Not Natalee: Jawbone Proves No Link to Holloway

A jawbone found on an Aruba beach does not belong to missing Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway, prosecutors in the Dutch Caribbean island said Tuesday.

The jawbone is human, though it is unclear who it belongs to and whether efforts will be made to identify the person, officials said in a statement.

Dutch investigators compared the lone tooth on the bone with dental records supplied by Holloway's family and "it could be excluded that the investigated bone material and molar came from Natalee Holloway," the prosecutors said.

The bone was found recently by a tourist on a beach, and Aruba prosecutors had asked forensic scientists in the Netherlands to analyze it.

They assured that the Holloway case has "the constant attention from law enforcement on the island."

The announcement once again eliminates a hope of evidence about the fate of the Mountain Brook, Alabama, student who disappeared while on a high school graduation trip in 2005, when she was 18.

Carol Standifer, a close friend of Natalee's mother Beth Holloway, told CBS' "The Early Show" Tuesday that the family was prepared for whatever the DNA results could reveal.

"We've had a lot of ups and downs and a lot of really unusual circumstances happen throughout this entire event and this is just one more thing that we have to deal with right now," she said.

Standifer said it would be an "even greater tragedy" if the jawbone turned out not to belong to Holloway, saying Holloway's mother just wants an answer.

"Any mother would," she said. "We have been searching for her for over five years and I think if it is Natalee, there will be some semblance of closure. Of course, it won't be complete closure, because we really don't know for sure exactly what happened."

Holloway was last seen with Joran van der Sloot, the 23-year-old Dutchman currently awaiting trial in Peru for the murder of 21-year-old Stephany Flores. Van der Sloot was arrested twice in connection with Holloway's disappearance but was never charged. He has denied killing Holloway.

U.S. law enforcement officials have charged Van der Sloot with trying to extort money from Holloway's mother to reveal the location of Holloway's body.