Dutch TV Airs Aruba Murder "Confession"

Joran Van Der Sloot Maintains His Statements About Natalee Holloway's Murder Were Lies

(CBS/AP)  Hidden camera footage broadcast in the Netherlands on Sunday showed Dutch student Joran Van der Sloot saying he was with Natalee Holloway when she collapsed on a beach in Aruba. He said he believed she was dead and asked a friend to dump her body in the sea.

"She'll never be found," he said.

A series of conversations between Van der Sloot and a man he believed to be his friend were recorded in a Range Rover that had been rigged with three hidden cameras by Peter R. de Vries, a Dutch television crime reporter. They were shown on Dutch television.

Aruba's public prosecutor said Monday he considers admissible in court the secret camera footage. Prosecutor Hans Mos, however, stressed that it was up to a judge to decide whether suspect Joran van der Sloot should be arrested, based on the footage that was shown on Dutch TV Sunday night.

"I take it very seriously," Most told a press conference on this Dutch Caribbean island. "Finally it is for the judge to decide."

Last week, Van der Sloot said he was lying in those conversations and denied that he had anything to do with the Alabama teenager's disappearance.

When CBS News'The Early Show asked Van der Sloot's attorney Rosemarie Arnold why her client would lie, she said, "I think what he was trying to do is he was trying to gain the friendship of this man who he looked up to for an unknown reason."

Arnold said that the man Van der Sloot identifies as the boat man wasn't in Aruba in 2005 and does not own a boat.

Holloway, 18, vanished in May 2005 just before she was due to fly home to Alabama, at the end of her high school graduation trip to the Caribbean island. No trace of her has been found. The mystery of her disappearance has frustrated authorities and garnered wide attention on television and in tabloid newspapers in Europe and the United States.

In the recordings, Van der Sloot said Holloway was drunk and that she began shaking and slumped down on the beach as the pair were making out.

"Suddenly she started shaking and then she didn't say anything," Van der Sloot said, adding that he did not kill her.

"I would never murder a girl," he said.

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.

"The ocean is big," he added.

He said he and his friend agreed that Van der Sloot would go to school the next day to avoid arousing any suspicion.

Van der Sloot said his friend assured him he had taken care of Holloway's body and that the police were not going to locate it. "They will know nothing," Van der Sloot quoted the friend as telling him.

"I've not lost any sleep over this," he added at one point.

Aruban prosecutors said last week they were reopening their investigation into Holloway's disappearance after seeing De Vries' material. But on Sunday, they said a judge on the island had ruled that while the information merited an investigation against Van der Sloot, it did not meet the threshold for an arrest warrant.

"This means that the office is legally not able to have J.v.d.S. arrested in the Netherlands," prosecutors said in a statement, referring to the Dutch student by his initials. The statement did not say when the judge made the ruling.

The prosecutors said they would appeal the judge's ruling and seek to have the Dutch student re-arrested. They also cautioned that the Holloway mystery was far from resolved.

"While video tape may present a strong case in a TV news show, it may be insufficient for a finding of guilt by a judge. It is up to the court to evaluate the materials and the statements, and to find out their significance," prosecutors said.

Van der Sloot was interviewed last week by the respected Dutch television show "Pauw & Witteman" following reports that De Vries had captured him making statements about the case.

"It is true I told someone. Everybody will see it Sunday," Van der Sloot said, referring to De Vries' planned television show.

"That is what he wanted to hear, so I told him what he wanted to hear," Van der Sloot said, adding that he had built up a relationship with the man he spoke to, but had never fully trusted him.

De Vries has said he paid the man Van der Sloot spoke to, Patrick van der Eem, $37,000 for his help, saying it was to cover his expenses.

Phone calls seeking comment from Van der Sloot's Aruban attorneys and his New York-based lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, went unanswered Sunday.

Last week, Tacopina told The Associated Press that "the evidence refutes what Joran supposedly said."

"It doesn't change the truth of this case. And the truth is, Joran had nothing to do with Natalee's death," he said.

Holloway, of Mountain Brook, Ala., was last seen in public leaving a bar with Van der Sloot and two Surinamese brothers - Deepak and Satish Kalpoe - hours before she was due to board a flight home.

The three were re-arrested in November, but released within weeks for lack of evidence. All three have always denied any role in her disappearance.

John Q. Kelly, attorney for Natalee's parents, Dave Holloway and Beth Twitty, say the two are heartbroken.

"Here's a young man that shows just an utter disregard and total disrespect for a young woman who's missing, for a family who's lost their daughter, to his own family, to law enforcement, to the criminal justice system, to his country and everybody," Kelly told The Early Show.

The Dutch student's father, Paul Van der Sloot, declined to comment when reached in Aruba before the tape aired.

De Vries also aired images of Holloway's mother, Beth Twitty, as he showed her the footage.

Clasping together her hands, she moved her lips silently as she watched the images.

"They could have just dumped her alive in the ocean, unconscious," she said. "They don't even know."

"I hope his living hell is about to begin and that he never gets another night's sleep," she added.

[rational_1]

The story makes no sense. I can''''t imagine any reason why Van der Sloot would want to dispose of the body, much less have a "friend" who was so willing to help him, if Holloway actually died the way he described.
Posted by gmond at 01:18 AM : Feb 05, 2008

Simple - he didn''t tell the whole story, like exactly how she did and his involvement in that. What makes no sense to me is why he would say all those things in the car if they weren''t true. Only the biggest, and I mean the biggest, moron on the planet would say the things he did in that car, implicating himself in her disappearance, if they weren''t true. I don''t think he''s an an idiot - a psychopath maybe, but no idiot. His latter protestations that he was making up this story in the car are laughable, even pathetic.

[moncrush]

New Dictionary word:
VanderSloot: To hide a crime, without remorse, in ignorance of full facts cause further harm in order to cover up.

[gmond]

The story makes no sense. I can''t imagine any reason why Van der Sloot would want to dispose of the body, much less have a "friend" who was so willing to help him, if Holloway actually died the way he described.

[excelsior9]

He was making out with her on the beach and she dies? Then they decided to dump her in the ocean? If this does stick, he will play this off as she mysteriously died (because of drug use) and he merely panicked. Kinda convinient if the court believes the video is real and not set up by the Sloots through this Dutch reporter. Nice how he threw wine in the reporters face on National TV. Makes it look like they hate one another doesnt it? Nice neat little package. Daddy has enough power and money to make it work. Otherwise "Lil Sloot" junior will have this hanging over his head and reporters chasing him the rest of his life. This guy must have done something to her, panicked and dump her body. Probably a rufee in a drink, gave her X or something. Kinda weird how after it happened a rumor of Natalie using drugs while in Aruba surfaced. Sounded kinda like a plot being set up to save Van der Sloot''s butt.

[marinepatriot]

God bless her and her family.

Actually, if she was making out, but yet drunk enough to have her body shut down, that implies there is something more too it. Like probably a date rape drug in my opinion. This is exactly what I expected the results would end up being. I hope someone is investigating if the young man had any connections to those types of drugs in the past.

[marinepatriot]

God bless her and her family.

[barbaraf4]

What if she wasn''t dead when they dumped her in the ocean?

[huber004]

My heart continues to pray for Natalee and her family. I cannot imagine what they are enduring, Beth is staying so strong. Natalee is a beautiful, innocent young lady, enjoying what should have been her senior trip before college. This Joran is so guilty, he''s changed his story so many times. May the Holloway family find peace and justice soon.

[ajaxad]

What is the rules regarding hearsay in dutch law? I am not certain that this would be admissible in the US, unless perhaps it was ruled to be a declaration against interest.

[tbweb]

Joran Van der Sloot was shown on TV throwing his drink in a Reporters face, shown losing his temper in the heat of the moment, the same way he probably lost his temper in the heat of the moment when he killed Natalee Holloway! You have to be a dirty dude to dump a young ladies body in the ocean right after you just finished banging her. I''m willing to bet this is not the first time he has done this, he probably has dumped many young ladies in that ocean, Natalee may just be the tip of the iceberg! He may be a serial rapist, ocean dumper, scary! I would love to see him tried in an Alabama Court, oh my!

[evrybodygot1]

something to think about, in this article Van der Sloot said "He used a pay phone next to a hotel''s swimming pool to call the friend and asked for help in disposing the body.". Why mention using a payphone? How many college students don''t carry a cell phone? Why even say payphone at all? What is the point of mentioning the type and a random location of the phone? Just seems like he says this to hide a fact that he is not disclosing. Maybe he''s not saying who he really called. hmmmm...

[nothappyatall]

If she collapsed after "shaking" (indicative of a seizure) because she DRUNK TOO MUCH, then about all Joran would be guilty of is disposing of a body illegally.

[nothappyatall]

"While video tape may present a strong case in a TV news show, it may be insufficient for a finding of guilt by a judge. It is up to the court to evaluate the materials and the statements, and to find out their significance," prosecutors said. "

EXACTLY, makes for nice tablid TV but in court there''s still NO body, no evidence and no witnesses, plus he recanted and said he LIED, there was no guy with a boat either, so that was made up.

""Here''s a young man that shows just an utter disregard and total disrespect for a young woman who''s missing, for a family who''s lost their daughter, to his own family, to law enforcement, to the criminal justice system, to his country and everybody," Kelly told The Early Show."

Poor babes, like they didnt falsely accuse berate libel and hound this young man for MONTHS, subject him to several arrests for nothing, and backstab and slam him to every media there is without ONE shread of evidence he did anything? I''d say they have it coming to them- they dont deserve respect- theyve shown NONE
Hang it up twitty twit twit and twitter away.
The twits are beyond contempt, Joran should file a lawsuit against these people and be done with it.

[newsdream]

tomanyt that''s my name for someone who did what she''s documented to have done. When a kids out of high school, after you have given them enough sense not to go off alone etc. In this case, they didn''t (or Mom didn''t) check to determine that this trip was going to be properly chaperoned. So, on my dime, living under my roof, she would not have gone. That doesn''t make it 100% her mother''s fault but she has to share SOME blame for this tragedy. Knowing that is the awful truth she''ll have to live with the rest of her life and trying to find someone else to blame probably helps her avoid facing that. Losing your only child in addition to having no body to bury must be excrutiatingly painful. But that won''t stop me from calling it as I see it. Word is she was drinking, doing drugs and she did not stay with the other girls. That would be bad enough in a small community where you were familiar but in a foreign country, if you survive that you should thank your lucky stars. I know many have but I do hope if anything comes from this story, it will be to protect other young girls on spring break. There''s a bigger tragedy of a young girl who was on a school trip, used the pool at the hotel where the group was staying, no drugs, no alcohol and she was killed. Granted there was a body in that case, but otherwise the biggest difference is the race of the victims. One has received so much coverage lots of us are sick of hearing about it; the other most people haven''t heard of.

[sclaires]

For the life of me I cannot understand why all the high school seniors think that they should go on some sort of senior trip after graduation. When I graduated from high school back in 1959, all we did was take a bus trip somewhere (I cannot even remember where now) for the DAY. And, we were chaperoned and were kept together as a group.

I ask why do all the high school seniors think that they need a trip somewhere out of the country?? It appears that they are allowed to do as they please as long as they don''t get caught. It should be about time that the parents start saying NO to trips such as this. Then they will know what their son or daughter will be doing.

[mztriz_b]

I believe that this is an honest possibility. I went to the bahamas a week after she disappeared on my class trip. For young girls from small towns and in a country where you cannot legally drink until the age of 21, alcohol, heat and all the other elements can come into play for the worst.. I believe that it is possible that she drank too much, illegal drugs may or may not have come into play and she slipped into an induced coma and there met her demise. I think that the three men in question here were with her, got spooked maybe because they may have slipped her something and called for help in disposing her body. I believe that they did in fact have something to do with her death- intentional or not.

[rudy654-2009]

Any person falsely accused of murder would immediately demand that they be subjected to a polygraph examination. John and Patsy Ramsey didn''''t take one, Scott Peterson didn''''t take one and Joran Van der Sloot didn''''t take one. I rest my case. Posted by brianp55 at 03:50 PM

Good grief. Polygraphs are not a measure for revealing the truth scientifically. They are only used to provoke a person with a guilty conscience into confessing. There is no machine that can truly reveal if a person is lying or not. It is a psychological tool, and nothing more.

Second, I find it stupid, if not ridiculous, that once again someone (you) tries to victimize the Ramseys in the murder of their child. Not only did they take polygraphs, but the evidence clearly demonstrated that someone else not in that family raped the child and probably murdered the child afterwards. The evidence is absolute on this.

Third, this van der Sloot is guilty by his own mouth because he is wrestling with a guilty conscience. I doubt seriously if he only confessed his crime to this one individual. There are no doubt others out there who also have heard him confess.

[korinsha]

Oh, my god, this nut took advantage of a girl who came from a historical racist state, so took advantage of her. I hope he gets what he deserves.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted by chrisl45

''Historically'' racist state...? What does Alabama''s state history have to do with Natalee Holloway being killed in Aurba...? I think she was taken advantage of, sure, for being a TOURIST, not because she''s from Alabama! You think, what, they had other choices and went "Yeah... there''s a girl from California and she''s vulnerable, also one from North Dakota... but Alabama has a racist history so let''s choose a drunk tourist from THERE instead of anywhere else to take advantage of."

That''s one conversation I''d bet *didn''t* take place. Natalee was probably picked for being a tourist, being friendly, cute, trusting, and maybe a bit intoxicated.

[brianp55]

Any person falsely accused of murder would immediately demand that they be subjected to a polygraph examination. John and Patsy Ramsey didn''t take one, Scott Peterson didn''t take one and Joran Van der Sloot didn''t take one. I rest my case.

[korinsha]

I can''t even imagine what this yo-yo case is doing to Natalie''s parents. First they have ''em, then they don''t, then they got ''em again, then they don''t, then they know what happened, then they don''t... open, closed, open, closed, open... what an emotional rollercoaster. It hasn''t stopped in three years!

I agree they''ll never find her body, and probably never convcit her murderer... or murderers. If she had just "collapsed", why would he dump her in the ocean instead of getting her help?! Not like he was in any danger!

I just feel bad for her family. I hope that this gets wrapped up one way or another so they can finally start to grieve.