Hunt For Alabama Teen Intensifies

More FBI agents headed to Aruba to help search for an Alabama teenager whose disappearance on the last day of a high school graduation trip has shaken the quiet Dutch Caribbean island.

Police and volunteers combed beaches and scrubland for a fifth consecutive day, but found no sign of Natalee Holloway, 18, whose mother had tearfully pleaded for more U.S. help in the search.

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 American woman--a blonde like Holloway--because she presented what they suspected was false identification.

Holloway's mother and stepfather held hands and smiled as they emerged from the station outside the capital of Oranjestad, saying the woman was not their daughter but they were confident she would be found.

"I know we'll find her," said Beth Holloway Twitty.

Holloway came to Aruba for a five-day excursion with 124 seniors and 40 chaperons from Mountain Brook High School, near Birmingham, Ala. She was last seen around 2 a.m. Monday at Carlos 'N Charlie's bar and restaurant in the capital, eating and dancing with classmates and residents.

Justice Minister Rudy Croes announced late Friday that more FBI agents were on the way to Aruba, though he did not specify how many or say how many were already on the island. FBI officials did not return calls seeking comment.

Authorities say there is no evidence that the honors student was abducted, but police commissioner Jan van der Straaten said "after four or five days you are afraid a crime has been committed."

Her mother had pleaded earlier Friday for the Dutch government to request more direct help from the United States.

"We all have a common goal to find Natalee so we can bring her home," Holloway Twitty told reporters in a hotel conference room. She choked up and left the room in tears.

Aruban Attorney General Caren Janssen had insisted earlier that local authorities did not need more U.S. help. U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Washington was "making sure that we provide all possible assistance to the family and local authorities."

A $50,000 reward has been offered for information leading to Holloway's rescue, said Myrna Jansen, the director of Aruba's tourism office. The Aruban government and local tourism organizations were contributing $20,000, while family and benefactors in Alabama were offering the rest, she said.

Aruba's coast guard began searching surrounding waters, indicating authorities were considering the possibility Holloway was taken off the island with or without her consent. Police found her passport in her hotel.

Holloway had earned a full scholarship at the University of Alabama, where she planned to study premed, said her uncle Paul Reynolds, who traveled from Houston to help in the search.

Reynolds said his niece was a responsible person who would not have run away.

"Natalee is very smart and focused," Reynolds said. "It never crossed my mind that she intentionally missed the flight. When she did, I knew something was terribly wrong."

Croes said police questioned and released two Surinamese nationals and a native of the Netherlands who said they dropped Holloway off early Monday at the Holiday Inn where she had been staying, rectifying police reports that the three men had been Aruban students. He said the three men were residents of Aruba.

The search has not been extended to Venezuela, whose coastline is only 25 miles from Aruba at the nearest point, or the neighboring Dutch island of Curacao, van der Straaten said.

Posters with a photograph of Holloway have been put up throughout island, with a caption reading: "Kidnapped since 1:30 a.m. May 30."

On an island remarkable for its friendliness, pristine beaches and an absence of violent crime, Holloway's disappearance has shocked islanders, many of whom say they are optimistic she will be found alive.

"She's not on the island," said Jany Winterdal, a 51-year-old taxi driver. "In Aruba, we don't know what doing bad things to people is. For me, she's alive."

There have been two murders and three rapes on the island of 72,000 people this year, compared to one murder and six rapes last year, none involving foreigners, police said.

Aruba has an average of 13,000 tourists on any given day at this time of the year, the Tourism Authority said.