Earlier this summer, it was revealed that an investigation led by Natalee Holloway’s father, Dave, and the family’s private investigator T.J. Holmes discovered human remains on the island of Aruba. And now, a new report claims that the preliminary results are in — and the remains have been confirmed to be those of a young women with Eastern European descent, just like Natalee. According to the Daily Mail, who reported these initial findings, the DNA still needs to go through further testing before they can confirm whether or not the remains are Natalee’s.

This comes after Dave Holloway called this the “most credible lead” he and his family have had in years. In an exclusive interview with In Touch, Dave told us that he began keeping potential updates about the case to himself — because he didn’t want to get his families’ hopes up over potentially disappointing news.

“How many of those things can you go through? I swore to myself — right then — that I would never involve my family and lay their emotions out on a lead ever again,” he told In Touch. “And when this one came up, I briefly mentioned it and I slapped my mouth. I said, ‘Look, no matter what, I can’t bring my family into this and expose them to another potential devastation.’ So T.J. and I kept it among ourselves, and I said to myself, ‘If anyone is going to take the fall for this, it’s going to be me. I’m not going to allow my family to even know this and even get involved emotionally only to be crushed again.’”

While Dave and T.J. remain adamant that this lead could be the one to finally crack the case, others aren’t nearly as convinced. Following Dave’s revelation, Aruba Public Prosecutor Dorean Kardol told HuffPost that there weren’t human remains discovered on the island, adding, “During an investigation by police in an area indicated by Mr. Holloway, we found remains, but they were found to be from animals.”

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