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Aruban Police Arrest Teen in Holloway Case

Posted on: Sunday, 16 April 2006, 09:00 CDT

By MARGARET WEVER

ORANJESTAD, Aruba - Natalee Holloway's father said Sunday he had not previously heard of the person arrested by Aruban police investigating his daughter's disappearance last year.

Aruban authorities would only say that the person arrested is 19 years old and has the initials "G.V.C." In Aruba, when an arrest is announced, officials usually release only a suspect's initials, and not a full name.

Dave Holloway told CNN that he had been told the person's name.

"We're hopeful that something will come out of it," Holloway said. "It's someone new that's name has never been mentioned before."

Mariaine Croes, a spokeswoman for the public prosecutor's office, said Saturday that Aruban authorities were not prepared to disclose why the person was arrested. Croes also would not say how the arrest was linked to Natalee Holloway's May 30 disappearance on the final night of her high school graduation trip to the Dutch Caribbean island.

The 18-year-old honors student from Mountain Brook, Ala., was last seen leaving an Aruba bar with Dutch national Joran van der Sloot and Surinamese brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe. The young men were arrested in June but were released after a court ruled there was not enough evidence to hold them.

"I still think that these three original supsects still know more than what they told us," Dave Holloway told CNN.

There have been a number of false leads in the investigation, and at least three other people were detained without being charged in the case.

In recent weeks, Aruban police have searched sand dunes on the northern coast of the island. Dutch Marines, the FBI and hundreds of volunteers have previously searched for Natalee Holloway.

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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