Natalee Holloway: 4 Years On
American High School student Natalee Holloway disappeared 4 years ago to the day on Aruba in the Dutch Antilles. Joran van der Sloot soon became a prime suspect.
For those who somehow lost track a bit, here the names of some of the players in the Natalee case:
Natalee Ann Holloway (18) (picture): was at Aruba for a schooltrip, together with classmates, all from Mountain Brook (Birminham) Alabama.
Joran Van der Sloot: Prime suspect in the disappearance. Publically trashed after a TV program from Peter de Vries, 3 februari 2008.
Deepak Kalpoe, (21): Originally from Suriname, lives in Aruba. Worked at a Cybercafe in the period of Natalee’s disappearance, became a suspect.
Satish Kalpoe (18): Originally from Suriname, brother of Deepak. Also a suspect.
Paulus Van der Sloot: Lawyer. In training to become a judge, father of the prime suspect Joran. Suspect for a while as well.
Dave Holloway (48): Natalee’s father.
Beth Twitty (45): Natalees mother. Divorced from Dave and now also divorced from Jug Twitty. Said to have a relationship with John Ramsey, father of murdered JonBenét Ramsey (6).
Jug Twitty (49): Natalee’s stephfather (was) married to Beth Twitty.
Robin Holloway (40): Natalee’s stephmother, married to Dave Holloway.
Linda Allison: Natalee’s aunt and sister of Dave Holloway. Occasional spokeswoman of the family and involved in the search by Equusearch.
Marcia (Allan) Twitty: Natalee’s aunt. Beth’s sister in law. Often a TV guest in interviews regarding the case.
Thomas & Hunter Twitty: (23-april-87): Twins, Natalee’s cousins, sons of Marcia en Tom Twitty. Attend Mountain Brooke High School as well and were togher with Natalee on Aruba. In some theories they were named as the first target of an Aruba kidnap in relation to alledged money-laundering if the Twitty family for Nicaraguan crime lords.
Art Wood: Former secret agent. Member of the Jossy Mansoers investigative team on Aruba. Accused the Dutch authorities of a cover-up.
Harold Copus, Former-FBI special agent, pursued Deepak Kalpoe aan.
T. J. Ward, Former FBI agent en private investigator, hired by the Holloway family.
Jan van der Straaten: Former head of police on Aruba. Then head of the investigative team. Friend of Paulus van der Sloot. Supposedly would have answered the door when the police came to search the van der Sloot estate and limited the terms of the search.
Karin P.J. Janssen: Public prosecutor in the Natalee Holloway case. Collided with Justice Minister Croes and was made to leave. Janssen was elected ‘Woman of the year’ on Aruba in 2005. Famous quotes: “You know, you keep acting like this, Mr. Twitty, we’re going to quit.” 28-8-05 “We can’t book people when we want… (like) a bunch of cowboys.” 3-6-05.
Hans Mos: Aruban Public prosecutor, successor of Janssen. By now also on the way out.
Vivian van der Biezen: head of legal and policy assistance for the Aruba prosecutor’s office
Anita Van der Sloot: art/drama teacher at AIS. Mother of Joran van der Sloot.
Dr. Phil: Forged a tape with the Kalpoe brothers statements. Was convinced Natalee was sold into slavery to Mexico. The Kalpoe brothers sued Phil McGraw, CBS and Jamie Skeeters (a P.I. who died in January), alleging the clandestinely recorded jailhouse conversation was doctored heavily to change the elder Kalpoe’s response from “No, she didn’t” to “She did.” Versions of the original and aired tapes available on YouTube and other websites appear to back Kalpoe’s contention that his words were altered.
Nadira Rameriz: Mother of the Kalpoe bros.
Steve Croes: Former DJ on the boat ‘Tatoo’, now employed at Carlos’n Charlies.
Steve supported the fake alibi’s of the 3 prime suspects.
Ruben Tappenberg: Aruban government spokesman. Accused by Wood as part of the cover-up. Criticised Bob Riley’s call for a boycott of Aruba.
Rudy Croes, Justice minister on Aruba.
Freddy Arambatzis-Zedan: Friend and neighbour of the Van der Sloot family. Was a guest in the van der Sloot house on the night in question.
Lorenzo Van Rijn: Supposedly a bastard son of Paul van der Sloot and half-brother to Joran. Suspected of drug-trafficking. Named as being the ‘Daury’, that supposedly had helped Joran to dump Natalee’s body.
Daury Rodriguez: Supposedly the Daury that alledgedly helped Joran to alledgedly dump Natalee’s body in the ocean No evidence of any involvement was ever found and he did not own a boat.
Antonio Carlo: Former lawyer of Joran. Had asked for a meeting with DA Karin Janssen in order to ‘relieve his conscience’ In this secret meeting he supposedly had said that Joran was involved but that it was up to the police to find enough evidence.
Tim Miller: Searched the island with specialized equipment.
Valentijn Van der Sloot: Younger brother of Joran. Kept a blog on the case.
Geoffrey van Cromvoirt: (19) Aruban subject. Arrested on April 15, 2006 solely on a rumour that he ‘knew more about it’. Son of Wilhelm van Cromvoirt.
Wilhelm Bernardus Henricus van Cromvoirt: Father of Geoffrey. Owner of VCB securities that hired out security personnel to Hotels. VCB (Video Camera Bewaking) also founded the ‘Visibility team’ a policie affiliated private security team that patrols the beaches. Both Geoffrey van Cromvoirt as well as Michael Dompig were at one time members of the visibility team.
Joe Tacopina: American lawyer handling the interests of Joran and Paul van der Sloot.
Rosemary Arnold: Joe Tacopina’s right hand ‘man’.
Arjan Debie: Lawyer to Joran.
Richie Koch: Lawyer to Joran.
Ruud Offringa: Lawyer to Deepak
Rudy Oomen: Lawyer to Deepak.
Arly Swaen: Lawyer to Paul van der Sloot
Guido Wever: Male model. Arrested May 2006 (then 19) in Utrecht the Netherlands on suspicion of battering, kidnapping and murder on request of the Aruban authorities who requested his extradiction. Wever was an apprentice croupier at the casino of Natalee’s hotel. He was working at the casino on May 29 2005, the night before NAtalee’s disappearance. After Natalee’s disappearance he was questioned 5 times. His arrest followed incriminating statements made by various former collegues at the casino. Supposedly he had appeared at work, the day after Natalee’s disappearance ‘looking worried’ and stopped working shortly thereafter ‘sooner than was planned’. Witnesses suddenly also remembered 8 months after the facts that he had had some deep scratches. Aided by lawyer Gerard Spong Wever was released 3 days later and though he ‘remained a suspect’, the police never showed any interest in him anymore. Spong mentioned Wever’s homoseksueal orientation as a factor that would make his involvement with an alledged rape turned murder of Natalee as highly unlikely. Rumours say that Natalee is burned in the Crematorium dat Guido’s moeder Yolanda supposedly has on Aruba.
Gerald Dompig: Former head of police on Aruba. Openly stated that Joran could be innocent and that Natalee could have suffered an overdose. He was accused of incompetence. Supposedly Dompig is the brother in law of Boeti Naar and again supposedly the uncle of the Kalpoe brothers. In an interview with filmmaker Gielen he said to have been intimidated and hamperd in his investigation. He was not allowed to investigate the close family of Natalee.
Michael Dompig: Son of Gerald Dompig. Was interrogated as a witness twice in 2006 following the arrest of Van Cromvoirt. Supposedly he was the one implicating Van Cromvoirt. Stated in an interview with Fox News that the Holloway family tried to smear his father. Knew Geoffrey van Cromvoirt through the ‘visibility team’
Xavier ‘Boeti’ Naar: Beach bum, ex-convict, drug dealer? Supposed brother in law of Gerald Dompig. Alledgedly he and narcotics cop Dennis Jacobs helped DA Karin Janssen to implicate two security guards -Abraham Jones (28) and Mickey John (30) . Boeti supposedly lived in a tent on the beach, close to where Natalee disappeared. In Oktober the seizure of 10 kilo cocaine leads to Boeti Naar.
Noriana Pietersz: Mickey John’s lawyer
Patrick van der Eem: Former drug dealer. Carries a scar called a ‘boca grande’-supposedly given to him by criminal allies because he was a snitch. Won Joran’s trust. Contacted Peter de Vries in order to tape Joran’s confession. Wrote a book about the case. Was not allowed into the US because of his drug history. Later convicted for aggravated assault on his girlfriend.
Poentje Castro: Aruban journalist of Un dia den bida. Taped a conversation with Patrick van der Eem in which van der Eem supposedly had said to know who threw Natalee in the ocean. As he result he was threathened by van der Eem (which was taped again).
Jossy Mehsen Mansur, (75): Aruban businessman, Libanese by origine. Editor of Diario in Aruba. Acused of smuggle and money laundering. Developped his own vision on the Natalee disappearance and formed his own research team. Often interviewed on Fox News en CNN Headline News. His motive for this supposedly is a grudge against the Aruban government.
Bob Riley: Governor of Alabama. Called for an Aruba boycott.
Elgin Zeppenfeldt: Lawyer of the Deepak brothers in their civil suit against Beth Holloway, Dr. Phil and Harpo productions.
Arlene Ellis Schipper: Spokeswoman for the Justice department in Aruba. According to rumours a cousin of Guido Wever.
Arjan Wezel: On line poker buddy of Joran who truthfully to his name (‘Weasel’) set up a trap for Joran together with Peter de Vries regarding the alledged supplying of Thaise prostitutes in 2008. It remained unclear if Joran really committed a fellony here or that it was Weasel who did the entrapment which surely was a fellony.
‘Celes’: Self-decared girlfriend of Joran who in November 2008 after the ‘Joran in Thai women trafficking’program of de Vries ‘suddenly’ remembered that Joran had made incriminating statements to her.
Murphy Jenkins: The alias used by Joran van der Sloot in his dealings with Arjan ‘what’s in a name’ Wezel.
Joe Mammana: Philedelphia businessman who promised a 100.000 USD reward in the Natalee Holloway case. According to some a philantropist, according to others a criminal who served time for fraude, aggravated assault, narcotics trafficking, grand theft auto and identity theft.
Peter de Vries: (“Peeter Air de Freez”) Crime reporter, claimed to have ‘solved’ the case but it resulted in public outcry against Joran, not in a conviction. De Vries left too many loose ends. He e.g. did not check the phonerecords of the phonebooth neer the hotel and did not go into the many questions surrounding the arrival of Beth on Aruba.
Renée Gielen: Filmmaker on Curaçao (Dutch Antilles) who in the documentary ‘Natalee, the unrevealed Time Lines’ sheds light on other aspects of the case.
Julia Renfro, a Los Angeles native who is editor in chief of Aruba Today News Magazine and photographer for Dutch based Bon Dia, initially took the side of Holloway’s parents when they sought publicity on the disappearance and lambasted Aruban police for following Dutch investigative procedures rather than those in the United States. Later changed her opinion because she found Beth Twitty’s behavior ‘odd from the get-go’.
Lifetime Movie Network Trailer: Natalee Holloway
On The Record – Fox News – 01/06/09
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Aruban Press Conference 01/06/09
Hat Tip: GretaWire
Press Anouncement
Ladies and gentlemen!
The Public Prosecutors Office Aruba and the Aruban Police Force would like to give you an updated summary about the investigation into the disappearance of Natalee Holloway.
Why? Three reasons
First of all there is the fact that a few months ago, based on the results of the investigation, the estimate was that the investigation could be ended by the end of 2008. More specifically I am referring to the re-opened investigation into the suspect in this case, Joran van der Sloot, against whom the criminal investigation was restarted after the broadcast of a Peter R. de Vries investigation last February. Because that program caused a new stream of information, this information first has to be examined which will take at least another few months.
Secondly, about six weeks ago an interview with Joran van der Sloot was broadcasted on an American cable news Channel. In this interview Joran tells a completely new version of the alleged facts that occurred concerning the disappearance of Natalee Holloway. Before showing the interview and in the days after the show the Aruban Prosecutors Office and the Aruban Police were alleged to be corrupt and unwilling to investigate possible leads in this case. We find it fit to address those allegations today.
The third reason is that my Office and the Police Department would like to urge all people that have information about things that have occurred on May 30th 2005 or about persons that are or might be involved in this case, whatever that information may be, to hand that information over to the Police or to the Public Prosecutors Office.
For a good understanding of the facts I would like to take you back to December 18th 2007. It was on that day that the three suspects in this case got official notice from my Office that the criminal investigation into their possible involvement in this case was ended. This did not mean that the investigation into the disappearance of Natalee Holloway also ended. On the contrary. That investigation never stopped. If new information or evidence would come up, the criminal investigation against any suspect in this case could be re-opened. This is possible as long as the statute of limitations does not prohibit this.
No one could imagine at that time that within a month from that decision this Office was confronted with the information that Dutch crime investigator Peter R de Vries had made secret camera shots of Joran van der Sloot talking about the case against a civilian under cover. After my Office got the tapes and before the actual broadcast of the Peter R. de Vries program, on our request the criminal investigation against Joran was re-opened by the investigating judge.
At the same time the investigation was fully operational again and had as a main goal to find as much corroborating evidence as possible of what Joran van der Sloot had told the under cover. The judge was asked to approve the third consecutive custody of Joran van der Sloot. The investigating judge against whose decision this Office lodged an appeal at the Common Court of Appeal in Curacao denied this approval. The Court of Appeal upheld the investigating judges’ decision, thus disabling Police to re-arrest Joran van der Sloot.
It is proper to take another look at the Court of Appeals’ decision. The Court of Appeal took into account the footage that was handed over by Peter de Vries as well as all the old investigative results of over nearly 3 years of investigation. Weighing whether there was enough new serious material, evidence (necessary to be able to put one into custody) the Court decided that the new elements that Joran had told the under cover were not corroborated by “objective facts”. On top of that the Court considered the fact that the suspect already had argued that there are objective facts that contradict the new elements that were told by him to the under cover. The fact that Joran has supplied the Police with a motive for his lying behavior and the fact that he has admitted that he often is not telling the truth, makes, according to the Court of Appeal, that the self incriminating new statements of Joran are devaluated.
In short: there is no corroborating evidence for the new self incriminating statements of Joran and the value of these statements is undermined by his own statement about his credibility.
What does the Court’s decision imply when we take a closer look?
1. After an extensive and intensive investigation, the contents of the Police file combined with the new statements of Joran, does not hold enough evidence necessary to pass the threshold for a third consecutive term of pretrial custody.
2. Logical conclusion from the above mentioned must be, that the evidence that we do have in the extensive files, is not enough to convict this suspect.
For that reason this Office has made the gathering of these “objective facts” that can serve as evidence against the main suspect it’s primary goal for the investigation from that point on.
What the Police and this Office have done:
• Already on January 22nd 2008, the day after Peter de Vries had shown the tapes to the Public Prosecutor and the Police, the investigation into the person called “Daury” was started. Finally a person called Daury R. was identified and it turned out that he probably was involved in drug trafficking activities (as had been told by Joran). Because of that and following his own TV-appearance on 20-20, he was arrested in the USA on the suspicion of international drug trafficking. He is currently detained in the USA.
• Investigation into the pay phone in the hotel garden was started as well as finding an answer to the question whether Joran had the possession of a credit card (necessary to use the phone).
• On our request the National Prosecutor’s Office in Rotterdam as well as The National Crime Squad executed numerous requests, such as various house searches and finally the questioning of Joran van der Sloot.
• Since then over 20 witnesses were interviewed, some of them for the second or third time. These interviews pertained mostly to Joran’s missing shoes and the person called “Daury”, Joran’s alleged accomplice.
• Amongst the witnesses were the two brothers who previously were suspects in this case but who, by the new statements of Joran, received an alibi from Joran, when he told the under cover that the two brothers are “jerks” who don’t know anything about what had happened.
• During his stay on Aruba the Police twice interviewed under cover “Patrick”.
Besides the Police investigation Peter de Vries’ program received an enormous amount of information. The serious tips were passed on to my Office in order to have them investigated.
Four of them could be investigated and led to thorough investigation.
Furthermore investigation was conducted into the statement of a fisherman, until that moment unknown by the Police or my Office. This witness, known by the Holloway family, claimed that in the night of the disappearance of Natalee Holloway a large knife was stolen from one of the Fisherman’s huts while at the same time a large crab cage was missing that at least was there until the month of April. This owner of the cage was also interviewed by the Police but told them that this allegedly missing cage had never been left at the huts but was always taken home.
He told the Police that Mrs. Holloway and the press approached him a long time ago and that he had told them his story. His identity was never officially revealed to the Police. It was because the Persistence ship at that time was searching for relevant material on the sea bed that the story about the cage and the fisherman came up in a conversation between this Office and Mr. Dave Holloway, which led this Office to the identity of the witness.
As you may know, the expedition of the Persistence led to only one finding that was supposed to be relevant to this case. Special Police divers brought certain material to the surface of which one might assume could be the clothes of Natalee Holloway. These samples were sent to the FBI laboratory. After examination by the FBI the result was that these samples did not match the clothes of Natalee.
In the month of March 2008 a witness who was urged by Dave Holloway to step forward confronted the Prosecutor’s Office. The man gave a statement on March 16th 2008 accompanied by his lawyer. This witness statement is already widely known: the witness claims he saw Joran van der Sloot in the middle of the night of May 30th walking in front of his house, soaked up to his chest, walking on one shoe and heavily breathing. He was walking into the direction of the hotels, coming from the direction of the Church at Noord. What the witness was actually aiming for was the Police to conduct an intensive search in the dam of Monserrat. Nevertheless the witness could not give us any reason why the Police should conduct a search in the dam. It was the conclusion of the witness that Joran had come from the dam since he came walking from that direction. There was no indication whatsoever that Joran had been at the dam. For that reason the Police were not ordered to conduct that search. Later, people from the Persistence asked if they were allowed to conduct a search. They were told that they could go ahead if the wanted to. No results were reported. Besides that, the Monserrat dam, which had completely fallen dry by that time, was not long before that request completely searched by dozens of people, for a completely different reason. No results were reported.
This witness has turned himself to Dave Holloway, as we have been told. He has given a new statement and has undergone a lie detector test. According to the summary of the lie detector test results (a full report, as promised to my Office by Tim Miller was never received) the witness was considered to be reliable. This Office never questioned the reliability of what the witness claimed to have seen. Yet, the value of his statement in the reconstruction of facts of that night is very limited. With his sole statement this case could never be solved.
Police and the Prosecutor’s Office are being accused of not following leads in this investigation. Those allegations are unjust and unfounded. Of course it is true that we weigh the information and the source on credibility and value before we start to investigate. But witnesses, who claim to have leads that find no ground in facts whatsoever and therefore are not being investigated by the Police, are free to investigate those themselves. This – of course – within the limitations imposed by law.
I will give you three examples of what we have experienced the last 10 months in terms of leads given by people who claim to have special powers and know where Natalee would be.
The first one claimed that Natalee was in the hands of foreign criminals but could not give us any actual lead to follow.
The second one recently claimed that the girl was buried on an Aruba beach. After consulting my Office and the Police a private search was conducted, only facilitated by the Police. No result was reported.
The third person was very persistent and claimed he had witnesses he could not disclose to my Office. He claimed Natalee was buried under a hotel that was under construction at the time of her disappearance. He requested that my Office would order a hole to be drilled in the hotel floor in order to conduct an endoscopic search underneath the hotel. When the prosecutor asked the man for the undisclosed witnesses and kept asking for his sources, he finally admitted that his theory was based on a dream.
As you can see, this is just a part of what we have experienced over the past months. There is much more of these “leads” which take us an awful lot of time and distract us from the actual investigation. We do not obstruct anyone, but when there is no concrete information or the information is unreliable we chose not to investigate that lead or that information. In that respect the Aruban Police is not different from any other Police force in the world.
CONCLUDING:
This I can tell you: during the investigation of which you just received an overview, a series of investigative acts were conducted. I will not disclose the results of that investigation here and now because the investigation is not yet finished and my Office does not want to disclose these results to the suspect and thus make him wiser even before he has been confronted with these results. Only as soon as the investigation into the new statements of Joran van der Sloot has been completely finalized, the suspect will be notified about the decision by my Office whether he will be charged or not. At that time the public also will be informed. If possible investigative results may be disclosed to the public.
When will the investigation be completed?
At this moment the last leads and some minor details are under investigation. These minor questions first have to be answered before a decision can be made. The Public Prosecutor’s Office expects to have conducted the necessary investigations within a number of months. Exact data cannot be determined.
Furthermore I would like to say this.
Recently Fox broadcast an interview of Joran van der Sloot recorded by Greta van Susteren in the spring of 2008. In this interview Joran presents yet another new version of the facts. This time he claims he has sold Natalee Holloway on the beach for $ 10,000 to a person called `Adamovic´ after a prearranged agreement. This man had taken the girl from the beach on a boat and sailed away.
Although Fox already had the possession of this information for nearly 6 months, it waited to disclose it to the public by the end of November 2008. A request by my Office to provide this information to us digitally was left unanswered.
Now suddenly Fox and a lawyer demand that my Office shall conduct an intensive investigation into a story of which the anchor of the program herself already considered the possibility that it could be “a wild goose chase”. Furthermore Joran van der Sloot after the interview was taped, denied that what he said was true. The Fox program also showed an interview with Joran´s American lawyer, in which the program’s anchor implicitly admitted that Joran was paid for the interview. Finally Fox broadcasts a so-called telephone conversation between Joran and his father. The contents of that phone call are supposed to corroborate Joran´s new story. The taped conversation between Joran and his father recently has been downloaded from the Internet by the Police and handed over to the Dutch Forensic Institute. This independent institute, the NFI, has been requested by the Police and my Office to conduct a voice-comparing investigation between the voice on that tape and earlier recordings of Paul van der Sloot. Within a few months we will know whether the material can be investigated and if so, what the results will be.
It is more than remarkable that no longer than 5 months after Joran´s so called confessions were taped on hidden cameras by Peter R. de Vries, statements both in the Netherlands and in the USA considered as “the solving of the case”, this Joran now comes forward with a completely different new story. Now this story is being considered as one that urgently has to be investigated. This while there are many indications that Joran simply pulled Fox’s leg and earned himself a lot of money as well. To prove that we are dealing with “a wild goose chase”, the Police on our request have checked some verifiable parts from Joran´s new statement, which show that it is a wild goose chase.
The Holloway family lawyer, who demanded the immediate arrest of suspects, was told that the Public Prosecutor, given the legal requirements, couldn’t find any ground in this interview to order an arrest.
Final remarks
Police and the Prosecutor’s Office on Aruba are still conducting an investigation into the disappearance of Natalee Holloway. Yet we are approaching the end of this lengthy investigation and are busy with the last two leads. Now we are still busy I would like to add this: if you have relevant information, no matter how small or uninteresting it may seem, please notify my Office or the Police here on Aruba.
The purpose of the criminal investigation is to establish beyond reasonable doubt what has happened to Natalee Holloway on the night of May 30th 2005. Have crimes been committed against her and, if so, which crimes and by whom? And if someone is responsible for crimes committed, that person, whoever he may be, should be held accountable for those crimes in a court of law. Yet that result still has not been met.
In short: it is the Police and the Prosecutor’s Office that have, and should have, the primary responsibility for a criminal investigation. That is the way it is legally laid down in our judicial system. If others want to help, we will applaud them doing so. Yet, when those activities start to get counter productive and under circumstances jeopardizes the investigation, we should address the public and make them aware of these effects.
In order to prevent that happening we thought it fit to inform you through this press conference.
On The Record – Fox News – 12/15/08
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On the Record – Fox News – 12/10/08
Letter from Aruba: Prosecutor calls “Record” a tabloid show, says no arrests are imminent.
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Greta van Susteren on The View 12/10/08
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Corrupt as Hell: Dutch Offical Makes New Allegations (Fox News)
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On The Record – Fox News – 12/04/08
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Police Helped Paul van der Sloot in Holloway Case
Politie hielp Paul van der Sloot in Holloway-zaak
Een uur geleden (A)Sociaal Nieuws.ORANJESTAD – De Nederlander Jan van der Straten die in 2005 als politiecommissaris op Aruba op de Natalee Holloway-zaak werd gezet, heeft het onderzoek in de beginfase ernstig gehinderd. Dit om zijn vriend Paul van der Sloot te helpen bij het beschermen van zijn zoon Joran die ervan werd verdacht betrokken te zijn bij de verdwijning van de Amerikaanse.
Dit heeft de Arubaanse minister van Justitie Rudy Croes donderdag bevestigd. De aantijging circuleerde al eerder op het eiland. De bewindsman is ermee naar buiten gekomen omdat Van der Straten deze week in de media kritiek uitte op het Arubaanse politiekorps.
Volgens Croes lijkt het erop dat de oud-politiecommissaris Joran en twee andere verdachten bewust pas na tien dagen oppakte, “terwijlde eerste dagen cruciaal zijn bij een verdwijningszaak”. In een gesprek hoorde de minister Van der Straten destijds zeggen: “Dit kan ik mijn vriend Paul niet aandoen.” Croes vindt het verdacht dat er toen veel telefoonverkeer was tussen Paul van der Sloot en onderzoeksleider Van der Straten. Van der Straten zou verder een “tweederangs politieteam” hebben ingezet, vlak na Natalees verdwijning. “Dat was het flexiteam; een team dat ingezet wordt tijdens carnaval”, licht Croes toe. Hij wil dat er een nieuw onderzoek komt naar de rol van Van der Straten en Van der Sloot: “Als twee Nederlandse vrienden hebben Paul en Jan elkaar geholpen.”
Ook op de Nederlandse regering uit de Arubaanse minister enige kritiek. “Tot op de dag van vandaag krijgen we internationaal geen morele steun van Nederland, terwijl de Arubaanse naam wordt bezoedeld. In 2005 werd ons gevraagd zo goed mogelijk te verzwijgen dat Joran een Nederlander is. Hij moest zoveel mogelijk voorkomen als Arubaan. Dat heeft een Nederlandse minister – ik zeg niet wie – persoonlijk verzocht.”
TRANSLATION:
Police helped Paul van der Sloot in Holloway Case
The Dutchman Jan van der Straten, who was put on the Natalee Holloway case as a police chief in 2005, has seriously hindered the investigation in the early stages. This to help his friend Paul van der Sloot, to help protect his son Joran who was suspected of involvement in the disappearance of the American girl.
This has been confirmed Thursday by the Aruban Justice Minister Rudy Croes. The allegation already circulated on the island. The minister has come out with this because Van der Straten critized the Aruban police force this week in the media.
According to Croes, it seems that the former police officer deliberately arrested Joran and two other defendants only after ten days, “while the first days are crucial in a disappearance case”. In a conversation at the time the Minister heard Van der Straten say: “I can’t do that to my friend Paul.” Croes finds it suspicious that there was a lot of telephone contact between Paul van der Sloot and the head of the investigation Van der Straten.
Furthermore Van der Straten had put out an ‘inferior police team’ right after Natalees’ disappearance. “That was the Flexi team, a team that is put out during carnival,” clarifies Croes. He wants a new investigation concerning Van der Straten and Van der Sloots’ role: “As two Dutch friends, Paul and Jan helped each other.”
There is also some criticism towards the Dutch government from the Aruban Minister. “Until this day we get no international moral support from the Netherlands, while the Aruban name is fouled. In 2005, we were asked to suppress as much as possible that Joran is a Dutchman. He had to be presented as an Aruban as much as possible. A Dutch Minister – I won’t mention a name- personally requested this.”
Translation by GBMW
