Another Twist in Holloway Disappearance

ByABC News via logo
June 14, 2005, 8:56 AM

June 14, 2005 — -- Aruba authorities released two former hotel security guards detained after Natalee Holloway went missing, and one of the men said three others arrested in the case have lied about their actions the night she disappeared.

Holloway has been missing since the early morning hours of May 30, the day she was to return home to Alabama after a five-day chaperoned trip to the Caribbean island. The two guards were taken into custody after the three other young men told officials that after partying at a local bar, Carlos 'n Charlie's, they dropped Holloway off at her hotel around 2 a.m.

The three men include Joran Van Der Sloot, a 17-year-old Dutch honors student at Aruba International School who is the son of a high-ranking judicial official in Aruba, and two brothers from Suriname.

Antonius "Mickey" John, 30, who was released along with Abraham Jones, 28, told ABC's "Good Morning America" that Holloway had been dropped off at the Marriott, not the Holiday Inn, where she was staying. He said he had spoken to one of the other three men in custody.

"They made up the story about dropping the girl off at the Holiday Inn," John said. "He said, 'I took the girl from Carlos 'n Charlie's and went to the lighthouse.' He was driving, his brother in the front seat, the Dutch guy in the back behind his brother and the missing girl behind him in the back."

John said Holloway was dropped off close to the Marriott.

No one has been charged, and lawyers for the three detainees and two men just released all say their clients are innocent

Natalee's mother, Beth Holloway Twitty, told "Good Morning America" that John's statement confirmed her beliefs that the three men still being detained know what happened to Natalee and have been lying to authorities.

"It is as I have known all along and that's only because of who I am and being Natalee's mother," Twitty said, adding that she has met two of the three young men still being detained in Aruba and had seen some of the security videotapes.