SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – The prosecutor's office in Aruba says a jawbone with a tooth recently found on a beach does not belong to missing Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway.
The agency says that an analysis based on dental records rules out that the bone fragment came from her. It says forensic scientists in the Netherlands conducted a detailed examination.
Officials said Tuesday that the jawbone is human. It is unclear whom it belongs to.
The Mountain Brook, Alabama, student was 18 when she disappeared while on a high school graduation trip in 2005.
She was last seen leaving a bar with Dutchman Joran van der Sloot, the prime suspect in her disappearance, on the final night of her trip.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
A jawbone found on an Aruba beach has officials wondering if it could be the remains of missing Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway. On Tuesday, they plan to announce the result of tests that might determine if it is.
Ann Angela, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office on the Dutch Caribbean island, said the announcement will be made sometime in the afternoon. She declined give more details or to say if the result would be definitive.
The bone with one tooth in it was found recently by a tourist on a beach. Aruba prosecutors so far have not yet even publicly confirmed that the bone is human, though forensic scientists in the Netherlands requested Holloway's dental records last week to help them analyze it.
Dave Holloway, the teen's father, did not respond to calls for comment.
Carol Standifer, who said she is close friends with the teen's mother, Beth Twitty, told CBS's "The Early Show" that Twitty is prepared for the results, whatever they may be.
"This is what we really have been searching for over five years," she said. "I think if it is Natalee, there will be some semblance of closure. Of course, it won't be complete closure, because we really don't know for sure exactly what happened."
The Mountain Brook, Alabama, student was 18 when she disappeared while on a high school graduation trip in 2005.
She was last seen leaving a bar with Dutchman Joran van der Sloot, the prime suspect in her disappearance, on the final night of her trip.
Aruba prosecutors have repeatedly said they lack evidence to charge Van der Sloot, who is currently in jail in Peru, accused of killing a 21-year-old woman last May 30 — five years to the day after Holloway's disappearance. He has denied killing Holloway.
U.S. law enforcement officials have charged Van der Sloot with trying to extort money from Holloway's mother to reveal the location of Holloway's body.
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