Newsmaker – Trio Re-Arrested in Holloway Disappearance

ORANJESTAD, Aruba – Three young men previously detained as suspects in the 2005 disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway were re-arrested Wednesday, the Aruban public prosecutor’s office said, citing new evidence in the case.

Dutch student Joran van der Sloot and two Surinamese brothers, Satish and Deepak Kalpoe, were arrested on suspicion of involvement in voluntary manslaughter and causing serious bodily harm that resulted in the death of Holloway, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

However, van der Sloot’s mother insisted her son had not been arrested but was only detained for more questioning.

Holloway, who was born in Memphis and spent her earliest years in Southaven, resided in Mountain Brook, Ala., with her family at the time of her disappearance. She was last seen leaving a bar with the three men on May 30, 2005, hours before she was scheduled to board a plane home with high school classmates celebrating their graduation on the Dutch Caribbean island. She was 18.

Despite an extensive search, no trace was ever found of her.

Van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers had previously been detained on suspicion of taking part in her death, but they denied involvement and a judge released them for lack of evidence.

Van der Sloot, 20, was re-arrested in the Netherlands, where he was attending a university.

The Kalpoe brothers – Deepak is 24, Satish, 21 – were taken into custody in Aruba.

Hans Mos, chief prosecutor in Aruba, declined to discuss the new evidence or any other details about the case.

Van der Sloot’s mother, Anita, said her family and that of the Kalpoe brothers had been questioned in recent weeks.

She said her son was merely being detained to help Aruban authorities reconstruct Holloway’s final hours.

Originally published by Associated Press .

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