Aruba Probing New Holloway Case Evidence

ORANJESTAD, Aruba (AP) — Aruban authorities are investigating new evidence in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway provided by a Dutch crime reporter, prosecutors said Thursday.

Information from reporter Peter R. de Vries may help resolve what happened to the American teenager, who vanished during a May 2005 school vacation to the Dutch Caribbean island, the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

The statement did not say specifically what the new evidence was.

"This information may help considerably in the solution of the mystery of Natalee's disappearance," the prosecutor's office said. It "may shed a new light on the mode" in which she died and the "method by which her body disappeared."

De Vries's Web site said the evidence was gathered through "an ingenious hidden camera tactic" and would be revealed in a Dutch television program Sunday. It said the reporter traveled to Aruba last week to inform authorities of his findings.

De Vries had a testy exchange earlier this month during a televised interview in the Netherlands with Joran van der Sloot, a Dutch man who was a suspect in the case.

Van der Sloot, who was among the last people seen with Holloway, threw wine at De Vries after the reporter challenged his credibility.

Joseph Tacopina, a U.S. attorney for Van der Sloot, said it was irresponsible for prosecutors to make the announcement without describing their evidence.

"They act quite frankly like clowns," he said. "If they have a resolution, they should bring a case and stop talking about cryptic information."

Prosecutors dismissed their case against Van der Sloot and two other suspects last month, saying they lacked evidence to charge them or even prove a crime was committed. Authorities have said the case could be reopened if new evidence surfaces.

Holloway, of Alabama, disappeared the final night of her high school graduation trip. She was 18 at the time.

She was last seen leaving a bar with Van der Sloot and two Surinamese brothers, Deepak and Satish Kalpoe, hours before she was due to board a flight home. The three men have been repeatedly detained as suspects but have denied any wrongdoing.