Police Search Landfill For Natalee

Police and volunteers used heavy equipment, shovels and trained dogs Saturday to pick through a landfill where a witness claimed he saw men dumping a female body two days after an Alabama teenager vanished.

The landfill is on the southern part of the Dutch Caribbean island, the opposite side from where Natalee Holloway was last seen in the early hours of May 30.

The witness claimed he saw the men dumping the body on the afternoon of June 1, said Tim Miller, director of Texas EquuSearch, which is coordinating the landfill search.

The FBI and Aruban police have questioned the witness, an Aruban man who claimed to be dropping off trash at the time, Miller said.

"He said he saw a face, blond hair and a woman's chest, and that the body was dumped and covered," Miller said. "His story has been consistent."

The witness could not identify the men but said they were driving a light colored jeep, Miller said. The witness told his brother what he saw soon afterward, and the brother told police, he said.

Police could not immediately be reached for comment and it was unclear how they responded to the reported tip.

Miller said he spoke to the witness at the landfill Saturday, and the man was trying to guide search crews to the location where he believed the body was dumped.

Reporters were barred from the site but could see rescue crews and police working.

On the opposite side of Aruba, firefighters using pumps continued draining a pond near the Marriott hotel, where another witness claimed he saw three young men, including a Dutch youth who has been detained in the case, driving the night Holloway disappeared.

That witness told investigators he saw Joran van der Sloot, 17, and two Surinamese brothers driving near the pond between 2:30 a.m. and 3 a.m. — a time they previously told investigators they were already home, said Vinda de Souza, a lawyer for the Holloway Twitty family.

Crews began draining the area Tuesday. Several feet of water remained Saturday.

Police say once the pond is drained, they will dredge it and investigate the area.

Extensive searches by Dutch marines, Aruban police, and thousands of volunteers have found no trace of Holloway, who disappeared on the final night of a high school graduation trip.

No one has been charged in the case and van der Sloot is the only person detained as a suspect. The Surinamese brothers, 18-year-old Satish and 21-year-old Deepak Kalpoe, were previously held and released.