FBI Agents Hunt For Teen In Aruba

Ten more FBI agents joined an increasingly desperate search Saturday for an Alabama honors high school student, while police investigated the story of three men who said they dropped her off at her hotel the night she vanished on this tranquil Dutch Caribbean island.

Police, Dutch troops and hundreds of volunteers scouring coastline and beaches for six consecutive days have found no trace of Natalee Holloway, 18.

But deputy police chief Gerold Dompig said authorities were investigating the background and story of two Surinamese men and a native of the Netherlands who said they dropped off the teenager at the Holliday Inn before dawn Monday.

Domping declined to call the men suspects, saying they were "persons of interest." But he said the men were "the most important lead."

"We are working diligently," Domping said. "I want everybody to hold their breaths for the next 24 hours. There will be developments after this weekend."

An official close to the investigation, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the three men--legal Aruban residents between the ages of 18 and 25--told police they had taken Holloway to Arashi beach on the northwestern tip of Aruba before dropping her off at the hotel.

Police, who have said they have found no evidence Holloway was abducted, have been searching Arashi for days.

Ten more FBI agents joined the three who were already on the island, said Attorney General Caren Janssen. "We need more technical assistance," she said, declining to elaborate.

Domping said police had checked out several reported sightings of the 5-foot, 4-inch blonde teenager, all to no avail.

Her mother and stepfather rushed to a police station late Friday night when police thought they might have found the teen in a car with some Arubans. Police said they detained a young blonde American woman who presented what they suspected was false identification. The parents said she was not their daughter.

"We will do whatever it takes," said Beth Holloway Twitty, the teenager's mother. "I'm not leaving Aruba without Natalee. She is an amazing 18-year-old girl. She is truly an angel."

Hundreds of Arubans and American residents have joined the hunt, upset about their peaceful island's marred image, said Aruban Prime Minister Nelson Oduber. About 500,000 Americans visited Aruba last year, lured by turquoise beaches and people brimming with smiles and helpful tips for foreigners.

Posters with Holloway's photo, reading "kidnapped," have gone up across the tiny island.

"Learning the news of Natalee's disappearance on our island left us all in a state of shock and disbelief," Oduber said. "We will not tolerate any activities that harm our American friends or tarnishes Aruba's reputation."

The Aruban 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 another $30,000.

The coast guard in Aruba and nearby Dutch territories was searching surrounding waters, said Janssen. But the search has not been extended to Venezuela, whose coastline is less than 20 miles from Aruba at the nearest point, or the neighboring Dutch island of Curacao.

Holloway was on a five-day excursion with 124 seniors and several chaperones from Mountain Brook High School, near Birmingham, Ala. She spent the last night of her holiday at Carlos 'N Charlie's bar and restaurant in the capital, eating and dancing with classmates and residents.

She didn't show up for her return flight. Police found her passport in her hotel room, and mother said her bags had been packed.

"Natalee's bags were packed and she's ready to go home," her mother told a news conference. "Please help bring her home."

Holloway, a straight-A student who won awards for volunteering, had earned a full scholarship at the University of Alabama and planned to study premed, said her maternal uncle, Paul Reynolds. He described his niece as a levelheaded girl who would not have done anything rash.

"Natalee is the perfect teenager, on the perfect vacation on a perfect island," he said. "If something terrible can happen to somebody like Natalee where does that leave the rest of us?"

Holloway's disappearance has shaken a sense of safety many Arubans long took for granted in an island of 72,000 people that saw one murder and six rapes last year. This year, there have been two murders and three rapes, police said.

"We are upset. We have felt so very safe all the time. Now we are afraid," said Betty Verbal, a 42-year-old waitress and mother of two. "In all churches, Catholic and Protestant, people are praying for her."