Tourists staying at the Phoenix Hotel in Aruba discovered a jawbone on the beach within the past few days, a location where Joran Van der Sloot and Natalee Holloway reportedly spent time the night of her mysterious disappearance in 2005.
The prosecutor’s office of Aruba sent the bone material to the National Forensic Institute in the Hague, Netherlands for analysis. Researchers will first determine if the bone is human. From there they will attempt to create a DNA profile, depending upon the condition of the material.
The findings, expected to be available in a week, will be sent back to Aruba. Earlier this year, tourist divers showed underwater photos to authorities in Aruba that they thought resembled human remains.
The human jawbone with a single tooth has been determined to be from a female. The FBI electronically sent Natalee Holloway’s dental records to the Hague for comparison – details and video here.
Holloway was 18 when she was last seen in the early hours of May 30, 2005, leaving a nightclub with Van der Sloot and two other men. She was visiting the island with 100 classmates who were celebrating their recent graduation from Mountain Brook High School in Birmingham, Alabama.
Van der Sloot is being held in a Lima, Peru prison while awaiting trial for the murder of college student Stephany Flores. She was bludgeoned to death on the five year anniversary of Holloway’s disappearance.
Beth Twitty, Holloway’s mother, recently confronted Van der Sloot at Castro Castro prison.
UPDATE: A second bone was discovered on the same beach — see video report by the family that made the discovery below: