Spotlight: Aruba – Natalee’s Dad Reviving Search — Believes Teen Thrown in Deep Water

By Margaret Wever

ORANJESTAD, Aruba – The father of missing American teenager Natalee Holloway will relaunch a search for evidence of her remains in waters off Aruba, he said Thursday after police re-arrested three suspects in her 2005 disappearance.

While authorities searched the sea to depths of 330 feet, Dave Holloway said he believes his 18-year-old daughter was thrown into deeper waters – a belief based on talks with a police official and a private forensic expert.

Divers, sonar lined up

Boat owner aids: Holloway said a private boat owner is providing divers, sonar equipment and the ability to map the ocean floor.

Water is what’s left: “We’ve searched all the land areas. … It’s common knowledge on the island that if someone were to dispose of the body, it would be out in the ocean,” he said

Holloway said he would alert police on the Dutch Caribbean island if anything is found.

‘Incriminating evidence’

Manslaughter alleged: Authorities announced Wednesday they had found “new incriminating evidence” and re-arrested Dutch student Joran van der Sloot and brothers Satish and Deepak Kalpoe of Suriname on suspicion of involvement in voluntary manslaughter and causing serious bodily harm that resulted in Holloway’s death.

Dad stays cautious: “I hope I’m not going to be disappointed,” Dave Holloway said. “We’ve seen these arrests and re-arrests in the past.”

Holloway is a graduate of Jonesboro Westside High School in Arkansas who now lives in Meridian, Miss.

Fun trip, fateful result

Memphis link: His daughter was born in Memphis and resided in Mountain Brook, Ala., 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 fly home with high school classmates who were celebrating their graduation.

Searches fail: A search by hundreds of volunteers, soldiers, police and FBI agents – even Dutch air force planes – turned up no trace of her.

Van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers were first detained in June 2005, but they denied involvement in the woman’s death and a judge later released them for lack of evidence.

3 suspects in custody

In, on way to Aruba: 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. A Dutch judge Thursday cleared the way for van der Sloot’s transfer to Aruba within days.

Court action today: The brothers were expected to make an initial appearance in an Aruba court today, when prosecutors were expected to present the new evidence to a judge.

Originally published by Margaret Wever Associated Press .

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