Natalee Suspect May Be Freed

Hearing On Tap For Joran van der Sloot, The One Held Longest

(CBS)  The main suspect in the disappearance of Alabama teen Natalee Holloway could find out Wednesday whether he'll be let out of jail.

As The Early Show correspondent Kelly Cobiella reports from Aruba, a judge says he'll decide sometime today whether 18-year-old Joran van der Sloot should be held another thirty days, or sent home.

Holloway, who was visiting the island on a graduation trip, was last seen three months ago.

Her parents are convinced he had something to do with her disappearance, and want him held.

But his parents say they're counting the days until they can take him home.

"We believe in his innocence, not only because it is not proven that he is guilty, but because he is innocent," says Joran's father, Paul van der Sloot, a one-time judge in training.

Yet, Cobiella points out, Joran is the suspect in the Holloway case who's been held the longest, since early June.

Prosecutors won't talk about their evidence.

Paul believes they have none, and insists there is no cover-up: "If I had known he had done something illegal, I would have taken him to justice. I have said that from the beginning."

"He still tells Joran every day, 'If there's anything, tell the truth. Tell the truth,' " Joran's mother, Anita van der Sloot says. "And if there would have been anything Joran was hiding, then it would have been out long before (now)."

Joran stopped talking to investigators two weeks ago, Cobiella notes.

His best friend is now under arrest for an unrelated crime, Cobiella observes, and Satish and Deepak Kalpoe, the two young men also seen with Natalee, are back in custody, strategic moves, the van der Sloots say, to break their son, and hold someone, anyone, responsible for Natalee's disappearance.

"Hang him, that's it," Anita asserts. "Then we're done. But this will not give Natalee back, because we don't know where she is. Joran doesn't know where she is, so go back to the beginning. Start looking in other directions."

The van der Sloots already are. Anxious to put this behind them, they're focused on the future.

"We believe in the future," Paul says. "I hope Joran can soon go to college and I hope I can soon go to work."