Another suspect in the murder of Natalee Holloway – a croupier who was working at the hotel where she stayed on the night she disappeared – has been arrested only to be set free, sources said.
Guido Wever, 18, is the ninth suspect to be held by police, then let go, since the Alabama 18-year-old disappeared after a night of partying during a end-of-year high-school trip to the Caribbean island a year ago next Tuesday.
Wever was questioned several times by Aruban cops in the days after Holloway’s disappearance – and had cuts and bruises on his body, police noted – but then left Aruba unexpectedly three days later.
He was picked up in the Dutch city of Utrecht Wednesday and had been expected to appear in court there today, according to his lawyer, Gerard Spong.
But the sources said there isn’t enough evidence to hold him under Dutch law.
Spong told the Dutch TV station NOS that his client insists he never met Holloway. Under a deal reached between Spong and prosecutors, Wever is not required to attend a scheduled hearing today, but must remain available for further questioning.
When Wever was arrested, officials said he was suspected of “assisting in murder, heavy battery and kidnapping.”
It was the first time authorities had officially said Holloway had been murdered. But Wever was not formally charged, according to the sources.
Wever’s parents said in a statement their son was “innocent until proven guilty.”
“We are appalled [at] this development,” his parents said before learning he’d be sprung.
“We cannot believe that he could have anything to do with the case.”
Pals of the Alabama teen have told authorities she was seen in the Holiday Inn casino where Wever worked late that night, although there was no sign of her on the casino’s video surveillance tapes, sources said.
Wever and Joran van der Sloot – the first suspect in the girl’s disappearance – took tennis lessons from the same instructor at their wealthy families’ private club, the sources said.
Holloway’s father, Dave Holloway, told the Birmingham News that van der Sloot and Wever met up at the casino the day after Natalee disappeared.
Holloway was last seen leaving a bar in Aruba with three men – van der Sloot and two Surinamese brothers, Deepak and Satish Kalpoe.
Van der Sloot said he kissed Holloway on the beach that night but dropped her off at her hotel.
Last month, Aruban authorities arrested 19-year-old Geoffrey van Cromvoirt, who allegedly met up with Holloway in the Holiday Inn casino after her makeout session with van der Sloot, sources said.
All those arrested in the investigation were released for lack of evidence in Holloway’s presumed kidnapping and murder.
With Post Wire Services