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Natalee Holloway: The Jaw Bone is not Hers

By Tanya Roth, Esq. on November 23, 2010 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

For the family of Natalee Holloway, is this good or bad news? The results of the DNA testing on the jawbone found last week on a beach on Aruba are back, and the bone does not belong to the missing teenager.

The jaw bone, found by tourists last week near the Phoenix Hotel, underwent testing at the Netherlands Forensic Institute in The Hague, Netherlands reports CNN. The bone must have been found to be human, because Dutch authorities asked for Holloway's dental records last week. The jawbone had one molar tooth still attached.

"It's a Jane Doe," Taco Stein, the Solicitor General told People on November 23, after making information about the jaw bone public.

Natalee Holloway disappeared on a graduation trip to Aruba with classmates in 2005. She was last seen with Dutch citizen Joran Van der Sloot, who is currently awaiting trial on charges for the death of another young woman in Lima, Peru.

More evidence, such as physical remains, could make a case for murder somewhat easier to prove. However, without strong evidence such as DNA, authorities still can't tie Van der Sloot to the murder of the Alabama teen. Van der Sloot has been an ongoing suspect in the case, but authorities have never had enough evidence to charge him with murder.

"I think that we all know that it was not good, the outcome for Natalee," Natalee's mother Beth Twitty told People. "But it's something that you know is so important in a missing person's case is a resolution, whether it's recovery of remains ... of course, everyone would love the outcome that they recover a missing loved one alive, but it just doesn't always happen that way. We know that."

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