ORANJESTAD, Aruba – Authorities have made an arrest in the case of a young Alabama woman who disappeared while vacationing in Aruba, an Aruban official said Saturday.

Mariaine Croes, a spokeswoman for the public prosecutor’s office, said Aruban authorities were not prepared to disclose why the person was arrested. Croes also would not say how the arrest was linked to the disappearance of Natalee Holloway nearly a year ago, on the final night of her high school graduation trip to the Dutch Caribbean island.

Croes would only say that the person who was arrested is 19 and has the initials “G.V.C.” In Aruba, when an arrest is announced, officials usually release only a suspect’s initials, and not a full name.

Holloway, an 18-year-old honors student from Mountain Brook, Ala., was last seen on May 30, 2005, leaving an Aruba bar with Dutch national Joran van der Sloot and Surinamese brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe. The young men were arrested in June but were released after a court ruled there was not enough evidence to hold them.

There have been a number of false leads in the investigation, and at least three other people were detained without being charged in the case.

In recent weeks, Aruban police have searched sand dunes on the northern coast of the island. Dutch Marines, the FBI and hundreds of volunteers have previously searched for Holloway.