ORANJESTAD, Aruba – Finding 18-year-old Natalee Holloway (search) is "priority No. 1" for Aruba and no one will be above the law in the investigation and prosecution of those responsible for the American's disappearance, the Dutch Caribbean island's prime minister told FOX News on Friday.
Prime Minister Nelson Orlando Oduber (search) called a meeting Friday morning with Aruba's chief of police and other officials to determine if more assistance is needed in the search, which has so far turned up no evidence of Holloway's whereabouts.
"It is our responsibility, legal and moral, for the good of our relationship" to investigate and prosecute the case to the fullest, Oduber told FOX News on Friday, noting that Aruba has relied on tourist business for 50 years. "We work together, we care for people ... Nobody stands above the law."
Holloway's disappearance had left Arubans "in a state of shock and disbelief," he said.
"The hearts of the people of Aruba are touched by Natalee and her family," he said.
Meanwhile, one of the attorneys for the five men arrested in the case so far said Friday that Holloway went to an Aruban beach with the Dutch teenager in custody the night she disappeared and had sexual contact with him in the car.
Holloway drove with him and two Surinamese brothers to Arashi beach, on the northern part of the island, Noraina Pietersz, a court-appointed lawyer representing one of two former security guards arrested in the case, told The Associated Press.
Pietersz read from testimony given to police by the two brothers last week.
The Dutch suspect is Joran Andreas Petrus Van Der Sloot, a 17-year-old student at Aruba International School. The Surinamese brothers are Satish Kalpoe, 18, and 21-year-old Deepak Kalpoe. They are the sons of a local Aruban businessman.
"We are very excited about the progression of the investigation. We feel the three boys last seen with Natalee have some clue" about her disappearance, Linda Allison, an aunt of Holloway's, told FOX News Friday.
After Holloway and the three men went to the beach, they drove her back to her hotel, where she stumbled and was approached by a man wearing a security guard uniform, another defense attorney, David Kock, told the AP.
Kock said his client, Satish Kalpoe, and his brother told police they saw a black security guard approach Holloway in the parking lot in front of the hotel lobby before they drove off.
"That's why [two former security guards] were detained," Kock told the AP.
Suspects say Holloway was drunk
Holloway was on a five-day graduation vacation on the island with 124 classmates and seven chaperones when she disappeared May 30 without a trace.
The search for Holloway began after she failed to show up for her flight home the next morning. Police found her passport in her hotel room with her packed bags.
The Alabama teen is described as a straight-A student who had a full scholarship to a premedical program at the University of Alabama.
She was last seen by her friends at a local bar about 1:30 a.m. that morning, getting into a car with the three islanders she'd befriended.
The three men told police they dropped off Holloway at her hotel around 2 a.m. May 30. Holiday Inn employees, however, say security cameras did not record her return.
Police impounded a silver Honda Civic sedan. Holloway's friends reported seeing her leave the bar in a silver or gray car the night she disappeared.
The trio were questioned and released last week but were arrested again on Thursday. Two other, older men were arrested earlier.
Van Der Sloot's father is a prominent official in the Aruban justice system. The younger Van Der Sloot met her at a hotel casino two days before she was last seen, Aruban Police Commander Jahn van der Straaten told reporters.
Allison, Holloway's aunt, told FOX on Friday that she'd heard that Van Der Sloot was "someone the entire group of friends befriended."
She said she hasn't spoken to any of her niece's classmates on the trip and doesn't know of any romantic ties between Holloway and Van Der Sloot.
In Holloway's hometown of Mountain Brook, Ala., classmates who went to Aruba with her said the Dutch teen was at several places the group visited, including the restaurant-bar where she was last seen.
Marcia Twitty, Holloway's aunt, said the Alabama students recognized the Dutch detainee from photos shown them by FBI agents.
"They had seen him around during the trip. He was just a local guy in the bar and the casino where all the kids were just kind of hanging out," she said.
Holloway's stepfather, George "Jug" Twitty, told the AP that Holloway met the Dutch student in the casino of her hotel and flirted with him two days before she disappeared.
Twitty told the AP he met with the Dutch teen and Surinamese brothers early Tuesday in a conference arranged by police, and they told him they were with his stepdaughter at Carlos 'N Charlie's nightclub restaurant the night of Sunday May 29, shortly before she disappeared.
The men said Holloway had been dancing and flirting with the Dutch teen before they dropped her at the hotel, Twitty said.
She was drunk and stumbled when she tried to get out of the car, the trio told him. When the Dutch teen tried to help her she refused, saying, "I can stand on my own," the men told Twitty.
They say she then headed towards the lobby, and a black man in black pants and a black T-shirt approached her with a walkie-talkie, Chris Lejuez, a court-appointed defense attorney for one of the two men previously arrested in the case, told FOX News on Friday.
"My client [Abraham Jones] only has a walkie-talkie when he's working, and he wasn't working that night," Lejuez said. "He does not own one himself."
The tape from the Holiday Inn lobby camera was reportedly checked by police but no images of Holloway were found.
Lejuez said the security guard on duty from midnight on told authorities he never saw the teenager enter the hotel that night.
Oduber said Van Der Sloot's father's prominence will make no difference if he's found guilty of anything to do with Holloway's disappearance and that Aruba's relationship with the United States is too good to be maligned by any misstep in the investigation.
Five in custody
Aruba Attorney General Caren Janssen (search) said authorities were investigating whether the three young men arrested Thursday were connected to the two others already being detained in the case. She wouldn't comment on what grounds thee three were being held.
"It is likely it may have been a police strategy to let these three men go to gather more information," Ruben Trapenberg, spokesman for the Aruba government, told FOX News. "The three witnesses gave information about the two guys [already in custody] and that is why they were held.
"If one of those two has an alibi, then the story [given by the three witnesses] doesn't fit and therefore the two may then be released depending on the proof."
The two former hotel security guards detained Sunday in connection with Holloway's disappearance have been identified as Abraham Jones, 28, and Mickey John, 30, who has also been named as Nick John in some reports.
An Aruban judge ordered Wednesday that authorities had enough evidence to hold the two on suspicion of first- and second-degree murder and capital kidnapping, the latter of which is invoked when a kidnapping victim is killed, their lawyers said. Neither has been charged with a crime.
According to Aruba law, only strong suspicion — not evidence — is necessary to continue holding a suspect. Authorities may keep John and Jones in custody without filing formal charges for up to 116 days, lawyers said, though they could be released next week.
Judge J.S. Kuiperdal will review the case June 15 and every eight days after that if needed, officials said. Prosecutors asked that the defendants be kept in jail at least until June 15, when they hope to conclude their investigation.
Investigators must come up with some evidence to hold the suspects beyond that date.
Jones and John are Aruban citizens, though one of the men is originally from Grenada. Family members insist they are innocent.
'Searching every day'
Oduber said he's been in touch with U.S. officials such as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Alabama Gov. Bob Riley and Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions.
"We will not stop until we have answers. We are shocked and completely distraught," Oduber said Thursday.
Also Thursday he met with Holloway's family, who is in Aruba searching for the Alabama teenager.
Oduber said he conveyed to them "that we will do our utmost to try to find her and solve this case."
"My family and all Arubans are with the family," he added.
Local police and the FBI said a lack of any solid leads was hindering progress in their search for Holloway. Aruban officials have asked the FBI to bring in dogs trained to search.
Police and volunteer land searches continued with no results, while water searches, also unsuccessful, had been suspended. Family members said there were also searches under way on other neighboring islands.
Five FBI agents remain in Aruba observing the investigation, said Judy Orihuela, FBI spokeswoman in Miami. Two FBI divers traveled to Aruba over the weekend and returned to the United States early this week.
"They were asked to do some site survey," Orihuela said. "They never got in the water."
Authorities have not said Holloway was a victim of foul play and have not ruled out any possibilities, including the chance she may have drowned.
"There is no physical evidence whatsoever and there are no statements given by any person that would indicate Natalee Holloway is not alive," Lejuez told FOX News.
David Holloway, the missing teen's father, said Oduber's "concern is to find Natalee" and that "he asked us heart to heart what he could do to help us."
Relatives of the high school graduate from Mountain Brook, Ala., have said they don't think Holloway is dead.
"We think she's alive," said Holloway's stepmother, Robin Holloway. She said authorities told the family they had expanded the search to other nearby islands.
Carlos 'N Charlie's bar and restaurant has donated $5,000 of a reward for information on Natalee Holloway.
The Aruba government and local tourism organizations have offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to her rescue. Family and benefactors in Alabama have offered $30,000.
FOX News' Jonathan Serrie, Liza Porteus, Catherine Donaldson-Evans and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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