Fox News
Aruba PM: 'We Are Doing Everything We Can'
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
ORANJESTAD, Aruba —
Prime Minister
Nelson Oduber (search) will ask government officials in the Netherlands to help
in the search for Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway (search), he told FOX News
in an exclusive interview.
"We are doing
our utmost and everything we can to find her," Oduber told FOX News'
Geraldo Rivera.
He said he was
going to appeal to Dutch government leaders for their help in solving the case.
"I'm going to
call the Dutch government. I'm going to try to reach one of the Dutch ministers
to convince him of the necessity for all Aruba and our relation with the U.S.
that we have to cooperate ... to try to find Natalee," Oduber said.
The prime
minister's comments came on the heels of the release of a party boat disc
jockey and a Dutch teenager's father from prison.
Holloway, 18, was
last seen by her friends before dawn on May 30 when she left a nightclub and
got into a car with three young men, all of whom have been jailed as suspects
in the case and remain in custody.
She was in Aruba on
a high school graduation trip, but failed to show up the next morning for her
flight home.
On Monday, Aruban
police freed Steve Gregory Croes (search), 26, one day after releasing the
father of a 17-year-old suspect who remains in custody. A judge had ruled that
there wasn't enough evidence to hold the men.
With the release of
Croes and 52-year-old Paul van der Sloot (search), a judge in training in the
Dutch protectorate, three people remain jailed: Van der Sloot's 17-year-old son
Joran and his friends, Surinamese brothers Deepak Kalpoe, 21, and Satish
Kalpoe, 18. No one has been charged.
A judge on Sunday
ordered their detention extended another week. Under Dutch law, a suspect can
be held for up to 116 days without charge if a judge decides police have good
reason.
"The son
(Joran) is clearly the center of suspicion and the assumption is that he knows
what happened," said Ricardo Yarzagaray, an Aruban defense lawyer not
involved with the case. "The problem is, if a crime was committed, they
have no body" to prove it.
Aruban officials
say a murder conviction is possible without a body, but requires strong
evidence, such as a confession, reliable statements and forensic evidence of
wrongdoing.
Massive searches
that have included Aruban authorities, FBI agents, Dutch Marines and thousands
of islanders have found nothing. There were reports that the Dutch Marines may
participate again in the search.
Attorney General
Caren Janssen (search) declined to say whether the judge's decision to free the
two men harmed the case.
"We are still
hoping to find the truth," Jannsen said.
Dave Holloway, the
missing teen's father, said the release of Paul van der Sloot was a
"disappointment."
"Finding out
what happened to Natalee is like putting together a puzzle, and unfortunately
that piece was taken out too soon," he said.
Natalee Holloway's
mother, Beth Holloway Twitty (search), has been on the island since her
daughter's disappearance. She told FOX News that after meeting last week with
Paul van der Sloot, she is convinced he knows more than he is letting on.
"What I walked
away with was a confirmation that he definitely has some information and could
be very instrumental in helping us find out what happened to Natalee and where
she is," Holloway Twitty told FOX News on Tuesday.
She said that
during the 90-minute meeting, Paul van der Sloot was "sweating
profusely," so much so that his perspiration was dripping onto the table.
Croes, who was
detained June 17, worked on the party boat Tattoo, which was moored near the
Holiday Inn where Holloway was staying during her five-day high school
graduation trip.
Croes did not speak
with reporters Monday as he left the jail.
The three young men
initially told police that after a night of eating, drinking and dancing, they
took Holloway to a northern beach before dropping her off at her hotel around 2
a.m.
On Saturday, Satish
Kalpoe's lawyer said his client admitted that his story was a lie.
Satish Kalpoe now
claims that he and his brother dropped Holloway and Joran van der Sloot off
together at a beach near the Marriott hotel, then went home, said the lawyer,
David Kock.
Anita van der Sloot
(search), Joran's mother, said her son told her he was alone on a beach with
Holloway and left her there unharmed in the early hours of the day she vanished.
FOX News' Catherine
Donaldson-Evans, Geraldo Rivera and The Associated Press contributed to this
report.