ORANJESTAD, Aruba – Aruban officials have not closed their investigation into the disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway, FOX News learned Tuesday.
The media liason for the public prosecutor in Aruba dismissed an earlier report that the investigation was over. A press conference scheduled for Thursday will reveal new evidence against three young men last seen with the Alabama teen.
The investigation is in a new phase with detectives reviewing new evidence, the media liason told FOX News.
The three suspects — a Dutch college student and two Surinamese brothers — were seen leaving a bar with Holloway the night she disappeared in May 2005. Police re-arrested them last month in a last-ditch effort to solve the case, but prosecutors said the men did not provide any new information under interrogation.
An attorney for two of the suspects, brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe, said prosecutors presented transcripts of online chat sessions that the suspects had with friends as new evidence.
"They tried to call it new, but it didn't have any incriminating points against our clients," attorney David Kock said. "It's like trying to say the Loch Ness monster exists."
Holloway, of Mountain Brook, Ala., was scheduled to return home with fellow high school classmates celebrating their graduation when she disappeared. She was 18 at the time.
One of the suspects, Joran Van der Sloot, has said he left her alone on a beach the night she vanished but does not know how she vanished.
No trace of Holloway has ever been found despite extensive searches involving hundreds of volunteers, Aruban soldiers, FBI agents and even Dutch F-16 jets with special equipment.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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