Aruba: Jawbone not that of Natalee Holloway
DANICA COTO,Associated Press
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A jawbone found on an Aruba beach does not belong to missing Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway, prosecutors in the Dutch Caribbean island said Tuesday.
The jawbone is human, though it is unclear who it belongs to.
Dutch investigators compared the lone tooth on the bone with dental records supplied by Holloway's family and "it can be ruled out that the bone fragment came from Natalee Holloway," the prosecutors said.
The bone was found recently by a tourist on a beach, and Aruba prosecutors had asked forensic scientists in the Netherlands to analyze it.
They assured that the Holloway case has "the constant attention from law enforcement on the island."
But John Kelly, an attorney for Holloway's mother, Beth Twitty, hinted that the media apparently found out first about the test results.
"Beth accepts the forensic conclusions, is emotionally exhausted from the inexplicably long wait and deeply disappointed in the time and manner in which she learned of the results," he said in a statement. "Apparently Aruban prosecutors were more sensitive to media concerns than the painful vigil of a mother."
It is unclear how exactly Twitty learned of the results. Family spokeswoman Sunny Tillman did not immedately return a message seeking comment.
Tuesday's announcement once again eliminates a hope of evidence about the fate of the Mountain Brook, Alabama, student who disappeared while on a high school graduation trip in 2005, when she was 18.
Aruba's attorney general, Taco Stein, told The Associated Press that officials do not know how old the bone is or where it might have come from.
"It's anybody's guess," he said. "We're a small island."
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A jawbone found on an Aruba beach does not belong to missing Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway, prosecutors in the Dutch Caribbean island said Tuesday.
The jawbone is human, though it is unclear who it belongs to.
Dutch investigators compared the lone tooth on the bone with dental records supplied by Holloway's family and "it can be ruled out that the bone fragment came from Natalee Holloway," the prosecutors said.
The bone was found recently by a tourist on a beach, and Aruba prosecutors had asked forensic scientists in the Netherlands to analyze it.
They assured that the Holloway case has "the constant attention from law enforcement on the island."
But John Kelly, an attorney for Holloway's mother, Beth Twitty, hinted that the media apparently found out first about the test results.
"Beth accepts the forensic conclusions, is emotionally exhausted from the inexplicably long wait and deeply disappointed in the time and manner in which she learned of the results," he said in a statement. "Apparently Aruban prosecutors were more sensitive to media concerns than the painful vigil of a mother."
It is unclear how exactly Twitty learned of the results. Family spokeswoman Sunny Tillman did not immedately return a message seeking comment.
Tuesday's announcement once again eliminates a hope of evidence about the fate of the Mountain Brook, Alabama, student who disappeared while on a high school graduation trip in 2005, when she was 18.
Aruba's attorney general, Taco Stein, told The Associated Press that officials do not know how old the bone is or where it might have come from.
"It's anybody's guess," he said. "We're a small island."
