Aruba Suspects Gave Teen A Ride

Aruban police arrested three men Thursday who admitted giving a ride to an Alabama teenager the night she disappeared more than a week ago, the attorney general said.

The three men were previously questioned in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, 18, and described as "persons of interest." They told police they dropped off Holloway, of Mountain Brook, Ala., at her hotel early May 30, but Holiday Inn employees say security cameras did not record her return.

Police also impounded a gray Honda car. Holloway's friends reported seeing her leave a nightclub in a silver car the night she disappeared.

Attorney General Caren Janssen said the three were arrested at 6 a.m. She refused to identify them, but authorities previously described them as students — two Surinamese brothers and the son of a Dutch justice official studying to be a judge.

The Dutch suspect, Joran Andreas Petrus Van Der Sloot, a student at Aruba International School, came out of his upper-class home in the northern Montana neighborhood of Oranjestad on Thursday with his head covered in a blue-and-green towel.

The other two suspects, identified as Surinamese brothers Satish and Deepak Kaploe, told police Natalee had been drinking and fell down as she got of the car in front of the hotel, a source close to the investigation told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

When Van Der Sloot tried to help her, she refused, saying, "I can stand on my own," the source said.

At that moment, the Surinamese brothers told police, a black man dressed in a black security uniform and carrying a Walkie-Talkie went up to Natalee, seemingly to offer his assistance. The suspects then drove off, and did not see Natalie again, they told police, according to the source.

The attorney general's office had said previously the three were considered witnesses and not suspects.

Janssen refused to say whether the three were connected to two men previously detained in Holloway's disappearance, saying more information would be released later Thursday. A judge ruled Wednesday there was sufficient cause to keep holding the two former hotel security guards.

The decision means authorities may detain Nick John, 30, and Abraham Jones, 28, for nearly four months while prosecutors investigate possible murder and kidnapping charges, defense attorneys said. Neither man has been formally charged.

CBS News Correspondent Kelly Cobiella reports that Cynthia Jones came to the courthouse on Wednesday hoping to see her son Abraham for the first time since his arrest. But the closed-door hearings for the suspects were held in their jail cells.

"God knows my son is innocent. My son is innocent," Cynthia Jones said.

Jones' girlfriend Cynthia Degraph says investigators haven't talked to her about where Jones was the night Holloway disappeared, Cobiella reports.

"We were at the soul beach festival together," she said. "Me, Abraham and a friend Bernadine were all together."

Holloway vanished while on a five-day trip with 124 classmates celebrating their high school graduation on this Dutch Caribbean island.

The night she disappeared, Holloway 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.

Local police and the FBI said a lack of any solid leads was hindering progress in their search for Holloway. Local officials have asked the FBI to bring in dogs trained to search.

Police and volunteer land searches continued Wednesday with no results, while water searches, also unsuccessful, had been suspended "at this time," police spokesman Edwin Comenencia said.

Authorities have not said Holloway was a victim of foul play and have not ruled out any possibilities, including that she may have drowned.

It was not clear if Holloway had been drinking the night of her disappearance, though her relatives say she does not party much and is a straight-A student who earned a full scholarship 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 an additional $30,000, and Carlos' n Charlie's donated another $5,000 for a total of $55,000.