UPDATE: News reports say that Aruban prosecutor has confirmed that the bone belongs to a young woman. Birmingham, Al (WIAT) Still no results from a Dutch forensic lab testing a bone found on a beach in Aruba.
CNN International is reporting investigators could know as early as Thursday whether a jawbone found on an Aruban beach last week belongs to an animal or a human.
If it is human, authorities will then attempt to find out whether it belongs to missing Mountain Brook teenager Natalee Holloway who disappeared on a graduation trip to Aruba in 2005.
Part of the bone is undergoing forensic testing at the Netherlands Forensic Institute in The Hague, Netherlands, according to Aruban prosecutor Peter Blanken.
Blanken originally said the results could be in as early as Wednesday, but later said that a technical delay means the tests will take a little longer.
"They are testing for a DNA match," said Blanken. A spokesperson for the forensic institute says testing could take as long as a week. The jawbone fragment reportedly contains a tooth leading to hope it could be a vital clue in the Holloway disappearance.
Natalee was last seen in the company of Joran van der Sloot. Van der Sloot is still considered the prime suspect in her disappearance but was never charged by Aruban authorities. He is currently in prison in Peru facing murder charges in the death of a 21 year old student he met at a poker tournament. The body of 21 year old Stephany Flores was found in van der Sloot's Lima hotel room. The Dutchman reportedly told Peruvian investigators he killed Flores after she found material relating to Natalee Holloway on his laptop.
Van der Sloot is appealing to have that confession thrown out claiming coercion and other procedural irregularities.
