After the State Prosecutor officially closed the case of Natalee Holloway's disappearance some 2+ months ago due to lack of evidence, it has now been reopened. A Dutch television crime reporter, Peter R. de Vries, paid a man, Patrick van der Eem, $37,000 to help him get a confession from the prime suspect, Joran Van der Sloot.
Van der Eem was able to gain Van der Sloot's confidence and the two became friends. The two were in a Range Rover which de Vries had equipped with 3 hidden cameras when Van der Sloot was recorded as saying that he and Holloway, who was drunk, were on the beach making out when she began shaking and slumped down, on the beach.
"He said he panicked and tried but failed to revive her. He said that Holloway looked dead but that he could not be sure she was not still alive when the friend took her away.
He used a pay phone next to a hotel's swimming pool to call the friend and asked for help in disposing the body. When the friend arrived at the beach, the two put Holloway's body into a boat. The friend then took it out to sea and pushed it into the water, Van der Sloot said" (Associated Press Monday, February 04, 2008)
Van der Sloot also added that he and his friend decided that he should return to school the next morning to avoid suspicion. He made several other remarks incriminating himself as well as implicating the friend. After the tapes were shown on television and were known to all, Van der Sloot stated that he was lying when he said what he did on the tapes. He also added that Van der Eem was told those things because that was what he wanted to hear.
Much of the above was gleaned from several news accounts. We have since learned that although the Aruban prosecutors have reopened the case, a judge has refused to allow them to re-arrest Van der Sloot. However the prosecutors are appealing that ruling while continuing their investigation.
This case is becoming absurd in this writer's opinion. Just what does it take to create evidence enough to convict a man in Aruba? This will be the third time Van der Sloot has been arrested in this case (presuming they succeed with this attempt). He has admitted from the beginning that he was with this girl shortly before her disappearance and has obviously lied when he professes not to know what has happened to her. He and the Surinamese brothers, Satish and Deepak Kalpoe, were arrested the second time about 3 months ago due to recordings of voice mail messages discovered having incriminating, although inconclusive evidence on them. After months of interrogation and wide ranging investigations, each time a judge has ruled that there was insufficient evidence to hold the youths in custody.
When Natalee Holloway disappeared May 31, 2005, Paul Van der Sloot was arrested along with his son and the Kalpoe brothers as suspects in her disappearance. He was a ranking official in the justice department on the island and was scheduled to become a judge. There is a short blog article concerning that, which may or may not be factual but you are free to read it at this URL:
http://www.slobokan.com/archives/2005/06/26/paul-van-der-sloot-released/ plus an article at http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/06/23/world/main703632.shtml It is known that on numerous interviews he "could not remember" the answers to many crucial questions concerning the event.
Just look at the scenario of this case. It would appear to me that the story Van der Sloot told to Van der Eem is quite likely the way the thing occurred. I would not assume that he purposely killed her but the horrible thing was that they dumped her into the ocean, dead or alive. If she died there on the beach from drugs and intoxicants, which is entirely possible, the authorities would have discovered that and could not have charged him with murder.
But the questions that bother me is who was the friend who would willingly come out in the wee hours of the morning and involve himself into a position of accessory to murder? What good friend would plot with him that he should go on to school the next morning to avoid suspicion? What good friend would be known and influential in the judicial department that might influence other judges to declare that there was insufficient evidence to hold the suspects each time new evidence was found? And to give us a clue to the answers to these questions, why would Paul Van der Sloot, father of Joran, have been arrested as a suspect early on?
It is still my belief that this case could have been brought to a conclusion within 30 days from May 31, 2005, if there had not been hanky panky going on. To begin with, they thought they would be able to sweep it under the rug and all would be forgotten. But Ms. Beth Holloway Twitty, mother of Natalee, continued to push the issue and, along with a number of others, started a "boycott Aruba" movement which has influenced the continuation of the investigation. There is little confidence in my mind that this case will ever see justice done. It appears that wealth and influence of a doting father who is supposed to become a judge of others, needs to be judged by an unbiased court.
