Oranjestad, Aruba – Police investigating the disappearance of an Alabama teenager in Aruba said one of three young men in custody has admitted “something bad happened” to her during her island visit.
Deputy Police Commissioner Gerold Dompig told The Associated Press that the man was leading police late Friday to the scene. He refused to identify which of the three young men who took her to a beach the night she disappeared made the statement.
Early today, police refused to say if they had discovered anything.
Natalee Holloway, 18, vanished on May 30 during a five-day trip to the Dutch Caribbean island with 124 classmates and seven chaperones celebrating their graduation from Mountain Brook High School, near Birmingham. Police found her U.S. passport and packed bags in her hotel room after she failed to show up for her return flight that day.
A relative said Holloway’s family continues to believe she is alive. Rumors raging on the island that she is dead are “an aggressive interpretation” of what police are saying, Jar Twitty, the brother of Holloway’s stepfather, told the AP.
Prime Minister Nelson Oduber went on national radio Friday night to say if something happened to Holloway, it would hurt the island of 97,000, which depends on tourism and has a reputation as one of the safest spots in the Caribbean.
Back home in Mountain Brook, friends of Holloway and other young people gathered after midnight at a church where people have been holding prayer vigils for her. Some hugged and cried; one woman left a flickering candle at the base of a wall decorated with messages to Holloway.
Three men – two brothers from Suriname and the 17-year-old Dutch son of a high-ranking judicial official – were arrested Thursday.
Two former hotel security guards were also being held in the case.
None of the five has been charged.
A lawyer for one of the Surinamese – Satish Kalpoe, 18, and his brother Deepak, 21 – said they told police they took Holloway to Arashi Beach, on the northern tip of the island, in the early hours of May 30.
According to their police statement, they didn’t get out of the car, defense lawyer David Kock said. Instead, Holloway and the Dutch teen, an honors student at the Aruba International School whom she had met at the casino in her hotel, “were in the back seat kissing.” They also told police that they dropped Holloway at her Holiday Inn Hotel around 2 a.m. and last saw her being approached by a man in a security guard uniform before they drove off, Kock said.
The brothers told police the blond, blue-eyed young woman was drunk and refused to get out of the car, said Noraina Pietersz, who is representing Nick John, 30, one of the two former secuity guards. He and Abraham Jones, 28, have been detained since Sunday.
The three young men said Holloway stumbled in the parking lot of the hotel but refused help from her Dutch escort, Kock said.
Holiday Inn employees say security cameras did not record Holloway’s return. In addition, a Holiday Inn guard who worked the overnight shift the day the young woman disappeared said he did not see her, said Pietersz, who said she reviewed the guard’s statement to police.
In Mountain Brook, Holloway’s aunt, Marcia Twitty, expressed frustration that Aruban authorities initially released the three young men last week after questioning them.
“These are the last three guys to be with her, and we just feel like they know something,” said Twitty, who is serving as the spokeswoman.
Aruba’s Attorney General Caren Janssen said Thursday that the men were not arrested at that time for “tactical reasons.” John and Abraham Jones, 28, a fellow former security guard, have been detained since Sunday.
Holloway, a straight-A student who won awards for volunteer work, had earned a full scholarship at the University of Alabama, where she planned to study medicine.
