"Clothing found off Aruba not Natalee's" 27/02/2008 00:00

A piece of clothing found in a crab net by crew of the ship Persistence off the coast of Aruba in January has emerged not to be Natalee Holloway's.

27 February 2008

ORANJESTAD – A piece of clothing found in a crab net by crew of the ship Persistence off the coast of Aruba in January has emerged not to be Natalee Holloway's.

The public prosecution on Aruba announced this on Tuesday after laboratory tests by the FBI.

The ship, supported by American donations, has been combing the waters off Aruba since the end of last year in search of traces of missing American teenager Natalee Holloway. Stories had circulated on Aruba that Holloway's body had been wrapped in a net.

Justice officials were alerted when the Peristence's sonar picked up the net at a depth of about 30 metres. The public prosecution department subsequently commissioned a local team of divers to retrieve the net.

Aruba asked the FBI to compare the textile scraps with a sample of the material of the blouse Natalee was wearing on the night of her disappearance in 2005.

[Copyright Expatica News + ANP 2008]