29 March 2006

AMSTERDAM — A Dutch police delegation is in Aruba to support the investigation into the disappearance of US teenager Natalee Holloway.

Four officers of the Dutch national police service KLPD arrived on the Dutch Caribbean island on Monday afternoon. They have two tracker dogs with them. A second team is to arrive shortly, local newspaper 'Amigoe' reported on the Dutch-language version of its website on Wednesday

The Dutch will use the dogs and a ground radar system in the latest in a series of searches for the missing teen. This search will concentrate on an area of sand dunes where the authorities suspect her body may be buried.

Previous searches, using ground radar, dogs and Dutch F-16 jets, have failed to find any trace of Holloway. The 18-year-old school graduate went missing on the last day of a holiday with school friends in May 2005.

The case has received massive media attention in America, due to the high-profile campaign led by her mother Beth Twitty to find out what happened.

Three young men, including Dutch teenager Joran van der Sloot, were seen with Holloway shortly before her disappearance. The three remain suspects in the case but have not been charged.

Holloway's parents have taken civil proceedings against Van der Sloot, alleging he engaged in sexual activity with Natalee while she was too intoxicated to consent. The complaint stops short of accusing him of murder. Van der Sloot's parents are co-defendants in the law suit.

Gerald Dompig, Aruba's Deputy Chief of Police, added to the myriad of theories about the case in an interview broadcast on CBS in the US at the weekend.

Dompig suggested Natalee Holloway was not murdered, but rather died as a result of an overdose of drugs and alcohol. He said Joran van der Sloot and his two friends may have buried her body and that a second group of people may also have become involved.

Joran's father, Paul van der Sloot, has not revealed all he knows about the case, Dompig said. He did not cite evidence to support his theory.

Holloway’s family and friends have said it would have been out of character for Natalee to use drugs.

[Copyright Expatica News + ANP 2006]

Subject: Dutch news