ORANJESTAD, Aruba (5 June 2005) -- Aruba authorities charged two men Sunday in connection with the disappearance of an Alabama teenager who went missing last week during a high school senior trip, and requested a special diving team from the FBI, the attorney general said. The arrests came nearly a week after 18-year-old honors student Natalee Holloway disappeared while celebrating her graduation with a five-day trip to the Dutch Caribbean island in the company of more than 100 classmates and several chaperons from Mountain Brook High School, near Birmingham, Alabama. The men - ages 28 and 30 - were arrested Sunday morning at two separate homes in the southeastern community of San Nicolas, Attorney General Caren Janssen told reporters at news conference in the capital. Janssen declined to provide the specific charges, saying the case will go before a local judge within 48 hours to determine whether the detentions are legal. "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 a special FBI diving team because of rough currents in some areas. She said that authorities had not found any of Holloway's belongings at the suspects' homes. 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. | | Natalee Holloway Many feared the worst Sunday when authorities announced they had found a blood-soaked mattress at a beach in eastern Aruba, but police said it turned out to be blood from a dead dog found nearby. "We hope she's alive," police commissioner Jan van der Straaten said. "Everyday 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." |
