Kisses, Tryst In Aruba Case
A missing Alabama honors student went to an Aruban beach and engaged in passionate kissing with a Dutch teen in a car the night she disappeared, according to testimony from two of the boy's friends.
All three young men were arrested Thursday and will appear before a judge on Saturday, government spokesman Ruben Trapenberg said. Authorities have refused to say on what grounds they were being held.
According to testimony from two of the Dutch boy's Surinamese friends, they brought 18-year-old Natalee Holloway to Arashi beach, on the northern tip of the island, but they didn't get out of the car. Instead, Holloway and the Dutch teen, a 17-year-old honors student at Aruba International School, "were in the back seat kissing" in an intimate embrace, the Surinamese brothers said, according to testimony given to police.
The testimony was reviewed by the court-appointed lawyer for one of two former hotel security guards being held in the case.
CBS News Correspondent Kelly Cobiella reports that all four left the 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.
Holloway disappeared May 30 while on a five-day trip with 124 classmates and seven chaperones celebrating their graduation from Mountain Brook High School, near Birmingham. Police found her U.S. passport and packed bags in her hotel room.
Aruban police, Dutch Marines and hundreds of volunteers continued island-wide searches, but Trapenberg said there was "absolutely no new information" Friday.
The brothers told police the young woman was drunk and refused to get out of the car when asked to, said Noraina Pietersz, who is representing 30-year-old Nick John, a former security guard arrested Sunday.
The three young men said they then drove Holloway back to the Holiday Inn around 2 a.m. and that she stumbled in the parking lot but refused help from her Dutch escort, defense lawyer David Kock told The Associated Press.
Kock said his client, Satish Kalpoe, 18, and his brother, Deepak, 21, told police they last saw Holloway being approached by a man in a security guard uniform before they drove off.
A police officer told the AP earlier this week that the two detained former security guards were known to police for trolling area hotels to pick up women, and at least one had a previous brush with the law. Lawyers for the two men have said they deny any connection to Holloway.
Holiday Inn employees say security cameras did not record Holloway's return. In addition, a Holiday Inn guard who worked the overnight shift the day the young woman disappeared said he did not see the high school graduate, said Pietersz, who said she also reviewed the guard's testimony to police.
In Mountain Brook, Ala., Holloway's aunt, Marcia Twitty, expressed frustration that Aruban authorities initially released the three young men last week after questioning them.
"These are the last three guys to be with her, and we just feel like they know something," said Twitty, who is serving as the spokeswoman.
The criticism came after Holloway's stepfather, George "Jug" Twitty, told the AP the young men told him that Holloway met the Dutch student in the casino of her hotel two days before she disappeared and flirted with him.
John and Abraham Jones, 28, a fellow former security guard, have been detained since Sunday. They are being held in separate locations on suspicion of murder and capital kidnapping, or kidnapping resulting in death, Pietersz said. None of the five has been charged.
"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."