Aruban police again search landfill for Holloway

DNA test comes back negative
The FBI said Thursday that strands of hair found in Aruba did not come from Holloway.

The hair, which was found attached to duct tape on July 17, was subjected to genetic testing at the FBI crime lab in Quantico, Va., and the results showed they did not come from the 18-year-old, said FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela.

"The results were negative," said Orihuela. "It wasn't Natalee's hair."

A park ranger found the duct tape while collecting trash on Aruba's northeast coast — the opposite side of the island from where Holloway was last seen in public.

Testing was also conducted on a sample of the hair at a crime lab in the Netherlands, but the results were not immediately available.

New witnesses come forward
Saturday’s activity came a day after Holloway’s stepfather said two new witnesses had come forward with information about the night the 18-year-old from Mountain Brook, Ala., disappeared.

One witness told investigators that he saw Joran van der Sloot, the 17-year-old Dutch youth who has been detained as the main suspect, driving to a tennis club across the road from the Marriott around 2:30 a.m. the night Holloway disappeared, Twitty said.

The witness said van der Sloot tried to hide his face with his hands as he drove to the Racquet Club with two Surinamese brothers, Satish and Deepak Kalpoe, Twitty said. The Kalpoe brothers were detained as suspects and later released.

The stepfather said the account is significant because it places the three individuals near the hotel beach where van der Sloot says he left Holloway alone the last night she was seen in public.

“What’s interesting is the time — 2:30 a.m. — when the three were supposedly on their way home,” said Twitty, referring to their previous accounts to investigators.

The witness, a gardener whose name was not disclosed, gave his account to investigators Friday, Twitty said.

Discrepancies in stories
The Kalpoe brothers first told police that they and van der Sloot dropped Holloway at her hotel around 2 a.m. the morning of May 30. Later, they said they had lied to protect their friend and that they had dropped the Dutch youth and Holloway at a beach near the hotel.

A second new witness told a private investigator hired by Holloway’s family that she saw van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers drive into the Racquet Club three times that same night. The woman, who lives nearby, has not yet spoken with investigators, he said.

Aruban authorities did not comment on the stepfather’s statements.

An attorney for van der Sloot, Richie Kock, said authorities had not told him about the new witnesses. Lawyers for the Kalpoe brothers were not immediately available for comment.

Aruban authorities said this week that they have dispatched a prosecutor to consult with the FBI and brought in experts from the Netherlands as they investigate the disappearance.

The family on Monday increased the reward for information leading to the young woman’s safe return to $1 million, from $200,000.

No one has been charged in the case, and van der Sloot is the only suspect still detained.

Holloway vanished after an evening of eating, drinking and dancing at a nightclub which she left with the three young men, hours before she was to catch a flight home at the end of a graduation trip with 124 classmates.

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