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Will “confession” hurt van der Sloot?
Last Update: 6:52 am
Birmingham, Al (WIAT) Has Joran van der Sloot finally told one story too many? Will his comments to Dutch crime reporter John van den Heuvel help federal authorities here in Birmingham bring him to the U.S. to face wire fraud and extortion charges?
In a prison cell interview to be aired tonight on Dutch TV, van der Sloot admits he took money from Natalee Holloway’s family after promising information about the Mountain Brook teenagers disappearance on a graduation trip to Aruba.
“I wanted to get back at Natalee’s family – her parents have been making my life tough for five years,” the paper De Telegraaf quoted him as saying from prison in Peru. “When they offered to pay for the girl’s location, I thought: ‘Why not’?”
Glamour Magazine: “What We’ve Never Told Anyone About Natalee Holloway”
Mallie Tucker, left, and Claire Fierman at the Alabama lake where they spent lazy, happy days with Natalee
Five years after Natalee Holloway disappeared, two of her closest friends believe they know who’s responsible. But they don’t want you to remember his name; they want you to remember the funny, smart girl they miss so much. A Glamour exclusive.
by Sheila Weller
A little more than five years ago, on the last night of a high school graduation trip to Aruba, 18-year-old Natalee Holloway met a lawyer’s son, a handsome 17-year-old named Joran van der Sloot, in a popular cantina, walked out into the moonlight with him—and was never seen again. A tiny girl with long blond hair, Natalee was an exuberant personality but also serious and idealistic: About to enter the University of Alabama on a full scholarship, she hoped to become a doctor. Her disappearance left her best friends from Birmingham’s Mountain Brook High confused, angry and bereft.
From the first day she went missing, her classmates lived through the frustrations of an inconclusive police investigation and the indignities of a media firestorm that made Natalee Holloway a household name. They watched as van der Sloot, the main suspect in the crime, was twice detained by police in connection with the investigation—and twice released without ever being charged.
Then, this past May 30—on precisely the fifth anniversary of Natalee’s disappearance—Peruvian business student Stephany Flores, 21, was murdered in a Lima hotel room, and van der Sloot confessed to the killing. He later recanted but remains jailed in Peru, awaiting trial.
The reappearance of van der Sloot brought up haunting memories for two of Natalee’s best friends, Mallie Tucker, 24, and Claire Fierman, 23. They decided to tell their story exclusively to Glamour, a story that none of Natalee’s circle has told before: about who Natalee really was; what they think of van der Sloot; and how the unresolved loss of their best friend traumatized them for years. I met with them in Mountain Brook, Alabama, the Birmingham suburb where they all grew close and where Mallie’s and Claire’s families still live.
Joran van der Sloot interviewed on Dutch TV
Birmingham, Al (WIAT) Joran van der Sloot is still waiting to find out if a three judge panel will throw out his murder confession, but he’s been using some of that time to be interviewed by Dutch TV.
According to Radio Netherlands Worldwide, van der Sloot has been interviewed by a Dutch crime reporter, John van den Heuvel, at the infamous high security Miguel Castro Castro prison in the Peruvian capital Lima.
Click here to read entire article
Guest Contributor: Controversial Natalee and Joran Movie Set for 2011 Release
Dutch filmmaker Paul Ruven has been filming Me & Mr. Jones since April and is portraying fictional events based on the Holloway case through the eyes of an undercover journalist who visits Aruba five years after Natalee’s disappearance. The central event of the movie follows the journalist and an undercover reporter as they break into van der Sloot’s house and make a “shocking discovery.” In Dutch news, the movie and its filming in Aruba have been a “sensitive” subject, a fact that should warn us about the potential inaccuracies and slanderous portrayals of this “fictional” film.
Taking Advantage of Real Tragedy to Create Drama
While still filming the movie according to its original script, Ruven decided to make changes as the Stephanie Flores case involving van der Sloot escalated. The film now incorporates Joran’s arrest in Peru for the first-degree murder and robbery of Flores. This development is a reflection of Ruven’s desire to include as many twists as possible, making a controversial and potentially popular film that could appeal to the curious or misinformed. At just five years after Natalee’s disappearance, it’s far too soon to be filming fictitious speculation on her and on van der Sloot’s involvement. Any “shocking discovery” in van der Sloot’s house cannot possibly be true to the actual progression of events and should not be widely disseminated to confuse the public.
Riding the Wave of Success
Beth Twitty, Natalee’s mother, wrote a book that was developed into a Lifetime made-for-television movie that depicted real events. The book, Loving Natalee: A Mother’s Testament of Hope and Faith, was incorporated into the movie, Natalee Holloway, to a satisfactory degree as Twitty fully supported this effort and made an on-camera appearance. Premiering in April 2009, it attracted 3.2 million viewers, making it the most successful Lifetime movie to date. Ruven seems to be taking advantage of the fact that the public is still shocked and horrified by Natalee’s disappearance and that people are invested in discovering the truth. The world just isn’t ready for a fictional re-working of Natalee’s tragedy and van der Sloot’s involvement.
Bio: Alexis Bonari is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident education blogger and performs research surrounding College Scholarships. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.
Appeals panel considers van der Sloot’s confession
By the CNN Wire Staff
August 20, 2010 6:39 p.m. EDT
(CNN) — A panel of Peruvian judges is considering whether to uphold the confession of Joran van der Sloot, who is accused of killing a 21-year-old woman.
The three-judge appellate panel is expected to hand down a decision in about a week.
“We believe we did a good job demonstrating that there wasn’t an official translator and that his attorney (at the time of the confession) did not have a document accrediting her as his attorney,” van der Sloot’s attorney, Maximo Altez Navarro, told In
Session on Friday.
Van der Sloot is jailed pending trial on charges of first-degree murder and robbery in the May 30 death in of Stefany Flores, a 21-year-old student.
Joran van der Sloot: Crazy Like a Faux
August 3, 2010
It seems that Joran van der Sloot, having claimed, fruitlessly, that his detailed confession to the murder of Stefany Flores was a) coerced, b) improperly translated/misunderstood by his translator, is now going for c) an insanity defense.
It won’t work.
Maximo Altez, Joran’s lawyer, has stated that Joran is a sick fellow. Well, (more…)
Van der Sloot showing ‘psychopathic tendencies:’ Peru doctors
AFP
July 19, 2010 6:15 PM
LIMA – Joran van der Sloot, the Dutchman indicted in the murder of a Peruvian woman and prime suspect in the disappearance of an American girl in Aruba, is showing “psychopathic tendencies,” a media-quoted medical report said Monday.
Van der Sloot, 22, is being held in a maximum security prison in Lima where he was examined by doctors from Peru’s Institute of Legal Medicine, who found him to be “impulsive and showing psychopathic tendencies,” El Comercio daily said on its website.
The medical report was turned over to judge Carlos Morales Corcova, who is presiding over the case, the daily added.
Van der Sloot is being held pending trial for allegedly beating to death 21-year-old Stephany Flores in his Lima hotel room in May. He is the prime suspect in the 2005 disappearance of 18-year-old Natalee Holloway in the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba.
A U.S. grand jury in the southern state of Alabama, where Holloway lived, indicted van der Sloot on June 30 for wire fraud and extortion — he allegedly asked Holloway’s mother for 250,000 dollars to tell her where to find her missing daughter’s remains.
Van der Sloot was twice arrested in the Holloway case and spent three months in jail but was never charged. Holloway’s body has never been found.
He traveled in May to Lima, where he allegedly killed Flores when she stumbled on his computer files with information on the Holloway case.
Van der Sloot Update: Where is Stephany Flores’ Missing $11,000?
July 13, 2010
NEW YORK (CBS) Police sources in Peru have disclosed to CBS News that Stephany Flores, Joran van der Sloot’s alleged Peruvian murder victim, had won approximately $10,000 at casinos in the week leading up to her death and also had been given $1,000 from her father to purchase a laptop that she never got a chance to buy.
But police sources say that this money has never been found.
Flores reportedly kept her money in the glove compartment of her car. Police documents dated June 3 obtained by CBS News show the results of the search of Stephany Flores’ car: no money was found in it.
Did Joran van der Sloot take that money?
The sources say that this was the true motive for the brutal murder of Flores: van der Sloot was after her money. Police say this means that van der Sloot’s alleged murder of Flores was premeditated.
But in van der Sloot’s confession – which he subsequently recanted in a Dutch newspaper – police say he told them that he became enraged after Flores found information on his laptop about his links to the disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway.
According to Peruvian newspaper La Republica, van der Sloot told police, “I did not want to do it. The girl intruded into my private life. She had no right. I went to her and I hit her. She was scared. We argued and she tried to escape. I grabbed her by the neck and I hit her.”
Crimesider spoke with ex-FBI agent Paul Lindsay, who worked for many years investigating serial killers. Lindsay believes that if reports of van der Sloot’s confession are accurate, van der Sloot created the story of the e-mail and the confrontation as a way to justify his actions.
Police say he smashed in the face of Flores, the student he met playing poker before leading her back to his hotel room. According to police, van der Sloot then strangled her, threw her to the floor and emptied her wallet.
Stephany Flores’ death occurred exactly five years after Alabama teen Natalee Holloway disappeared in Aruba, a case which van der Sloot is the main suspect. The Dutchman faces charges of first-degree murder and robbery for the May 30 death of Stephany Flores.
