Ex-Guards Released In Aruba Case

Authorities freed two former hotel security guards detained after Natalee Holloway vanished, intensifying the focus Tuesday on three younger men who took the Alabama teenager to a beach before she disappeared.

Officials who confirmed the release of Antonius "Mickey" John, 30, and Abraham Jones, 28, late Monday declined to comment on whether they were making progress in solving the mystery of Holloway's disappearance on the Dutch Caribbean island during a student trip.

"The investigation is ongoing," Attorney General Caren Janssen told The Associated Press.

Justice authorities refused to comment further Tuesday. But government spokesman Ruben Trapenberg said the release of the men "probably means they had nothing to do with this case and prosecutors were able to check out their alibis."

The release came after the teen's mother, Betty Holloway Twitty, had said she believed the two ex-security guards were innocent.

"I just never felt they were involved in my -- in our daughter's disappearance," Holloway Twitty told CBS News Early Show co-anchor Hannah Storm.

She also stressed that the three other young men knew what happened and should be pressed to tell the truth.

" … I am absolutely convinced of that. And there again, I don't have an answer to why, I'm not getting any specific pieces of information, but this is just what I know," Holloway Twitty said.

One of the three is a 17-year-old Dutch honors student at Aruba International School who is the son of a high-ranking judicial official in Aruba and whose detained friends told police he was kissing and fondling the girl in the back of the car when they went to the beach.

"All three of those boys know what happened to her," Holloway Twitty said Sunday. "They all know what they did with her that night."

Lawyers for John and Jones filed court petitions Monday seeking an order for their release, but they were let go before a judge reviewed the motions, according to John's lawyer, Noraina Pietersz.

"These guys had nothing to do with this case and this decision reflects that," Pietersz said.

No one has been charged, and lawyers for the three men still in custody and the two freed men all say their clients are innocent.

"I'm very happy but also disappointed," John said by telephone after his release from detention that began June 5. "I knew from day one that I was innocent."

Holloway vanished early May 30, hours before she was expected at the airport to return home after a five-day vacation with 124 classmates and seven chaperones celebrating graduation from Mountain Brook, Ala., High School. Her U.S. passport and packed bags were found in her room.

John and Jones, who had worked as security guards at a nearby hotel, were detained after the three young men said they dropped her off and last saw her around 2 a.m. being approached in the car park of her hotel by a black man in a security guard uniform.

Holloway Twitty had said if she did not see results soon, she might start to believe authorities were trying to protect the young men, who told police they took the 18-year-old Holloway to a beach after an evening of dancing and drinking, hours before she disappeared.

But she seems to have put those reservations behind her.

"I think that the family and the Aruban government and the United States government and the FBI and the local authorities, I truly feel that now we're in a collaborative effort and we are beginning to proceed forward. That's what will help us find our daughter," Holloway Twitty told Storm

Prime Minister Nelson Oduber has stressed that no one is above the law on the Dutch Caribbean island governed by a local parliament. The Netherlands Antilles is responsible for foreign and defense affairs.

Hundreds of islanders and tourists have volunteered in daily searches for Holloway, whose plight has shocked residents in one of the safest destinations in the region. One murder and six rapes were recorded last year on the island of 97,000 people. This year there have been two murders and three rapes.