ORANJESTAD, Aruba (AP) — Two former hotel security guards in Aruba who were the first men detained in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway were released on Monday, and one proclaimed his innocence.
Three young men who took the 18-year-old Alabama honors student to a beach early in the morning hours before she went missing May 30 remained in custody.
The release of Antonius "Mickey" John, 30, and Abraham Jones, 28, came before a judge reviewed a motion for the release filed Monday, said John's lawyer Noraina Pietersz. "I'm very happy but also disappointed," John told The Associated Press by telephone of his detention since June 5. "I knew from day one that I was innocent."
No one has been charged, and lawyers for the three detainees and two men just released all say their clients are innocent
The release of the two men came the day after the missing teens's mother, Betty Holloway Twitty, 44, told the AP she believed the security guards were innocent, while the three young men knew what happened and should be pressed to tell the truth. Holloway Twitty said if she does not see results soon, she might start to believe that authorities are trying to protect the young men, who told police they took the 18-year-old Holloway to a beach after an evening of dancing and drinking, hours before she disappeared.
They include a 17-year-old Dutch honors student at Aruba International School who is the son of a high-ranking judicial official on the Dutch Caribbean island.
Aruba's Prime Minister Nelson Oduber has stressed that no one is above the law on the Dutch Caribbean island governed by a local parliament. The Netherlands Antilles is responsible for foreign and defense affairs.
"All three of those boys know what happened to her," Holloway Twitty said in an interview Sunday. "They all know what they did with her that night."
Attorney General Caren Janssen confirmed she had ordered the release of the two guards but declined to say why.
"The investigation is ongoing," she told the AP.
According to defense lawyers, the Dutch student and his two detained Surinamese friends, brothers Satish Kalpoe, 18, and Deepak Kalpoe, 21, told police the three took Holloway to a lighthouse near Arisha Beach, where the Dutch boy kissed and fondled her in the back of the car. The brothers said they returned Holloway to her hotel about 2 a.m.
But Holloway Twitty said she reviewed hotel security videos and concluded the young men never brought her daughter back to the hotel. "That story was a lie," she said.
Reached by telephone Monday, the 17-year-old's father declined to comment on Holloway Twitty's statements. Calls to the lawyers for the three friends were not returned.
The two former guards, who worked at a hotel not far from the Holiday Inn, were taken into custody June 5 after the Kalpoe brothers told police they last saw Holloway being approached in the hotel parking lot by a black man in a black security guard uniform. The Kalpoes and the 17-year-old were detained Thursday.
Composed but clearly tired, Holloway Twitty said she had lost 10 pounds since her daughter disappeared.
"I will not be satisfied until they give me back my daughter," she said. "I want her and I want her now."