While I have posted crime stories off and on since I started blogging in the nineties it was the Natalee Holloway disappearance that really intrigued me and got me interested in crime blogging. It would be a few more years before I would make the switch and write about crime exclusively but Natalee and Joran van der Sloot turned on that little light bulb for me.

Van der Sloot has been in the news and on this site many times over the last five years, most recently when the German news agency RTL managed to get another confession out of him in 2009. He claimed to have dumped Holloway’s body in a marsh. Personally I think he just wanted another payday and that’s all the interview was about.

Anyway, Joran has apparently confessed to murdering 21-year-old Stephany Flores Ramirez in Lima, Peru. According to most of the news sites I’ve come across since MSNBC posted this late last night Flores apparently saw information on his laptop about his involvement in Natalee Holloway’s murder or that tied him to it when she went snooping after he stepped out for coffee. When he was her on his computer Joran became enraged.

Van der Sloot reportedly said “I did not want to do it. The girl intruded into my private life… she didn’t have any right.” I suppose as far as he was concerned that was enough for him to beat Stephany Flores to death and break her neck. Asshole.

Flores was found on June 1st by a receptionist at the hotel. A call had come from someone looking for van der Sloot and after she forwarded it nobody answered. About an hour later the receptionist noticed that he still owed money for two nights and went up to the room. Her knocks went unanswered and the television was blaring.

The receptionist’s boss told her to go back to the room and enter it using the spare key. She made a gruesome discovery at that point, finding Flores dead, clad only in a t-shirt and panties. Van der Sloot was nowhere to be found, having fled the hotel, and the country, about 8:30 that morning.

Van der Sloot was found in Chile on Thursday and arrested. He was returned to Peru on Friday.

He is slated to participate in a reenactment of the murder for the police in Lima today and could also be formally charged today as well.

On June 3, 2010, Van der Sloot was charged in the U.S. District Court of Northern Alabama with wire fraud and extortion for the amount of US$250,000 in exchange for information on the location of Natalee Holloway’s body and the circumstances surrounding her death. The criminal complaint filed with the court reveals that an advance amount of $15,000 had been wired from Alabama to the Netherlands on May 10, 2010. This followed a cash payment on the same day to Van der Sloot of $10,000 that was videotaped by undercover investigators in Aruba. Authorities determined the information that Van der Sloot provided in return turned out to be false. Holloway’s mother, Beth Twitty, notified the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the extortion plot for the money, which was used by Van der Sloot to finance his trip to Lima, Peru. U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance issued an arrest warrant to go through Interpol in an effort to prosecute Van der Sloot in the United States. On June 4, at the request of the U.S. Justice Department, authorities raided and confiscated items from two homes in the Netherlands, one of them belonging to reporter Jaap Amesz who had previously interviewed Van der Sloot and claimed knowledge of his criminal activities. Police in Aruba are preparing to launch new searches on the island for Holloway’s remains near a hotel where she was last seen and a dam at Monserat.

I started getting into writing about crime back around the time that Natalee Holloway disappeared and have posted about the case a handful of times over the last five years. The most recent was probably the video of Joran confessing to an undercover reporter a couple of years ago. Here’s the video”

Of course the bastard and his friends are still running free, so you can see how much good that did…

Now he’s gone and done it again. This time Joran Van der Sloot has confessed again, according to the German news agency RTL. According to them  Van der Sloot confessed to dumping her body in a swamp after she accidently fell off of a balcony and died after hitting her head.

Personally I think he’s full of shit and just enjoys the attention, although with most lies there is a grain of truth in them.

Apparently Joran screwed up again and the very same person who secretly videotaped his ‘confession’, Peter R. de Vries managed to get undercover reporters to trap him again. He set it up so that a couple of folks posed as sex industry bosses in the Netherlands looking to import Thai girls for prostitution and van der Sloot promised to supply them with the girls. He has been living in Thailand since the case was closed again last year, supposedly going to school.

Image via Wikipedia

Apparently a dutch company has plans to make a movie “loosely based” on the disappearance of the Alabama girl who disappeared and was most likely killed in Aruba in 2005.

The Hollywood Reporter
AMSTERDAM — Dutch producer Hans Pos (Shooting Star Film Company) has announced plans for a Dutch feature film loosely based on the disappearance, and possible murder, of the U.S. student Natalee Holloway in 2005 on Aruba, one of the islands in the Dutch Antilles.

The case attracted a lot of publicity in the Netherlands and the U.S., as the main suspect was filmed with a hidden camera by crime reporter Peter R. de Vries, for a program for SBS Broadcasting of the Netherlands, which was subsequently nominated for an Emmy Award.

Pos will base the film, which he will also direct, on the crime novel “Vuurkoraal,” written by Dutch journalist Annet de Jong. Screenwriter Simon de Waal is currently working on the adaptation. Pos plans to release the film in 2009.

It’s only been a matter of time before they did it, I think everyone knew that. At least they waited three years. It would be nice if they would donate a portion of the proceeds to something like Texas Equusearch or one of the Missing Children networks.

Hopefully they will portray Joran as the scum-sucking piece of shit that he is as well.

Natalee Holloway’s mother and reporter Peter R. DeVries were on Larry King. You can watch the video over at CNN. She brings up the point I mentioned last week about how investigators in Aruba kept asking Natalee’s parents over and over if Natalee had ever had a history of epileptic seizures.

The Aruban authorities have also questioned Joran Van der Sloot again, this time in the Netherlands. deny. deny. deny. He is claiming that everything on the video tape is lies and that he was just making it up so that he could get a job with the bad guys

He was apparently interviewed for two hours again and he denied any type of role in Natalee Holloway’s disappearance according to the prosecutor’s office. He claims that he was under the influence of Marijuana when he was secretly videotaped saying that he was with Holloway when she died. In the video tape he also says that he couldn’t be sure that she was dead when they disposed of the body. That’s just messed up.

The Aruban courts have said that there is enough evidence to re-open the investigation, which they obviously have, but not enough to arrest Joran, so the scum sucking loser is still walking around free. The prosecutor’s office has appealed that decision and a three-judge panel is supposed to rule on that this next week.

Investigators have taken a hard drive from Joran’s computer as well as a laptop in order to look for new evidence.

Hans Mos stated that the charges were dropped against

Joran van der Sloot and the two Kalpoe brothers, Deepak and Satish not because they don’t have a case but because they couldn’t be sure of a conviction. If they were to be prosecuted and then the case were to be dismissed, because of double jeopardy (as in our laws) they couldn’t be tried again. It actually makes sense to make sure that they have all of their ducks in a row before they go for a conviction. Then again, they could just be assigning the four detectives to a never-ending case just to appease the traveling public.

Some of the conflicting statements from the three young men include the fact that the Kalpoes told police that they dropped Holloway and van der Sloot off near a lighthouse on the northern tip of the island. Joran van der Sloot’s mother says that he told her he was on the beach with Natalee but left her there because she wanted to stay. If you will recall, during the interrogation of Joran van der Sloot he initially told police that Natalee Holloway wanted to go to the north side of the island to see sharks (interesting only in the fact that it was dark and you wouldn’t see shit, but if she were drunk the fact that it was dark wouldn’t matter), but later on said that ‘at no time did Natalee ask to go to the north side of Aruba and then later said that the idea of going to the lighthouse was his?

Anyway, the good thing is that under Aruban law criminal prosecution is possible until the punishable acts become too old. For voluntary manslaughter that is six years and for homicide it’s twelve.

From FOX News last night:

Starting to ramble now. For other recent stories and developments:

• Holloway Suspect Wrote Teen Was Dead
• So Is It Really Over?
• Aruba Investigation Not Over
• No Charges For Holloway Suspects
• Natalee Holloway Case Over?

Seems to be a bit of a recurring theme lately

I just found this video from the AP concerning comments that one of the three suspects made in an Internet chat room concerning Natalee Holloway

I got the breaking news alert yesterday and wanted to put something up on it last night but as I ended up working 16 hours yesterday I was pretty tired and ended up going straight to bed last night.

Police in Aruba re-arrested Deepak and Satish Kalpoe at the same time that Joran Van Der Sloot was picked up in Holland at the request of the Aruban government yesterday. All three of them had initially been arrested in 2005 but at the time prosecutors felt that there was insufficient evidence and all three were set free. They have been charged with the involvement in the voluntary manslaughter of Natalee Holloway or causing serious bodily harm to Natalee Holloway, resulting in her death according to the statement.

There is currently no information about what new information there is that has led to the arrests.

The Associated Press released this video yesterday which recaps the arrest as well as the original story:

I posted quite a few times on the case back in 2005 and the level of frustration felt by her family and the public at large was palpable.

If you’ll remember, Scared Monkeys reported quite a bit on the case and they are still posting. From comments one of their readers in Diario left:

It should prove interesting the see what happens next. Aruban law is a direct descendent of Napoleonic law unlike the law here in the U.S. and there will be no jury trial. If the judge feels that enough evidence has been presented that shows them guilty that’s all she wrote.

Obviously it’s Thanksgiving and I will be working long hours this week but I will be posting more in this as time permits.

According to one of van der Sloot’s lawyers, he was bitterly surprised at the turn events, no doubt because he thought he had committed the perfect unsolvable crime. Even without the body he could still be convicted.

Last year Natalee Holloway’s parents filed a suit against Joran van der Sloot and his father in the Supreme Court of New York. A judge dismissed the suit in August of 2006, stating that New York was an ‘inconvenient venue’ in which to try the case.

The other suspects, Satish and Deepak Kalpoe have already been released and prosecutors decided not to appeal the decision of the judge today in light of the denied appeal that a three judge panel turned down earlier this week.

The judges reasons for freeing Van der Sloot followed along the same lines as the previous decision about the Kalpoes, that the prosecution had not brought any new significant information that would incriminate the suspects in the murder/disappearance of Natalee Holloway.

The prosecution will announce before the end of the year whether that will proceed to try the three suspects in the case.

A judge is expected to rule today on whether or not to continue to hold the two Kalpoe brothers as suspects in the Natalee Holloway case. Lawyers for all three suspects were in court Thursday to argue different motions.

Also the RV Persistence and Louis Schaefer head to Aruba to help search for Natalee Holloway. Thanks to Scared Monkeys for the videos.

There is one thing I was unaware of until I saw this news report from Greta Van Susteren and that is the fact that the night that Natalee Disappeared the Kalpoe brothers were washing their car after midnight. Heck, isn’t that when you are supposed to wash your car?

Scared Monkeys has some recent posts up about Joran and his antics if you want to go check them out. Apparently Joran appeared on the late-night talk show Pauw & Witteman and by the end of the show threw wine in the face of a crime reporter. Good thing he wasn’t alone on the beach with him.

Ever since June of 2005 millions of people around the world and most particularly here in the United States have been wondering just what happened to Natalee Holloway and if she will ever be found.

Although this is titled a “Definitive Natalee Holloway Timeline” this is certainly not meant to be the last source of information and I plan on adding to it as time goes by. I have not added a lot of the stuff that has happened the last couple of months but will when I get the free time. I also need to arrange it in more or a chronological order. I have worked on it off and on when I had free time over the last week or so, it jumps around a bit.

The first I heard of the story was right around the time of this news story at CNN.

Natalee Holloway was on a post-graduation trip to Aruba along with about 100 students from Mountain Brook High School in Alabama in order to celebrate their graduation. Along with the students were seven adult chaperones.

She was last seen in the company of three young men, Joran van der Sloot as well as Deepak and Satish Kalpoe, leaving Carlos & Charlies, a nightclub in Oranjestad. According to initial reports the three men claimed that they took her to Arashi Beach before dropping her off at her hotel about 2 AM. Somewhere between 20 and 40 of her classmates saw her leave the bar with the three young men around 1:30 AM. None of the security cameras at the Holiday Inn where her class was staying show Natalee returning. The class of 124 was scheduled to fly back to the states on that day, May 30th. Her passport, packed luggage, camera and cell phone were all in her hotel room.

This photo was taken with Natalee’s disposable camera on May 29th 2005 with Natalee’s disposable camera just hours before she disappeared.

One interesting thing about the security cameras is that on April 19th, 2006 Beth Twitty stated that the security cameras at the Holiday Inn were not working on the night that Natalee vanished. She has made other statements in public as well as in her book, that the lobby camera was working. This could just be a matter of simple confusion. I would be pretty darned confused if my child had been missing so long. It could also point to the fact that she didn’t know what the hell she was talking about and just had to say something to the media.

This post is extremely long. If you are interested in finishing it, the rest is below the fold.

The initial CNN story that I linked to above was published on June 4th, five days after Natalee’s disappearance. On June 5th Aruban police arrested and charged two security guards at the Hotel Allegro with crimes relating to the disappearance. Neither of the two men were in the group that Natalee left Carlos & Charlies with. A tip had led police to the two men. The two men were Abraham Jones and Mickey John.

This photo shows Police and reporters waiting by the home of one of the suspects arrested in San Nicolas.

June 6th had Aruban government employees join in the search already underway by Aruban police, the FBI and Dutch Marines. At that point some of the searchers were concentrating on the eastern tip of the island, which had already been searched by Dutch marines. The area they were searching is near the oil refining town of San Nicolas, where the two security guards had been arrested the previous day. Aruba’s chief prosecutor at the time, Karen Jansen had also requested that FBI dive teams help to search areas of Aruba’s coast.

On June 9th three more men, the boys who were seen leaving Carlos & Charlies with Natalee, were arrested. At that point there were five people in custody. Under the Dutch judicial system people can be arrested on suspicion of a crime and be formally charged later.

At that point several questions came up based on racial issues. Police had already questioned the three young men but did not formally detain them or seize the car belonging to the Kalpoes. Compared to the two black security guards from the poorer side of the island the three young men were from well to do families. Statements from the government denied it. Karen Jansen said that “The suspicion of a suspect has nothing to do with the color of his skin, but the grounds of suspicion.” According to Prime Minister Nelson Oduber “On this island, nobody stands above the law.”

…

I don’t know a hell of a lot about that but I do know that the media really overdid the story in order to gain ratings. The whole thing and the media circus was a pretty darned good example of missing white woman syndrome. I did a little experiment and posted a very short entry. It included the title, What if Natalee Holloway Was Back and Poor? The post itself was one sentence, although I have updated it and maybe it is one paragraph. Based on the strength of that question and the morbid curiosity of people I got more hits on that entry than most of the others I have written. It also garnered over a hundred comments. While I had never heard of ‘missing white woman syndrome’ or ‘missing pretty girl syndrome’ at that point in time, that was the whole point. The elements of her being pretty, blond, and affluent assed up to positive discrimination in her case. You can deny it all you want but facts is facts.

Anyway, back to what I was doing…

…

2005

Immediately after it was found that Natalee had missed her flight, Natalee Holloway’s step-father George Twitty and her mother Beth flew to Aruba. After questioning the other students they went to the Aruban police with Joran van der Sloot’s name and address and let the police know that he was the last person to see her. Two Aruban policemen and the Twittys went to the Van der Sloot house looking for Natalee. Joran denied knowing who Natalee was but later recanted that statement and said that they took her to the California Lighthouse so that Natalee could see the sharks (at two in the morning). They also made the statement that she had fallen down as she got out of the car and was drunk but refused Joran’s help to get up. They stated that as they drove away she was approached by a black man in a black shirt like the ones that security guards wear.

Her father, Dave Holloway arrived in Aruba two days after her disappearance and went to the police station where he spoke with the case’s lead detective and a police drugs specialist, Dennis Jacobs. According to Dave Holloway the police officer’s first statement to him was “Well, how much money you got?”. Holloway also says that Jacobs told him to go to Carlos ‘n Charlies Bar and that she might turn up there but to watch his drink as “people put stuff in it”.

…

On June 10th, 2005 Natalee Holloway’s family rushed to the lighthouse after a police official told the media that one of the three young men in custody admitted ‘something bad happened’ and was leading police to the scene. Prosecutors refused to confirm or deny the information.

Part of the big problem here is that her parents were TOO involved, almost to the point of obstructing the investigation. Yes, they should have been on top of the case constantly but it’s the job of law enforcement to do the actual investigating. The other big problem though is that the investigation itself always seemed to be running into roadblocks, particularly where the three suspects were concerned.

Through the whole search the Aruban authorities were highly criticized by Natalee Holloway’s family for a perceived lack of progress. Her family even called for a boycott of Aruba which gained the support of Alabama Governor Bob Riley but pretty much ended up fading away.

On June 11th the spokesman for the Aruban Minister of Justice indicated that Natalee Holloway was dead and authorities new the location of her body. He later retracted the statement saying that he was the victim of a misinformation campaign. Later in the evening Police Commissioner Gerald Dompig alleged to the AP that one of the young men admitted ‘something had happened’ to Holloway after the suspects took her to the beach and was leading police to the scene. The next morning Aruban Justice Minister Rudy Croes contradicted the statement saying that the rumor one of the suspects had confessed was untrue.

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that Joran van der Sloot had made statements that Joran had though Deepak Kalpoe had killed the girls. This is a s
can of a document held by DIARIO. Thanks to Scared Monkeys for the document.

Aruban authorities search the home of Joran van der Sloot prior to questioning Paulus van der Sloot.

On June 17th, Steve Gregory Croes was arrested in connection with the case after being questioned. Croes is a party boat disc jockey and apparently knew one of the Kalpoes because they went to the same Internet cafe according to a statement by Croes’ employer Marcus Wiggins.

The next day, June 18th police questioned Paul van der Sloot, the father of Joran. He was questioned for five hours and met with investigators for two more hours the next day. On June 23rd he was arrested.

June 26th – a judge ordered that Paul van der Sloot, a judge in training, and Steven Croes be released from jail but would not explain why they were let go.

June 27th Texas Equusearch volunteers search a rock quarry in Noord, Aruba near the home of one of the suspects in the disappearance.

On June 29th as the three boys sat in the back of a police car this conversation was secretly recorded:

On July 4th a judge ordered the Kalpoes immediate release from jail but ruled that there was enough evidence to hold Joran van der Sloot for another 60 days while prosecutors built their case.

Paul van der Sloot

July 25th, 2005. Natalee Holloway’s family increased the reward for information leading to her safe return to $1 million. There is also a $100,000 reward for any information that helps authorities solve her disappearance.

On July 27th a large pond was drained across from the Marriott Hotel after a tip from a witness claimed to have seen Joran van der Sloot driving with Deepak and Satish riding with him. Once on the stand the witness was declared to be not credible when lawyers destroyed his stories.

On August 26th, 2005 Satish and Deepak Kalpoe were arrested for the second time. Aruban officials detained them on suspicion of involvement in premeditated murder and rape.

On September 1st 2005 A judge ordered Joran van der Sloot’s release from jail and the Kalpoes were ordered to be released on the 3rd. On the 6th of September van der Sloot left Aruba to go to college in Holland.

During the interrogation Joran van der Sloot stated to police that he left Holloway at the Marriott Hotel beach near the fishermen’s huts and phoned Deepak Kalpoe for a ride home and that Satish drove him home. The Kalpoes agree that van der Sloot and Holloway were dropped off there but denied that they returned to pick him up. At one point van der Sloot told a third story that he was dropped off at home and Holloway was driven off by the Kalpoe brothers. Gerald Dompig discounted the story saying that “this latest story came when he saw the other guys, the Kalpoes, were kind of finger-pointing in his direction, and he wanted to screw them also, by saying he was dropped off. But that story doesn’t check out at all. He just wanted to screw Deepak. They had great arguments about this in front of the judge. Because their stories didn’t match. This girls, she was from Alabama, she’s not going to stay in the car with two black kids. We believe their second story, that they were dropped off by the Marriott”.

On September 15th Dr Phil aired portions of an interview between a private investigator, Jamie Skeeters and Deepak Kalpoe. It has since been proven that the Dr Phil show actually edited the tape to show something completely different. Here is a portion of the interview.

The entire transcript is pretty long so I am going to just point a link to it over at scrux.com

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At the end of October 2005 Dave Holloway and Texas EquuSearch finally leave Aruba. The photo to the left shows Tim Wiggins, the founder and director of Texas EquuSearch checking a night vision camera. Texas EquuSearch has a 70% success rate in finding it’s targets in over 450 missing persons searches as of 2005. EquuSearch sent trained divers, sonar search equipment and other volunteers to help with the search for Natalee.

On November 10th in a fairly quiet legal move, Joran’s father Paul van der Sloot won an unjust detention action against the Aruban government and with that court victory is no longer legally a suspect in the case.

2006

In January of 2006 Vanity Fair published an article entitled “Missing White Female“. In the article some of the behavior of the seniors during their trip was discussed. Apparently due to the behavior of the previous group the 2006 seniors were not welcomed at the Holiday Inn. Natalee’s behavior in particular was discussed. According to some of the reports at one point Holloway lay down on the bar and let van der Sloot lick a body shot off her stomach. One of her roommates told the FBI that she and Holloway had been doing Jello Shots before van der Sloot’s arrival. Her friends claim that she had been drinking all day and Gerald Dompig indicated that the police have evidence to corroborate that. He also indicates that their was evidence that points to possession of drugs by Holloway.

Flash forward forward five months to the end of March 2006. The lead investigator in the Natalee Holloway case receives a tip and they are hopeful that police might be able to find her. On April 15th while we were all fretting about the IRS, Aruban authorities reveal that they have made a new arrest in her disappearance. 19-year-old Geoffrey Van Cromvoirt, known at the time by the initials ‘G.V.C’ is detained. He was also being held on suspicion of drug offenses and they suspected him in Natalee’s disappearance. Police release Cromvoirt on April 24th. The prosecutor’s office maintained that he was still a suspect. They also release the fact that they had arrested a 20-year-old man on April 22nd and interrogated him for six hours and then released him.

In mid-May 2006 Dutch police detain a man in the town of Utrecht on suspicion of participating in the kidnapping and killing of Natalee Holloway. According to the man’s attorney, Gerard Sponge (apt name for an attorney), his client was suspected of assisting in the murder of the Alabama high school senior. He was released a week later due to the fact that there was not enough evidence to hold him. Guido Wever is the son of a former Aruban politician. Aruban authorities requested his transfer to the island but he was released instead.

2007

On April 16th 2007 a combined Aruban-Dutch team began pursuing the investigation in Aruba again after a book was released by Joran van der Sloot and reporter Zvezdana Vukojevic entitled “De Zaak Natalee Holloway” (“The Case of Natalee Holloway”).

Several months passed and the three boys, Joran van der Sloot, Satish and Deepak Kalpoe are all rearrested on November 21st 2007. Aruban authorities  had them arrested on suspicion of involvement in manslaughter and causing seriously bodily harm that caused the death of Natalee Holloway.

After the release of Joran van der Sloot and the Kalpoes van der Sloot told a Dutch newspaper that he regretted that he was not formally prosecuted for any crime. Aruban authorities closed the investigation on December 18th saying that they believed Holloway is dead but that they did not have enough evidence to prosecute van der Sloot or the other two former suspects. According to the newspaper DAG van der Sloot said “I would have liked to have seen a trial so that everything could be out in the open” in his first public remarks since he was released on December 7th. The interview was conducted via email with van der Sloot in Aruba where he is currently staying with his family. Van der Sloot denies that their was any new evidence as prosecutors had asserted. He believes that his latest arrest was intended to please the American media. “I’ve been declared guilty without any factual evidence and I’m left to prove my innocence” he told the paper.

Links

CBS News

Holloway Case Suspect Regrets No Trial

Natalee Holloway Wikipedia Entry.

Vanity Fair Article.

scrux.com – a wealth of media and information in the Natalee Holloway investigation.

Scared Monkeys – Since early on the guys over at Scared Monkeys have been posting information on the disappearance.

This is my Happy New Year! open trackback article for January 1st 2008. May everyone have a wonderful new year and gain all of the happiness that they deserve. If you have something interesting to post or just want to show off your work, feel free to ping this article and your link will show up here.

Just received a breaking news alert from CNN. Investigators in Aruba are looking at some new evidence that has been provided by Peter R. de Vries, a Dutch reporter. I posted about de Vries earlier this month but really didn’t go into the report much. He along with Joran van Der Sloot were on the Dutch TV show Pauw & Witteman earlier in the month and Joran lost his temper and threw wine at the reporter on camera after being confronted with his lies. If you haven’t seen the wine incident yet, this is the part of the show where Joran throws it in his face.

7:13 p.m. – Now CNN has reported that the office of the prosecutor in Aruba has intensified it’s investigation of the case of Natalee Holloway after having received the information from Dutch crime reporter Peter R. de Vries. They are stating that the information may help considerably in the solution of the mystery of Natalee’s disappearance and assumed death. The statement does not say what the information is. Sound like an all too familiar situation? If so it’s because that’s the same line of crap we heard last fall from the prosecutor’s office who ended up dropping the case at the end of the year because they didn’t have enough evidence.

Apparently Joran has pissed off the wrong person. According to the report the information may help resolve exactly what happened to Natalee Holloway during a 2005 graduation trip to Aruba during which she disappeared after spending time with van Der Sloot.

Prosecutors had to dismiss their case late last month after they finally figured out that they didn’t have enough evidence and information to prosecute van Der Sloot or the Kalpoe brothers. Perhaps whatever it is that de Vries has turned over to police will be enough this time.

He has had at least a couple of positive findings in the past. DeVries tracked down the Heineken-kidnapper Frans Meijer in Paraguay and has had other achievements as well.

7:30 p.m. I don’t know how true this is but go read Joran Did It! and see what you think. Here is Peter R. de Vries home page. The headline on his site (click the American flag for English version) states that he has "solved the crime!" Apparently he has conducted an undercover camera operation and turned the results over to the Aruban prosecutor.

de Vries has put out a press release which you can get to here. Beth Twitty is now in the Netherlands and has screened portions of the video and apparently Beth reacted extremely shocked by what she saw along with the certain news that her daughter is indeed dead.

9:28 p.m. The AP released this video earlier this evening:

Other Links:

The Anniston Star

Eyes For Lies

ABC News

Trackposted to The Virtuous Republic, Rosemary’s Thoughts, The Random Yak, Right Truth, Big Dog’s Weblog, Cao’s Blog, Leaning Straight Up, The Pet Haven, Conservative Cat, third world county, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, A Newt One, Right Voices, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

“It is true I told someone. Everybody will see it Sunday. This is what he wanted to hear, so I told him what he wanted to hear” adding that he had built up a relationship with the man but had never fully trusted him.

According to his lawyers, the confession was obtained by an Aruban employee of DeVries who was handsomely rewarded for winning Joran’s trust and betraying him , although according to Joran’s statement he never fully trusted him. I guess he’s not choosy about who he spouts lies to, as the past has shown us.

A Dutch Judge should make a ruling today or tomorrow as to whther or not Joran Van der Sloot can be re-arrested.

Updated 9:55 p.m. I have posted several times today but my damned blog won’t rebuild and my host keeps telling me there are no problems. Apparently the fact that the last six entries plus this one that I have edited several times is a figment of my imagination. Anyway, Equivocation Nation is also keeping us updated on the case as well. ABC has apparently purchased the video for an undisclosed, very large amount and Peter Cuomo is flying to the Netherlands to interview Peter DeVries.

Updated 9:45 p.m. The Aruban prosecutor has requested that Joran Van der Sloot be arrested based on new evidence, sources have told CNN. Hans Mos, the chief prosecutor said that he expects an answer from a judge as soon as Saturday or Sunday. If the judge rules that he can be arrested he would be brought back to Aruba for detainment and more questioning.

I mentioned yesterday in my post about Peter R. DeVries that prosecutors in Aruba were looking at the case again and sure enough, they have decided to reopen the case, 33 days later.

In a statement made earlier today the public prosecutor’s office in Aruba said “The recordings made available to the Public Prosecutor have given the Public Prosecutor a reason to reopen the investigation”.

They haven’t made any references to the possibility of arrests but I am sure that will be forthcoming in the next few weeks.

DeVries is supposed to be broadcasting a Secretely taped confession on Sunday by Joran Van der Sloot. It’s not clear exactly what he has has confessed to but obviously since Aruba is reopening the investigation  it will either be her disappearance or murder.

According to authorities in Aruba, the secretly-taped video could be admitted in court in the case however.

According to the tape Joran van der Sloot said that he “didn’t lose a minute of sleep” knowing that Natalee Holloway’s body had been dumped out in the sea.

Van Der Sloot admits to being with Holloway the night of her disappearance, having sex with her, and when she died, most likely from a combination of the drugs and alcohol she had used, called a friend who took her out in his boat and “threw her out, like and old rag”

According to Van Der Sloot’s attorney the friend that Van der Sloot named in the video wasn’t even in Aruba in 2005 and has never owned a boat and there are a couple of other issues as well that don’t fit, including the fact that the coast guard had checked the phone in 2005 that according to his story he used to call the friend. There was no such call made from the pay phone on that night.

Aruban investigators are saying that there is more evidence against Joran van der Sloot than what was revealed in the hidden camera interview. They have also searched two places in Holland on Monday where Van der Sloot has lived, removing some evidence. They will not specify what that evidence is but supposedly they knew exactly what they were looking for.

Sprocket brings up an interesting point and now that I have seen that I will have to go back through some of the old reports. Anyway, it was mentioned over at Trials and Tribulations about the fact that early in the investigation Aruban investigators asked Holloway’s parents several times if Natalee had ever had any seizures. Kind of funny considering that’s exactly what Joran describes on the tape…

Anyway, about the guy named that owned/doesn’t own a boat. Remember party boat DJ Steve Croes? Supposedly THAT’S who Joran called that night and then the two of them took Natalee out and dumped her body. I have also read in several places that Lorenzo van Rijn, a known underworld figure and drug dealer in Aruba is probably the person that Joran called that night. It’s not the first time I have seen that either. Missing in Aruba is a site that hasn’t been updated since the fall of 2005 and I think that may be the first place I saw mention of Lorenzo, who very well may be Joran’s half-brother.

I found the taped confession from Joran over at Youtube. Of course unless you speak Dutch it’s pretty much useless.. I am just now sitting down to watch…

Now if I could just pick out more than a couple of words…

Updated November 2007 – This is an older entry, for the latest updates in the Natalie Holloway Case you will want to read my archives on Natalee Holloway with the latest information on the three young men who have been arrested once again. Please leave a comment and let me know you’ve visited.

Apparently two years later, a new search has taken place in Aruba related to the Natalee Holloway case. Friday and Saturday police searched the Van der Sloot home, possibly for something specific. It’s kind of nice to hear. I think that most of the general public has given up on anything ever happening in the Holloway missing persons/murder investigation. I say murder as that is what most of us think has happened.

There are several videos from the news channels all up over at Blogs for Natalee if you are interested in checking them out.

I had several posts up back in 2005 on Natalee, and what sucks is that I had not even heard this news story at all. The reason I found out is that some of my old posts started getting quite a few hits, so I did a new search on it.

I closed the comments on all of my old entries quite some time ago, but if interested in reading them, here are some of the old posts.

Natalie Holloway Dead? 6-11-2005

Natalee Holloway 6-16-2005 (yes, I know I misspelled her name in the first one)

New Arrest in Natalee Holloway Case 6-17-2005

What if Natalee Holloway Were Black and Poor? 6-18-2005

There are a ton more, just do a search of the site if you really want to read it. What is interesting is that the post linked to last is the one that I got the most comments. Some of them were quite entertaining.

One thing that I was not aware of that has been brought to light (at least to me) is that Joran Van der Sloot has written a book. There is more information that can be found over at Scared Monkeys.

If I hear or read any more news I will be sure to post it here.

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson’s Website, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Mark My Words, The Random Yak, DragonLady’s World, The Pet Haven Blog, Leaning Straight Up, The Bullwinkle Blog, The Amboy Times, Conservative Cat, Conservative Thoughts, Pursuing Holiness, Pet’s Garden Blog, third world county, Allie Is Wired, Faultline USA, stikNstein… has no mercy, The World According to Carl, Pirate’s Cove, Blue Star Chronicles, The Pink Flamingo, Wake Up America, Dumb Ox Daily News, High Desert Wanderer, Gone Hollywood, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Technorati : Aruba, Joran Van der Sloot, Murder, Natalee Holloway

Update 9-5-2006
Daedalus and I have been carrying on a little conversation in the comments and he has brought forth some really good points on the investigation. Even though I might think he is wrong, I figured I would update this post. Also, since there are quite a few comments, I figured I would paste my most recent comment to him here as well. His portion of the conversation are in italics:

Update 8-29-2006

Apparently the Aruban government has asked the Netherlands to take the lead in the still ongoing investigation. You can find a bit more information at Blogs for Natalee. The story is also linked from here.

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The original post was made on June 26, 2006. I will occasionally update as I need, rather than making any more separate posts. As this one (out of 15 or 20) garnered the most comments, I will make this one the default Natalee Holloway post.

Apparently not only have they released the DJ, but Joran Van Der Sloot’s father as well. From what the Aruban Government reported earlier in the day, the only reason that they were holding him was as leverage to get Joran to talk anyway.

The rest of the search and rescue team from Texas has also arrived. Hopefully there can be an end to this in the next few days. I would think it extremely unlikely that she is still alive though, but anything is possible.

Technorati : Aruba, Natalee Holloway

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I wonder myself, as the article suggests, if this is the real deal, or if this is just a scapegoat. I suppose time will tell. I checked over at Scared Monkeys, who have kept up with this case much more thoroughly than I have, and their reaction is pretty laidback for the time being.

Updated November 2007 – This is an older entry, for the latest updates in the Natalie Holloway Case you will want to read my archives on Natalee Holloway with the latest information on the three young men who have been arrested once again. Please leave a comment and let me know you’ve visited.

ORANJESTAD, Aruba (CNN) — Authorities probing the disappearance of missing Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway arrested the DJ of a popular party boat Friday morning and searched his home.

CNN.com – New arrest in Aruba missing teen case – Jun 17, 2005

Technorati: Natalee Holloway

One thing to look at though, is that even though they are overusing it, this also seems the best way to keep continued interest in the case from the FBI, and the US Government.

Must have been a slow news day.

Scared Monkeys

Apparently the Aruban government has ordered law enforcement officials to hand over everything to do with the Natalie Holloway investigation to the FBI. Good deal. It has been so long that they may not be able to find anything now, but at least with the help of the FBI there IS a chance.

One thing that I have noticed is that since there is no new BIG news that seems to be forthcoming from Aruba, any news about Natalie or the search seems to be getting relegated (sp?) to somewhere other than the front page. I really hope that they don’t let this die down. Regardless of my nasty comments that are supposedly racist (although it is mostly white people that are calling me a racist) I do want to see her found, alive OR dead, so that her family can find some kind of closure.

..yet again. Apparently now he is saying the he WAS on the beach with her, alone, but that he did not hurt her. Get your stpry straight you stupid fuck.

The Dark Side of Planet Huff

In other related news, a search and rescue team from Texas and their dogs seem to be there, and will get started searching for her soon. Hopefully they will find some clues in her disappearence (sp?).

CNN.com – Judge arrested in Aruba case – Jun 23, 2005

Updated November 2007 – This is an older entry, for the latest updates in the Natalie Holloway Case you will want to read my archives on Natalee Holloway with the latest information on the three young men who have been arrested once again. Please leave a comment and let me know you’ve visited.

None of you stupid fucks, OR the main stream media would give a flying fuck about her or her family.

I also posted this as a comment to the main Natalee Holloway discussion going on here, but if you are interested in more information and conjecture by someone much more intelligent than I go check out The Dark Side of Planet Huff.

Technorati: Natalee Holloway