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print story|email storylast updated: 6/22/2005
ARUBA: Dogs to Search for Missing TeenORANJESTAD, Aruba (AP) -June 21, 2005 ¡ª A volunteer group from Texas said Tuesday it will bring special dogs and sonar equipment to Aruba to help search for teenager Natalee Holloway, who has been missing for three weeks on the resort island.
A team of 17 volunteers, including three divers, from Texas EquuSearch will arrive Wednesday to look for 18-year-old from Mountain Brook, Ala.
She disappeared on May 30, the last day of a five-day vacation with 124 students celebrating their high school graduation. Her passport and packed bags were found in her room.
Four men have been arrested on suspicion but no one has been charged.
The volunteers will stay five to seven days, said Joe Huston of Texas EquuSearch in a telephone interview from Dickinson, Texas.
He said Holloway's uncle, Paul Reynolds, asked for the group's help because three weeks of searches had turned up nothing.
Upon arrival, the team planned to meet with Aruban authorities and FBI officials to review past search routes and plot new areas, Huston said.
Aruban authorities accompanied by FBI observers have scoured the island on foot, in vehicles and using a helicopter with infrared equipment at night. Tourists and Aruban civilian volunteers also have helped, but none has turned up any trace of Holloway.
Aruban government spokesman Ruben Trapenberg said authorities welcomed the Texas group's help.
"In the end, they are just going to be tourists searching and that's OK," Trapenberg said. "And they have specialized equipment, so that's even better."
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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