Suspects Charged In Aruba Case

Aruba authorities charged two men Sunday in connection with the disappearance of an Alabama teenager who went missing last week during a high school senior trip, and requested a special diving team from the FBI, the attorney general said.

The arrests nearly a week after 18-year-old honors student Natalee Holloway disappeared while celebrating her graduation with a five-day trip to the Dutch Caribbean island with more than 100 other classmates from Mountain Brook High School, near Birmingham, Alabama.

The men - ages 28 and 30 - were arrested Sunday morning at two separate homes in the southeastern community of San Nicolas, Attorney General Caren Janssen told reporters at news conference in the capital.

Janssen declined to provide the specific charges, saying the case will go before a local judge within 48 hours to determine whether they can be legally held.

"The charges have a relationship with the disappearance," Janssen said, without providing details. "There is a reasonable suspicion they may be involved."

Many feared the worst Sunday when authorities announced they had found a blood-soaked mattress at a beach in eastern Aruba, but it turned out to be blood from a dead dog found nearby, police said.

"We hope she's alive," police commissioner Jan van der Straaten said. "Every day I see the light at the end of the tunnel."

Investigators also seized three cars and were conducting forensic tests on them, Janssen said.

Twenty police officers and FBI agents, who are playing a supportive role in the investigation, took the two suspects into custody, according to an AP photographer at the scene. More than a dozen FBI agents were on the island assisting in the investigation.

Police knocked on the door of one house, put the suspect on the floor and handcuffed him. Officers later detained the second suspect. They both were led to an unmarked police car and taken away. Police also left the premises with bags holding unidentified items.

Neighbors described the men as security guards who worked at a hotel closed down for renovation near where the teen was staying at the Holiday Inn. Police and FBI agents searched the hotel Saturday.

Holloway was on a five-day excursion with 124 seniors and several chaperones from Mountain Brook High School, near Birmingham, Ala. She spent the last night of her vacation eating and dancing at Carlos 'N Charlie's bar and restaurant on this Dutch Caribbean island. Holloway was last seen early May 30.

She did not show up for her return flight, and police found her passport in her hotel room with her packed bags.

Authorities have checked out several reported sightings of the 5-foot-4-inch blonde, all to no avail.

Hundreds of Arubans and American residents have joined the hunt, upset that Holloway's disappearance could mar the image of this tranquil island. About 500,000 Americans visited Aruba last year, lured by turquoise waters and people brimming with smiles and helpful tips for foreigners.

Posters with Holloway's photo, reading "kidnapped," have gone up across the tiny island.

The Aruban government and local tourism organizations have offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to Holloway's rescue. Her family and benefactors in Alabama have offered another $30,000.

The coast guard in Aruba and nearby Dutch territories were searching surrounding waters, but the search did not extend to Venezuela, whose coastline is less than 20 miles from Aruba, or the neighboring Dutch island of Curacao.

Holloway's disappearance has shaken a sense of safety many Arubans took for granted in an island of 72,000 people that saw one murder and six rapes last year. This year, there have been two murders and three rapes, police said.

Holloway, a straight-A student, had earned a full scholarship at the University of Alabama and planned to study premed, Reynolds said. He described his niece as a levelheaded girl who would not have done anything rash, although he also said she had an almost childlike side, too.

On Saturday, police said three men — two Surinamese and a native of the Netherlands — who claimed they dropped off Holloway at her hotel had emerged as "the most important lead" in her disappearance.

An official close to the investigation said on condition of anonymity that the three men — legal Aruban residents between the ages of 18 and 25 — told police they took Holloway to a beach at the northwestern tip of Aruba before dropping her off at the hotel.

But Reynolds said he was told security cameras did not show Holloway returning to the hotel that night.