Father Of Missing Teen To Search For Evidence

Thursday, November 22nd 2007, 9:00 am

By: News On 6

ORANJESTAD, Aruba (AP) _ The father of missing American teenager Natalee Holloway will relaunch a search for her body in waters off Aruba, he said Thursday after police re-arrested three suspects in her 2005 disappearance.

While authorities searched the sea to depths of 330 feet, Dave Holloway told The Associated Press that he believes his 18-year-old daughter was thrown into deeper waters a belief based on talks with a police official and a private forensic expert.

Holloway said a private boat owner is providing divers, sonar equipment and the ability to map the ocean floor.

``It's like this: we've searched all the land areas ... It's common knowledge on the island that if someone were to dispose of the body, it would be out in the ocean,'' he said by telephone

Holloway said he would alert police on the Dutch Caribbean island if anything is found.

Authorities announced Wednesday they had found ``new incriminating evidence'' and re-arrested three men, Dutch student Joran van der Sloot and brothers Satish and Deepak Kalpoe of Suriname, on suspicion of involvement in voluntary manslaughter and causing serious bodily harm that resulted in Holloway's death.

``I hope I'm not going to be disappointed,'' Dave Holloway said. ``We've seen these arrests and re-arrests in the past.''

The 18-year-old from Mountain Brook, Ala., was last seen leaving a bar with the three men on May 30, 2005, hours before she was scheduled to fly home with high school classmates celebrating their graduation.

A search by hundreds of volunteers, soldiers, police and FBI agents even Dutch air force planes turned up no trace of her.

Van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers were first detained in June 2005, but they denied involvement in the woman's death and a judge later released them for lack of evidence.

Van der Sloot, 20, was re-arrested in the Netherlands, where he was attending a university. The Kalpoe brothers, Deepak is 24, Satish, 21, were taken into custody in Aruba.

On Thursday, a Dutch judge cleared the way for van der Sloot's transfer to Aruba within days, prosecutor Dop Kruimel said in a telephone interview.

Van der Sloot's mother, Anita, said by telephone that investigators had recently questioned her family and that of the Kalpoe brothers.

``The questions they asked were so obvious: things like, 'Why did Joran leave his shoes on the beach?''' she said, referring to the place where her son said he kissed Holloway alone before her disappearance. ``I think it's ridiculous after two-and-a-half years to be doing this.''

The brothers were expected to make an initial appearance in an Aruba court Friday, when prosecutors were expected to present the new evidence to a judge.

They are being held in separate jails, and Aruba's chief prosecutor Hans Mos said prosecutors believe they should be represented by separate attorneys to prevent a conflict of interest.

The Kalpoes' attorney, David Kock, did not return a call for comment Thursday, but he told a local radio station that the arrests were ``an action of despair.''

``There was no reason for their arrest now,'' he said. ``We will take all kinds of measures to give our clients their freedom as soon as possible.''

In April, investigators from the Netherlands dug around the home of van der Sloot's family for two days without revealing what prompted the search. Then in May, Dutch and Aruban investigators visited the home where Deepak and Satish Kalpoe live with their parents for what authorities called an ``inspection.''