New Holloway Arrest Adds To Mystery

Police on the Caribbean island of Aruba have arrested 19-year old Geoffrey Van Cromviort in the case of the disappearance of U.S. teenager Natalee Holloway, reports CBS News. Van Cromviort's sister is a police trainee.

Since Holloway vanished almost a year ago, at least three other people have been detained and released without charge.

The arrest left many on this Caribbean island to wonder whether the arrest marked a real breakthrough in the almost year-old case. The development has even surprised Holloway's mother, Beth Twitty, who tells CBS News she is very hopeful this will lead to new information in the case.

"We were all together Saturday when (Beth) found out," Marcia Twitty, sister of Beth Twitty, said in an interview with the Associated Press Monday. "She's been a little overwhelmed with people trying to call her and all."

Joe Tacopina, an attorney for Dutch national Joran van der Sloot now in college in the Netherlands, who was arrested last year but then released for lack of evidence, said he hoped the new arrest would shed light on what happened to Holloway, an honors student from Mountain Brook, Alabama, who disappeared on May 30. It was the final night of the 18-year-old's high school graduation trip to this Dutch Caribbean island.

"It's another step in the process of resolving this case, and an indication for my client who had nothing to do with Natalee's disappearance or demise," van der Sloot's attorney, Joe Tacopina, tells CBS News' The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith.

Tacopina, who said his investigators had been in contact with Aruban authorities, said Van Cromviort was detained because police recovered a T-shirt belonging to him with "relevant forensic information" from the south side of the Dutch Caribbean island.

"So it's an optimistic turn for us that they're looking elsewhere. I mean for almost eleven months they looked at anything van der sloot and nothing else. And we think this new police chief is giving some life and some energy to this investigation," Tacopina adds.

Holloway's father, Dave Holloway, said Sunday he has been informed of the arrested person's identity but did not recognize the name.

"We're hopeful that something will come out of it," Holloway said.

Holloway was last seen leaving an Aruba bar with van der Sloot and Surinamese brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe. Van der Sloot has said he left Holloway on a beach near her hotel after they had kissed.

Mariaine Croes, a spokeswoman for the public prosecutor's office, said Saturday that Aruban authorities were not prepared to disclose why Van Cromviort was arrested or how the arrest was linked to the Holloway case.

Dave Holloway said he was still suspicious of van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers.

"I still think that these three original suspects still know more than what they told us," he said.

Attorneys for the three, who still remain suspects, tell CBS News their clients don't know Van Cromviort, CBS News correspondent Bianca Solorzano reports.

John Q. Kelly, a lawyer representing the Holloway family in a civil lawsuit against van der Sloot, said on NBC's "Today" show that Aruban authorities told him that the new person detained in the case was questioned for five hours Saturday.

Kelly also said investigators believe the 19-year-old may have information about van der Sloot and the two other previously named suspects, Surinamese brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe. "They have common friends. The information this individual picked up is information related to the other three suspects," he said.

Former FBI agent Harold Copus, who was hired to investigate the case by the U.S. television program, the "Dr. Phil" show, said that law enforcement officials in Aruba should be given time to present their evidence about the new suspect.

"There have been so many missteps in this case," Copus said from Las Vegas on Sunday night. "Let's wait to see the evidence that's gathered and how does that tie in to the known facts of Natalee's disappearance."

"The next step, hopefully, is this investigation keeps rolling in the direction it is. Hopefully there's some additional leads that are followed up on. Hopefully there's some resolution," Tacopina tells The Early Show.

In recent weeks, Aruban police have searched sand dunes on the northern coast of the island. Dutch Marines, the FBI and hundreds of volunteers have previously searched for Holloway.

In a case that's had more than half a dozen arrests, fruitless searches across the island and investigations under intense media scrutiny, many hope this latest arrest may finally bring some answers, Solorzano reports.