Aruba Police Arrest Father of Dutch Teen

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ORANJESTAD, Aruba (AP) — Aruban police on Thursday detained the father of a Dutch teen already in custody in connection with the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, the teen’s mother said.


“My husband was just picked up by police,” Anita van der Sloot, referring to Paul van der Sloot, said in a telephone call to The Associated Press. “I don’t know what to think.”


Paul van der Sloot is a judicial official on the Dutch Caribbean island.


Anita van der Sloot was about to leave the house for an interview with the AP when she said police came for her husband. She did not have any additional information about the detention.

Mariaine Croes, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Caren Janssen, told CNN: “There is a reasonable suspicion that he knows something and is involved in the disappearance.”


Four other people have been detained in connection with Holloway’s disappearance May 30. The 18-year-old Mountain Brook, Ala., woman was celebrating her high school graduation.


The others in custody are Joran van der Sloot, 17; his friends Deepak Kalpoe, 21, and brother Satish Kalpoe, 18; and Steve Gregory Croes, 26. No one has been charged in the case.


While Anita van der Sloot had been allowed to visit her son occasionally in jail, authorities denied similar access to Paul van der Sloot, saying they believed contact between the two could damage the investigation.


Joran van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers were with Holloway the night she disappeared. They said they drove her to a northern beach and then dropped her off at her hotel, where she was approached by a security guard.


Holloway has not been seen since.


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