Oranjestad, Aruba – Two men were charged Sunday in connection with the disappearance last week of an Alabama teenager who was visiting the island with classmates to celebrate their high school graduation, Aruba’s attorney general said.
Authorities on the Dutch Caribbean island also requested a special diving team from the FBI, Attorney General Caren Janssen said.
The arrests came nearly a week after 18-year-old Natalee Holloway disappeared during a five-day trip to Aruba with more than 100 other classmates from Mountain Brook High School, near Birmingham, Ala.
The men – ages 28 and 30 – were arrested Sunday morning at two separate homes in the southeastern community of San Nicolas, Janssen said at a news conference in the capital.
Janssen declined to provide specific charges, saying the case will go before a judge within 48 hours to determine whether they can be legally held. She said authorities had not found any of Holloway’s belongings at the suspects’ homes.
“The charges have a relationship with the disappearance,” Janssen said, without providing details. “There is a reasonable suspicion they may be involved.”
Janssen said authorities wanted the FBI diving team because of rough currents in some areas.
Authorities impounded three vehicles found at the two homes, and a team of more than a dozen FBI agents will help perform forensic testing on them, police said.
“We hope she’s alive,” police commissioner Jan van der Straaten said. “Every day I see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Police have received about 180 tips since last week, and van der Straaten called on the public to be patient because the investigation will “take time.” Neighbors described the two detained men as security guards who worked at a hotel closed for renovation near where the teen was staying at the Holiday Inn.
Holloway, who was last seen early May 30, spent the last night of her vacation eating and dancing at Carlos ‘n Charlie’s bar and restaurant. She did not show up for her return flight, and police found her passport in her hotel room with her packed bags.
Holloway also spent part of the night before her disappearance at a beach concert featuring Boyz II Men and Lauryn Hill at Surfside beach in southern Aruba, Tourism Minister Edison Briesen said.
About 8,000 people attended the concert, which was part of the third annual Soul Beach Music Festival.
Authorities have checked out several reported sightings of the 5-foot-4-inch blond, all to no avail.
The Aruban government and local tourism organizations have offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to Holloway’s rescue. Her family and benefactors in Alabama have offered another $30,000.
Holloway, a straight-A student, had earned a full scholarship at the University of Alabama and planned to study premed.
