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Aruba prosecutors close investigation into Holloway case

ORANJESTAD, Aruba - Prosecutors have closed their investigation into the disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway, saying Tuesday they still think three young men were involved in her death but can't prove it after 932 days of searching failed to turn up a body.

The three main suspects were rearrested last month after prosecutors in Aruba discovered online chat sessions they hoped would break the case open. But none of the men talked in custody, and without the 18-year-old's body, prosecutors said they had no recourse but to close the case.

If the three suspects were put on trial, the lack of evidence "would lead to an acquittal," the Public Prosecutor's Office said in a statement.

"The Public Prosecutor's Office and the police have gone the extra mile and have exhausted all their powers and techniques in order to solve the mystery of the disappearance of the girl," the statement read.

Holloway disappeared on May 30, 2005, the last night of a trip with members of her Mountain Brook, Ala., high school graduating class. She was last seen leaving a bar with the three suspects: Joran van der Sloot and brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe, all of whom lived on this Dutch island off the coast of Venezuela.

Holloway's parents, who divorced years before her disappearance, have pushed hard to find what happened to their daughter - and Americans have followed every development.

Police, soldiers and hundreds of volunteers combed hillsides and beaches of this 75-square-mile island. Investigators partially drained a pond. Divers searched the sea bed offshore. Dutch F-16 jets equipped with search equipment conducted overflights. Dogs sniffed for a body.

Investigators interviewed hundreds of potential witnesses and arrested - and rearrested - several suspects.

Holloway's mother Beth Twitty was "terribly disappointed" that the case was closed, said Sunny Tillman of Birmingham, Ala., a spokeswoman for the mother.

An attorney for Deepak and Satish Kalpoe said prosecutors presented transcripts of online chat sessions that the suspects had with friends as new evidence.

"They tried to call it new, but it didn't have any incriminating points against our clients," attorney David Kock said. "It's like trying to say the Loch Ness monster exists."

[Last modified December 19, 2007, 01:25:27]