Aruba Abduction Suspects Lost Jobs

Two men implicated in Natalee Holloway's disappearance lost their jobs as security guards at a hotel near the one in which the Alabama teenager was staying the day before she vanished, a police officer said Tuesday.

Police and FBI agents continued to comb the island and volunteers distributed fliers on the missing girl Tuesday, one day after a massive effort by volunteers on the southeastern tip of the island failed to yield any leads.

The suspects lost their jobs when their company's contract expired with the hotel, which was closed for renovation, on May 29, the day before the 18-year-old honor student disappeared during a senior class trip to the Dutch Caribbean island, the police officer told The Associated Press.

The men — ages 28 and 30 — will appear before a judge Wednesday to determine whether their detention is legitimate, Attorney General Caren Janssen said. The hearing will be closed to the public, she said.

With the search unsuccessful after more than a week, authorities have not ruled out any possibilities, including accidental death, Janssen said.

About 700 volunteers joined police, soldiers and FBI agents on Monday, combing scrubland and beaches on Aruba's southeastern tip in an unprecedented search for Holloway. Aruba's government had let 4,000 civil servants off work early.

Search parties found numerous items including T-shirts and sunglasses, but none had been tied to the missing teenager, authorities said.

Alabama native Patrick Murphy flew to Aruba from his home in Grand Cayman.

"It all came down to a person from my hometown and a mother pleading for help," Murphy told CBS News Correspondent Kelly Cobiella. "I mean, who wouldn't come?"

"I can tell you that 100 percent of the private and public sector attention is on this matter," Rob Smith of the Aruba Hospitality and Security Foundation told CBS News. "There's no way there could be more attention focused on finding this young lady."

The hotel at which the two suspects worked was just a couple of blocks away from the seaside Holiday Inn at which Holloway had been staying.

The suspects were arrested Sunday morning at their homes in the southeastern community of San Nicolas, but Aruba officials have declined to provide specific charges before their hearing.

Authorities searched the men's homes and impounded three vehicles, carrying away bags of items. Authorities said they had not found any of Holloway's belongings at the suspects' homes, but an eight-member team of FBI agents supporting the investigation was to help perform forensic testing.

The officer told AP Tuesday that the men were known to police for hanging around hotels on the resort island and sometimes approaching female guests, although no complaints had been filed against them.

One of the suspects had a brush with the law, but it was not a violent or sexual offense, the officer said, without elaborating. He spoke on condition of anonymity because policy prohibits authorities from speaking about details of an investigation before they are presented in court.

The Dutch system of law allows authorities to hold suspects for 48 hours before they are required to appear before a judge. The two-day time period did not begin until Monday.

Police spokesman Edwin Comemencia said Monday that authorities had not ruled out the possibility that other people were involved. The two men in custody were not among three others described Saturday by police as "persons of interest."

Authorities declined to comment whether the suspects had a relationship with the other three, earlier described as students — two Surinamese and a native of the Netherlands — who told police they dropped off Holloway at her hotel around 2 a.m. on May 30. Hotel employees, however, say that security cameras did not record her return.

Holloway, of Mountain Brook, Ala., vanished while on a five-day trip with more than 100 classmates celebrating their high school graduation. Seven chaperones accompanied them.

The night she disappeared, Holloway went to a beach concert and then ate and danced at Carlos' n Charlie's bar and restaurant. She did not show up for her return flight hours later, and police found her passport in her hotel room with her packed bags.

Police are investigating three main theories: Holloway was kidnapped; she went off on her own — a possibility her relatives discount; or that she had come to harm.

It was not clear if Holloway had been drinking the night of her disappearance, though her relatives say she does not party much, is achievement-oriented and a straight-A student who had earned a full scholarship to study a premedical course at the University of Alabama.

The Aruba government and local tourism organizations have offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to Holloway's rescue. Her family and benefactors in Alabama have offered $30,000 in addition.