Aruba leader: Mistakes made in Holloway case

updated 12:21 p.m. ET Aug. 22, 2005

ORANJESTAD, Aruba - Aruba’s prime minister believes that authorities made mistakes at the start of the investigation of the Natalee Holloway case, a government spokesman said Monday.

Beth Holloway Twitty, who has often criticized authorities on the Dutch Caribbean island since her daughter disappeared on May 30, met in private with Prime Minister Nelson Oduber over the weekend.

“I think that he’s in absolute agreement that the initial investigation has been so badly botched,” Holloway Twitty said on NBC’s “Today” show.

She said the prime minister also told her that Aruba needs to review the first stages of the investigation to find out “who let this go wrong.”

Oduber told reporters over the weekend that during the meeting he assured the Alabama woman that investigators would not stop looking for answers about the fate of her 18-year-old daughter.

Government spokesman Ruben Trapenberg said Monday the prime minister had expressed concerns about the initial investigation, though he used more cautious language.

“The prime minister agreed that in the beginning the case could have been better handled,” Trapenberg said. “He didn’t say it had been ’botched.”’

Holloway, of Mountain Brook, Ala., was last seen leaving a bar with three young local men on the final night of a high school graduation trip to Aruba. Police and hundreds of volunteers have searched the island, but found no trace of her.

An 18-year-old Dutch resident of Aruba, Joran van der Sloot, has been detained as a suspect but no charges have been filed. At a hearing in September, a court is expected to decide if there is enough evidence to continue holding him.

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