On the cable news shows some pundits were calling it a potential breakthrough in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway. At the very least, the announcement that authorities in Aruba had arrested a 19-year-old suspect, Geoffrey van Cromvoirt, came as a startling development to Natalee's mother, Beth Twitty, who had never before heard his name mentioned in connection with her daughter's disappearance 11 months ago. "It fell out of the sky," says Twitty.
Van Cromvoirt, who was taken into custody on April 15, may be linked to the case by a shirt found in the sand last year on an opposite part of the island from where another suspect, Joran van der Sloot, says he left Natalee on the night she disappeared. "I had heard there was a white shirt that was found with blood in it," says Twitty. "But that was just one of many things we would hear about."
Aruban authorities have not said how van Cromvoirt, who worked with a beach patrol unit and whose father handles video surveillance for the Holiday Inn where Holloway was staying, might be involved. And it is also worth noting that seven suspects have previously been detained and then released because of insufficient evidence. But van der Sloot's attorney Joseph Tacopina was happy to conclude that the latest arrest put his client in the clear. "He's been under this cloud of suspicion, which is very frustrating to him," he says. Van der Sloot's father, Paulus, added that his son did not know van Cromvoirt "at all."
The Holloway camp was not about to let van der Sloot off the hook just yet. Twitty's attorney John Q. Kelly said it was his understanding that van Cromvoirt does have "a connection with the other three suspects"—meaning van der Sloot and brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe, who were also with Holloway on the night in question. "I keep hoping this is the card that brings down the house of cards," says Natalee's father, Dave Holloway. "It's definitely an important step."
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