Family hires company to search island for girl
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
HANNAH WOLFSON
News staff writer
The latest suspect in the case of a missing Mountain Brook teen can remain in detention for another eight days, a judge in Aruba ruled Monday.
The decision came as Natalee Holloway's family hired a Texas company to search for her and prepared a lawsuit demanding authorities give them the evidence gathered in the three weeks since the 18-year-old vanished, The Associated Press reported.
Aruban prosecutors had already decided to hold Steve Gregory Croes, 26, said Mariaine Croes, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office. (The two are not related.) Under Dutch law, which Aruba follows, a judge must ensure there's just cause to continue holding a suspect. No charges have been filed.
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Croes is being questioned in connection with the search for Holloway, which enters its fourth week today. The 18-year-old disappeared May 30 on a graduation trip to the Caribbean island.
Three other suspects - Joran van der Sloot, 17; Satish Kalpoe, 18; and Deepak Kalpoe, 21 - are also being held. Fellow Mountain Brook High School graduates said they saw Holloway get into a car with the three suspects after 1 a.m. the day she disappeared.
The missing girl's uncle, Paul Reynolds, told Court TV on Monday that the family has contracted the Dickinson-based Texas EquuSearch Mounted Search and Recovery Team to carry out a search of the island.
"They are going to help us search for Natalee in ways we couldn't before," Reynolds said, without offering details.
Texas EquuSearch, made up of volunteers, said on its Web site that a team is traveling to Aruba this week.
The missing honor student's mother, Beth Holloway Twitty, told the AP on Monday that the family has contracted an Aruban lawyer and was preparing a lawsuit demanding access to all information and potential evidence that police and prosecutors have gathered.
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