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Aruba Closes Investigation Into Holloway's Disappearance

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By MARGARET WEVER, The Associated Press

Published: December 19, 2007

ORANJESTAD, Aruba - Prosecutors closed their investigation into the disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway, saying Tuesday that they still think three young men were involved in her death but can't prove it after 932 days of searching failed to turn up a body.

The three main suspects in the case were rearrested last month after prosecutors in Aruba discovered online chat sessions they hoped would break the case open. None of the men talked in custody, however, and without the 18-year-old's body, prosecutors said they had no recourse but to close the missing person case.

If the three suspects were put on trial, the lack of evidence "would lead to an acquittal," the public prosecutor's office said in a statement.

Moving Holloway to the cold-case files "is a tough burden to bear" for her parents, they acknowledged, but the prosecutors said they had little choice.

"The public prosecutor's office and the police have gone the extra mile and have exhausted all their powers and techniques in order to solve the mystery of the disappearance of the girl," the statement read.
Holloway disappeared on May 30, 2005, the last night of a trip with members of her Mountain Brook, Ala., high school graduating class. She was last seen leaving a bar with the three suspects: Joran van der Sloot and brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe, who all lived on this Dutch island off the coast of Venezuela.

Holloway's parents, who divorced years before her disappearance, pushed hard to find what happened to their daughter - and Americans followed every development.

Holloway's mother, Beth Twitty, is "terribly disappointed" with Tuesday's decision, her spokeswoman said.

"She was very hopeful the last couple weeks and she went down there and met with the prosecutor," Sunny Tillman said.

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