Former Suspect’s Mother Wants Probe Into Natalee Holloway Investigation
2008-01-12 01:37:01 –
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) – The mother of a former suspect in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway in Aruba said Friday in a television interview she hopes there will be an investigation into the investigation that failed to find a trace of the U.S. teenager since she vanished in 2005.
“I would like the investigation to continue,” said Anita van der Sloot, mother of Joran van der Sloot, one of three youths extensively interrogated by police and prosecutors.
“I would also like to see an investigation into the investigation,” she added.
Joran, Anita and Paul van der Sloot appeared on the Dutch late-night talk show Pauw & Witteman in what was billed as the family’s last television interview about the case.
Anita van der Sloot said her family, as well as Holloway’s family, needed answers.
“I think it’s also very important that for them, for everybody, but particularly for them, there has to be clarity,” she said. “Then we can move on. As long as that doesn’t that happen, there will be questions, there will be fingers pointing at Joran”.
Holloway went missing May 30, 2005, hours before she was to return home to the U.S. She was on the final night of her school graduation trip to the island.
Van der Sloot and two other suspects, brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe, were seen leaving a bar with Holloway on the night of her disappearance.
They were questioned early in the investigation and again late last year before being released when they refused to answer any questions. All three deny involvement in Holloway’s disappearance.
Prosecutors now say they cannot prove a crime was committed without a body.
Extensive searches of the island turned up no trace of Holloway, who was 18 at the time of her disappearance, but the Aruban prosecutors have said they believe she is dead.
Authorities in Aruba say the case against the three could be reopened if additional evidence surfaces. But if they were to go to trial now with virtually no hope of guilty verdicts, they would lose the opportunity to try them later if strong evidence emerges.
Joran van der Sloot talked little during the show and made no new revelations about the case. When asked if he believed Holloway is still alive, he said he doubted it.
“If a person has been missing for three years, you would be a very bad person if you see everything that has gone on and don’t come forward with a sign that you are alive,” he said. “And if she is still alive, I think she is being held somewhere against her will”.
