Finding Teen Aruba's 'No. 1 Goal'

Three young men who acknowledged giving a ride to an Alabama honors student the day she disappeared were arrested, while Aruba's prime minister said finding the woman was the country's "No. 1 goal."

The three detainees had been questioned last week about 18-year-old Natalee Holloway.

CBS News Correspondent Kelly Cobiella reports that all four left a bar at 1:30 in the morning. The young men told police they took a 15 minute drive to the lighthouse on the northern end of the island and then dropped off Holloway at her hotel at 2:00 a.m. However, not a single frame of security video at the Holiday Inn shows her coming back.

Police also impounded a gray Honda Thursday; Holloway's friends reported last seeing her leave a nightclub in a silver car.

Prime Minister Nelson Oduber on Thursday expressed solidarity with Holloway's family and underscored the importance of U.S.-Aruba ties, saying the government was working closely with U.S. authorities to solve the case.

"The hearts of the people of Aruba are touched by Natalee and her family," he said at a news conference. "Resolving this is Aruba's No. 1 goal."

Those detained Thursday were two brothers from Suriname and a Dutch student who is the son of a high-ranking Dutch justice official.

Oduber insisted the 17-year-old Dutch student is not getting special treatment, Cobiella reports.

The prime minister, who said he had met with Holloway's relatives, pledged that police would not exclude anyone from their investigation.

"On this island nobody stands above the law," he said, stressing that "hope is still alive" that Holloway will be found unharmed.

"I'm still optimistic that we'll find her," said Dave Holloway, Natalee's father, on CBS News' The Early Show. "Every day that we work and search the area that we don't find her, gives me satisfaction that she's alive and well."

Dave Halloway told Early Show co-anchor Russ Mitchell that authorities in Aruba are very optimistic that Natalee would be found.

"Along with thousands of just good-hearted Aruban people, all the American citizens down here have given up a day on the beach," he said. "It just touches my heart that people just volunteer their efforts to help us find her."

Attorney general spokeswoman Vivian Van Der Biezan told a news conference the three detainees were ages 17, 18 and 21.

The 17-year-old met Holloway at a casino in her hotel, the Holiday Inn, two nights before she disappeared on May 30, Aruban police Cmdr. Jahn van der Straaten told reporters.

In Mountain Brook, Ala., Holloway's hometown, teens who went to Aruba with her on a graduation trip were quoted as saying the Dutch man was at several places the group visited, including the restaurant-bar where the honors student was last seen.

Marcia Twitty, Holloway's aunt, said the Alabama students recognized the Dutch detainee from photos shown them by FBI agents. "They had seen him around during the trip. He was just a local guy in the bar and the casino where all the kids were just kind of hanging out," she said.

Attorney General Caren Janssen said the three men were arrested about 6 a.m. but refused to name them or say on what grounds they were being held. Authorities previously described them as students.

Police identified the Surinamese brothers only as Satish and Deepak K. The Dutch detainee, an honors student at Aruba International School, left his home in the middle-class neighborhood of Oranjestad on Thursday with his head covered in a blue-and-green striped towel.

The three had been detained last week but were released after questioning. Authorities had described them as witnesses "or persons of interest."

Under the Dutch judicial system, which Aruba follows as a protectorate of the Netherlands, people can be arrested on suspicion of a crime but held for up to 116 days without being formally charged. The men were not expected to be officially identified until they are charged.

Holloway disappeared hours before she was to take a flight home. Police found her passport and packed bags in her hotel room. Extensive land and water searches have failed to turn up any trace of her.

Officials were investigating whether the three new detainees had any connection to two former hotel security guards who have been held in the case since Sunday, Janssen said.

The two ex-guards, Nick John, 30, and Abraham Jones, 28, will remain jailed, at least until a court hearing next week, Janssen said. Neither man has been formally charged.

The Dutch detainee is white, while the two Surinamese men are of Indian origin. The two former security guards are black.

Janssen said the investigation "has nothing to do with color of skin" and social class.

Holloway vanished while on a five-day trip with 124 classmates and seven chaperones celebrating their high school graduation. Authorities have not said Holloway was a victim of foul play and have not ruled out any possibilities, including that she may have drowned.