Natalee Holloway: New Clues

Investigator Tells 48 Hours She Probably Died From Excessive Alcohol, Maybe Drugs

(CBS) 
"They were focused already from the first day, from the get–go, on these three boys. So, it's hard for them to understand that when we investigate, we have to go systematically. We have to go back to basics. And we have to do it by the book," says Dompig. "We are within the Dutch kingdom. We have a judicial system. We have a court of law. And we have rules. So we had to follow the rules of the game."

The police apparently did just that. Contrary to the storm of criticism from the American media, the Aruban police say they quickly put van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers under surveillance.

Dompig says surveillance of the three boys began on the third day after Natalee was reported missing and included observation, telephone wire taps, and even monitoring of their e-mail.

“Bringing in the prime suspect is basically the last thing we do," Dompig explains. "When we bring you in, we probably already know the story because we have observed. We have talked to all your friends. We have checked your phone line. We have done everything that is technically possible to know about your whereabouts.”

But police say extreme pressure from the Holloway family forced them to stop their surveillance and make arrests. Just 10 days after Natalee disappeared, police took van der Sloot, the Kalpoe brothers, and later, even van der Sloot's father into custody.
Asked if pressure from the family compromised the investigation, Dompig says, "I think so. It at least distracted the investigators' efforts.”

Twitty says she was just trying to get the police to find her daughter.

"We wanted justice and we wanted the truth. And I think that that was shocking to the officials in Aruba that we were so persistent in our quest for that," she says.

Paulus van der Sloot was quickly released on judge’s orders, but the young men remained in custody.

Twitty says she is confident the three boys know what happened to Natalee.

But less than a month after their arrests, a court released Deepak and Satish Kalpoe. As police feared, simply questioning the brothers did not turn up enough evidence to charge them with a crime. To this day, they deny any involvement with Natalee’s disappearance.

Despite the setbacks, the cops were able to play hardball with their prime suspect, 17-year-old Joran van der Sloot, thought to be the last person who saw Natalee.

As Aruban law allows, authorities detained him for months without charging him with any crime.

Aruban lawyer Arlene Shipper — who often speaks on behalf of the Aruban government — was sure Joran would crack. "It's mind-boggling to us that a 17-year-old, if he would have done it could not have been broken. It's incredible."

But as Dompig explained, Joran’s age actually made things harder for the interrogators.

Dompig acknowledges Joran was afforded some special legal protections because he was 17 years old at the time of his arrest. Dompig says that did complicate matters. "Yes, that complicated matters seriously because he had more visiting rights with his father — his father being a judge in training was a problem for us because he could give his son certain advice."

Joran’s father discussed the family’s ordeal with CBS' The Early Show.

"We are telling the whole truth, nothing but the truth. And we spoke all this to Joran to tell the truth," Paulus van der Sloot said.

Police say they could not listen in on the conversations between Paulus and his son, citing that they were "privileged conversations."

Dompig says he believes Paulus van der Sloot does know more than he has been telling about the circumstances surrounding Holloway's disappearance.

But in spite of those parental visits, 48 Hours has learned that the interrogations were intense and tough. Special agents from the FBI were brought in, along with investigators from Holland to conduction the interrogations.

Dompig says while Joran van der Sloot wasn't subjected to questioning in the middle of the night, there were late sessions.

"So he was deprived of sleep but it wasn't going on for days?" Roberts asked.

"No," Dompig replied.

Dompig says it almost worked. “There were several moments where Joran almost broke. Several moments,” he says.