Prosecutor To Close Natalee Holloway Case

Without Evidence To Charge A Major Crime, Prosecutor Will End Missing Teen Case

(AP)  Aruba's chief prosecutor said he will close the case of missing American teenager Natalee Holloway by the end of the month unless his office finds that there is enough evidence to charge someone with a major crime.

The prosecutor, Hans Mos, said he would not comment about the kind of evidence his office is reviewing but that he does not anticipate finding Holloway's remains and prosecuting a case without them would be "very hard."

"We promised the suspects that after Dec. 31, we will not pursue the case," Mos told The Associated Press Friday. "This investigation should end at a certain point."

Holloway's parents did not return multiple messages left at their homes and on their cell phones.

No one has been formally charged in the investigation, which critics have said was botched in its early stages by Aruban authorities.

The probe has revolved around three suspects: Joran van der Sloot, a 20-year-old Dutch citizen and brothers Deepak Kalpoe, 24, and Satish Kalpoe, 21, from Surinam.

They were the last people known to see Holloway before she vanished on the night of May 30, 2005. All three, who have denied any role in her disappearance, have been arrested several times - the latest arrests coming last month - but released after different judges ruled there was not enough evidence to keep holding them.

Mos told the AP he will drop the case unless prosecutors in his office agree before the New Year that they have strong enough evidence to go to court.

He said he imposed the deadline himself earlier this year because he feels two years is a reasonable amount of time for bringing charges against someone.

Mos said he and the Holloway family feel pursuing a minor charge "doesn't serve a purpose." A person convicted of making a body disappear, for example, would serve only six months in prison, he said.

The search for Holloway spanned more than two years and involved hundreds of volunteers, Aruban soldiers, FBI agents and even Dutch F-16 jets laden with search equipment.

"We have a strong conviction that something happened that night, and that it was a very serious thing," Mos said. "The question is whether we are able to prove it."

He said he does not anticipate ever finding Holloway's remains.

"It's very hard to try a case without a body," he said. "It's not impossible, but you need substantial evidence that somebody was killed."

Authorities have combed sand dunes, drained a pond and dove into the island's clear waters. They have detained people including a disc jockey, a casino croupier, two former hotel security guards and even van der Sloot's father, a judge in training at the time.

False leads have included blond hairs attached to a duct tape found along Aruba's coast, and a bloody mattress later linked to a dead dog.

"The Aruban prosecution is going around in circles," said Joseph Tacopina, one of van der Sloot's attorneys. "They've bumbled this case from the beginning."

In 2005, Aruba's prime minister met with Holloway's mother and said authorities made mistakes at the start of their investigation.

Holloway arrived in Aruba to celebrate her high school graduation. On the last night she was seen alive, the Mountain Brook, Alabama native attended a beach concert featuring Boyz II Men and Lauryn Hill and then ate and danced at Carlos 'N Charlie's bar and restaurant.

She never showed up for her return flight, and police found her passport in her hotel room with her packed bags.

[swwils]

! just can''t believe a 5 by 20 mile long island can hold so much mystery They have had the best cops and equipment in the world their and couldn''t find a grunion Cut that country off to American Tourist until some answers emerge

[swwils]

It sad they will never find this girl,I believe their is more to the story of those 3 boys they keep arresting. Someone with big money has helped these dudes dispose of all the evidence, they are not smart enough to do this themselves.I no it is a *** shame that her family will never have closure because of a bunch of keystone cops in Aruba,I wouldn''t take a vacation their if I had to.

[tbweb]

Natalee IS NOT dead!

Holloway is on the south american mainland as a ''''*** slave''''. She doesn''''t want to be found, for now,

Posted by Agnim at 03:52 PM : Dec 09, 2007,,,

I agree, I don''t think Natalee Holloway is dead either, I don''t feel her dead. She may have been sold into the s.e.x. slave trade, that business is booming Worldwide. She may also be a s.e.x. hostage, holed up somewhere, if they really did leave her on that beach thats very much possible, somebody grabbed her. Natalee is alive.

[agnim]

Natalee IS NOT dead!

Holloway is on the south american mainland as a ''*** slave''. She doesn''t want to be found, for now,

[j-whitman]

Think Alabama Christians will stop sending thier children to foreign countries to get drunk & party till the cows come home ??? --- Nope

[nothappyatall]

CLOSE it already! this case gets more insane every time that Twitty twit gets in the news yammering on again about how she just KNOWS the men are guilty.
If I was one of them I''d be filing some sort of lawsuits against her for libel and the Aruba officials for harassment. Imagine hauling someone out of their job/school, flying them all the way to Aruba, jailing them a THIRD time, and then releasing them yet again because your evidence stinks and you "ground breaking NEW evidence" is the same OLD non-evidence rehashed.

No body, no photos no eye witnesses come forth- NO CASE, end of it, case closed and time to move on.

[fairandbal]

What will Faux News do when they have to think of a Bush crime cover story without Natalee?

To all the 18-year old women who think that long walks alone, or with a man met in a bar that night, along a beach is romantic... please REMEMBER you are packing a ***.

Regards,

Posted by Nancy_Naive at 10:40 PM : Dec 08, 2007


Faux News will do the next logical step with all stories that hit a dead end for them... ''Blame Clinton''

[barbedoll-2009]

This just terrible...whoever did this will have to answer on judgement day!

[tbweb]

So there IS such a thing as a perfect crime. This would be a good time to ask those criminal psychics what they think! Even though many don''t believe in them, it would still be interesting to hear what they have to say ...

[rgneufeld]

I find it interesting that her bags were packed. Doesn''t that indicate that she packed them herself?
Usually I pack my luggage after I have showered in the morning and do one last check around the room.
She must have been there in the morning! Maybe she went missing after she was prepared to leave the hotel! I think that the authorities should be searching the hotel and questioning the employees there.