Natalee Holloway – June 10th 2005

There has been very little news since yesterday afternoons press conference with the Prime Minister of Aruba. One thing we all have to remember is that the Aruban justice system works completely out of the limelight, while the American system tends to put all the information out into the public domain as soon as possible.

CNN

CNN) — A teen being held in connection with the disappearance of Natalee Holloway met the Alabama student at her hotel’s casino a day before she vanished, according to police.

Juron Van Der Sloot — the teenage son of an Aruban judge — was among three people taken into custody early Thursday. Two brothers, Satish and Depak Kalpoe, were also arrested.

Authorities have said the three were the last ones seen with Holloway, 18, when she left Carlos ‘N Charlie’s, a popular nightclub in Oranjestad, about 1:30 a.m. on May 30.

Also Thursday, authorities said the investigation has spread beyond Aruba — with police forces in nearby South America contacted. They did not say where those forces were or why they were contacted.

Police said Van Der Sloot met Holloway on May 29 at the casino in the Holiday Inn where she was staying with classmates who had traveled to Aruba to celebrate their high school graduation.

Holly Brown, a friend who accompanied Holloway to Aruba and was at Carlos ‘N Charlie’s the night she disappeared, said she found Van Der Sloot to be “very different.”

“We noticed he was in the casino all by himself,” she told CNN in Alabama. “He lied about his age, and when we went on the (Carlos ‘N Charlie’s) Web site, we found pictures of him there one week before at the same place, wearing the same clothes.”

Birmingham News

Police arrested a teen Thursday who spent time with Natalee Holloway during her visit here and may have been one of the last people to see her before she disappeared.

Police detained Joren van der Sloot, 17, after a 6 a.m. raid of his home in the town of Montana. They also arrested two brothers, Depak, 17, and Datish Kalpoe, 18, in the town of Hooiberg.

Attorney General Karin Janssen would not specify what charges the three could face.

…

Deputy Police Chief Jan van der Straten said Holloway met van der Sloot in the casino attached to her hotel two days before she disappeared. Family friends say Holloway knew that van der Sloot had spent much of the week playing cards in the casino with a group of boys from the trip.

Employees at the Holiday Inn casino said van der Sloot and the Kalpoes were part of a group of young regulars at the poker tables. They also said teens from the Mountain Brook group visited often during their five-day trip, playing cards with the local boys and drinking heavily, sometimes before noon.

Brenda Bouwman, marketing manager for the casino, said everybody who worked there knew the Mountain Brook teenagers “because they were partying and they were loud.” She said Holloway was seen with a group at the blackjack tables on Sunday, May 29, although she did not think the girl was gambling.

Fox News

Finding 18-year-old Natalee Holloway (search) is “priority No. 1″ for Aruba and no one will be above the law in the investigation and prosecution of those responsible for the American’s disappearance, the Dutch Caribbean island’s prime minister told FOX News on Friday.

Prime Minister Nelson Orlando Oduber (search) on Thursday visited Holloway’s family, who is in Aruba searching for the Alabama teenager.

Oduber said he conveyed to them “that we will do our utmost to try to find her and solve this case.”

“My family and all Arubans are with the family,” he added.

David Holloway, the missing teen’s father, said Oduber’s “concern is to find Natalie” and that “he asked us heart to heart what he could do to help us find her.”

Oduber has called an 11 a.m. meeting Friday with Aruba’s chief of police and other officials to determine if more assistance is needed in the search which has so far turned up no evidence of Holloway’s whereabouts.

From Gabriel Leo, a commenter in Aruba, is this link and story

http://www.awemainta.com/pressdisplay/viewer.aspx

From Gabriel:

Yesterday they were reviewing a security camara at a gas station on the island.

The worker there claims that it was Natalee. She also said that the girl was an American, she bought a bounch of calling cards and had a stack of cash on her from which she used to pay the cards. She claimed this girl was acting very nervous. She then walked outside and enterred a white car, where she claimes that an older woman was driving the car. She than claimed that this car sped off. She contacted the police and gave the information to them. The police came and cofiscated the tape from the camara and was viewed by Natalee’s brother who claimes that it’s not her, but can’t say this with certainty. The girl’s face isn’t clearly to be seen. One of the local newspaper printed a picture of her and posted a shot from the camara. What has people wondering if it is her is the way this girl was standing in the gas station and the way she stands when a picture was taken of her here on the island. Who knows, but everyone is now just looking for answers anywhere they can find them. that’s the newest developements in the case.

Update 18:46 EDT : Jairo has heard that the girl on the tape in the convienence story has been identified as a tour operator on Aruba.