Dutch forensic experts are testing a piece of bone found on the Caribbean island of Aruba to see if it comes from missing American teenager Natalee Holloway, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.
The bone was found by tourists on a beach last friday. The newspaper reported it was a human lower jaw bone, but Oevering said the bone was still being analyzed to establish whether it was human.
Natalee Holloway, then 18, disappeared in 2005 while on a high school graduation trip to Aruba. Her remains have never been found, despite extensive police searches. If the bone turns out to be from Holloway, it would be the first concrete evidence of her death.
Dutchman Joran van der Sloot, who faces separate murder charges in Peru, is the last person seen with Holloway and is suspected in her disappearance.
Van der Sloot is in jail in Lima charged with killing a woman in Peru five years to the day after Holloway’s disappearance.