> you can see some of the demonstrators left over. earlier tonight, there were thousands of demonstrators out here, and they pretty much had surrounded the entire convention center where the president was speaking. the phoenix police department had a plan in place. they were able to separate the demonstrators from the trump supporters. but right at the end, the trump supporters were coming out and the demonstrators were able to get right up in their face. there were some screaming matches, but we didn't witness any violence. as police were trying to force everyone out. they marched the demonstrators out of downtown phoenix. dan? >> tom, thank you.

we'll have more on this story on gma. we turn to a new development in a year's old mystery the disappearance of natalee hom holloway, who disappeared more than 12 years ago while on a graduation trip. her father has been conducting his own investigation for years. could he be on the verge of finding answers? here's my co-anchor juju chang. >> reporter: it's the bombshell breakthrough in a 12-year mystery, the disappearance of natalee holloway, the 18-year-old who vanished while on a high school graduation trip to aruba. >> the mysterious disappearance of an american teenager. >> the people closest to her are not giving up. >> reporter: her body was never found. but now her family is saying a privacy investigation has yielded stunning results. >> i was shocked out of my chair. when the guy said there were human remains. >> reporter: human remains that could belong to natalee, now being tested in the united

states. her father dave holloway hopeful this could bring solace to his grieving family, or even at long last, justice. >> it sounds like this feels the closest you've felt to solving your daughter's murder. >> i'm hopeful. but i have to have reservations because -- >> you've had 12 years of heartbreak? >> yes, a lot. >> reporter: the revelation, one of a six-partsix-partsix-partsit disappearance of natalee holloway. >> i never dreamed it would be 12 years. >> many saying natalee's parents were victims of the investigation botched from the start. >> little did they know they weren't just looking for a kidnapper or killer. they were up against the whole aruban government. >> do you believe the aruban authorities handled the investigation well? >> no. they took their eyes off the last three people who were with natalee. >> including joran van der sloot the son of a local judge in training, the godson of the

local police chief at the time. >> joran van der sloot enjoyed every privilege, protection conceivable under the aruba justice system. >> reporter: van der sloot, now serving 28 years in a peruvian jail for the killing of a different woman. holloway was a fresh-fraseed 18-year-old with a dazzling smile and a college scholarship all lined up. forever frozen in time in that infamous senior portrait. >> she was a goal setter. she knew what she was going to do in life. >> she had a bright future. >> absolutely. >> reporter: on thursday, may 26, 2005, she and other graduates arrived in aruba. their nights were said to be full of partying and excessive drinking. >> the beach was a blast. i had the best time of my life. >> reporter: just after 10:00 p.m. on their final night, natalee, set to return to the u.s. the next day, captured on this surveillance tape. a witness, natalee's classmate, speaking publicly for the first time. >> i remember seeing natalee in a white car driving away.

the window was rolled down, so we could see it was her in the back of the car. my impression was, great, she found a ride back to the hotel. >> it was the last time her friends saw the smiling blonde. >> the phone rung. it was my son. he said, dad, natalee has missed her flight back home. things ran through my head. she's never late for anything. never. knowing her i thought something bad happened. >> reporter: aruben authorities initiated a search, her parents making emotional pleas for information. >> my beautiful, intelligent, and outstanding daughter -- >> reporter: suspicion zeros in on dutch native joran van der sloot. joran admitted he had taken natalee to this beach in hopes of having sex. >> we were touching each other. i ended up -- she put her hands in my pants and i put my hands in her pants.

>> reporter: but van der sloot's story kept changing. at first he dropped her back at the hotel. when pressed by police, he said he left her on the beach. still when chris cuomo spoke with him in early 2006, he was adamant he was innocent of any wrongdoing. >> did you kill natalee holloway? >> no. >> did you harm her? >> no. >> reporter: in a 2008 hidden camera investigation by a tv crime reporter, then 20-year-old van der sloot admitted he knew what happened to natalee and said he watched her die. >> i think i'm incredibly lucky she's never been found. if they found her, i'm in deep [ bleep ]. >> reporter: but he later recanted that confession. van der sloot has maintained his innocence. in july 2005, racked with questions and few answers dave holloway hired private upon investigator t.j. ward, seen here in oxygen's new series. >> i have a picture in my office of natalee holloway. i put it up in 2005 and it will remain there until the resolution of this case.

>> reporter: years later, that new lead. >> dave got a phone call from an individual who said he had a roommate that started talking about joran van der sloot and said they were running around together in 2010. he was telling me things that were not public. we did an 18-month undercover investigation. we started putting this puzzle together. i told dave something was there. >> a man came forward and said i'm living with this guy who says he knows where natalee's remains are. >> do you believe the information he told you? >> 100%. >> reporter: cameras follow the winding and complex search. they encountered john ludwig who told them something they never heard before. >> did he go with you to dig remains up? >> yes. >> did you do something with the remains? >> yeah. >> what did you do? tell me the truth. >> ludwig said van der sloot

told him how he committed the crime. later, ludwig said he even helped him hide the remains. allegations not confirmed by abc news. >> digs a spot, puts her in, and says, grab that cactus and that will cover her up. he said don't you ever tell nobody. nobody. he told john. >> dave and his team go on the hunt eventually recovering some evidence. he tells abc news lab results confirm they're human remains. aruben authorities seem to contradict their claims. the public prosecutor saying, during an investigation by police, we found remains, but they were found to be from animal. now even more questions whether the remains were illegally taken out of aruba. if so, could they ever be used as evidence in court? >> this is by far the most credible lead i've seen in the last 12 years. >> why do this on television? so publicly? >> i've been involved with the media throughout this process

because, if we hadn't, we would have been at home twiddling our fingers. 12 years we have nothing. >> skeptics are wondering about the timing. >> can you address the skepticism that this is all for show, this is all for tv? >> i don't know, i don't know that there's skepticism. >> we didn't do this because of a show. we did this and i did this because of his family and bringing closure to them and prosecuting those who are responsible for natalee holloway's disappearance. >> if the dna is positive, where do you put that in your mind and your heart? >> it will be the end of a long long journey. we're not there yet. >> for "nightline" i'm juju chang in new york. in -- next -- ♪ i want to dance with somebody ♪ >> her squeaky clean image was all the public could see in videos like "i want to dance with somebody," but who is the

real whitney houston? new details and never before seen footage from her life behind the scenes.

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>> could whitney houston ever truly be herself? that's the question posed in a new documentary exposing the -- exploring the private life of the iconic pop singer, who, behind her clean-cut image, struggled with drug abuse and a strained relationship with her daughter. here again my co-anchor juju chang. >> she had low self-esteem. she was worried about her hair. she wore wigs and weaves.

and her hair wouldn't grow and her nails wouldn't grow. >> reporter: you're looking at never before seen footage of the private whitney houston, battling her public persona, captured during her 1999 world tour. >> this is this big superstar. she never had that security she needed. >> reporter: the star's personal and professional decline is chronicled in the film "whitney, can i be me?" the film's title suggests whitney never could. that perhaps is what destroyed her. she first met director rudy dala zal at a screening of his rolling stones documentary. she asked him to film her own tour. >> i said we can start tomorrow. she said okay tomorrow 12:00 noon. there was no contract, nothing. i came with my film crew. >> reporter: filming backstage at over 40 of whitney's concerts and giving him a front-row seat

to her troubled mearnl to bobby brown and their young daughter bobbi kristina. >> reporter: the couple first met in 1989 at the soul train awards. >> he was the hot act. he was the guy everybody wanted to sleep with. >> at the same event whitney was booed by the audience, a trauma that would haunt whitney for the rest of her life. >> that was the time the african american audience thought she was too middle of the road, not urban enough. ♪ that's my prerogative >> her union with the "my prerogative" singer was controversial from the start. bobby cultivating a tough image. as the bad boy of music. it all clashed with whitney's clean cut "i wanna dance with somebody" persona. ♪ oh i wanna dance with somebody ♪ >> bobby was misunderstood from day one. >> their combative relationship was tabloid fodder.

>> what i can confirm, what i saw was that bobby and whitney really loved each other. >> reporter: whitney's fans seemed to blame bobby in part for her downward spiral. >> why do you think he still gets vilified? >> because he was an an easy answer to all the problems. bobby was an expert in alcohol. whitney was an expert in other things. maybe the combinations of the two made the disaster bigger. ♪ ♪ i found the greatest >> reporter: whitney's innocent image and songs like "the greatest love of all" was crafted by the man who discovered her, legendary music producer clive davis. >> reporter: when the world first met whitney houston, she was a church girl, gospel singer? >> absolutely, but she came from the hood. >> he's referring to newark, new jersey. while their mom was on tour whitney was looked after by her older brothers. >> we played together.

so many memories. everything you do together as you're growing up. when you do drugs, you do that together too. >> it was whitney's childhood friend robin crawford that kept the popstar grounded. >> you had to get through robin to get to whitney. >> reporter: she was the star's best friend and creative director. >> whitney didn't have a closeness and feel safe with many people. robin provided a safe place for her. robin loved her, cared for her. >> i had people call from radio stations and be on the conversation with program directors. they say, hey, man, is whitney gay? i said, huh? i don't know. >> everone describes her relationship with robin crawford as special. >> robin was very special. robin was probably the most important relationship together with bobby brown. >> reporter: in 1996, the song stress spoke publicly about their relationship with katie

couric. >> this wasn't her world. i brought her into this madness. she have said why am i the target? what did i do? i said you're my friend. what else you want? you play basketball. they think you're a man, i don't know. >> because she plays basketball people think she's a lesbian. >> she's a very tall, very broad woman. she's my friend for years. i don't know. just stuck it out. >> whitney's mother addressed their friendship with oprah. >> do you believe that whitney and robin were in a gay relationship? >> i don't know. >> would it have bothered you if your daughter whitney was gay? >> absolutely. ♪ and i >> reporter: despite the rumors, whitney and bobby stayed together. she released her most iconic song, "i will always love you," while pregnant with bobbi kristina. with the child cementing their bond, robin would leave whitney's side forever. >> what drove her away?

>> she saw after the child was born the only way whitney can get to peace is in the marriage and that the child needs a father and a mother. i think robin left because she loved whitney and she still does. >> reporter: but the life of this working mother, on gruelling world tours proved to be too challenging. >> i'm really dying to get home to see her little face. she's dying for me to come home. i try to talk to her at least three times a week. although it's very hard to talk. it's worse to talk sometimes than not to. because you feel that longing. you feel that passion, that love between a child and mother. >> she was an absentee mother. >> yes, i think with all the negative parts that that means. sometimes you just have to be there. ♪ tomorrow is judgment day >> when bobbi kristina joined her mother on tour, dolezal was

there to capture it. >> when the song is over, whitney doesn't know what to do with her daughter. >> the film suggests the combination of whitney's struggle with her public image contributed to her dependency on drugs. in 2012, whitney was die of an accidental drowning. the toxicology results showed cocaine, xanax and marijuana in her system. >> what i can absolutely assure you, is that if robin would have stayed, i think whitney would be alive. >> reporter: the sentiment is echoed by bobby brown himself. he wrote i feel if robin was accepted in whitney's life she would be alive today. what goes through your mind when you think of bobbi kristina's own tragic death? >> it's heartbreaking. >> reporter: while for some, whitney houston's legacy may be clouded by tragedy, dolezal sees it clearly. >> she was an outstanding talent. that will never go away. one reason for doing this film

is she was one of the greatest singers on earth. >> for "nightline" i'm juju chang in new york. >> thanks to juju for that report. we'll be right back. >> announcer: abc news "nightline" brought to you by geico. ♪ walter? hmm? is that the rest of our food? what? no. how come you have cheese in your beard? because switching to geico could save you 15% or more on car insurance. oh! ok. geico. because saving 15% or more on car insurance is always a great answer. whoa! gross! the ultra-fine mist startstoms working instantly to deliver up to 12 hours of ahhhhh get fast relief with vicks sinex.

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