'The Abrams Report' for June 9: Special Edition

DAN ABRAMS, HOST: Coming up, a reported citing of missing high school senior Natalee Holloway in Aruba. Her parents have now examined a surveillance tape. We have got the latest on that and today‘s big arrest of three more suspects.

ABRAMS (voice-over): Three men say they brought her to her hotel the night she went missing. But the security camera may tell a different story. We‘ll talk to the attorney for one of them.

ABRAMS: Hi, everyone. And welcome to a special edition of the program.
 
In a moment, we are going to have a live report and update on what is going on in Aruba. Apparently, the family of Natalee Holloway has examined a surveillance tape that some thought might be Natalee at a gas station. You heard us talking about it on an earlier program. We are going to have the latest on the search for Natalee.
 
Also, three people have been arrested in connection with her disappearance. That brings the total to five. This picture, we believe to be the three men, as confirmed by a local TV station and a local lawyer, as well. We‘re going to have a full update, coming up.

ABRAMS: There was a possible sighting of the missing American high school student in Aruba. The police and her family examining a surveillance tape. We‘re going to have the latest on that.
 
First tonight though, three more arrests in this case. Alabama teen Natalee Holloway on a school trip in Aruba missing now for 12 days.
 
Early this morning, Aruba police arrested a 17-year-old Dutchman and two brothers, 18 and 21, from Surinam. A local lawyer and TV reporter confirmed the photo from a Web site is of the three suspects.
 
The Dutchman is the son of a Dutch judge, apparently met Natalee at a hotel casino two days before she was last seen. All three men acknowledge giving her a ride back to the hotel the night of her disappearance.
 
But there‘s problems with that. And the brothers told police that a man dressed in a security uniform approached Natalee as she stumbled in front of her hotel last Monday, the day she disappeared. Natalee‘s family, back in Birmingham, reacted to the arrests earlier today.

MARCIA TWITTY, NATALEE HOLLOWAY‘S AUNT: These were the last three people to have seen her, to have been with her. So that‘s where we feel like we‘re now kind of moving in the direction we possibly need to be going.

ABRAMS: Last week, the three men were described as, quote, “persons of interest,” but were released after questioning. Authorities refused to say if these three were connected in any way with two other men who have been detained, Mickey John and Abraham Jones.
 
All right. Joining us now is NBC‘s Martin Savidge who is in Aruba.
 
All right, Martin, in our earlier show, we had an Aruba TV reporter on who reported that the authorities had a surveillance tape with someone they believed looked like Natalee. I understand Natalee‘s family has now had an opportunity to see that tape. What do we know?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT: The family looked at it, and the family said, “No, it is definitely not Natalee.” This is another example of what our numerous sightings that take place—and not on a daily basis, but recently there have been sightings long after she had been reported missing of people on the island saying, “Hey, I‘ve seen Natalee Holloway. I saw her at such-and-such a point. I saw her driving in a Jeep. I saw her here.”
 
So many sightings, in fact, that there specifically a section of police officers that are assigned to follow-up every one of these leads. And the authorities say, “Hey, look, it‘s not just a matter that somebody is misidentifying an American tourist, because there are plenty of them on this island.”

 
They think there is something more to it. They think, actually, as they investigate these calls, the times they come in, the way they corroborate them, that somebody may be seeing something like Natalee. But this turns out to be another false alarm. And in fact, it‘s only a small percentage of the police force that think these phone calls are accurate—
 
Dan?

ABRAMS: And Martin, I get the sense, also, that there is a feeling on the island that they don‘t want a crime to have been committed. I mean, we‘ve been interviewing people each and every day.
 
And I get the sense that people there want another explanation. They want to suggest that the family hasn‘t said everything that they know, or that somehow she ran away, of course, leaving her packed bag and her passport in her room. And so I‘ll bet that that desire to find some other explanation is also fueling these false sightings of Natalee.

SAVIDGE: Exactly. Now, of course, no one wants to find out that Natalee is dead or has suffered some horrendous crime. Nobody does.
 
But you‘re right. There is this sense that here at Aruba, clearly with so much at stake, with 80 percent of the tourism coming from the United States and seven out of ten jobs relying on the tourism industry, they want this to be as benign as possible.
 
So the hope is for that miracle, that somewhere, somehow, maybe, she‘s just lost her mind somehow, or she‘s in a stupor somewhere, or regained consciousness. And the miracle is she will be found and reunited with her family.
 
Most authorities here think that is not going to happen. But there‘s no proof yet specifically of a crime.

ABRAMS: Right. And look, and again, don‘t get me wrong, I mean, I think it would be thrilling, and I think everyone would be thrilled if they could find Natalee, but so far these have been false sightings. And so the question is, of course, why have there been so many?
 
Here is what her stepfather had to say about this very issue.

JUG TWITTY, NATALEE HOLLOWAY‘S STEPFATHER: There‘s a sighting almost everyday of Natalee. I mean, you know, she‘s a beautiful, young blond girl. And I think whenever sees somebody like that they immediately think it‘s Natalee. But all I know is that she left Carlos and Charlie‘s at 1:30 in the morning and hasn‘t been seen since.

ABRAMS: Yet, Martin, the three men who were the last to have seen her now arrested, or at least detained. Do you get a sense that the police view them as suspects or the police want more answers out of them?

SAVIDGE: The police definitely want more answers out of them. They were hoping to get more answers when they considered them only witnesses and persons of interest. That obviously didn‘t work. They brought them in almost every singe day and said, “Now, what was that story again? How did it go?” And they divided them up and listened to each of them individually.
 
But now, that didn‘t work. And you can bet that they followed them closely, probably tailed them everywhere they went. They still didn‘t seem to crack the case, so they felt, bring them in.
 
And they‘ve not only brought them in, but they have charged them with the same serious charges that the previous two suspects have been charged with, and that is suspicion of murder and kidnapping. And you would think, all right, that‘s going to get their attention.

ABRAMS: Yes, and very quickly, the surveillance tape at the hotel apparently does not back up their story that they dropped her off at the hotel that day, right?

SAVIDGE: Correct. But keep in mind, there are only about two surveillance cameras that would have been involved here. One is at the front door and the other is at the elevator. Is it possible there is another way she could have gotten to her room? I don‘t know.
 
But that‘s what they‘re relying on. The young men say, “Hey, we dropped her off. She walked in the front door. We said good-bye.” However, the video apparently doesn‘t show that. It also doesn‘t show something else, a chaperone that was supposed to be waiting in the lobby for her.

ABRAMS: Hmm, that‘s interesting. Wow.
 
All right. Martin Savidge, thanks for all the good work out there.
 
We‘re going to keep checking in with you. We appreciate it.

SAVIDGE: You bet.

ABRAMS: David Kock is the attorney for one of the Surinamese suspects arrested earlier today. I spoke to him on our earlier show and asked about this report that he and the two other men dropped Natalee off at her hotel on May 30th but that the surveillance tapes in the hotel doesn‘t verify it.

DAVID KOCK, ATTORNEY FOR ONE OF SUSPECTS: They are confirming that they have dropped her at the hotel, and on that day, at that time. We haven‘t had the chance yet to look into the surveillance camera. I understood that there might be some problems with that, so that‘s why I cannot comment on the surveillance camera, as of yet.
 
But they are confirming—and their story, the three of them are saying this separately, and again confirming them now that they‘re being held as a suspect instead of as a witness. They dropped her actually at the hotel at that time.

ABRAMS: What were they doing with Natalee? Why were they with her?

KOCK: They brought her back to the hotel. They were also in Carlos and Charlie‘s. I mean, that‘s—the report—one can, again, almost read it already on the Internet, their story that they‘re saying, that they were there, and they drove her back, and dropped her at the hotel.

ABRAMS: But that‘s it? They literally met her at Carlos and Charlie‘s, and they‘re saying the three of them just gave her a ride to the hotel directly from Carlos and Charlie‘s to the hotel and that‘s it?

KOCK: Well, it seems that they drove around a little bit. But what I‘m saying is that, once again, I can only speak for one of the suspects that‘s been detained. And that is his story, that one of the other suspects, the one that I‘m not representing, knew Natalee.
 
And that‘s why, too, they hooked up with her. That‘s, too, the reason why she probably went with them. And that‘s why, afterwards, from Carlos and Charlie‘s, they dropped her here at the resort. I‘m not saying that they went directly from Carlos and Charlie‘s exactly to here, but you know...

ABRAMS: Well, how much time from Carlos and Charlie‘s until the time they dropped her off?

KOCK: If I read in the transcripts, if I‘m not mistaken, about 20 to 30 minutes, if I‘m not mistaken. It was about that. It wasn‘t also too much time, either.

ABRAMS: All right, Dave Kock, thank you very much for coming on the program.