‘Something Bad Happened’ to Teen in Aruba

One of three young men who took an Alabama teenager to the beach during her high school graduation trip to Aruba said “something bad happened” to her, police said Friday.

Deputy Police Commissioner Gerold Dompig said the man was leading police to the scene late Friday. He refused to identify which man had made the statement.

Natalee Holloway, 18, disappeared May 30 while on a five-day trip to the Caribbean island with 124 classmates and seven chaperons celebrating their graduation from Mountain Brook High School, near Birmingham. Police found her U.S. passport and packed bags in her hotel room.

Three men -- two brothers from Suriname and a Dutch student -- were arrested Thursday.

A lawyer for the two Suriname suspects -- Satish Kalpoe, 18, and his brother Deepak, 21 -- said they told police they took Holloway to Arashi Beach, on the northern tip of the island, in the early hours of May 30.

According to their testimony, Holloway and the Dutch teen, an honors student at Aruba International School, “were in the back seat kissing.”

The testimony was reviewed by the court-appointed lawyer for one of two former hotel security guards also held in the case.

According to the testimony, they told police that they dropped Holloway at a Holiday Inn around 2 a.m. and last saw her being approached by a man in a black security guard uniform before they drove off.

The brothers told police the young woman was drunk, said Noraina Pietersz, who is representing Nick John, 30, a former security guard arrested Sunday.

Holiday Inn employees say security cameras did not record Holloway’s return.

In addition, a Holiday Inn guard who worked the overnight shift the day the young woman disappeared said he did not see her, said Pietersz, who said she also reviewed the guard’s testimony to police.

In Mountain Brook, Holloway’s aunt, Marcia Twitty, expressed frustration earlier that Aruban authorities initially released the three young men last week after questioning them.

Police Supt. Jan van der Straaten said that Holloway and the Dutch teenager had met two days earlier at the casino of her hotel.

John and Abraham Jones, 28, a fellow former security guard, are being held on suspicion of murder and capital kidnapping, or kidnapping resulting in death, Pietersz said. None of the five has been charged.