No New Developments In Holloway Case
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Friday, May 04, 2007 – 05:34 PM Updated: 07:10 PM
By Karen Lehane
ORANJESTAD, Aruba—It was a week ago Friday the Natalee Holloway case reignited as the main suspect’s home was searched.
Holloway, a Mountain Brook High School graduate, disappeared two years ago in Aruba.
There were no visible signs of a search on the island Friday, and some believe the answers to what happened to Holloway are known, just not proven.
Dutch police took over the investigation of Holloway’s disappearance after local island police had been on the mystery from the beginning.
There have been more than a dozen suspects, but the main focus of the investigation has been on Joran Van Der Sloot. By his own admission, Van Der Sloot was with Holloway in the early morning hours of May 30, 2005, the last night of her senior trip. Also with Van Der Sloot and Holloway, were the brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe.
“Joran told four police officers on the beach that when he left, Natalee was sleeping on the beach and that Deepak went back on the beach and he thinks that Deepak raped and murdered Natalee and buried her by the first fisherman’s hut,” said Diario Aruba’s managing editor, Jossy Mansur.
Mansur has been on the story since the beginning.
“That statement of his signed and sealed by four police officers was never followed through. No further questions were made to him. It just lies there,” he said.
Mansur doesn’t believe that declaration absolves Van Der Sloot.
“I think he was passing on what he may have done himself. I don’t know; we don’t know. We can’t accuse anyone unless we have the evidence to back it up,” he said.
Mansur believes fresh eyes pouring over statements and evidence, new and old, could be the key to making this case.
“People know, more or less, about what happened, but you need the evidence to prove it in order to go to court,” he said.