Reward In Aruba Case Climbs To $1 Million UPDATED: 9:34 am CDT July 26, 2005
ORANJESTAD, Aruba -- Aruban authorities have brought in experts from the Netherlands and sent a prosecutor to consult with the FBI as they seek to solve the disappearance of missing Mississippi native Natalee Holloway, officials said Monday.
The reward in the case rose to $1 million.
The four experts from the Netherlands traveled to the Dutch Caribbean island to assist with interrogations while two members of the team investigating the Holloway case traveled to the FBI crime lab in Quantico, Va., the public prosecutor's office of Aruba said.
Aruba has agreed to show transcripts of interrogations to the FBI, which is acting in an advisory role in the high-profile case, in a sign of increased cooperation that drew praise from the family of the Mountain Brook teen who vanished on the last night of a high school graduation trip.
"I'm really so grateful to the Aruban officials who have made it possible to release this information," said the teenager's mother, Beth Holloway Twitty (pictured here with her daughter)
after announcing that the reward for information leading to her safe return had been increased to $1 million.
A family spokeswoman in Birmingham said the reward was increased after Holloway's relatives received an offer from an anonymous benefactor.
No one has been charged in the case. Joran van der Sloot, the 17-year-old son of a judge in training on the island, has been detained as a suspect.
Aruban authorities agreed to provide the transcripts after the country's prime minister sent a letter to Attorney General Karin Janssen urging prosecutors to give the FBI "complete access" to materials from the investigation to the extent allowed under Dutch law, which governs the territory.
The FBI has also collected a sample of hair found on duct tape along the shore of the island for a DNA analysis. The agency has advised Aruban authorities in the six-week investigation into the disappearance of Holloway but previously had not had access to documents.
The public prosecutor's office said in a statement that Amalin Flanegin, a senior member of the prosecution team, and a police investigator would be at the FBI crime lab for a week with materials gathered during the investigation to discuss the case. They did not specify the materials.
Holloway, 18, disappeared May 30, hours before she was to catch a return flight to Alabama, at the end of a trip with 124 classmates. Extensive searches of the island have failed to find a trace of her, and Twitty said she hoped the increased reward -- plus a separate offer of $100,000 for information that solves the mystery -- will spur action in the case. Previously, the family offered $200,000 for her safe return.
Riehl World View - Natalee Holloway: Was She Raped And Murdered By Deepak Kalpoe? As first mentioned in How Did Natalee Holloway Leave Carlos and Charlies, RWV has obtained exclusive, credible information as regards events surrounding the Mountain Brook Aruba trip in general, as well as specific events at Carlos and Charlies the night of Natalee Holloway's disappearance.
Diario Editor, Jossy Mansur, tonight on Fox News stated that in earlier testimony suspect Joran Van der Sloot claimed that Deepak Kalpoe raped and murdered Natalee Holloway and buried her body near a fisherman's hut on the beach. Van der Sloot is said to have claimed he had fallen asleep with Natalee on the beach, woke up and then left. He also is reported to have alleged that Deepak Kalpoe then went back, raped and murdered the young girl.
In a report from a student in attendance on the trip, this does match with certain information gathered during my reporting. It was stated to me that Joran, far from being an antagonist, was much more laid back in his interactions with the young Americans on the trip - and it was actually Deepak Kalpoe who was much more "in your face."
As already reported, at least one confrontation on the trip the night before the group's last evening in Aruba did not involve Joran Van der Sloot and a Mountain Brook student; instead, the confrontation was between Deepak Kalpoe and a student from the Alabama high school.
In addition to that, I have been told that, as reported elsewhere, the notion that Joran Van der Sloot "hit on" Natalee twice and was rebuffed was "ridiculous." Natalee, along with some other Mountain Brook girls was rather taken with the young Dutch boy and it should have come as no surprise to anyone that they might have wound up together in some fashion at the end of the evening.
The same cannot be said for Deepak Kalpoe - in fact, just the opposite. According to a student on the trip, Deepak Kalpoe appeared to be quite attracted to the young blond girl from Alabama, who did not return the attraction and was far more interested in Joran.
Also as previously reported in story above, I've been informed that Natalee Holloway did not leave the front of Carlos and Charlies with Joran Van der Sloot, she was seen leaving with Deepak Kalpoe by, perhaps, the last known Mountain Brook student to see her alive. The report comes from one of the students inside of one of the now infamous taxi cabs into which other friends of Natalee thought she would enter to return to her hotel and safety.
While this last piece is speculative at best, based upon what I have learned, it is entirely possible that Deepak Kalpoe used Joran Van der Sloot as bait to get Natalee away from her friends. If Van der Sloot, the Kalpoes and Natalee all met up either around the corner, or on the beach, it would jibe with the information I have obtained.
Based upon gathered information speaking directly to the then existing dynamics between the young men and Natalee Holloway, I found the version of events attributed to Joran Van der Sloot and related by Jossy Mansur on Fox News tonight to be possibly the most credible version of events that night I've heard to date.
Update: Another point, as I reported here weeks ago, additional information from Aruba pointed to an eyewitness who saw both Kalpoe brothers thoroughly washing out their vehicle at a location beside their home which was termed "unusual." It was suggested the location was not the normal one they used and would help to obscure any view of their efforts from the street. This took place after their initial release from questioning and prior to their arrest.
When, based upon discussions I had with individuals close to the search party, EquuSearch sought to check the area with dogs, they were turned away by the Mother of Deepak Kalpoe.