Report: Test Results Near on Bone in Natalee Holloway Case

(Nov. 22) -- Authorities in Aruba are preparing to announce whether a jawbone found on a beach belongs to missing Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway, officials said.

Ann Angela, a spokeswoman for the Aruba Prosecutor's Office, announced the latest developments earlier today. According to Angela, the office of Aruba Solicitor General Taco Stein will release the test results and a statement to the media sometime Tuesday, Fox News reported.

Tests results determining whether a jawbone belongs missing teenager Natalee Holloway will be released Tuesday, authorities in Aruba said.

Tourists found the bone Nov. 12 on a beach on the Caribbean island, according to the Dutch daily De Telegraaf. The tourists turned the bone in to the front desk of the nearby Phoenix Hotel. Officials there subsequently notified police of the find.

Last week, Aruban prosecutor Peter Blanken said an initial examination of the bone shows it is human and comes from a young woman. The prosecutor said a forensic expert in Aruba made the initial determination, but that a final determination would be made by the Netherlands Forensic Institute in The Hague, CNN reported.

Holloway, 18, from Mountain Brook, Ala., disappeared on May 30, 2005, while on a trip to Aruba to celebrate her high school graduation. Her body has never been found.

Natalee's father, David Holloway, told The Associated Press last week that he provided his daughter's dental records to authorities for testing, but has yet to receive any information.

"The authorities haven't confirmed anything with me," he told the AP. "It's pretty much total silence."

In a statement to Birmingham's WBRC late last week, Natalee's mother, Beth Holloway, said she is anxious to hear whether the bone belongs to her daughter.

"There is no good answer, whether it is Natalee or whether it isn't. But no answer at all is the most unbearable," Holloway said. "We appreciate everyone's loving care and concern and are anxious about the developments."

Police have collected a second bone that was found on the same Aruba beach by tourists from New Jersey. The tourists reportedly found the bone earlier this month, but did not think the find was significant until they heard media reports about the jawbone. After receiving information about the discovery, authorities in Aruba recovered the bone earlier today. Forensic experts are examining it, but they do not believe it is human, CNN reported.

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Meanwhile, Joran van der Sloot, a longtime suspect in Holloway's disappearance, is behind bars in Peru, accused of the May 30 slaying of Stephany Flores. The Peruvian business student was found dead in van der Sloot's hotel room in Lima on June 2. Van der Sloot has been charged with first-degree murder and robbery in the case. If convicted of Flores' murder, he could face 15 to 35 years in prison.

In an interview with CBS's "The Early Show" today, legal analyst Lisa Bloom said if DNA taken from the jawbone is matched to Holloway, prosecutors might have enough evidence to link van der Sloot to her death.

"The first element the prosecutors have to prove in a murder case is that Natalee is deceased," Bloom said. "Now they would have that evidence [and] they could combine it with Joran's previous inconsistent statements ... all relating to having killed her. Now they have a case against him."