Blond Hairs Found In Aruba; Dutch Teen Asked For DNA Sample

After six weeks of searching for Natalee Holloway, the 18-year old Alabama girl who has been missing in Aruba since May, it looks as though investigators may have an important break in the case of her disappearance. A park ranger collecting trash near some caves on Aruba’s northeast coast Sunday discovered a piece of duct tape with long blond hairs stuck to it. Although that area of the coast was on the opposite side of the island from where Holloway was last seen in public, the ranger notified authorities.

Investigators said Monday that the 12-inch strands of hair have been sent to the Netherlands for DNA testing. An FBI spokeswoman said that the FBI plans to conduct its own DNA tests on the hair at its lab in Quantico, Virginia. Although authorities have not said when the results of the tests are expected, they have said that the DNA detected will be compared to other material found by investigators searching for the missing girl. They did not elaborate on what the other material is.

Holloway, of Mountian Brook, Alabama, was last seen leaving a nightclub in Oranjestad, Aruba, in the wee hours of the morning on May 30. She had been on vacation with a group of high school students celebrating their graduation with a trip to the Dutch Caribbean island. Dutch marines, Aruban police, and over 2,000 volunteers including several search and rescue teams from the United States, have searched for her extensively, without finding any clues. Seven men have been detained during the investigation into Holloway’s disappearance, but only one remains in jail. The lawyer for Joran van der Sloot, the Dutch teen who was one of the last peopleseen with Holloway the night she disappeared, submitted an appeal last week for his client to be released, but a judge denied the request.

Wednesday Joran van der Sloot’s lawyer said that authorities had ordered his client to provide investigators with a DNA sample. The boy was taken to a hospital Tuesday afternoon, where he submitted a saliva sample for the genetic testing. Defense lawyer Richie Kock told the Associated Press that he understood DNA samples had also been collected from Deepak and Satish Kalpoe, two Surinamese brothers who were detained along with van der Sloot but have since been released.

The world anxiously awaits the results of the DNA tests, since they may give investigators their first clue to what happened to Natalee Holloway. A group of volunteers from Dickinson, Texas, have said that if the hair found along the shores of Aruba turns out to be Holloway’s, they are prepared to return to Aruba to begin searching for her again.