Detailed Timeline.... June 23 - 24, 2005.... the start of the long road of the assassination of Aruba - Dutch "justice"

The Natalee Holloway Timeline

of her vanishment while in Aruba

detailing persons, places, organizations,
deliberate & accidental actions & in-actions,
events & supposed events, witnesses,
known suspects, outright lies,
corruptions, and crimes

6-23-05

On 6-23 Current Murder Suspect PAULUS VAN DER SLOOT is arrested by the ARUBAN Police.
On 6-23 MARIAINE CROES, spokesperson for the ARUBA Prosecutors office, told FOX News “Paulus van der Sloot is being held in suspicion of the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, not the cover-up.”
((???? A cover-up by which person or persons????))

On 6-23 the Police arrested Current Murder Suspect PAULUS VAN DER SLOOT for
“reasonable suspicion of murder, manslaughter or intentional containment with the dead as consequence”
When he is arrested Current Murder Suspect PAULUS VAN DER SLOOT stated, "These officers are all my friends."
After being released, Current Murder Suspect PAULUS VAN DER SLOOT claimed that while he was in custody he was never interrogated, and, he gave only 1 statement--and it was a voluntary statement. Current Murder Suspect PAULUS VAN DER SLOOT admitted while in custody to telling Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT , Current Murder Suspect DEEPAK KALPOE and Current Murder Suspect SATISH KALPOE after NATALEE vanished that “with no body, there is no case.” (Prosecutor ARUBA Prosecutor KARIN JANSSEN says Current Murder Suspect PAULUS VAN DER SLOOT told that to the boys “within a couple days” of NATALEE’s disappearance, but also on 6-30 ARUBA Prosecutor KARIN JANSSEN told MSNBC, "They spoke about the situation that when there is no body you don’t have a case, and that was already in the first day after the disappearance.")
On November 2, 2005 BETH HOLLOWAY-TWITTY stated to FOX News that Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT made a written statement to ARUBAN interrogators “very early on” around 6-11, 12, 13, “when they [the 3 boys] were implicating each other” that Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT thinks that Current Murder Suspect DEEPAK KALPOE murdered NATALEE and buried her body. When Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT made that statement, BETH stated that the F.B.I. observers told her that the ARUBAN Police Interrogators asked no followup questions, such as where did Current Murder Suspect DEEPAK KALPOE bury the body?, where is the body, etc.? BETH also said that statement was signed by Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT. BETH also said that while Current Murder Suspect PAULUS VAN DER SLOOT was under arrest he made a statement to the ARUBAN Police “I hope she is still alive and is found--not much chance of that.”

On 6-23 Current Murder Suspect PAULUS VAN DER SLOOT gave the following statements to his ARUBAN Police Interrogators:
(Thank You and Hat Tip to “Scared Monkey’s blog” and “Debbie“ and “Rammstein“)
**NOTE** from “Rammstein,” “In this statement it seems one page was copied double by whomever copied it. The pages in question are 7 and 8 but that does not have any consequence on the translation because pages 7 and 9 fit together perfectly. On page 10 someone seems to have not completely copied that page making us miss one part of that page. One can clearly see this when looking at the other 13 pages and comparing it to page 10. I hope nothing sustantive (sp) was there but I doubt it changes the story.”

PROCES VERBAALWe, Roland Ramiro TROMP and Clyde Anthony Burke, respectively inspector and sergeant first class, with the KorpsPolitie Aruba and attached to the section Often Occurring Crime District 2, state the following.On June 23rd 2005, at approximately 14.30 hours, as a suspect, a man was interviewed who stated his name was: Paulus Antonius Petrus Johanna van der SLOOT, born in the Netherlands on February 15th 1952, judge (common court) and living at XXXXXXXX number XX on Aruba.Before the interview the suspect P.A.P.J. van der SLOOT was informed that he was under no obligation to answer.The suspect P.A.P.J. van der SLOOT has asked if his council Mr. A. SWAEN could be present at this interview and this was also requested by his council. This request was denied.His statement in dutch was transcribed by us, the reporting officers and goes as follows:“To you question what I can declare with regards to me being arrested as a suspect of accessory to murder, manslaughter and robbing someone of their freedom with death as the result, I can state the following. I find this totally ridiculous and absurd.To your question what level of ridiculousness this reaches, I can state the following. I am of the opinion that my arrest reaches the highest possible levels of ridiculousness and absurdity.To your question whether I picked up Joran on the 30th of May 2005, in the early morning hours, I can state the following. I have previously stated that I had picked up Joran on Sunday May 29th at approximately 23.00 hours near Mc Donalds. Subsequently I woke up at that Monday morning at approximately 05.45 hours. In the hours between I had gone to sleep and I did not hear Joran leaving or hear him return home. 05.45 hours is the normal time for the alarm to go off and I wake up. The children I wake up at approximately 06.00 hours. I awakened Valentijn, Sebastian and Joran.
To your question whether it was difficult to wake up Joran on that Monday morning, I can state the following. It is always difficult to wake up Joran.To your question whether it was more difficult than usual to wake him up, I can state the following. I had not noticed anything special.To your question whether Joran went to school on Monday May 30th 2005, I can state the following. I cannot precisely recollect whether Joran went to school that day. It is possible that he did not go to school that day.To your question whether Sebastian and Valentijn went to school that Monday, I can state the following. Yes, they got onto the bus and went to school because in the period that Anita was away they took the bus every day.To your question whether I wait to see if they get on the bus, I can state following. Yes, I stay and watch.To your question how it then is possible that I had not seen Joran get onto the bus, I can state the following. Of course I see the children get onto the bus and that also is true for Joran. But unlike Valentijn and Sebastian who went with the bus everyday Joran didn't go with the bus once or twice during that period. But I do not remember exactly which days he did not go with the bus. It could be that it was that Monday. Most likely I informed the bus driver that Joran would not be going with the bus. A clue to the fact that Joran did not go to school that Monday could be that on Tuesday I insisted that he went to school that day.To your question whether on the occasions that I informed the bus driver that Joran would not be going with the bus Joran stayed home or whether I drove him to school myself, I can state the following. I did bring Joran to a place at the open air cinema. He got onto the bus there. That was the first morning that Anita went to the Netherlands. I at that time did not inform the bus driver that Joran would not be going with the bus. Instead I was very angry with Valentijn and Sebastian for letting the bus drive off without Joran. Sebastian and Valentijn however where under the impression that Joran didn't need to go to school that day.To your question when Anita left for the Netherlands, I can state the following. I cannot remember exactly but I think it was the Tuesday or Wednesday before that Monday the 30th of May that she departed for the Netherlands. Anita was in the Netherlands for seven or eight days.To your question whether I picked up Joran during the period between May 30th 2005 and June 9th 2005, I can state the following. It is possible but I cannot remember whether I did. I did pick up Joran from school from time to time but whether it was in that time-period I cannot remember.To your question if I tell you all the things I did on that Monday the 30th of May 2005, I can state the following. I went to work. The exact time I cannot remember but I think it was approximately 08.00 hours. I can also remember that around 10.00 hours I went to the C.M.B. bank. There were long cues at the bank so I left without having made any transaction and went back to work. I left my workplace at approximately 15.00 hours. I arrived at the bank at approximately 15.30. I had gone to the C.M.B. bank that is situated in Noord.To your question whether I went to the bank without stopping or going anywhere else, I can state the following. I at least cannot remember having been anywhere else. I think I went directly to the bank. At the bank I talked to Ruth DIJKHOFF. At the bank I deposited the money that Joran said that he had won in the “Free Tournament in the Holiday Inn” on the 29th of May 2005. It was approximately 500 Aruban guilders. Joran had given me 100 guilders because he had taken over my place in the tournament.After depositing the money I went home. I cannot exactly remember what time it was when I got home. I think it was 16.15 hours. According to me both Rita and Joran where at home. Whether Valentijn and Sebastian where also there that Monday I cannot remember anymore because Valentijn and Sebastian quite often went over to a friends house during that time-period.Whether I went with Joran to eat at a fast food restaurant that afternoon I cannot remember. I can only remember that while Anita was away I went and ate with him once. I don't think it is likely that we did that day because I left work at approximately 15.00 hours.To your question what I did after 16.15 hours, I can state the following. I think I dropped of Joran off at the “Raquet Club” at approximately 17.00 hours. I could have been later though. I cannot exactly remember anymore.To your question whether I saw Joran enter the “Raquet Club”, I can state the following. If I drop off Joran he normally walks inside. As far as I can remember he did do that at this occasion too but I do not know for sure. I can also remember he had told me that he was going to enter the “Free Tournament” at the Wyndham. I had told him that he could always call me if he wanted to be picked up to go home. He said that he would do this or that he would hitch a ride home with someone.To your question if I can remember what Joran had with him when I dropped him off at the “Raquet Club”, I can state the following. Every time that he goes to play tennis he has a sports bag with tennis equipment with him. I cannot visually play back in my own mind whether I actually saw him carrying the bag. Sometimes Joran just went to work out at the “Raquet Club”. On those occasions he would not have his tennis bag with him.To your question on which days Joran followed tennis lessons, I can state the following. According to me he certainly has them on Monday. And there is one more day that he has lessons but I cannot remember what exact day that is. Occasionally we have a joint lesson with Jerry.To your question whether we can ascertain whether I had dropped off Joran in order for him to go to a tennis lesson, I can state the following. I took hm there to either follow a tennis lesson or to go to the gym. Whether he indeed took a tennis lesson or went to the gym I cannot say because after I had dropped him off, I went home.To your question whether Joran on Monday May 30th 2005 hadn't been complaining about pain in his feet and legs and whether he had told me that he would not take a tennis lesson, I can state the following. Joran occasionally has complaints like that. He sometimes also complains about back-aches. Whether he complained that Monday, I cannot remember.To your question whether I can remember if Joran complained from legs in his feet or legs during the period from May 30th 2005 to June 9th 2005, I can state the following. I can remember that between the time Anita went to the Netherlands and the time he was arrested Joran did complain about pain in his legs and feet. I cannot remember however if he specifically complained about that on Monday.To your question whether I asked him what could have caused the pains, I can state the following. No, I did not ask him. He complained about these kinds of pains from time to time.To your question whether I knew what the causes were of these pains, I can state the following. I assumed that they were general pains of being tired/being sore. I had not attributed them to a specific reason.To your question whether I subsequently went to the “Raquet Club” to pick up his sports bag that he left behind there, I can state the following. I cannot remember. To the best of my recollection I did not return to the “Raquet Club” after I dropped off Joran.I am not 100% sure of that. But if I had gone back to then it would not have been to pick up the bag alone but also to bring Joran home. At approximately 18.00 on Monday May 30th 2005 I would have been home. I cannot remember anymore if I picked up Sebastian and Valentijn or whether they were dropped off at our home because during the time Anita was away there was not fixed structure to that. I think I did eat dinner with Valentijn and Sebastian.Sebastian and Valentijn went to bed at their normal bedtime of approximately 21.00 hours. I myself turned in for the night at approximately 23.00 hours. Whether I at that moment checked to see if Joran was home I am not sure.
To your question whether I often checked to see if Joran was in, I can state the following. I do check that from time to time. But not always.To your question why I, knowing that Joran was supposed to call me if he needed to be picked up, did not check to see if he was home, I can state the following. If I did not check whether he was home then that was because I at that moment in time did not think about that.To your question whether I than would have called Joran to ask him with whom he would drive home, I can state the following. It could be that I called him but I do not remember whether I did. I of course call Joran regularly. With the question whether or not he needs a lift home. Whether that happened on Monday May 30th 2005, I cannot remember.To your question what I did on May 31st 2005, I can state the following. Around 02.00 I was awakened by the barking of my dogs and Valentijn who had awakened before I woke up. I heard a lot of noise, I got dressed and walked to the gate. There I saw a police car and two police officers. There were also several other cars, among them a van and I think about 10 people or so. Most of these people turned out to be Americans but there were also a few Arubans, among other Charles CROES and two people with a cord around their necks. I think they were from a hotel. A police officer asked me if he could talk to me and he told me that a girl had gone missing and that my son had been seen with this girl. The group as a whole seemed agitated . One of the Americans told me that it was about a girl my son had met at “Carlos & Charlies”. I told him immediately that it could not have been my son because he had played in a “free tournament” at the Holiday in during the afternoon and that I had picked him up at 23.00 hours at “Mc Donalds”. I then went to Joran's apartment and to my surprise and to my anger he was not in his apartment. I then called him on his mobile phone. He immediately answered his phone. I asked him where he was and the told me he was at the “Wyndham”. That he was at the “Wyndham” did not surprise me at that moment. He was supposed to be playing in the “Free tournament” there. That could also be a clue that I indeed did not see him after I had dropped him off at the “Raquet Club”. I told him that people wanted to talk to him with regard to a girl that had gone missing and that I would come to where he was. I then got into the police-car and the whole group drove over to the “Wyndham”. I walked towards the casino that was locking up. I could not see Joran there and I again called him on his mobile phone. He answered and told me that he was at home now.To your question whether I told Joran who were with me, I can state the following. I cannot remember whether I did.A few people in the group showed the picture of the missing woman to several members of staff at the casino. At least one of the women said that she had seen the girl a few hours earlier in the company of a tall boy. Serious discussions took place but I suggested that we should go to my house again because that was where Joran had gone to.To your question whether, in front of the casino, I had mistakenly thought someone was Joran and pointe him out, I can state the following. I cannot remember whether I did. Maybe I did see a tall boy and from a distance mistook him for Joran and walked into that direction.I once again entered the police car and the whole group followed me to my house. When we arrived there I found Joran together with Deepak leaning against the car. I asked Joran why he did not stay at the Wyndham and he said that he must have misunderstood me. He also told me that the neighbors had told him to turn the music down because they had complained. He also told me that he had been to the “Radisson”. According to me Charles CROES was the first person who started asking Joran questions. Joran said that he had met a girl at “Carlos & Charlies” and that he, Deepak and Satish had dropped her off at the Holiday Inn. Joran said that Sunday afternoon he had had met a girl at the Holiday Inn and that he had helped her when she was sitting at the poker table. The girl had lost 350$ and he had helped her win back 150$ (a few days later when Joran had seen a picture of Natalee and her friends in one of the free US newspapers, he said that it was the girl on the extreme right of that picture that he had helped win back the money. That girl was not Natalee.) Natalee did belong to a group of American girls that had been pushing him to come over to “Carlos & Charlies”. According to Joran he told them that he couldn't go to “Carlos & Charlies” because he had to go to school the next day. He also told them that he, without my knowing about it, arranged to be picked up by Deepak around 24.00 hours and that he did go to “Carlos & Charlies”. In “Carlos & Charlies” the missing girl Natalee, invited him several times to come dancing with her. He told that he did dance with her and that she had asked him to take a so-called “Body-shot” off her. He also said that she wanted to go with him in the car and that they drove in circles around “Carlos & Charlies” for a few times and waived to some friends of Natalee. Natalee was absolutely sure she wanted to stay in the car. I saw that he then addressed a few of the Americans. He asked if Natalee's parents where among them. One of the people said he was Natalee's step-father. He asked if the step-father would please go away for a second and told the rest of the people that they had been kissing in the back seat and that he had fingered the girl. Joran also said that the girl wanted to see the sharks and that because of that they had gone to the North coast of the island even though Joran had told her that there were no sharks there. Joran also said that the girl had said that her mother was the sister of “Hitler” and that she said she wanted to go to Austria. He also said the girl had asked him if Deepak and Satish were his slaves because the parents of the girl owned a plantation and that black people worked there like slaves. I am not sure whether he said this to the Americans or to the police-officers in the car. There was uncertainty for a moment whether Joran and the group of people where talking about the same girl. I can remember another name was mentioned next to Natalee's name. I thought the other name was Kathleen. When Joran however was shown a picture of the girl, he said that it had been this girl that he had made out with. He recognised her especially by her eyes and the mouth. After Charles CROES had spoken Joran others started interrogating Joran. That did not always go very subtle. Joran was accused and inconsistencies in his story where pointed out to him. I at that moment in time though that those inconsistencies where futilities and that he was seriously pressured from several sides/people. I told the Americans in the group to restrain themselves and told them they did not have any jurisdiction here and that they should act civil. I then addressed the police officers and told them they should take charge of the situation. I told Joran and Deepak that they should make their statements to the police-officers rather than to the Americans. At some point one of the Americans cursed out Deepak by calling him an “asshole”. I at that moment stated that they had gone too far and that Joran and Deepak should make no more statements to the Americans. One of the police officers indeed stepped in and said that this was no way to go forward. I said we should focus on finding the girl and not to insult people. I said to the Americans that they should realize they are in another country and they should act politely. One of the Americans suggested going to the “Light House” because according to Joran they had been there when they were driving around the girl. One of the police officers said that this was useless. I happened to agree with him. At that moment I wanted for Joran to go to his apartment and I wanted to return to bed. Joran however said that we should try our best to help and find this girl. One of the Americans suggested that we should go the Holiday Inn to take it further from there/view the situation. A little bit reluctantly I got back into the police car with Deepak and Joran. The police officers were also somewhat tired of the situation and said that the Americans should report the girl missing. We then drove to the police-station in Noord and the police-officers consulted with the watch-commander. They also changed cars. I understood that the watch-commander had no objections to the police-officers going to the Holiday Inn together with Deepak, Joran and myself. When we arrived at the Holiday Inn there was a dark coloured man there standing with folded arms who later introduced himself as WILLIAMS from the F.B.I. This man immediately took Joran separately and had a short talk with him. I also went over to WILLIAMS and asked him what his function was. Then he told me he was with the F.B.I. so I returned to the the police officers and asked them whether they knew that F.B.I. officers were present there. They told me they did not know anything about that. I briefly talked with a member of staff from the Holiday Inn who told me there was only one camera and that this camera was pointed in the direction of the front desk. I also understood it was not certain whether or not that camera was actually working. One of the police officers had a lengthy discussion with WILLIAMS in the back of the lobby. I understood from the officer that he had informed WILLIAMS of the existence of the so-called “Beach bums”. Deepak also told a girl behind the front desk that he had seen that a security guard dressed in black had walked over to the girl after they had dropped her off. The security guard had been in the possession of a “walkie talkie”. The girl behind the front desk said that it could not have been one of their security guards because they wear white shirts. There still was fierce discussion but one of the Americans wanted to shake my hand to express that he was sorry of having been so hurt full and agitated. I at that moment refused to shake that hand because I was still angry about their behaviour which prompted another American to say “talk about being civil”. A woman with long black hair was continuously talking on her mobile phone. I understood that she was informing the news media in the US to the fact that a girl had gone missing. I briefly talked to Charles CROES who had been driving the mother of the missing girl. He said that he didn't need to know anything more from Joran. He said that he had looked into Joran's eyes and understood from that((HERE THERE IS A SECTION MISSING IMHO))
moment we got into the police car after I had shook every ones hands, all except the long black haired woman who was still on the phone. WILLIAMS told me that I should count on the fact they they would want to talk to Joran again. The mother of the girl by that time had already left. At least I did not see her anymore. We were dropped off home by the officers. It was starting to get light.I woke up Valentijn and Sebastian and I also said to Joran that he had to go to school even though he wasn't in the mood to go. I know that I insisted that he should go. A reason for that might be that he had already not gone to school on Monday. I then left for work. I think it was approximately 7.30 hours when I called the headmaster of the International School. I had told him that Joran had not slept all night and asked for him to be understanding just in case Joran was feeling sleepy. About 8.30 hours I was called by one of the guards in the hall of the justice building and he told me that Jan van der Straten wanted to talk to me. I took Jan van der Straten up to my room and there Jan van der Straten asked me if I could pick up Joran from school and bring him over to the police-station in Bubali. Jan said that it was wisest to do this immediately. I called the headmaster and told him that I would be coming to pick up Joran. The headmaster told me that Joran was resting in what was called the doctors office and asked my at what time he should wake him up. I told him that I would be at the I.S.A. at approximately 10.00 hours. When I arrived at the I.S.A. Joran was already up. I then waited with Joran until the headmaster was free because he was in a meeting with the school counselor. We then briefly talked to the headmaster, at that time we talked about the fact that the girl had gone missing, that the girl had had a lot to drink and that Joran should have kept a closer eye on the girl and that he should have made sure that the girl safely had gone into the Holiday Inn. The headmaster and myself told Joran that he should have acted more responsibly. We then departed for the police station in Bubali where we arrived at approximately 11.00 hours. Jacobs and Kelly took down Joran's statement. Joran was speaking in Papiamentu and that was translated by the officers into Dutch. I was there when Joran made his statement. We made a few changes in the concept with regard to factualities instead of observations. At approximately 14.00 hours Joran signed his statement and we went to lunch in Mc Donalds or Wendy's, which of these fast food restaurants we ate I cannot remember anymore. Then we went home. Both of us were very tired because we had not slept a lot that night.I cannot remember what I did when I got home. I think that Joran went to bed and that I worked a little in the garden and then started preparing dinner. I informed Anita about what had taken place. That night I went to bed early.To your question what I did on June 1st 2005, I can state the following. That was the day Anita was supposed to come home from the Netherlands. According to me the alarm clock went off as usual at 05.45 hours and at 06.00 hours I woke up the boys and they all got onto the bus. According to me that day was a normal day. I cannot remember anything special about that day. I think I went to work as usual and got home at approximately 16.30 hours, we ate dinner as we normally did, I was at the computer and at approximately 20.00 hours we picked up Anita. I think that Sebastian came with me to pick up Anita.To your question whether I had a talk on June 1st 2005 with Joran, Deepak and Satish about the case of the missing girl. I do not remember if this was on the 1st of June 2005. I did talk a lot with Deepak, Satish and Joran, from the moment they were interviewed as witnesses until they were arrested. We of course read the newspapers, saw the news and talked about it. I also was in almost daily contact with Jan van der STRATEN. I did not doubt the truthfulness of their story for one second. When we talked about the girl, we discussed what could happen if the girl would not re-appear. I was under the impression that the boys assumed that she would re-appear sooner or later. Af course we also discussed what if the girl did not re-appear. From what little information I got from Jan van der STRATEN, I got some hope that the girl was seen after she was dropped off at the Holiday Inn. He did not say this in so many words but I took that as an explanation as to why the boys weren't asked to give further statements to the police.To your question when I had noticed, that boys were asking a lot about what would happen with missing girl would not re-appear or if she would be found dead, what would happen then, whether this did not make me wonder why they were asking this, I can state the following. According to me it was not the boys who brought this up, but I brought this up. I was usually the one who steered the conversation towards the girl.Why did I steer the conversation towards the girl? I did this because I was getting worried. I was getting worried for the girl and also for the boys. Because of the fact that they had been the last to be seen with the girl they would no doubt come back to them. I however did not doubt the validity of their story for one moment.Comment reporting officer: at 20.05 hours the assistent district attorney, inspector first class J.C. SAMBO informed the suspect P.A.P.J. van der SLOOT that he would be held for questioning at the police station in Noord on which the suspect P.A.P.J. van der SLOOT responded that he would resist the incarceration because it was a completely insane and absurd action.Murder Suspect finds it highly questionable that this is only happening to make his son make statements that are beside the truth. Murder Suspect did remark that he is willing to tell us everything he remembers if this somehow gives clarity into the case of Natalee Holloway gone missing, but that this could best be done in the capacity of a witness.To your question whether I spoke to the boys at home on Wednesday June 1st 2005 and about what we talked, I can state the following. I don't exactly remember anymore what days I spoke to the boys. I only know that I talked to the boys a lot. I did not want Joran to be out of the house for as long as the girl was still missing. Because of that a lot of Joran's friends, including Deepak and Satish came over to visit us. We then often talked about the girl. We were following the reports in the newspapers, on the radio and on television.To your question how it happened that I found a lawyer for Joran and the two Kalpoe brothers, I can state the following. Looking at the facts I had to take into consideration that Joran, Deepak and Satish could at some point become suspects. If that was the case I wanted the proces to go as smoothly as possible, in order for them to be released as soon as possible. Again, I still believed their story implicitly. If they already had lawyers no time would be waisted when they were arrested. The lawyer could be there very quickly, so that the questioning could being immediately and no time would be waisted. In reality I was trying to facilitate the process as much as possible.You are telling me that I have stated that I believed the story but still took preparations with regard to a lawyer and I have explained them the entire procedure of being arrested and being detained, why? To this I can say the following. I have previously said that due to the fact that the boys could possibly be the last people who had been seen with the girl, this fact could be sufficient to cause them to be seen as suspects. As said before, I wanted to facilitate this process. Part of that was making sure the boys did not panic because they were unfamiliar with the procedure. I especially wanted to prevent that they would make statements that were untrue. In the situation they found themselves with a police and judicial apparatus that was under enormous pressure that was not unthinkable. To your question why I would think they would panic if they told their story, the one I believed, or whether I had reasons to be suspicious of their story and whether I know more about the case than I, my son Joran, Deepak and Satish did not tell when they made their first witness statements, I can tell you the following. I have told you before that I believed the boys story, that I had no reasons to doubt it, I also did not get any clues that made me doubtful and thus I assumed that the statement they gave to the police were the correct ones. My fear was more in the desire to score of the police force. I was afraid that the boys would be entrapped/tricked into making a statement that was not correct. I have told them on more than one occasion that they should count themselves lucky that they were with the three of them and that the interviews should not be hard because they were telling the truth.To your question as to how good a liar Joran is, I can tell you the following. In the past Joran lied. About money that he had stolen from us. We have talked about this extensively and it was also discussed at the youth psychologist Dr. XXX XXXXXX, with whom he had several talks about his growth into adulthood. I had the feeling he had made a clean breast of it/fresh start. I at least did not assume I had to doubt everything he said.To your question what I now think after it came out that Joran is making untruthful after untruthful statement and what I can state about that, I can state the following. I can not make a judgement about this. What I have understood that Joran is the one who broke open the case.To your question what I mean when I said that Joran broke open the case, I can state the following. Joran's lawyer has told me that it was Joran who changed his statement. Because of that the case is now broken open and now the truth can come out.To your question whether Freddy ZEDAN came to our house out of his own accord or whether I had invited him, I can state the following. According to me Freddy phoned my wife after he had been questioned by the police. According to me he and his girlfriend came over to see my wife and he told what he had stated to the police. I was busy in the kitchen and did not hear everything Freddy was saying. Only at the end of the conversation I joined them. My wife and I were angry at Joran, because he did not tell the truth from the beginning. My wife planned to confront Joran with Freddy's statements. That night we were going to have a meeting with Mr. A. CARLO, this was a previously planned meeting. My wife called Freddy again and asked him if he could tell his story again to Joran's lawyer. At first he didn't want to come because he had an exam the very next day but in the end he and his parents came over. He then told the story he knew to Joran's lawyer. I am convinced that Mr. CARLO did this with the best intentions possible.Comment reporting officers: At approximately 21.15 hours the interview of the suspect P.A.P.J. van der SLOOT was concluded in mutual understanding with the suspect. The suspect P.A.P.J. van der SLOOT will be enabled to read the concept proces-verbaal and to make comment on it.P.A.P.J. van der SLOOTAfter the suspect P.A.P.J. van der SLOOT had read his statement, he stated to us that he would persist in it and signed it.Of this, we, the reporting officers, on our oath of office, have made this proces-verbaal, closed and signed in Noord on June 23rd 2005.The reporting officersR.R. TROMP C.A. BURKE



On 6-23 CBS News reported:

Dutch Teen's Dad Arrested In Aruba
Natalee Holloway's Family Continued Search For Missing Alabama Student
(CBS/AP) Aruban police arrested a high-ranking judicial official Thursday in the disappearance of a young Alabama woman, and said he — along with his detained son — are suspects in the three-week-old case. Dutch national Paul van der Sloot, 52, a judge in training, became the fifth person detained, and joins 17-year-old Joran van der Sloot and three other young men already in custody. No one has been charged in the case. The elder van der Sloot "is a suspect in the disappearance" of 18-year-old Natalee Holloway, said Mariaine Croes, spokeswoman for the Attorney General's office on the Dutch Caribbean island. Joran's mother, meanwhile, told The Associated Press on Thursday that her son had changed his story, admitting to her that he was alone with Holloway on a beach the night she vanished — and did not drop her off at her hotel as he had told police. But Joran insisted that he did not hurt her, Anita van der Sloot said. Paul van der Sloot was arrested shortly after he and his wife left the San Nicolas prison where Joran is being held, his wife told the AP. She said they received a call from neighbors saying police were waiting for them at their home in Noord, northwest of the capital, Oranjestad. She said she called Police Superintendent Jan van der Straaten, who asked the couple to come to the police station. When they arrived, authorities "took my husband into custody as a suspect," Anita van der Sloot, 49, said, adding, "I don't know what to think." Holloway's mother, Beth Holloway Twitty, was happy with the development. "We are very pleased that the investigation is progressing," she said. "We feel like this will lead to more information to give us the answers we need for finding Natalee." Joran, 17, and friends Deepak Kalpoe, 21, and Satish Kalpoe, 18, told police initially that they dropped off Natalee Holloway at the Holiday Inn where she was staying. His mother insisted her husband had done nothing wrong and said Aruban authorities had arrested him because they were under pressure from the U.S. government and the news media to produce results. "My husband is a man of integrity who has been working in the justice system 15 years and was taken without evidence," Anita van der Sloot said. "How can this happen? This is not about Natalee anymore. It's about enormous pressure from the [United] States and the media." Authorities did not immediately respond to van der Sloot's allegation. And CBS' Aleen Sirgany reports Anita van der Sloot said, of her husband, "He did everything they asked, he's the most honest person I know. I love them both." Meanwhile, Holloway's family personally continued the search for the missing Alabama high school student. "It's funny that we talk about how small this island is and yet so large when you are looking for one individual," Holloway's aunt Linda Allison told CBS News Correspondent Kelly Cobiella. Repeated searches of the island have produced no trace of Holloway, who went missing in the early hours of May 30, the last day of a high school graduation trip with 124 other students. Her passport and packed suitcase were found in her hotel room. Joran van der Sloot has been in custody since June 9, along with Deepak Kalpoe and Satish Kalpoe, Surinamese brothers. Authorities also have arrested a 26-year-old party boat disc jockey, Steve Gregory Croes. Police say Joran met Holloway at a casino two days before her disappearance. The three young men told authorities that they took her from a popular restaurant to a beach, where Joran and Holloway were kissing in the back of the car, then dropped Natalee at the Holiday Inn about 2 a.m.
Contacted by the AP hours prior to his arrest Thursday, Paul van der Sloot declined to comment. Anita van der Sloot, however, did speak, saying at that time that she believed her son was innocent and that he was receiving unfavorable treatment in jail. "My son didn't do anything," she said. "I don't understand what is happening" with the case. "He says, 'Mom, I dropped the girl at the beach. I walked with her. I left her there because she wanted to stay there. I left and I don't know what happened,"' she related, without specifying which beach. When asked if Joran had changed his initial story, she replied, "Joran changed his story only one time. I think he was scared because he sneaked out of the house that evening. I think he was scared and wanted to cover other people, too. He changed his story once and added details." She didn't say who Joran might want to cover for. She also said Joran can't remember many of the details that police have been asking him. She said she had spoken to her son several times in jail and that he was going through "mental torture." She said Joran is often interrogated for more than 10 hours a day, and she also accused authorities of turning up the air conditioning to high levels to increase the pressure on him. "If there was anything he did wrong he would be broken by now," she said. Croes, the attorney general spokeswoman, said the allegations of mistreatment were "not true." "Everything is played by the rules. We interrogate people in only the ways that the law allows," she told the AP. Croes said the law didn't permit the interrogation techniques Anita van der Sloot claims were being used. Holloway's mother, Beth Holloway Twitty, has insisted that the three young men know what happened to her daughter and that police should press them harder to tell the truth. She has asked why the three were initially released after only a couple of hours of questioning, and arrested more than a week later. While Anita van der Sloot had been allowed to visit her son occasionally at the San Nicolas prison, authorities denied similar access to Paul van der Sloot, saying they believed contact between the two could damage the investigation. Anita van der Sloot said that authorities sometimes denied her access as well, including as recently as Wednesday. "I feel like Joran is being treated differently than other people and I don't know why," she said. "And I feel a very heavy anger." Mrs. van der Sloot said she was eager to be with Joran as much as possible. "I just want to get to the prison and hold him," she said. "We never know how long we'll have to visit."



On 6-23 AL.com” reported:

Father of Aruban suspect van der Sloot arrested
The father of a suspect in the case of a missing Mountain Brook teen was arrested this afternoon, according to Aruban authorities. Paulus van der Sloot, a judge, was arrested at about 1 p.m., said Mariaine Croes, spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office. His 17-year-old son, Joran van der Sloot, already was being held in connection with Natalee Holloway’s May 30 disappearance. Three other men, including two Surinamese brothers and a party boat disc jockey, are also in custody. Croes would not say how the elder van der Sloot was linked to the case. He was questioned as a witness Saturday and Sunday and had previously been denied access to his son in prison. Under Dutch law, which Aruba follows, police may interrogate him for six hours before a prosecutor determines the next step.Hannah Wolfson

**NOTE** WOLFSON is a reporter in BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA for the “Birmingham News”


On 6-23 the "Riehl World blog" reported:

One is a personal observation I am only posting after seeing the interview with Mrs. Kalpoe tonight on Fox. I can remember when this all started and I was reviewing the boy's websites.Just as Joran's website was noteworthy for a significant number of pictures from partying and the clubs, casinos, etc. .. the site of Satish was the opposite.I remember pictures from field trips, archeological sites, art and so forth - I was genuinely struck by the difference in the two boys. That doesn't mean anything as far as guilt, or innocence, but it was a genuine observation.The second observation will sound like gossip, which basically, it is - please take that into account. If it didn't come through an extremely reliable source on the island, I would not mention it at all.In talking with an adult professional from Aruba who knew Joran, the individual stated that Joran often bragged to him of his many "sexual conquests" resulting from the use of an illicit substance slipped into a woman's drink and the Aruban individual suggested Joran was a "psychopath."I doubt that the source of these statements is a certified psychologist, but if he is repeating these types of statements to individuals in and around the investigation, it will likely come out and be proven or disproven in any potential trial. And no one should be considered guilty of anything without one.


On 6-23 the attorney for NATALEE’s Loved Ones, BENVINDA DE SOUSA, had a telephonic discussion with ARUBA Prosecutor JANSSEN, then sent JANSSEN the following letter:
PAGE 1 Aruba, June 23 2005 DeliverStrictly ConfidentialSubject: Elizabeth Twitty – Holloway c.a. [I do not know what this acronym means] – wronged party [I’m just translating, I don’t know if this is the correct legal term in English]Your Honor,In the abovementioned matter, I inform you, partyly referring to your telephone conversation of today, the following.As discussed before, it is the concern of the family of the now missing girl Miss Nathalee (sic) Holloway, to remain informed as good as possible under the circumstances about the criminal procedure which is taking place in relation to the disappearance. We have been hired as attorneys, to represent and support the family as the wronged party, but also to facilitate the information stream from the Justice Department and also to bring over the answers to the questions as good as possible and in the correct context.The family is convinced that the investigation apparatus under the leadership of the Justice Department is hard at work to bring the case to a solution. However, at this moment the family has questions about the events that took place inmediately after the disappearance of Nathalee Holloway and if some people were interrogated, either as a witness or informant. The following is relevant to this.Mr and Mrs. Twitty – Holloway received Monday, May 30th last, around 12 pm local time a the first message that their daughter was missing. After placing a few calls, it seemed that this message was really serious, because Nathalee was indeed nowhere to be found.
Page 2They inmediate arranged everything to come to Aruba as fast as possible and arrived in Aruba around 11pm Aruban time. At the airport the parents were met with mr. Alberto Groeneveld and Claudio Eldridge of Universal Aviation Aruba N.V. a ? company for private jets.The parents departed inmediately to the Holiday Inn Hotel. They were awaited there by mr. Paul Lilly, one of the chaperones of the travelgroup of Nathalee and by mr. Eric Williams, and American ex-DEA agent and a friend of the family.Because the parents had the feeling that something serious must have happened to Nathalee, they began the search themselves. From the two cousins of Nathalee who were with her in Aruba, a discription was received of Joran van der Sloot, since it was heard from others of Nathalee’s group that he was seen leaving with her from Carlos & Charlie’s, the previous night. Next the parents travelled to Carlos & Charlie’s, to get a view of the situation in the hopes of getting any useful information. This must have been around 1:30 am on May 31st. From Carlos & Charlie’s the group went to Valero Boulevard. There mr. Charles Croes presented himself, who introduced himself as a clairvoyant. They returned to the Holiday Inn. From the night manager cooperation was received to view the casino tapes, because Joran would have gambled there before. Indeed he was recognized on one of the tapes.Information was also searched for along the beach. In the meantime mr. Alberto Groeneveld had received information that the silver car where Nathalee was last seen departing from Carlos & Charlie’s, had been spotted at a house in Montanja. After that the group went to the Noord police station, where two agents rode together with the group to the house in Montanja. This resulted to be the house of mr. Paul van der Sloot and his family. The silver car apparantly was not there anymore. After the police had looked around and attracted attention, indeed mr. Paul van der Sloot came outside. He was told the reason for this midnight visit, whereupon he let it be known that his son, Joran was not at home at the moment. He called his son, who according to him was in the Wyndham Casino. According to that information they departed with the two police officers and mr Paul van der Sloot to the Wyndham. When arrived there, Joran was not to be found. It had been witnessed that mr. van der Sloot had a conversation on his cellular phone, that was could not be understood. When Joran was not to be found his father called him again and he seemed to be at home. According to him he went home because there was police at his house. The personnel of the casino informed, after he was shown a picture of Nathalee, Nathalee was seen just before in the casino. Afterwards the group went again to the house of mr. van der Sloot. When arrived there the silver car appeared to be there. The door at the driver’s side was open.Joran approached the group, with Deepak Kalpoe at his side, and began talking to the police officer. Seeing the clothes that he had on at that moment, it did not appear that he had just before been in a casino. Afterwards Joran wanted to approach mrs. Holloway, but interestingly enough . . .
Pages 3 and 4
… mr. van der Sloot informed him several times that he did not have to or should say anything, even that he should shut his mouth. Deepak also said that Joran shouldn’t say anything. According to Joran, he wanted to talk because he wanted to help find Nathalee. This last took place in front of the police officers, together with mr. Charles Croes, Alberto Groeneveld and his colleague Claudio Eldridge. Then, in any case, Joran began to tell that he that he indeed left Carlos & Charlie’s together with the brothers Kalpoe and Nathalee the night before. They had supposedly gone to the lighthouse on the western side of Aruba, and dropped Nathalee around 2:00 am at the Holiday Inn. Also understood by Claudio is that mr. van der Sloot said that he picked up Joran around 4:00 am close to McDonald’s. Afterwards Joran told what kind of sexual acts he did with Nathalee. The family noticed that Joran behaved in an arrogant and challenging way.The previously named actions took place between 11pm on May 30th 2005 and 4 am the following morning.
. . .What comes next is the questions that the family wanted answers to: (loosely translated)1) Has Mr. Groeneveld been interrogated about the times2) Has Mr. Eldridge been interrogated3) Why hasn’t Jug Twitty been interrogated4) Did the police notice that the clothes were unsuitable for somebody who had just been in the casino?5) Has it been confirmed that Joran has been in the casino? This because a personnel of the casino had mentioned that he had seen Nathalee6) Has Charles Croes been interrogated?7) Is it true that Mr. Kalpoe owns a ‘koei’ [?! Maybe they mean a ‘kooi’, which is a cage?!]Has it been established that Joran told his father in the presence of the grou that he was first in the Wyndham and then in the Raddisson and afterwards he went home?9) Has there been any forensic evidence and if so, where?10) What does the Justice Department base their reasonable suspicion on, other than statements of the suspects?11) Are there other people that are considered suspects or is the Justice Department only focusing on these suspects?12) It seems that Joran’s Headmaster said to Jug Twitty that Joran said that Nathalee had drowned . Have these people been interrogated/The last request is to inform the family when searches are going on, so that they can prepare themselves in case something is found.



On 6-23 ANITA VAN DER SLOOT was shown on MSNBC saying, “My thoughts are with the family. My thoughts are with Natalee. I know she is alive. She is somewhere. She is alive. And I should have brought her to a responsible adult. That, I blame myself and I will blame my whole life.”
???? Is her statement “And I should have brought her to a responsible adult” a Freudian-slip….Did she SEE Natalee ALIVE after ANITA VAN DER SLOOT returned to ARUBA, supposedly, on 6-1 ????
On 6-23 ELLIS-SCHIPPER, member of the ARUBA “STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS TASK FORCE,” claimed MSNBC “Well, I know Mr. van der Sloot is a very quiet, soft-spoken, kind man. I have had the pleasure actually of working with him.”
On 6-23 ANTHONY CARLO, one of Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT ’s lawyers, said that Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT was in good spirits, but was "shocked and disturbed" by his father's arrest.
On 6-23 the “USA Today” reported, “Police chief Jan van der Straten said that he went to arrest Paul van der Sloot Thursday afternoon, but van der Sloot was not home. Hearing that Police were looking for him, van der Sloot then turned himself in, the Police chief said.”
On 6-23 an interview was done near a pond with garbage in it that also showed an overturned garbage truck with garbage in it in the pond. It was also mentioned that there was a bad smell emanating from the pond.
ANITA VAN DER SLOOT claims on 6-23 that she thinks that Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT should have been kept in jail the first time he was questioned. She said that an attorney was not allowed to be with Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT during interrogations.
On 6-23 MARIAINE CROES said "There is a reasonable suspicion that (Paulus van der Sloot) knows something and is involved in the disappearance." In a statement, Croes called Current Murder Suspect PAULUS VAN DER SLOOT the fifth suspect in the disappearance of NATALEE.
On 6-23 STEVE HUFF reported about Aruba’s “Carlos ‘N Charlie’s“:

(Vanishing of Natalee Holloway)… A Typical Night At Carlos ‘N Charlie’s?
http://www.planethuff.com/darkside/archives/bootydance.JPG
I am not a prude.
Nor am I blue-nosed moralizer. Anyone who knows me well can vouch for that. Very few things bother me, or cause me to look down my nose, so to speak. I have rarely felt it was my place to judge anyone for anything.
That’s why this entry is difficult to write, because I risk that sort of misunderstanding, the appearance of being a prig.
Yet something that has continually generated questions in my mind since Natalee Holloway disappeared on the island of Aruba nearly a month ago is the spin being put on the reputation world-wide for Aruba as a safe place. Much like the original spin on Joran van der Sloot, the 17-year-old dutch teen suspected of playing a primary role in Natalee’s disappearance—that he was such a “good kid,” his reputation “as impeccable as Natalee’s.” Indeed, Aruba’s crime rate is quite low. Violent crime is rare. To be frank, I’d love to visit the place, even now—and my fair skin doesn’t fare well under that tropical sun.
But did the folks making those trips from Natalee Holloway’s hometown of Mountain Brook, Alabama each year with newly graduated 17 and 18-year-olds truly understand, really know, what goes on, say, on a given night in January at a place like Carlos ‘N Charlie’s?
Those who have seemed to take Americans to task for ever going at all, such as conservative Birmingham talk radio hosts Russ and Dee Fine, have made the point that there are great vacation spots right here in the continental U.S., not to mention Hawaii. One of the prettiest beaches I’ve ever seen is a few miles from my parents’ home in Gulf Shores, Alabama.
And from the idea I now have of Carlos ‘N Charlie’s, it would be fine… for someone my age. I’m 37.
To be clear; the photographs in this entry have no direct association with the group from Mountain Brook at all, or this missing persons case. They were made in 2004 by an American tourist from the northeast, a twenty-something man and his best friend on vacation. Neither person is portrayed in any of the photographs in question—to my knowledge all people shown in photographs below were either local Arubaans or fellow tourists from both the U.S. and the Netherlands.
At Carlos ‘N Charlie’s, one night in January of 2004, for instance, free drinks were offered to the first woman willing to come to the stage and do a “booty dance.” That’s her above, on the left.
The next chance for free drinks that night was offered to the first couple to come to the stage at the bar and simulate 4 sexual positions. The couple seen in the series of photos at the bottom of the entry won that round—the photographs show the approximate sequence in which the positions were demonstrated.
http://www.planethuff.com/darkside/archives/arubadrunk.JPG
On leaving Carlos ‘N Charlie’s that night the Americans encountered the gentleman on the right taking an impromptu siesta. The large stain on his pants is apparently not spilled alcohol.
http://www.planethuff.com/darkside/archives/fifteenyearoldkid.JPG
Then, another night entirely, the vacationing Americans met up with this unnamed young man. According to the original caption with the photo seen on the left, they met the young man around 4 a.m., in a bar. The man showed them around Oranjestad, then had to head home, as he stated he was only 15 and had school the next day.
We have recently found out that the night Beth Holloway Twitty and Jug Twitty, Natalee Holloway’s mother and stepfather, arrived in Aruba, Joran van der Sloot was out gambling at a casino at 3 a.m. Never mind that a girl in whom he supposedly had an interest had disappeared, this fact alone made protestations by Joran’s mother and father on American television about what a good upstanding kid Joran is sound hollow. The unknown young man in the photo on the left speaks of a certain truth not just about young van der Sloot’s easy and permissive island life, but that of, apparently, some of his peers as well.
I went a few wild places when I was 17, and you probably did, too. By 19 I was hanging out like the kid in the photo on the left. Kids party, and people on vacation in the tropics, on an island as easy-going as Aruba are likeliest to party hard. The adults in these photos were likely already quite drunk by the time they decided to do the booty dance or wax kama sutra for the people. As for the drunk guy marinating in his own juices, for all we know that was his nightly spot, and he is there as I write.
Still, one senses something… out of control. On a razor’s edge between total orgiastic chaos and simple drunken stumbling into heaps of humanity.
I’m no prude, yet if I’d happened onto these photos as my kid was preparing for a trip after graduation to Aruba, I would have, at the very least, said “don’t go anywhere near Carlos ‘N Charlie’s.”
I am not trying to second-guess or chide the people supervising those kids that week in Aruba—because I believe that if there’d been a reason to write a blog entry like this before they went there, and they’d been able to read it, they would have been wary of a place where simulated sex gets you free drinks, or young men soaked in their own pee are passed out on the sidewalk outside.
The other thing to think about is that Joran van der Sloot was living in this day after day, night after night. Among the first photos found of Joran online by the tabloid news show A Current Affair were photos at Carlos ‘N Charlie’s website. The van der Sloots have claimed he had rules, that he would sneak out, I guess unbeknownst to them, after 11 anyway. Yet Jug Twitty stood there and watched Joran’s father dial the boy’s cellphone in the early a.m. that first night in Aruba, reaching Joran at a nearby casino. There have been more than a few reports of his father going to the casinos with Joran.
Now his father is also under arrest, and the number of suspects behind bars in Aruba is five. For them, the nightly party, the booze, the gambling, are suddenly, probably seemingly distant, memories.
The photos are not posted here to judge, but for those inclined, to warn. Forewarned is forearmed, and most places won’t lay sights like these out there in the brochures or on their own websites. Know the flipside of paradise, how sometimes life deep in the night teeters wildly on the edge of control. If you’re old enough to handle it—and age is a factor, I believe—go right ahead and party down.
I didn’t post the pics of the cabbie who pulled out his water bong, or the forty-something woman, a dutch national, who slept with one of the men his second or third night there. If the booty dance photograph doesn’t give you a dose of the reality of the unending party on Aruba, the sex-positions-for drinks pics will. Hell, for some people these photographs will be appealing, or at the least amusing—my initial reaction to the booty dance pic was to laugh out loud.
But if there is a message here, it is what I’ve been saying all along; Joran van der Sloot, Steve Croes, Satish and Deepak Kalpoe lived in this paradise twenty-four/seven. Joran, I think, was thriving in it. To him a dark night on the beach alone with Natalee Holloway meant one single expectation, born out of nights watching free drink bare-assed dancing, free-drink faked sex. Joran got what he wanted—the apple of mama’s eye, dad’s buddy. Until, I think, he was alone on that beach with Natalee.
Now the question is what was covered up. Was she dead when she slipped into the water? How badly was Paul van der Sloot sweating that night as he instructed Joran to hold his tongue? With Paul’s arrest, are we seeing the end-game of the Aruban authorities, the final rounding up of the conspirators?
Perhaps Natalee’s fate wasn’t even water, at all. Perhaps it was earth, a stone bed in one of Aruba’s caves. Or worse, fire.
http://www.planethuff.com/darkside/archives/carlosncharliesimsex.JPG
Either way, it is hard to not see photos like these, snapped randomly and in good humor by an American tourist old enough to know how to make it back to his plane alive, and not feel like things were slipping toward “something bad” happening long before Natalee and Joran were alone on that beach. That the wild Aruban night, the mad dance of cultures drunk and colliding in the heat was not primed for “something bad” to come down. Joran’s nightly party finally turned over and the underside of paradise was revealed.



On 6-23 FOX News reported:

Murder Suspect's Mom: 'It's a Nightmare'Thursday, June 23, 2005ORANJESTAD, Aruba — The parents of Joran van der Sloot (search) say their son is a drug-free honors student who has nothing to do with the disappearance of missing Alabama high school student Natalee Holloway (search)."We still believe in Joran," said his father, Paul van der Sloot.In an exclusive interview with FOX News' Greta Van Susteren, the van der Sloots said that their prayers were with the family of 18-year-old Alabama woman who vanished in Aruba (search). Anita van der Sloot, the Dutch suspect's mother, was wearing a bracelet that said "Hope for Natalee," which she received from Natalee's mother.But the pair stressed that they also were going through an ordeal."It's a nightmare for us, too," said Anita van der Sloot, whose son, 17, is in jail in connection with the disappearance.Sometimes too emotional to speak, Anita described how prison guards were putting "a lot of pressure" on Joran during interrogations, some of which lasted "10 hours."The questioners did "things like calling him 'psychopath, murderer, tell us where you buried the girl. You're a criminal. I can't beat you, but if I could beat you I would do this.' … Extreme things," said Anita.She described her son as "a very outgoing person" who received all "A"s and "B"s in advanced courses at school."He's a sweetheart. To me, he's very warm," she said.Recounting a visit to her son in jail — she is allowed to visit Joran, but her husband is not — she said she couldn't stop herself from crying, and Joran tried to reassure her of his innocence."'Mom, don't worry ... the truth will come forward and I know that I didn't do anything to the girl,'" said Joran, according to his mother. "He was so strong. And I believe in him. I believe so in him."When asked if Joran had ever been involved in drugs, Anita said: "A hundred percent, no."Despite the suspect's parents' emotional interview, Natalee's stepfather, also appearing on "On the Record," said the missing teen's mother, Beth Holloway Twitty (search), was having a much harder time."I understand her feelings, but Beth's feelings are ten times worse," George Twitty told FOX News.George Twitty said that in the initial days after the teen's disappearance, Paul van der Sloot — and one of two Surinamese brothers arrested with Joran van der Sloot — advised his son not to talk to her family."He and the other boy kept saying 'you say nothing,'" Twitty said. "I know that the father and I know that the son knows a lot more than they're saying."Joran van der Sloot and two friends were arrested 10 days after Holloway disappeared on May 30. Police say Joran van der Sloot met Holloway at a casino two days earlier. They say the three young men testified that they took her from a popular restaurant to a beach, where the Dutch boy and Holloway were kissing in the back of the car, then dropped her at the Holiday Inn where she was staying around 2 a.m.Beth Holloway Twitty has insisted that the three know what happened to her daughter and that police should press them harder to tell the truth. She has asked why the three were initially released after only a couple of hours of questioning, and arrested more than a week later.Anita van der Sloot also questioned that tactic. She told FOX News: "Joran should have been interrogated from the beginning. But they let the kids go."Holloway's father, meanwhile, said Wednesday he was confident that the investigation into her disappearance was close to being resolved. But dozens of searches by officials and volunteers have failed to turn up any trace.His daughter disappeared on the last day of a five-day trip to celebrate her high school graduation with other students. Her passport and packed bags were found in her room."I'm optimistic," Dave Holloway said during an interview with Associated Press Television News. "The FBI indicated to me that the (Aruban) police are very adequate and doing a good job. "Aruba government spokesman Ruben Trapenberg defended the island's response to the vanishing on FOX Thursday. "Our law enforcement officials get most of their training in the U.S. and in Holland," Trapenberg said, in response to recent complaints that the island has insufficient resources.Trapenberg also said Aruba welcomes the Texas EquuSearch Mounted Search and Recovery Team, which the Holloway family has called in to help with the search for the woman.Dave Holloway said he also believed the three young men held the key to his daughter's disappearance."These three guys cannot commit a perfect crime," he said.A fourth man detained in the case, 26-year-old party boat disc jockey Steve Gregory Croes (search), said he knew one of the two Surinamese brothers arrested with Joran van der Sloot from an Internet cafe, according to his boss, Marcus Wiggins. Wiggins' boat, the Tattoo, docks near the Holiday Inn.FOX News' Greta Van Susteren, Jared Goldman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.



….Thank You and Hat Tip to “Carpe noctem” for the following, exposing, report ….

Thursday, June 23, 2005- On the Record ANITA VAN DER SLOOT : So I spoke with him (Joran) about these things and just told him to stay strong and to TELL THE TRUTH. —————— On June 24th 2005, at approximately 10.00 hours, There we, the reporting officers, were informed the suspect J.A.P. van der SLOOT refused to go with us… that his mother and his lawyer had advised him on behalf of his father to NOT MAKE any more statements and to invoke his right to not make statements.
On FOX, Anita confides in Greta that she’s telling the SPORTER to tell the truth. When we research what is really going on behind the scenes… she’s funneling messages to Joran from Paulus and Antonio Carlo. She is advising the sporter to shut his effin trap.

On 6-23 CNN reported:

LAW CENTER
Judge arrested in Aruba case
Fifth suspect in custody after U.S. teen's disappearance
ORANJESTAD, Aruba (CNN) -- An Aruban judge, the father of a 17-year-old suspect in the disappearance of an Alabama teenager, also has been arrested in the case, the island's Police commissioner said Thursday.
Prosecutors decided to keep Paul van der Sloot, 53, in custody for questioning for 48 hours, Aruba Police chief Jan van der Straten said.
Under Aruban law, if there is reasonable suspicion, the prosecutor's office can order a suspect held as long as another 48 hours. After that, a judge's decision is required to keep a suspect in jail.
The legal system in Aruba, an autonomous member of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, is based partly on Dutch civil law.
The father was arrested at about 2 p.m. on suspicion of involvement in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, an 18-year-old from suburban Birmingham, Alabama, said prosecution spokeswoman Mariaine Croes.
"At this point he's a suspect," Croes said. "There's a reasonable suspicion that he knows something and is involved in the disappearance of Ms. Holloway."
Police questioned him over the weekend in connection with the case. A law enforcement source close to the investigation said at the time that the judge was interviewed as a witness.
He spent about five hours in the Police station Saturday for questioning and was brought in again on Sunday while his wife, Anita, visited their 17-year-old son, Joran.
Last week, an Aruban judge ruled that Paul van der Sloot could not visit his son in jail. Earlier, authorities had searched van der Sloot's home, seizing two cars and removing bagfuls of evidence.
Anita van der Sloot said Thursday her husband's arrest is "ridiculous."
"It hurts because my husband gave 15 years of his integrity to this island, and that this could happen is so bizarre."
"I don't understand, and I know a lot of people don't understand, what's going on," she said. "I'm very angry, but I will hold up."
"I have to because I believe in my husband, I believe in my son," she said. "It will all will be fine."
She said she met with Joran for about 40 minutes Thursday before receiving word that Police were at her home to arrest her husband.
Her son is "doing fine," she said. "I know he's innocent, and he knows he's innocent."
Family 'relieved'
Natalee Holloway's aunt, Marcia Twitty, said her family was "very relieved" by the judge's arrest.
"Maybe we can get somewhere and finally get these answers that they so desperately, desperately want," she told CNN from Alabama.
The missing girl's father, David Holloway, said the arrest "just adds that additional piece to the puzzle.
"How big is the puzzle? I don't know, but the pieces are falling into place and falling into place very quickly," he told CNN affiliate WBRC.
Natalee's mother, Beth Holloway-Twitty, said Wednesday she's sure the four young men in custody -- but not formally charged in the case -- have more information to divulge.
"I have no doubt that they know what and who and where and when and why and how. I have no doubt," Twitty said on NBC's "Today Show."
"There are some other individuals, though, that need to be pursued," she added.
Twitty told CNN she met Tuesday with the parents of Joran van der Sloot. He's one of the last people reported to have seen Holloway.
She said the van der Sloot's invited her into their home when she was handing out prayer cards in their neighborhood. Twitty refused to give details about their 90-minute discussion.
"I think I walked away with the confirmation that we still have some individuals that we need to pursue," she said.
Holloway, an honors student from the Birmingham suburb of Mountain Brook, disappeared May 30 after she left a nightclub with Joran van der Sloot and brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe, ages 21 and 18 respectively, authorities said.
She was in Aruba, a small Caribbean island of 72,000 residents just north of Venezuela, with about 100 classmates to celebrate their recent graduation.
The three men and a fourth suspect, 26-year-old disc jockey Steve Croes, face accusations of murder and kidnapping leading to murder.
Twitty says she has seen "no evidence whatsoever" that her daughter is dead.
Defense attorneys for van der Sloot and the Kalpoes have said their clients maintain their innocence.
Marcia Twitty said that after meeting with the van der Sloot's, the missing girl's mother told her: "'I still feel like that dad knows something about where Natalee is.'"
"She's in very close contact with officials, both Aruban and FBI," she said. "They talk daily."
Satish Kalpoe to mom: 'We didn't do anything'
The mother of the Kalpoes said Thursday that one son had admitted he and his brother made up a cover story to protect Joran van der Sloot.
Nadira Ramirez told CNN she was permitted to visit son Satish Kalpoe at Aruba's prison within the past week. She stressed that the teen told her their story was not planned ahead of Holloway's disappearance, and she had no advance knowledge of it.
Initially, Ramirez said, her sons had told her and Police they dropped Holloway off at the "Holiday Inn," where she was staying. But Satish Kalpoe told his mother later that was a lie aimed at protecting van der Sloot.
In fact, he told his mother, he and his brother had dropped Holloway and van der Sloot off at the beach by the Marriott hotel, about a mile from the Holiday Inn.
Ramirez's account echoes comments made by one of two security guards who were arrested June 5 in connection with the case and released June 13. The guards, Abraham Jones, 28, and Mickey John, 30, were never charged.
After his release, John said Deepak Kalpoe confided to him while they were in jail together that he had lied to Police. (CNN Access)
Ramirez tearfully said her son insisted he and his brother were innocent.
"'We didn't do anything. We will be out from here. Don't cry,'" she said he told her.
"I asked him, 'Satish, are you sure you guys didn't do anything?'" she said.
She said he responded: "'No, mama. We gave that girl and Joran a lift.'
"They don't even know Natalee. They said she didn't even introduce herself to them," she said. "They don't know anything else about that."
Although she has been suffering and unable to eat since her sons' arrest, Ramirez said she remains confident they will be cleared.
She described her family as a close and traditional Hindu group and said both sons are "good boys." Satish does not drink, she said, and while Deepak drinks occasionally, neither youth takes drugs.
CNN's Karl Penhaul and Patrick Oppmann contributed to this report.



On 6-23 FOX News reported:

Aruba Case Raises Issues of Sovereignty, International Law
The investigation of Natalee Holloway's disappearance continues a pace in Aruba. Aruban and Dutch authorities appear to be tracking down every possible lead and investigating every possible site that might be relevant to locating her.
Despite early criticisms of that investigation, it appears that local authorities are doing a capable job of determining where and how Holloway disappeared, and now, U.S. authorities, in the form of a search team from Texas, have been invited to participate. And with that, the issues of international law and sovereignty become even more pronounced.
Aruba falls under the jurisdiction of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and has its own governor, in much the same way Hong Kong did before it reverted to China in 1997. It is almost entirely regulated by Dutch law, and its full autonomy was achieved only in 1986, though by agreement the Netherlands is still responsible for Aruba's foreign affairs and its defense. It has virtually no legal system of its own, so it's at least theoretically possible that the individuals arrested in connection with Holloway's disappearance will be flown to the Netherlands and tried in a Dutch court.
In the days following Holloway's disappearance, many in the United States wondered why the FBI was not leading the investigation, even though Aruba is part of a foreign, sovereign land. No authorities other than Aruban Police have any investigative or arrest power on the island. Dutch authorities are involved only because they have been invited to take part in the investigation.
Suppose the FBI had flown to the island and located the individuals who might be responsible for Holloway's disappearance. Suppose the FBI possessed enough information to make what would be a legal arrest, as the U.S. formulates it. Because the arrested suspect would have to be tried in a Dutch court, there is no guarantee that the arrest would pass legal muster in the Netherlands. It's conceivable that it might even violate the defendant's rights in such a way as to mandate his release.
There are certain circumstances under which a person who has murdered a U.S. national in a foreign country can be arrested by U.S. authorities anywhere in the world and tried for the murder, but the murder must be related to an act of terrorism. Even then, to assure that the arrest is legal, U.S. agents frequently bring the suspect to U.S. soil — a “transborder abduction” that can confer U.S. jurisdiction over the suspect — and arrest him here.
In the early 1990s, Mexican nationals in Mexico kidnapped a Mexican wanted for the murder of a DEA agent (the murder occurred in Mexico). The Mexican defendant, Humberto Alvarez-Machain, was flown to El Paso, Texas, and arrested there by DEA agents. He then stood trial for murder in a U.S. court.
After Alvarez-Machain was acquitted, he sued the United States. (This prompted some to observe that the rights of foreign nationals to sue the U.S. are far more expansive than the rights of the U.S. to arrest foreign nationals abroad.)
Regarding the far less esoteric Holloway case, it has been a principle of U.S. law since 1824 that a state's law enforcement agents are prevented from exercising their functions in the territory of another state without the latter's consent. So while it might have been legal under Dutch law for the FBI to fly to Aruba the day after Holloway's disappearance and begin an investigation, it probably would not have been authorized under U.S. law.
There are indications that Dutch law, at least as it concerns the detention and questioning of suspects in criminal cases, is unexpectedly more robust than U.S. law. Joran van der Sloot, who in recent days looks to be the chief suspect in Holloway's disappearance, has been held for an extensive period of time for questioning and was not permitted to see his father, though he had requested it. It's possible, however unlikely, that van der Sloot remained and spoke with Police voluntarily, though the turning down of a request to see his father indicates against it.
In the United States, Police frequently succeed in detaining uncharged suspects who are legally not in custody and therefore legally free to leave. However, the legal status of being "in custody" triggers a suspects' Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights, and in the U.S., the longer an uncharged suspect is with Police, the greater the presumption that he is in custody and that his Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendment protections are triggered. It's possible that a six-hour stint in a Police station is not custodial, but that an hour-long visit is, depending on what occurs there.
In the United States, the average suspect would by now be deemed to have been in custody, which would implicate his constitutional rights. As a general matter, in the United States, people must be charged or released within 24 hours of being taken into custody, and must have the charges read before a judge or magistrate (with the defendant present) within 24 hours of that.
In the U.S., in all non-terrorist cases, days spent incommunicado with Police are always deemed custodial. Were the Aruba defendants in U.S. custody, they would either already have seen a judge or would have been released. In fact, this would almost certainly have occurred within the first 48 hours.
Whatever the outcome of law enforcement's involvement with van der Sloot, it's clear that Aruban and Dutch authorities have been relentlessly focused on finding Holloway. The sheer number of sites combed by Police, the speed of the initial arrests, and now the extended custody of the most recent set of suspects, all indicate that a small island, unaccustomed to murder, is doing its level best to resolve the matter with the resources it has, and when those resources are lacking, calling in more.
Matt Hayes began practicing immigration law shortly after graduating from Pace University School of Law in 1994, representing new immigrants in civil and criminal matters. He is the author of the soon-to-be-published "The New Immigration Law and Practice."



On 6-23 CBS News reported:

Aruba Boy's Parents: He's Innocent
(CBS/AP) "These three guys cannot commit a perfect crime," he said. A fourth man detained in the case, 26-year-old party boat disc jockey Steve Gregory Croes, said he knew one of the two Surinamese brothers arrested with Joran van der Sloot from an Internet cafe, his boss, Marcus Wiggins, has said. Wiggins' boat, the Tattoo, docks near the Holiday Inn. Natalee's family is hoping members of a Texas-based search and recovery group can get farther in their search than the family has. "With the equipment that they have, and they have cadaver dogs, they can search in these areas to eliminate the possibilities, because we don't want to go on forever wondering where Natalee is," said Allison. "We're taking our own divers over there. They've had divers that have never gotten wet," said Tim Miller of Texas EquuSearch, which is bring 17 volunteers to Aruba. "We're taking probably three of the best search dogs in the United States over there. We're taking people from five different states. We're taking the best of the best to Aruba to bring Natalee home." Aruban authorities say the coastline is too dangerous to dive, and without narrowing the location through a tip, there is simply too much water in and around the island to look everywhere, reports Cobiella.
Anita van der Sloot said when she saw her son in jail one night this week "he still didn't believe it was true. He said 'Mom, the truth will come forward, and I know that I did not do anything to the girl.'" Paul van der Sloot has been barred from seeing his son, the attorney general's office said, because police fear it could harm the investigation. He was interrogated by police for seven hours over Saturday and Sunday. Anita van der Sloot said her son has been interrogated for sometimes hours at a time, with authorities "calling him psychopath, murderer." George Twitty, Holloway's stepfather, told Fox that in the initial days after the teen's disappearance, Paul van der Sloot — and one of two Surinamese brothers arrested with Joran van der Sloot — advised his son not to talk to her family. "He and the other boy kept saying 'you say nothing,'" Twitty said. "I know that the father and I know that the son knows a lot more than they're saying." Anita van der Sloot said: "I love my child. I believe in him 200 percent and it's like a big nightmare." She said her son is an avid athlete who does well in school. Holloway's father, meanwhile, said Wednesday he was confident that the investigation into her disappearance was close to being resolved. But dozens of searches by officials and volunteers have failed to turn up any trace. His daughter disappeared on the last day of a five-day trip to celebrate her high school graduation with other students. Her passport and packed bags were found in her room. "I'm optimistic," Dave Holloway said during an interview with Associated Press Television News. "The FBI indicated to me that the (Aruban) police are very adequate and doing a good job. " Dave Holloway said he also believed the three young men held the key to his daughter's disappearance.
"These three guys cannot commit a perfect crime," he said. A fourth man detained in the case, 26-year-old party boat disc jockey Steve Gregory Croes, said he knew one of the two Surinamese brothers arrested with Joran van der Sloot from an Internet cafe, his boss, Marcus Wiggins, has said. Wiggins' boat, the Tattoo, docks near the Holiday Inn. Natalee's family is hoping members of a Texas-based search and recovery group can get farther in their search than the family has. "With the equipment that they have, and they have cadaver dogs, they can search in these areas to eliminate the possibilities, because we don't want to go on forever wondering where Natalee is," said Allison. "We're taking our own divers over there. They've had divers that have never gotten wet," said Tim Miller of Texas EquuSearch, which is bring 17 volunteers to Aruba. "We're taking probably three of the best search dogs in the United States over there. We're taking people from five different states. We're taking the best of the best to Aruba to bring Natalee home." Aruban authorities say the coastline is too dangerous to dive, and without narrowing the location through a tip, there is simply too much water in and around the island to look everywhere, reports Cobiella.



On 6-23 CNN reported:

LIVE FROM...
Judge Arrested in Aruba Case
Aired June 23, 2005 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: We want to continue looking into the case of missing Alabama teen Natalee Holloway. There you are looking at the picture of an Aruban judge, Paul van der Sloot. He's also the father of a 17-year-old, Joran, who is in custody.
Well, now the judge himself has been arrested in connection with the disappearance, the investigation of the disappearance of Natalee Holloway. It was just over the weekend that the was questioned by Investigators and let go. He was questioned as a witness. Now prosecutors say he is a suspect in the case. In all now, five are in custody. None have been charged, however.Karl Penhaul is in Palm Beach, Aruba, with the latest. Karl, have we given you enough of an opportunity to do a little bit more reporting to advance this story? KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, let's just recap on what has happened.About an hour ago now, shortly after 2:00, we're told by Mariane Croes, the spokesperson for the prosecution service, Investigators arrested Paul van der Sloot. As you say, he's a judge here on Aruba, and he's also the father of Joran van der Sloot. He had not been permitted any access to Joran in the days since Joran's arrest, about two weeks ago, and we do know that he was questioned on two consecutive days by Police at a downtown Police station to see what he may have seen or heard in the days following Natalee's disappearance. But at that stage Police said he was being interviewed as a witness, not a suspect. And even during the course of the week, when I talked to the Police commissioner, he said he didn't expect to arrest Paul van der Sloot. But that arrest has now taken place. And he is now in the -- one of six hours of interrogation that he will undergo. After that, prosecutors will have to extend or apply to a judge to extend his period in custody. Now, this arrest came a few moments after we had just come back from talking to the mother of two other suspects in the case, the Kalpoe brothers. The Kalpoe brothers, along with Joran van der Sloot, the son of the judge who's just been arrested, were the last three people known to have seen Natalee as she left the Carlos 'N Charlie's bar. And what the Kalpoes' brother's mother has told us is that her sons were lying in their initial interviews to Police. This is what she had to say... (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)NADIRA RAMIREZ, MOTHER OF ARUBA SUSPECTS: ... which corner he's coming from. And when I saw him coming, I can't believe. He was so thin.I hugged him. He's just like a child of three years. He's so thin, because I know they are not eating. They're very hard (ph) in eating.And he told me, "No, no, mama." He was not crying. But he said "No, no, mama, don't do it. Don't cry. We didn't do anything.""We will be out from here. Don't cry." That you will bring down yourself if you cry. I said, "Satish, I can't imagine I am seeing you like this."And we sat and we talked. And I asked him, "Satish, are you sure you guys didn't do anything?" "No, mama, we give that girl a ride and left."They don't even know Natalee. They said she didn't even introduce herself to them, "Hi, I'm Natalee." They don't even talk a word with her. He said, "Me and my brother gave them a lift" and they came home. They don't know anything else about that. (END VIDEO CLIP)PENHAUL: What Nadira Ramirez was referring to there was a version of events recounted to her by Satish Kalpoe, her younger son, when she paid him a visit at the prison on the island. She also went on to say that the two boys, her two sons, admitted they had lied to Police because initially they said to Police that they had dropped Natalee off at the Holiday Inn on the morning of May 30. They went on to tell their mother, though, that they told a lie.They said they were covering for Joran. And, in fact, dropped off Joran and Natalee at a beach near the Marriott Hotel about a mile away from the Holiday Inn -- Fredricka. WHITFIELD: And now, Karl, back to the judge, since he was questioned over the weekend, did Investigators in any way reveal the kinds of questions they were asking him as a witness? PENHAUL: No, Investigators have played their cards very close to their chest. In fact, since the whole investigation began. We do know, though, that those questioning periods did last for several hours, both on Saturday and again on Sunday. In general terms, what the Investigators told us was they were trying to find out if Paul van der Sloot had heard or seen anything, or heard anything from his son, Joran, in the days since Natalee disappeared. Because you'll remember that Joran van der Sloot and the two Kalpoe brothers were questioned as witnesses in Natalee's disappearance, but it wasn't until 10 days after that disappearance that they were formally arrested. WHITFIELD: OK, Karl. Don't go to far away.We're going to go to Mariane Croes, who is the prosecutor's spokesperson out of Aruba. She's on the telephone with us now. Ms. Croes, why was the judge arrested today? MARIANE CROES, SPOKESPERSON, PROSECUTORS: He was arrested today at about 2:00 p.m. this afternoon because at this point he's a suspect. There is a reasonable suspicion that he knows something and that he is involved in the disappearance of Miss Holloway. WHITFIELD: When you said he knows something, are you also implying that he was a participant? CROES: That is something that must be investigated. And that will be done now that he is being interrogated as a suspect. So that is something that at this point I cannot give specific information about. He's just now in his first six hours of detention. WHITFIELD: OK. First six hours of detention, all of those six hours are to be interrogation, and then you must go to the judge to apply for any more time to spend with him? CROES: No. The first six hours are for interrogation. WHITFIELD: Sorry about that. We lost that connection with Mariane Croes, the prosecution spokesperson out of Aruba, explaining that at least six hours, the next six hours will be devoted to interrogating Judge Paul van der Sloot, who is a judge, who is also the father of a young man, 17-year-old Joran, who is also now among those arrested. Now five in all arrested in connection with the disappearance of the Alabama teen, Natalee Holloway. We're going to take a short break -- oh, sorry about that. Misunderstood.We've got instead a criminal defense attorney now out of Philadelphia, Ted Simon, who is on the phone with us.All right, Ted, maybe you can explain to us. There are some huge differences between criminal law here in the states and how things are handled there in Aruba. TED SIMON, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Yes, I heard you got cut off and maybe I can fill in the blank for you. WHITFIELD: Yes, perhaps you can. Six hours we know of interrogation. And there, what?SIMON: Right, the first -- the first six hours is interrogation. We would think that the person who is the suspect would have to speak with interrogators. He does not.We all know about Miranda warning in the United States. Well, in Aruba they also have something similar. It's called cautio C-A-U-T-I- O, where they're warned they're not required to speak to Investigators, and, in fact, have the right to remain free from self- incrimination. One would think the judge or judge in training there would know that, so there's a question of whether or not he actually will speak to them now that he's put in the position of being a suspect. The other key difference is, in the United States, one cannot be arrested or charged without probable cause. And that means facts and circumstances based on reasonably trustworthy information that causes a prudent person to believe a crime was committed and the person who's accused did it. Down there, as your spokesperson said, you only need reasonable suspicion. It's a much lesser standard, and it's only some indication that a person may be involved. So this is really testing the waters in the sense that they are clearly pulling out all the stops to arrest a judge in training, the father of a suspect, in a situation where, at least, the public doesn't know if there actually is a crime. Certainly, something untoward happened to Natalee, and it's a horrible situation. But to date, we haven't heard yet what is the basis to demonstrate that there is a crime. I would also say that this has now become a battle of two families. It's dueling nightmares, the family that has lost Natalee for now, and the other family, who has lost a son, at least to the judicial system, and now a father. I think what we have on behalf of the Twitty and Holloway families is a fear of what has happened. And as to the van der Sloots, a fear of what is yet to come. It's a remarkable development that you're reporting. And the question is, what, if anything, has Paul van der Sloot have to do with this -- with this matter, and what, if anything, does his son? So, again, I think we have a lot of questions. We have a clear demonstration of the difference between our system, requiring probable cause before you arrest someone, and down there, where you don't need that and can. Now, I have actually represented and had cases both in Aruba and Curacao, and I can tell you without naming names, for one, where someone was arrested, an American who did nothing wrong. It was based on a mistaken situation, spent approximately two or three months, and was ultimately freed as a result of our work. So...WHITFIELD: And because you say all -- all that's needed there is reasonable suspicion. SIMON: Yes. WHITFIELD: And that's a very broad context. SIMON: Very, very low threshold of proof. It's speculative. I mean, don't forget, originally, the two security guards were arrested and detained for sometime. It certainly appears now they had nothing to do with it, at least that's the feeling. So, again, it would seem that if there's anyone in doubt that the Aruban authorities are pulling out all the stops, regardless of person or station in life, they're certainly doing it.WHITFIELD: Yes.SIMON: But the question is, are they overreacting to the pressure, or do they have a good-faith belief as to the information they have that would warrant this type of arrest? WHITFIELD: Ted Simon, thank you so much for joining us on the telephone from Philadelphia as a criminal defense attorney, one that is very familiar with the way Aruban law takes place as well. You heard him describe he handled a couple of cases there. So he certainly was the right person to go to.Let's go now to Karl Penhaul, who has a little bit more information on where this investigation is going -- Karl. PENHAUL: Well, what we've heard in the last few moments from law enforcement sources close to this investigation is that they are telling us that Paul van der Sloot has been arrested because they believe he may have been covering up for Joran, certainly covering up in the aspect that he tended initially to back Joran van der Sloot's story that they had dropped Natalee off at the Holiday Inn. Now that version of events seems to have been proved to be a lie, because the Kalpoe brothers and Joran van der Sloot have now backed away from that version of events, this is why law enforcement sources are saying that they arrested Paul van der Sloot, because they believe he may have helped Joran van der Sloot put together that cover story -- Fredricka. WHITFIELD: That's quite remarkable. And now what about the fact that -- the judge is going to be questioned over the next few hours. This is a man who, obviously, is very savvy about the law, being a judge or a judge in training. What do we know about the parameters of his discussion, whether he really has kind of the upper hand in this interrogation, knowing how the system works? PENHAUL: He certainly does know how the system works, and it is correct to describe him as a judge. He, himself, has described himself to CNN as a judge, and also the attorney for Joran van der Sloot has described Paul van der Sloot as a judge. So there's no question about that. And also, because of his legal training and training before that as an attorney, and before that, his position as a prominent official within the prosecution service itself, he will well know how these interrogations go, how the periods of questioning go, and how long he may be likely to spend in custody, and the kind of treatment he's going to get -- Fredricka. WHITFIELD: OK, Karl. Ted Simon, who's a criminal defense attorney out of Philadelphia, we were talking to him just a moment ago. He is still on the phone.And Ted, perhaps you can address that, some of the questions that he might be asked. SIMON: Well, let me -- yes, let me add a little bit to your very fine report there. What you have is Police can arrest. There's an initial period of six hours where they can interrogate. They are not required to present the accused or the suspect to a judge. They have 48 hours to do that. Once they do that, the judge makes a decision whether to permit a continued detention or not. And if so, thy can detain for another eight days, and then two succeeding periods of eight days. So there's the -- there's a continual review of the first two days to see if the person can be held up to 10 days. And then there's another period of review. And the longer you hold someone, the greater the standard goes up on whether or not you can continue to detain. And this can go up, by some accounts, to 116 days, or even a little bit more.So, there is an opportunity for counsel. You have a right to counsel. And there's an opportunity to move the court to be released from the detention. Now, that failed with respect to the -- initially for the two security guards, and it also failed with respect to van der Sloot and the Kalpoes. However, keep in mind, when the lawyers moved on behalf of the security guards for detention, which I think was a short time ago, the judge said his docket was too busy. And the next day the prosecution released them before the judge had a chance to rule. So expect the judge to be ably represented. And I guess this is just going to become more dramatic as time goes on. Like I said before, it's truly dueling nightmares. The nightmare just got worse for Joran van der Sloot's mother. WHITFIELD: Wow. Well, it is, indeed, remarkable. Ted Simon, criminal defense attorney out of Philadelphia, thank you so much. And we'll have more on this developing story. The judge, the father of one of the suspects, now in custody in connection with the disappearance of Natalee Holloway in Aruba. A prosecution spokesperson telling us they have reason to believe that he may have been covering up for Joran, who is the 17-year-old, Joran van der Sloot, the 17-year-old who is also in is custody in connection with the disappearance of the Alabama teen. We'll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) WHITFIELD: More on this breaking story we are following for you. A fifth person has been arrested in connection with the disappearance of Alabama teen Natalee Holloway. That fifth person is a judge, Judge Paul van der Sloot, who also happens to be the father of a 17-year-old who is already in custody, Joran. The judge had been questioned over the weekend as a witness. But now prosecutors say that they have reasonable suspicion. And by Aruban law, that's all they need. They have reasonable suspicion to believe that he knows something in this case, and that's why they have arrested him. Just moments ago, Dave Holloway, who is Natalee Holloway's father, had this to say...(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)DAVE HOLLOWAY, NATALEE HOLLOWAY'S FATHER: Well, it's just -- it just adds that additional piece to the puzzle. And how big is the puzzle? I don't know. But the pieces are falling into place and falling into place very quickly. (END VIDEO CLIP)WHITFIELD: All right. We're going to try to play that again for you, once we get the audio worked out. Ted Simon, who's a criminal defense attorney, joins us on the telephone from Philadelphia. He's very familiar with Aruban law, which is rather complicated. Ted, thanks so much for sticking around. Unlike in the U.S., where you can't be arrested without some probable cause here in the U.S., that certainly does not apply as we see it now playing out in Aruba. Why? SIMON: Absolutely. As we've been reviewing, it's a basic fundamental constitutional protection in the United States that a person cannot be arrested unless there's probable cause, which has been defined to mean facts and circumstances based on reasonably trustworthy information that would give a prudent person pause to think in terms of whether or not the person committed a crime who is accused, and whether the person did it. But down there, you don't need that degree of facts and circumstances. You just need some indication or a reasonable suspicion. And that shows, clearly, the difference between our system and theirs, where, down there, they may be able to arrest someone on reasonable suspicion, in the United States they can't. Now, I'd also indicate what's -- we didn't hear the complete piece by Mr. -- is it Twitty or Holloway, the father... WHITFIELD: Yes, we did not get a chance to hear all of that from Dave Holloway. SIMON: Right. But I think if we remember clearly, both Natalee's mother and father were speaking. And they spoke yesterday or the day before in terms of suspecting that other peoples might be arrested. WHITFIELD: Yes.SIMON: And you just wonder if some of this information that the Police were considering has been shared with them, because it didn't take very long between what they had to say before and then this new surprising arrest. WHITFIELD: And Ted, just because -- we need to describe what we're seeing on the screen right now. We're looking at video being replayed of the judge, the father, who was kind of running to his car after being requested throughout the weekend from prosecutors there, trying to avoid answering questions from the reporters there. SIMON: But, you know...WHITFIELD: He was interviewed over the weekend just as a witness. But apparently the prosecutors felt like they had enough information that they gathered from that interview, or perhaps even from continuing to interrogate the other young men who were in custody, to now apprehend him and consider him one who gave them reasonable suspicion. SIMON: Right. And, you know, you point to that video many people have watched of the father running away where the cameras were following him. And that certainly looks suspicious and troubling. WHITFIELD: Yes.SIMON: But, on the other hand, let's not forget that recently the mother of van der Sloot has come out very forcefully defending her son. And on top of that, which may not be as well know, the -- both Mr. van der Sloot and his wife met with Natalee's mother at their home the other day, and they both -- they were -- she was invited in, and went back out, which seemed to be some kind of cooperative healing process, at least to the naked eye. But who knows truly what was in the works. WHITFIELD: All right. Ted Simon, thank you so much for helping to fill in some of the blanks here. Still an incredible mystery still unfolding. A lot of questions we don't have the answers to as of yet. But thanks so much for helping us so much on this. So, once again, a fifth arrest now in the case of the Alabama teen. That fifth suspect now in custody in Aruba is Judge Paul van der Sloot. He is also the father of one of the 17-year-olds who is currently being held. More on that story as we get it. Now on to some other news we are covering here on CNN. A terrible mistake, that's what the defense secretary says he would be making by establishing a firm deadline for withdrawing troops from Iraq. Donald Rumsfeld and several top commanders spoke at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing today. A growing and bipartisan group of lawmakers is pressing the Pentagon for a pullout deadline. Rumsfeld says he doesn't have one, and if he did, terrorists would benefit from that information. Now an exclusive interview with Vice President Dick Cheney. Cheney sat down just a short time ago in Washington with CNN's Wolf Blitzer. And Wolf, what did you learn from the vice president today? WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Fredricka, I learned the vice president is not backing at all away from his strong words only a few weeks ago, his assessment that the U.S. was winning the war in Iraq, and that the insurgency, in his words, were in their last throes. I pressed him on that point, but he refused to back away from it. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)RICHARD CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If you look at what the dictionary says about throes, it can still be a -- you know, a violent period, the throes of a revolution. The point would be that the conflict will be intense, but it's intense because the terrorists understand if we are successful in accomplishing our objective of standing up a democracy in Iraq, that that's a huge defeat for them. They'll do everything they can to stop it. I mean, look back at World War II. The toughest battles, the most difficult battles both in Europe and the Pacific occurred just a few months before the end, the Battle of the Bulge in December of 1944, and Okinawa in the spring of 1945. And I see this as a similar situation, where they're going to go all out and they'll do everything they can to disrupt that process.But I think we're strong enough to defeat them. And I think the process itself of establishing a democracy and a viable security force for the Iraqis will, in fact, signal the end, if you will, for the terrorists inside Iraq. (END VIDEO CLIP)BLITZER: The vice president declined to offer an assessment of how much longer this insurgency would last or how much longer U.S. troops would have to remain in Iraq. He said the U.S. troops will remain there until the job is done. He also refused to say where Osama bin Laden specifically might be hiding out. He did seem to agree with the CIA director, Porter Goss, that the U.S. has a pretty good idea where he is, but he said they don't have a street address -- Fredricka. WHITFIELD: All right. And Wolf, and on Guantanamo, the vice president has made it clear in the past that he sees no reason to close Guantanamo or change the system there. Did he elaborate any further on that? BLITZER: He did. He said that the detainees, the more than 500 terrorist suspects, should remain at Guantanamo, it would be a mistake to move them to the United States or elsewhere. These are hardened terrorists, in his words, and they are getting a pretty good life down there in the tropics. He used that phrase. So the vice president not budging at all on the issue of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay. He does not want to shut down that facility. All right. Wolf Blitzer, thanks so much from Washington.And, of course, you can watch more of that exclusive interview with the vice president on "WOLF BLITZER REPORTS." Wolf will bring you that during the 5:00 hour, 2:00 Pacific. That wraps up this Thursday's edition of LIVE FROM. Here's Dana Bash with a preview of what's ahead on "INSIDE POLITICS." Hello, Dana.DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fredricka. Thank you.Well, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and top military leaders were questioned by members of Congress today about the status of the war in Iraq. We will tell you what they had to say.And Democrats are lashing out at White House adviser Karl Rove after he said that all liberals wanted to do after 9/11 was offer therapy and understanding to the attackers. We'll ask the president's chief of staff, Andrew Card, about Rove's comments and the war in Iraq in an interview you'll only see on CNN."INSIDE POLITICS" begins in just a moment. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) WHITFIELD: A look at the headlines now before we go to "INSIDE POLITICS."Paul van der Sloot has been arrested in Aruba. He is the father of a jailed teenager being held in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, that Alabama teenager.Police have spoken to the father in the course of the investigation as a potential witness. Prosecutors now tell CNN that he is a suspect. In Mississippi, Edgar Ray Killen is going to prison. The 80- year-old former Klan leader was convicted of three manslaughter counts stemming from the deaths of three men in 1964. His sentence, the maximum allowable, 60 years. And three boys ages 5 to 11 are missing in Camden, New Jersey. They were last seen last night playing together outside. Since then, nothing. Their parents are frantic and Police are combing the neighborhood. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Now to Dana Bash with "INSIDE POLITICS."



On 6-23 CNNHN reported:

NANCY GRACE, HOST: Tonight, breaking news from the island of Aruba. Aruban Judge Paul van der Sloot arrested. That's right, a judge arrested and behind bars tonight, bringing the total to five men in custody in connection with the disappearance of 18-year-old Alabama beauty Natalee Holloway. Natalee vanished into thin air while on her high school senior trip to Aruba.
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But first, breaking news from the tiny island of Aruba. In a shocking turn of events, Aruban Police arrest Judge Paul van der Sloot, the father of the young man last seen with 18-year-old Natalee Holloway, Joran van der Sloot.Tonight, in Aruba, Natalee's stepfather, George Twitty is with us; in New York, defense attorneys Jason Oshins and Richard Herman; also with us, psychotherapist Caryn Stark. But first, let's go to Aruba and CNN correspondent Karl Penhaul. Karl, it takes a lot to get a judge behind bars. What's going on? KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Nancy, as you know, over the weekend, Judge Paul van der Sloot was interviewed twice by Police. At that stage, they say they were interviewing him as a possible witness not a suspect. But today, I was talking to Anita van der Sloot. That's his wife and the mother of Joran van der Sloot. She was telling me that she had just come back from visiting Joran in prison, that neighbors notified her and husband Paul that there were Police vans around the neighborhood. And so they went to the north Police station, said to the Police, "What's going on?" And at that stage, the Police said, "We're detaining you," and he's been interrogated now for the best part of six hours, Nancy. GRACE: Karl Penhaul, in Aruba, do they have the right to take, as we call it, the Fifth, and not speak whatsoever? PENHAUL: That I can't tell you. What I can tell you is that the burden of evidence at this stage to arrest somebody is relatively low. Unlike in the U.S., they don't have to charge people at this stage. As the time of the detention goes on, that's when the burden of proof tends to increase. So it may be that, at this stage, they haven't got a huge amount of evidence. But they have arrested him, and they are saying that it is in connection that he is suspected of being involved with Natalee's disappearance in some way, Nancy. GRACE: Jason Oshins is with us, a veteran defense attorney. Jason, this could be anything from something as simple as the father removing Natalee's sandal from the back of the car, to the father knowing where Natalee is, to the father knowing where Natalee is disposed of, to covering for his son. It could be a myriad of possibilities, with him being named as a suspect. But I can tell you this right now, Jason Oshins, when a man takes off and runs from questions, literally runs away when somebody asks him a question, well, OK, there's a problem, all right, Jason? JASON OSHINS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Nancy, I agree with you. I think it could be a whole host of any of those things. But more importantly for the government of Aruba is they're hemorrhaging, as it comes to tourism, tourists who are booking now for the future. They need to get to the bottom of this. I mean, clearly there is tremendous pressure, I'm sure, by the government to do whatever they can. And this is not a light event that they're arresting this judge right here. GRACE: Hey, hey, Jason, there is the shot of the judge literally running away from Karl Penhaul who is asking him questions, running, physically, running away. Very quickly to Richard Herman, also a defense attorney. Richard, it could also be something as simple as a strategy to get the son to talk. In other words, "Hey, your dad's behind bars. You happy now? You willing to talk to us?" RICHARD HERMAN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Absolutely, Nancy. But to answer your question earlier, under Aruban law, they do not have to answer any questions. It's like taking the Fifth. They can keep quiet, although they have to subject themselves to a minimum of six hours of interrogation. After that, within this next hour, during your show, between 8:00 and 9:00, the prosecutor is going make a determination whether to keep him for another 48 hours. After that period of time, they must go before a judge. GRACE: Let's go now to a very special guest joining us from Aruba, there with Karl Penhaul, Natalee's stepfather, George Twitty. Sir, thank you for being with us. GEORGE TWITTY, STEPFATHER OF NATALEE HOLLOWAY: You're welcome. GRACE: Sir, what was your reaction to the arrest of a judge in connection with Natalee's disappearance? TWITTY: Quite glad to see it happen. I mean, I think everybody knows that I've felt from the beginning that he does hold some pieces of the puzzle that we're trying to figure out here. GRACE: Why do you think that, Mr. Twitty? What does a judge know about where Natalee is? TWITTY: Well, I mean, I confronted him on the first night that I was here. And just from what some conversation that we had -- and I probably spent a total of maybe an hour-and-a-half between two different places with he and his son. And you know, when a judge stands there and tells his son, "You say nothing. You say nothing."You know, if he didn't have anything to hide, you know, he shouldn't have said that. And you know, the whole deal, this whole deal about, you know, Joran being such a wonderful kid and all this, "He's a great kid," well, I don't buy that. I met the boy that night. You know, he was out that night until 3 o'clock, 3:30 in the morning. And obviously, we know by timelines, he was out the night before. And when his mother comes on the air and tells that he's a wonderful kid and wouldn't do this and wouldn't do that, evidently they don't know their child very well. GRACE: Well, Mr. Twitty, I can tell you this much. If I came home in high school at 3:30 in the morning, I would be locked in the attic and still be there right now. So I'm taking a listen to what you're saying. So he actually said -- this judge actually said to the son, "Don't speak. Don't say a word to Police"? TWITTY: Well, he said, "You need to say nothing. You need to say nothing." And you know, if it was my son, George, who is a wonderful kid and he was in this situation, and they have nothing to hide, Nancy, wouldn't you, like, the next morning be out there trying to help us find Natalee? Wouldn't you be calling me and saying, "Look, Jug, I know Joran was with her last night, but he had nothing to do with it. I want to help you guys." I mean, his father should have been over here the next morning helping in the search. You know, when we went over yesterday, or the day before, Beth went in the mother's house and gave her the bracelet. And shows it on TV. "Look, I'm wearing her bracelet." To me, that's a joke. I mean, they should have been over here -- if they had nothing to hide, just like -- you know the favorite -- my favorite thing on TV, and I haven't watched TV until last three or four days, is when he runs to that car, because you...GRACE: You know what? I was just about to ask.Elizabeth and Renee, could you run that video, please? We're talking about the judge now behind bars. With us is Natalee's stepfather, Mr. George Twitty. Go ahead, sir. TWITTY: Are you talking to me? GRACE: Yes, sir, we're showing the video right now of the judge hightailing it. TWITTY: All right, Nancy, if I had nothing to hide -- and, you know, we have seen several cases in the United States -- wouldn't you come out of the courtroom and say, "You know, I have no comment," and just walk calmly to your car? You say, you know, "I have nothing to hide, no comment." Why run to your car? GRACE: Well, the other issue is, if you don't have anything to hide, why would you tell your son, "Don't speak to Police"? TWITTY: I don't know. I think that's why they're having such a tough time right now getting him to say anything. I think this was -- this is my opinion. It's just my opinion. But he's been coached from the beginning, you know, "Say nothing, even when you get to jail, or you get arrested," or whatever. You know, I think his dad has told him, you know, not to say anything. GRACE: Well, Mr. Twitty, under Dutch law, we're not really getting a whole lot of information. But this much I do know. I do know that our sources say, originally, the three young men, including van der Sloot and the two Kalpoe brothers, last seen with Natalee, they originally had the same statement that they dropped her off at the Holiday Inn where she was staying, that she stumbled on her way in, and someone in a security guard outfit helped her and they drove off. Now, at some point, they all had the same story. My question is, where did they get that story? Because they've long since abandoned that story. And now pointing the fingers at each other. So where did that original story come from, Mr. Twitty? TWITTY: That story came from the night we went to his house. We brought him back to the Holiday Inn and heard the whole story. That story was what they told us at 4 o'clock in the morning at the Holiday Inn in front of the security guards, and the front desk, and everything. That was the original story, which you could see -- I personally could tell that -- you know, well, I didn't believe it at that time. GRACE: Why didn't you believe it? TWITTY: Well, I mean, I guess I read people pretty well. And you can -- I had six friends with me down there that night. They all were sitting there -- you could tell the guy wasn't telling the truth. GRACE: Who was doing...TWITTY: They made him -- they made Paul van der Sloot stand outside because he was such an obnoxious guy, that the actual guards said, "Sir, you'll have to stand outside."And you know, just if you have nothing to hide, why not try to help us? Why not -- we were down here to find Natalee. And he was the last one seen with Natalee. So you know, he knows something. And I know what -- I'm going tell you -- I've heard what Karl said. I heard what your guest said there. But I've been here 24 days. And I've seen how this works down here. They have something, or they would not have arrested him today, because they are not going to be embarrassed, as far as this thing is going, they -- the way they do it here is that, when they arrest somebody, in my opinion, they have good evidence and a reason to do that. GRACE: Well, I thought that, too, until they arrested those two security guards that had never seen or heard of Natalee Holloway. TWITTY: OK. Well, I agree with you there. I can't argue there. GRACE: Yes. I mean, right off the bat, Mr. Twitty, when they arrested those two, and these other three that were seen leaving the bar with her were wandering around free, right there, that smelled. That stunk. But I've got to ask you something. You're saying that got these guys in and asked them that night, and you got the sense that they were not telling the truth. Were they acting odd, oddly? TWITTY: Absolutely. I mean, you know, when he comes over and confronts my wife, and says, "What do you want me to do? What do you want me to do?" You know, this is the young van der Sloot, you know. You just had to have been there, Nancy. I mean, I can't explain it to you. But I can promise you, from the night guard or the night manager at the Holiday Inn, she even told me after, she says, "These boys are not telling the truth." I mean, they spoke half in Dutch, half in English. And you know, there was a lot of people there. But you know, you could just tell. I read people pretty well. And so...GRACE: Well, even this statement, Mr. Twitty, this statement that the boy, van der Sloot , says, "I took her down to the beach. It was around 2:00 a.m. And she wanted to stay there, so I left her there alone." Why would she want to stay down at a beach at 2:00 a.m. at night by herself? I'm just not buying it. TWITTY: Well, she wouldn't. I hadn't even heard that statement. That's news to me. I don't even know that statement. I mean, there have been so many coming out. I just know that their original statement, which they told me, and which you've already stated, now they've changed that statement. So you know, we just have to get to the bottom of it. And you asked me about arresting the judge. Yes, everybody knows my feelings about this guy. He knows more than he's saying. So they need to put pressure on him. They need to get the answers. GRACE: Mr. Twitty, do you think that they arrested him because of something he said during the last two days of interrogation? TWITTY: I don't know that. I know there is a lot of conflicting stories that supposedly my friends have heard, and that I've heard, and what he said that night. And you know, there's a lot of conflicting stories. So I can tell you, I do believe that the Police are doing a good job. And I was happy when that happened today. And I think that maybe we can -- we're moving a lot faster. Today was a big day. GRACE: Well, you know, Mr. Twitty, you said something. This is a shot of the judge, Judge van der Sloot, running, literally, breaking out into a jog, and running away from CNN's Karl Penhaul as he's trying to ask the judge questions about Natalee Holloway. Back to Natalee's stepfather, who is kind enough to be with us tonight. Mr. Twitty, you said that the Aruban officials are very careful. And you know what? When you take a judge into custody and name him as a suspect, you're darn right...TWITTY: Can I stop you right there, Nancy?GRACE: Yes, sir? TWITTY: He's not a judge. GRACE: What is he? TWITTY: I'm not sure what he is, but he is not a judge. GRACE: You know, we have heard so many conflicting...TWITTY: From what I understand, he is not a judge. GRACE: We have been told he is a judge. He is a judge in training. He is a judge that recently got on the bench. We've heard a lot of conflicting stories. TWITTY: OK, what I think -- I think we need to do some more research. I mean, I'm not sure. I'm not going to say what he is or what he isn't. But he is not a judge. GRACE: Mr. Twitty is with us. This is Natalee's stepfather, there with CNN's Karl Penhaul. We are live in Aruba. Natalee Holloway, where are you?(COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ANITA VAN DER SLOOT , MOTHER OF SUSPECT IN MISSING PERSON CASE: I think it's ridiculous. But, of course, it hurts. It hurts, because my husband gave 50 years of his integrity to this island. And that this could happen is just so bizarre. Because in my conversation with Joran, Joran said, "Mommy, I'm so afraid. They're picking up daddy because that's what they're telling me. They're going to pick him up because -- to ask him about all kind of things. And they think he's involved in anything. And I don't want this to happen, and they should have respect for him."(END VIDEO CLIP) GRACE: That was Anita van der Sloot, the wife of, we believe, Judge van der Sloot, the mother of this young man, Joran van der Sloot, last seen with an 18-year-old Alabama beauty, Natalee Holloway. She has not -- oh, hello! There is the judge right there, at least his back end, as he is running -- hello, marathon runner -- sprinting away from hard questions. Why are you running? I'd like to ask him that myself. But I can't, because he's behind bars tonight. Let's go straight down to Aruba. Standing by, CNN correspondent Karl Penhaul. And with us, a very special guest, Natalee's stepfather, Mr. George Twitty. To Karl Penhaul, Karl, you have been down there studying the Aruba legal system. What is this guy? Is he a judge, a judge in training, a new judge, a law clerk? What is he? PENHAUL: A lot of what we have been seeing over the last few days and weeks, Nancy, comes down to terminology. What Paul van der Sloot himself refers to himself as is a judge. We put that question to him shortly after Joran's arrest a couple of weeks ago. Antonio Carlo, that's the attorney for Joran van der Sloot, also refers to Paul van der Sloot as a judge. Specifically, we understand that he's in his early stages of judgeship. He has presided over some cases, seems that he was fast-tracked on this judge's -- to this judge's position. Before that, though, he was an official with the prosecution service on the island, Nancy. GRACE: To Mr. Twitty, Natalee's stepfather, Mr. Twitty, again, thank you for being with us. We`re thousands of miles away just trying to figure out the mystery of where is Natalee Holloway. What do you think this guy, this judge, knows about Natalee's disappearance? Do you think he was covering for his son? TWITTY: Possibly. I mean, you know how -- I mean, if my son had done something, you know, it's just a father's intuition to get in there and try to help their son. But in a case like this, this is out of hand. And he knows more than he's saying. That's all I know for sure, because I know he's already told me face-to-face things that happened and they've already changed that statement so... GRACE: Mr. Twitty, what was it the dad, the judge, said to you that has changed? TWITTY: It's not exactly what he said. It's just the whole conversation that we had the night, you know -- when we got here, we actually arrived and got to the judge's house within -- we figured out where we were going, who we had to go find and everything within three hours after we arrived on the island, so... GRACE: So that initial conversation told you something was wrong? TWITTY: Right, oh, absolutely. GRACE: So, Karl Penhaul, what's next? Is the judge in the same facility as his son? PENHAUL: No. His son is now at the KIA, that's the Aruba correctional institute. That's down at the east end of the island, because after a certain number of days, all these suspects are moved to the prison. That's a remand center that they've got at the prison. Judge van der Sloot is currently in the north Police station, just a couple of miles where we are. There he's being interrogated, Nancy.
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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)GRACE: Natalee Holloway disappeared on her high school senior trip in Aruba. A massive search continues on the tiny island. Tonight, a judge behind bars, in custody in connection with her disappearance. I've only got a few seconds left in this segment, but I want to go to Mr. Twitty, Natalee's stepfather. Mr. Twitty, if you could speak out to the people that know where Natalee is tonight, what would you say? TWITTY: Well, I would just say that, you know, I hope they'll help us. I'll tell you, Nancy, today has been a big day. I'm happy about what's happened with the judge. And as I understand they're going to retain him at least for another 48 hours, which is, in my opinion, really good news. And you know, all the Texas people came. Everybody asked about the Texas search team or whatever. These guys are pretty sharp. I met with them today. And I'll have to say, my brother-in-law, Paul Reynolds in Texas, eventually put this together. And thanks to everybody that helped with this, but these guys are bringing in great equipment. And we're looking forward to that. So it's a big day today. We're moving quickly now. GRACE: Our prayers with you, Mr. Twitty. Very quickly, Karl Penhaul, I've got 30 seconds left. Update? PENHAUL: We've just heard from the Police commissioner, Jan van der Straten, that Judge Paul van der Sloot will be held for an additional 48 hours for interrogation, Nancy. GRACE: Well, you know what, Karl? That is the same pattern we've seen with the other three behind bars tonight. Everybody, we will be back in Aruba. Please stay with us.(COMMERCIAL BREAK)(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)GEORGE "JUG" TWITTY, NATALEE HOLLOWAY'S STEPFATHER: I felt it. Look, I called it. I felt it. And I think we're getting closer. I don't know what to say, other than, you know, I kind of felt it in my heart from day one since I've been here. But I know the Police have done a good job and they're doing everything they can do to get to the bottom of it and maybe this is their way of getting there. But I know that he has some idea of what happened that night. And hopefully, this will bring us closer to finding Natalee.(END VIDEO CLIP)GRACE: Welcome back, everybody. Before we take you to Florida and the latest in the John Evander Couey case -- documents revealed today will make or break the state's case. Remember the death and disappearance of 9- year-old Jessie Lunsford?We'll take you to Florida in just one moment, but I want you to meet two very special people joining us tonight from Aruba. Patrick Murphy is with us and Joe Houston. They are part of a team that's gone down on their own dime from America to help in the search for Natalee Holloway.To Patrick Murphy, where have you searched so far?PATRICK MURPHY, SEARCH COORDINATOR FOR HOLLOWAY FAMILY: Well, we have probably searched the whole island. We've gone all the way around the whole perimeter. We've been on four-wheelers. We've been in the bushes. We've been in the air and helicopter two times. So we've -- I've been down here twice already, probably a total of maybe a week-and-a-half of searching.GRACE: And to Joe Houston -- sir, I want to hear about the dogs that you are using in the search. Can you tell me about them?JOE HOUSTON, PART OF TEAM SEARCHING FOR NATALEE: Texas EquuSearch is bringing in three cadaver dog teams. A cadaver dog is a dog that has specifically been trained in order to be able to check for decaying and rotting flesh. The three teams we have on standby right now that are coming in tomorrow are three of the best, highly-rated teams, dog teams in the country from the standpoint of recovering deceased individuals.GRACE: Joe Houston, what has led you to Aruba?HOUSTON: I represent Texas EquuSearch, and Natalee's uncle contacted us on Sunday afternoon, Father's Day weekend. Tim Miller, our director, talked with him. After three or four hours of conversations, Tim made the decision that even though it would take a lot to get together, he decided that we could come down here and help. We knew, following the news on the case and watching what was going on very closely, considering that we've been in the search-and-recovery business since 2000, done in excess of 450 searches.GRACE: Wow. And Patrick Murphy, what led you to Aruba?MURPHY: Well, I live in the Cayman Islands, and I was watching the story unfolding. And I'm actually from the area where Natalee is from. And basically, I saw the -- basically, I saw where Beth had on CNN on the bottom had asked help, wanted some volunteers, need some help down here. And I told my wife, I need to go to Aruba and help out.GRACE: Joe Houston and Patrick Murphy heard the call to help find Natalee. They are in Aruba tonight. Gentlemen, thank you.HOUSTON: Thank you.MURPHY: Thank you.



On 6-23 CNN reported:

CNN LARRY KING LIVE
Latest From Aruba; Interview With Michael Jackson Jurors
LARRY KING, HOST: Tonight, new developments in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway. A judge whose son has already been arrested is now in custody himself. And after more than three weeks, still, no sign of Natalee. We'll get all the latest from Aruba with Natalee Holloway's aunt, Robin Holloway and her uncle Dave Holloway, Mariaine Croes with the attorney general's office in Aruba, another aunt Marcia Twitty who is back home in Birmingham, Alabama, where CNN's Karl Penhaul is also on the scene.And Michael Cardoza, the high profile defense attorney.
…
We're back. And we welcome you to another edition of LARRY KING LIVE. This mysterious Aruba situation gets weirder and weirder, stranger and stranger.Let's go to Aruba. Robin Holloway, Natalee Holloway's aunt is with us. Also in Aruba is Dave Holloway, her uncle. Are you two married, Robin?ROBIN HOLLOWAY, NATALEE HOLLOWAY'S STEPMOTHER: This is Natalee's dad. I'm Natalee's stepmother.KING: Okay. That's Natalee's father. Dave is not the uncle. He's the father.R. HOLLOWAY: No. Yes.DAVE HOLLOWAY, NATALEE HOLLOWAY'S FATHER: That's right.KING: And Robin you're the stepmother, right?R. HOLLOWAY: Yes.KING: Dave, how long have you been there, Dave?D. HOLLOWAY: I've been here whatever today is, the 23rd. I've been here 23 days.KING: Any reports? What do you make of this all latest thing going on? Judges arrested, people released? What is your read?D. HOLLOWAY: When I first arrived here, I was briefed by Beth and her husband on what had taken place. And I had a suspicion that the judge or these three suspects were possibly involved. And that has played out.KING: And what led you to have that suspicion?D. HOLLOWAY: Well, when you're looking for a child, and the father tells his son to be quiet and not say anything, that would lead me to believe they're trying to cover up something.KING: And Robin Holloway, what do you make of it?R. HOLLOWAY: Well, we were glad to hear he was arrested today. And we always had in our gut feeling that he had something to do with it. Maybe it's a father protecting his son, but I don't know. It was a good day.KING: In Birmingham, Alabama is Marcia Twitty, who is Natalee Holloway's aunt. Have you been to Aruba, Marcia?MARCIA TWITTY, NATALEE HOLLOWAY'S AUNT: No, I have not been to Aruba so far. I've been here the whole time.KING: You are the aunt how. Explain how you became the aunt?TWITTY: Beth and I are married to brothers.KING: Beth and you and Beth is the mother.TWITTY: Right. Right.KING: Are you very close to Natalee?TWITTY: You know, Natalee has been in our family for the past seven years. And I have children same age as Natalee. So, you know, we're around a lot of situations together, you know, pretty much.KING: Must be frustrating being there in Birmingham.TWITTY: Yeah, it has been. But we have had a lot going on here. We have been spending a lot of time with all the kids on the trip. So we have had a lot to do here and we have done a lot of media coverage from here just because people were interested in what was going on here in Birmingham.KING: And what are those kids telling you?TWITTY: You know, in the beginning they were telling us what pieces of information they knew, pretty much they were meeting with the authorities on the information that they had. And from then we have been meeting with the kids on a regular basis. Prayer groups every day. Trying to help the kids get back to somewhat of a normal life. So we have been busy working with these kids.KING: Isn't all this news, Marcia, arrests, releases, holding 48 hours, confusing to you?
TWITTY: It is extremely confusing, we have all had to learn Dutch law. And this is -- it is not like when you travel and something happens, you get to take American law with you. Something happened under another law system and we have had to learn that and yes it has been -- it has been very difficult for the family that's down here and very difficult for us in the States to learn that and understand it.KING: Dave Holloway in all fairness and frankness, have you given up hope of her being alive?D. HOLLOWAY: No, I haven't. There is still that small chance that she could be off the island somewhere.KING: You mean that somehow she left Aruba with someone?D. HOLLOWAY: Well, not under her own will, Larry. The FBI and the local authorities when they first spoke with these three individuals, they had the same story. And then after further interrogation those stories broke up and then now they have different stories. So in their thinking, there is probably foul play involved. But we still haven't found Natalee so we still have hopes that we may find her.KING: You're in the unusual position, Robin, of hoping she's being held by someone.R. HOLLOWAY: Who would have thought we would hope she is being held by somebody? But if she is, at least she could still be alive and we could still bring her home and we have not found her yet so there is still that chance. You have to hold on to that.KING: That's what I mean, though. Your best case scenario is somebody has her.R. HOLLOWAY: That's bad, but at least she would be alive.KING: Yeah, you're not kidding. Dave, do you have much faith in the judicial system there?D. HOLLOWAY: I do. I spoke with the prime minister approximately two weeks ago and I had those concerns about the individuals and their stature in the community. And the prime minister assured me, of course, he -- assured me that no one is above the law here and that would not be a factor.KING: For a while, though, didn't it seem, Robin, like there was a keystone cops aspect to this? Arrest, releases, body found, not found, confession, non confession?R. HOLLOWAY: I don't -- in the beginning, yes it seemed like that. But there is -- it is a slow process, we're learning a lot more about the Dutch law. But after today, I mean, they're really, really working hard. And we meet with somebody every day, they give us a short briefing and it is just like Dave referred to, it's a big puzzle, the pieces are slowly being filled and I think today, a big piece of the puzzle got filled in.KING: By having the judge arrested?R. HOLLOWAY: Oh, yes.KING: Marcia Twitty, they still have hope. Do you?TWITTY: Absolutely. We have not lost hope one bit. We're right there with them. We're looking for Natalee. And no, we have not given up hope.KING: Despite all the days that have gone by and no sign and it is not a big island.TWITTY: Despite all that, we still have hope, Larry, that we're going to find her.KING: All right. We're going to take a break and come back. Then we'll be joined by Mariaine Croes, the spokeswoman for the Aruban attorney general's office. We'll get up to date on some of that law. And Michael Cardoza, one of the leading defense attorneys on the left coast in San Francisco will join us for his thoughts. Attorney looking at things so far away. Don't go away.(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)ANITA VAN DER SLOOT , SON JORAN AND HUSBAND PAUL: The neighbor called and somebody called from the house that there was a lot of Police around the house. And they were there to speak to Paul. And Paul, because in my conversation with Joran, Joran said, mommy, I'm so afraid they're picking up daddy because that's that they telling me. And they came, the Police came. And they took my husband just to another room. And then Ms. Avunastefe (ph) came back to tell me that they were taking my husband for interrogation.(COMMERCIAL BREAK)KING: A little legalistics here. In Aruba, here is Mariaine Croes, she is the spokeswoman for the Aruban attorney general's office there. There you see her on the left. And in San Francisco is Michael Cardoza, the famed California defense attorney. Mariaine, bring us up to date. Who has been arrested and -- are there any charges? What is the latest?MARIAINE CROES, ARUBA ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE: Okay, what I can say at this moment is that this afternoon a fifth suspect was arrested in this case. He is the father of one of the other suspects, the minor suspect. At this point he's being held for 48 hours.KING: And why are they suspects?CROES: At this point the general description is that they are suspected of being involved in the disappearance of Ms. Holloway. That's the general description. But because when we arrest somebody, you have to have a reasonable suspicion of specific crimes, so at this point all the suspects are arrested on the first crime of premeditated murder.KING: So that is -- is that a charge?CROES: At this point it is only a reasonable suspicion. The definite accusation and in American system "charge" will be made when the investigation is finished. And the prosecutor has reviewed all of the evidence pertaining to this investigation.KING: To your knowledge, have any other judges ever been charged like this in Aruba?CROES: As far as I know, no.KING: Michael Cardoza from San Francisco, the noted defense attorney. What do you make of this?MICHAEL CARDOZA, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I tell you what, right now I really think that the authorities down there are playing hard ball. Because what they're doing, remember, the kids changed their story. Joran, the judge's son at first said that they dropped them off and then he admits, well, she and I actually walked on the beach. So he changes his story to that later.Then they bring his father, the judge into custody. It really does put on Joran, the boy, a lot of pressure. It is like, look, we got your dad in custody. You better tell us the truth. Then the other boys that are suspects their parents come into custody. You've got to think it is putting pressure on them. I know it is the reasonable suspicion, but you really wonder what they have.But on the other side of the coin, we have a missing girl. And the most important thing is to find out what is going on. So in that vein, are they doing the right thing? Most people would say sure, turn the screws on. Put the pressure on them, find out what really happened here. But do they really have anything? My guess would be no right now. They're really grasping at straws.KING: Does it also mean, Mariaine Croes, that at this point you can't say a crime has been committed?CROES: At this point the suspects are in custody because they are being suspected of committing a crime. But, no, at this point we cannot say definitely if a crime was committed and what crime that was. That is something that will have to result out of our investigation.KING: How would this similar situation be dealt with, Michael, in the United States?CARDOZA: Well, I tell you, somewhat the same way. You wouldn't see the parents being arrested, though, unless you had some evidence. Because think about what they're doing here. You have a judge down in Aruba, a man with a great reputation. Unless they have some really strong evidence against him, really strong evidence, beyond that reasonable suspicion, I would think, don't bring this guy in. You have literally ruined his life right now. Because there always will be people, even if he's cleared later, there will always be somebody that will say, you know what, I wonder -- I wonder if he really did know.And remember, his son is in custody. What did he do, maybe, just tell the son to be quiet? Don't talk? What father wouldn't tell their son that? So that judge is being torn in a different way. He's got to abide by the law, but also it is his young son. It is his son. So what does he do? He perchance, gives him good advice. Don't talk.So I really hope -- I really hope if they brought him in, that - and this is going to sound strange, that they have some strong evidence against him because if they don't, honestly, shame on them. Because they're ruing this man's life.KING: Isn't that true, Mariaine?CROES: Of course that is true. And that's why we don't go picking up suspects. We have to have the reasonable suspicion. That's for us at this point very important. And we do have that at this point.KING: Karl Penhaul, our CNN correspondent also on the scene in Aruba. What is the opinion generally if you talk to the public there about this judge in this whole thing?KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Larry, as far as the public's reaction to the judge's arrest, still a little bit too fresh to talk to that. The judge was picked up about 2:00 p.m. local time. So we're only talking a little over six, seven hours ago. I'm sure that by tomorrow that word will be around on the street. But this has been rumored for some time. The word on the street that the general public had been expecting for several days now for the judge to be picked up, especially following the fact that two days over the weekend he was called in for interviewing by Police. Although at that stage Police said he was interviewed as a possible witness, not as a suspect, Larry.KING: In other words, they're not saying that this judge committed directly a crime, are they, Karl?PENHAUL: In general terms, what the public says about this family is that, yes, it is a well respected family, that the Judge Paul van der Sloot is a fairly quiet man, beyond that, though, what the Aruban people, like the authorities here are saying, is that they really want to resolve this case. They believe it is long overdue right now and are moving as fast as they can and say they want to move as fast as possible to resolve this, Larry.KING: Okay. Mariaine Croes, we thank you. I know you have to be somewhere else. We'll take a break and come back. The Holloways will rejoin us along with Marcia Twitty. Michael Cardoza will remain and so will Karl Penhaul.At the bottom of the hour, we'll meet eight of the 12 Jackson jurors. Don't go away.(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)NADIRA RAMIREZ, MOTHER OF SUSPECTS SATISH AND DEEPAK KALPOE : I ask him, Satish, are you sure you guys didn't do anything. No, mama, we give that girl and Joran a lift. They don't even know Natalee. They said she didn't even introduce herself to them, hi, I am Natalee. They don't even talk a word with her. They said me and my brother give them a lift and they came home. They don't know anything else about that. I said, Satish, mama is trusting you guys. They said, I'm telling you, mama, we didn't do anything.(END VIDEO CLIP)(COMMERCIAL BREAK)KING: In Aruba is Robin Holloway, Natalee Holloway's stepmother and Dave Holloway, Natalee Holloway's uncle -- or, rather, Natalee Holloway's father. In Birmingham, Alabama is Marcia Twitty, Natalee Holloway's aunt. In San Francisco, defense attorney Michael Cardoza. And in Aruba is CNN correspondent Ken (sic) Penhaul. Robin, did any of what Mariaine Croes say satisfy you?R. HOLLOWAY: Yeah, that's pretty much what we have been told, just ...KING: Dave, weren't you frustrated by all of this?D. HOLLOWAY: Am I frustrated with all of this?KING: Yeah.D. HOLLOWAY: Well, I know -- I've seen other cases and I've seen how the process works. And I remain optimistic and positive about it. Yes, I would have liked for it to have been over with a long time ago. And I'm hopeful that it will come to conclusion pretty quickly. We just got to hope that the Police get their breaks and we get a conclusion.R. HOLLOWAY: A confession.KING: Marcia Twitty in Birmingham, are you satisfied with what you heard to this point?TWITTY: Yeah, you know what, Larry from the very day that Beth got to Aruba, she has said very strongly that she felt like the 17- year-old Dutch boy and the father knew something about where Natalee might be. I mean, she has stuck with that from the beginning. So hopefully now with him bringing this dad in custody, that maybe we'll start get something answers that this family so desperately wants.KING: Michael Cardoza, what would you do as defense attorney here?CARDOZA: I'll tell you what, first thing is everybody be quiet, quit talking. Look what got the boy into trouble, Joran was changing his story. Now, remember that is from a defense attorney standpoint. As a person, you know, I want this solved. All defense attorneys that have children or don't have children would want a crime like this solved. But going for the defense attorney role, you got to tell your client, because we owe them that obligation, do not talk because believe me, you're only going to get yourself into trouble.And as I say, look what happened here. The kid changed his story, they bring in the father, and the whole house of cards apparently might be beginning to tumble here. But as I said, I really hope they have something with the dad other than he may have talked to his son. So we'll see as it unfolds.KING: Michael, supposing you were representing the Holloways.CARDOZA: I'll tell you what, I would be aggressive. I would be in there telling them to arrest everybody. Bring them in. Put the pressure on them. It depends which side of the coin you're standing on, which side of the ledger are we on here. As the family of the victims here, or hopefully not a victim, but as the family of Natalee, turn the pressure on, bring them on.But on the other side you have to be cognizant that you don't want to ruin people's lives. And you don't want this government being pressured by all the news media that is down there. You know, handle this case as you would handle every other case. Turn the blind eye to the media. Do it slowly. Do it correctly. So if you can prove the crime, bring it to court so you have the right evidence. Don't rush to judgment here. It may take some time.KING: Dave, why aren't you pounding the desk? Why aren't you, like, angry?D. HOLLOWAY: Why? Well, I'm very optimistic and positive, Larry that the Police are doing the best job that they can do. The FBI guys that I've been talking to have told me -- the guys behind the scenes are very good and very good at what they're doing. What makes it difficult is we look at the American judicial system versus the Dutch judicial system. And it was hard for us to understand that at first.And that was a first week or so -- it was difficult. Difficulties in how they do things and how they take witness statements and then follow back up with possible arrests. So all of these suspects had the opportunity to tell the truth and apparently when you lie, it is hard to remember what you're lie was. So they were called it several time and some inconsistencies developed and then they changed their stories. So, you know, I just hope that they get all the birds together and they're going start singing.R. HOLLOWAY: We are angry. But the answer lies with the three suspects. They know where Natalee is and until they talk, yeah, we're angry and frustrated. But it is because of them -- if they would tell the truth.KING: So Robin, just to be clear, you are not mad at authorities?R. HOLLOWAY: No. The guys that know where she is, that's who we're angry with. We deserve the truth. KING: And you're convinced they know where she is. Right, Dave?D. HOLLOWAY: Oh, yes. They're the last -- those three boys were the last ones with Natalee. And they hold the answers.KING: Marcia, as you know your niece, was she have run off with someone?TWITTY: No. No. Natalee -- no, Natalee would not -- no, she would not do this. She would not under her own free will just leave. No.KING: So it is obvious, Michael, something, a crime has happened, right? Some type of crime.CARDOZA: Well -- maybe. It certainly sounds like a crime. You know like the old -- if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, it is probably a duck. It's probably a crime. But you don't know and I know - and my empathies really go out to the family. But to say the people in custody know where she is, they might be right. But they might be wrong too.Because these kids changed their story, they could be very frightened and go, okay, we dropped her at the hotel and later on, all right, I really did walk around the beach. I was with her. But I left. That sounds a little strange. To hear from family. And I understand this I really do. When they say, oh, our daughter wouldn't do that. I've represented too many kids and too many people to know yeah, you hope your daughter wouldn't do that. But you get them down there and on a vacation, maybe they have a couple of drinks and maybe they have real bad judgment.Remember, this was a high school graduation party. Was there drinking going on? Maybe she had too much to drink and that affected her judgment. So basically it is -- we really don't know what happened here. The Police really should question thoroughly these people. But I wouldn't be really that quick to say they know where they are. Maybe they do. But let's wait and see. And we weren't privy to the conversations that went on. So who knows.KING: Let's hope. Thank you, all. Thank you everyone for being our guest in this half hour.



On 6-23 MSNBC reported:

JOE SCARBOROUGH, HOST: Developing news out of Aruba, as the father of a key suspect is arrested. Did he and his son have a hand in Natalee Holloway's disappearance?
Welcome to SCARBOROUGH COUNTRY. No passport required, only common sense allowed.
Paul van der Sloot, the justice official whose son Natalee—last saw Natalee Holloway, is now behind bars. We'll have reaction from Natalee's family. And we are going to go live to Aruba for the very latest.
But, first, a dramatic development today in the search for Natalee Holloway----the father of 17-year-old suspect Joran van der Sloot was arrested on—quote—“suspicion that he was involved in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway.”
Tonight, it appears Joran himself has again changed his story.
With us now from Aruba live with the very latest is NBC's Ron Blome.
Ron, bring us up to date.
RON BLOME, NBC CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was a stunning development here.
The witness becomes a suspect, and now both father and son are behind bars, both arrested for the same thing, suspicion of being involved in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway. The arrest came at 2:00 this afternoon, as Paul van der Sloot was coming home with his wife from visiting their son on the other side of the island. Paul didn't get to see him. The wife did. They were coming back.
A neighbor said, there's a lot of activity at your house. The Police are here.
They drove to the Police station. Obviously, he may have been expecting it. Just last weekend, he was interviewed for seven hours as a witness. But, as we said, he has turned into a suspect now. Natalee Holloway's tonight family reacted very positively to this. They said they had been hoping for this. They are happy about it. They think it may advance the investigation.
But some of the neighbors of the van der Sloots and friends of theirs say this arrest was prompted only by intense U.S. media pressure.
For instance, listen to these comments from friend and neighbor Bob Schlowsky .
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOB SCHLOWSKY, FRIEND OF THE VAN DER SLOOTS: Some of the people in the American media have just jumped on this and said, oh, now, they arrested dad. This whole family is guilty. That's wrong. That's just the wrong way to treat people. It's the wrong way to treat the investigation, and it's the wrong way for people to lose their civil liberties.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLOME: Let me tell you about another development that has the Holloway family on the upside to now.
And that is the arrival of Texas EquuSearch. Four members of a lead team came in tonight. It's a volunteer group from Texas. They claim a 70 percent success rate in solving cases and finding people; 17 more will arrive tomorrow, along with dogs, sidescan sonar. They are going to make a very intensive search of the island.
And their leader, Tim Miller, says they are going to do this with the cooperation of the Aruba government, their blessings.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TIM MILLER, TEXAS EQUUSEARCH: I think people are going to be surprised how we are going to be working with the authorities, hand in hand. And everybody is going to be here for one reason. And that's to find Natalee.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLOME: And, Joe, Tim Miller says he expects to have this wrapped up within five days. He is very optimistic that they are going to find something—back to you.
SCARBOROUGH: Ron, fascinating developments today. Thanks so much for your report.
Now, earlier today, an emotional woman Anita van der Sloot talked about her husband and son, who are now both in custody.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANITA VAN DER SLOOT , MOTHER OF SUSPECT: My thoughts are with the family. My thoughts are with Natalee. I know she is alive. She is somewhere. She is alive. And I should have brought her to a responsible adult. That, I blame myself and I will blame my whole life.
But the truth will come out, and I will be out of here soon.
That my husband, who is a man full of integrity, who worked for 15 years in the (INAUDIBLE) department, that he got taken like this, without any evidence, without any—without anything? That—I was just furious.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCARBOROUGH: What a remarkable, tragic story.
You know, when we first broke this story, nearly a month ago, we spoke the first night to Marcia Twitty. She's Natalee's aunt. And she is with us again.
Marcia, thank you so much for being us. How is the family reacting to the arrest of Paul van der Sloot and what do you make of it?
MARCIA TWITTY, AUNT OF NATALEE HOLLOWAY: Well, you know, from the very beginning, when this all started, we knew that those—the three kids were the last ones to have seen Natalee, so we felt like they had information.
And if you talked about from the very day she arrived in Aruba, and she had an encounter with Mr. van der Sloot , she felt like from the very beginning that he had information as to where Natalee might be. And to this day, she still believes he has information that could help us find Natalee.
SCARBOROUGH: And talk about that first time when she met him. They talked face to face. I mean, there was a confrontation. She believed that the son had information. She believed the father had information. Was it just instinct? Was it just gut? How did she know that?
TWITTY: Yes, I think it was just absolute that mother instinct that you know something that you are not telling me. And she has never changed her mind, not one time since she has been there. She really feels like they have information as to where Natalee is.
And hopefully now, with them bringing the father in, that we can hopefully be on the right track and really get to some answers, so that we can find Natalee and bring everybody home.
SCARBOROUGH: You know what is so remarkable, Marcia? Again, I remember we talked to you that first night, when I read about this story on the wires, before anybody was really reporting it. You were on a cell phone. We could hardly hear you talking. That seems like a lifetime ago. Can you believe it's taken Aruban authorities—first of all, it took them 11 days to arrest these guys who were last seen with Natalee.
And now it's taken, you know, what, another three, three and a half weeks to pull this guy in. I mean, can you believe it's taken Aruban authorities as long as it has to bring some of these people, again, who probably know what's going on in this case better than anybody else, but to bring them inside and to really start applying pressure to them?
TWITTY: Yes, three—I guess we are just so used to American government. and having to learn a Dutch government, I think, has been a huge learning curve for everybody.
Three weeks seems an extensively long time to so desperately want answers to a missing child. So, yes, it seems very long. But, hopefully, now, maybe we are getting somewhere. This is just another piece of the puzzle that we so desperately have needed.
SCARBOROUGH: And, you know, Marcia, I was going to ask you how the family's spirits are today. I mean, it's been bad news day after day after day.
But, today, it actually looks like there may be a little hope about cracking this case. It seems like Aruban authorities finally getting serious, doing the things that you all know have needed to be done. And, of course, you have got rescuers coming in, searchers coming in from Texas, 70 percent success rate. I mean, this actually looks like it may have been the first good day that this family has had in quite some time.
TWITTY: It really is.
I think this kind of—everybody that I talked to today—and it was really only briefly—but when I did, there was this whole sense of hope that we were going to maybe now find some answers. Beth and the family down there, they desperately deserve answers as to where Natalee is. Maybe we are going to get them now.
SCARBOROUGH: Marcia, final—final question, Marcia. How is the family doing tonight? How is Natalee's mom and dad and step-dad? How are you doing tonight? This ordeal just keeps going on and on. You know, miracles happen. They happened in Utah. Do you all still believe that Natalee may come home to you safely?
TWITTY: You know what? We all have to believe that. We do. You know, the little boy was found. We can find Natalee. We are not giving up. Beth has relentlessly said she is not coming home without Natalee.
You know, absolutely. We have hope. We have hope that we are going to find Natalee. And maybe now we are getting to a point to where all the things are now kind of clicking and we can get those answers and find her and bring everybody home. It's time.
SCARBOROUGH: All right. Thanks a lot, Marcia.
As always, we appreciate being with us.
TWITTY: Thanks.
SCARBOROUGH: And, please, pass along to the family all of our thoughts and prayers. We continue to think and pray for you and the family.
TWITTY: Absolutely. I'll pass that along.
SCARBOROUGH: Now let's go back to Aruba.
All right. Thank you.
Now let's go back to Aruba. And we are going to be talking to Arlene Ellis-Schipper.
She's an attorney.
And, Arlene, I appreciate you being with us. I understand that you know Mr. van der Sloot . Can you tell us about him, tell us about the family, how respected they are on the island?
ARLENE ELLIS-SCHIPPER, ARUBA “STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS TASK FORCE” MEMBER: Well, I know Mr. van der Sloot is a very quiet, soft-spoken, kind man. I have had the pleasure actually of working with him. And we are just very shocked here on the island. And I am shocked at what has happened today.
SCARBOROUGH: Do you think, as Mrs. van der Sloot believes, that this may have been brought about by media pressure from the United States?
ELLIS-SCHIPPER: Well, I don't agree with that.
You know, public prosecution office in Aruba is very careful about what it does, especially with the eye on them, and they have to have suspicion of involvement in a criminal offense to arrest someone and especially to keep him in Police custody. And I think that they are having that suspicion.
SCARBOROUGH: So, tell me what happens to him now. Again, we in America don't understand what goes on in the Aruban judicial system. How long can they hold him in custody before they have either got to charge him with a crime or release him to go back home?
ELLIS-SCHIPPER: Well, I hear the question about charging with a crime, that term, a lot.
Charging with a crime implies that you know what criminal offense has been committed. And, at this point, I understand that the authorities simply don't know yet what exact criminal offense has been committed. What I do know, what I can tell you about our system is that the Police custody lasts a total of 10 days. It is, again, two times, 48 hours, after which the prosecutor can ask for an extension of the Police custody.
After three days, a judge of instructions will assess whether there's enough—whether the arrest was made justfully. And after the 10 days of Police custody, he profoundly assesses the case, whether there's enough probable cause for—to grant a petition of pretrial detention.
SCARBOROUGH: OK. Let me ask you this final question, Arlene. What are your friends, what are your neighbors, what are other people on the island saying right now about this arrest, about this whole incident? These things obviously don't happen on Aruba often. You have got a very peaceful island. What is the attitude of the locals there tonight?
ELLIS-SCHIPPER: Well, I can assure you, everybody was shocked today. It was on all the radio stations. The people were just shocked and amazed of this arrest.
As you know, I am a bystander, like you are. We don't know what exactly has led to this arrest, but we were just shocked. Everybody was screaming on the radio about this arrest, and just it was so out of character for the family, van der Sloot, to have themselves involved in this.
SCARBOROUGH: But a lot of anger? Is it safe to say a lot of people that live in Aruba were angry with this arrest?
ELLIS-SCHIPPER: No, angry is not the right word, just shock and amazement.
SCARBOROUGH: Just shocked?
ELLIS-SCHIPPER: Everybody is hoping that there's going to be a resolvement of this case soon.
SCARBOROUGH: All right. Thank you so much, Arlene. We greatly appreciate you being with us tonight. We look forward to speaking with you in the future as this case moves on.
Now, in a minute, we are going to be going back live to Aruba. And we are going to talk to someone from the prosecutor's office about the very latest developments.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KARL ROVE, SENIOR ADVISER TO PRESIDENT BUSH: It just shows me that, look, there are a lot of Democrats who haven't gotten over the last election. They're angry. They're rage-filled. Look, they thought they were going to win.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCARBOROUGH: Then, he is the president's top adviser. And now he is at the center of a political firestorm. And he's in SCARBOROUGH COUNTRY, one-on-one with Karl Rove coming up.
And it's deja vu all over again, some of today's hottest stars, movies we saw decades ago. Why is Hollywood getting desperate?
Well, we are not desperate. We are just getting started in SCARBOROUGH COUNTRY. Stick around. We'll be back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCARBOROUGH: Got a lot more straight ahead in SCARBOROUGH COUNTRY, talking about the disappearance of Natalee Holloway and why the father of Joran van der Sloot is in jail tonight. We are going to be asking someone from the prosecutor's office in Aruba. Also, my exclusive interview with Karl Rove coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWS BREAK)
SCARBOROUGH: You know, one of those stories—I just got to say this really briefly.
One of those stories about the Supreme Court decision, unbelievable.
We will talk about that in a minute.
An all-star volunteer search team from Texas has landed in Aruba and they immediately took Natalee's father, David, up in the helicopter to search the island.
Here to talk about the status of the case is Mariaine Croes. She's with the prosecutor's office in Aruba.
Mariaine, thank you so much for being with us tonight.
And can you tell us, why was Paul van der Sloot arrested?
MARIAINE CROES, ARUBAN SPOKESWOMAN: I can explain his arrest in general terms at this point.
He was arrested because, at this point in the investigation, there was a reasonable suspicion that is he somehow involved in the disappearance of Ms. Holloway.
SCARBOROUGH: Could it be that he is involved—do you believe he is involved in the disappearance and obviously a conspiracy to cover up that crime?
CROES: At this point, I can only state in general terms that he is involved in the disappearance. The farther we go, and we are in the investigation in his case, the more we can tell about the specific suspicions against him.
SCARBOROUGH: Ms. Croes, let me ask you, have all you taken—or has anybody taken these three youths out of the jail and taken them to the scene, where I guess Joran was is now claiming he was with Natalee Holloway alone?
CROES: At this point, that would be too specific a part of the investigation, that I cannot confirm or deny yet.
What I can say, though, that, if it has to happen, it will be done.
SCARBOROUGH: All right.
There are obviously some people in Aruba that are claiming that the prosecutor's office moved on Mr. van der Sloot and his son because of intense media pressure from the United States. What do you say to Anita van der Sloot when she levels that charge against the prosecutor's office?
CROES: I would have to deny that charge, because a criminal investigation cannot be led by media pressure or any pressure.
It's what the investigation tells the Police to do. What is the right action to take at that moment, that is what will be done. For us, the investigation is what leads us and that is for us priority No. 1.
SCARBOROUGH: All right. Thank you so much, Mariaine Croes. We greatly appreciate you being with us tonight. And we look forward to talking to you as this case moves forward.
Now let's bring in Rob Dinan. He's from the New York City Police Department. And he's also the author of “Drug-Free Teen.” And also Candice DeLong. She's a former FBI special agent and the author of “Special Agent.”
Candice, let's start with you. You predicted this. I mean, on Monday, when we talked to you, you said, you know what they have done? They have taken the father in. They talked to him for seven hours. They are going to dig into what they get from him. And when they find an inconsistency, they are going to bring him in. How did you know?
CANDICE DELONG, FORMER FBI PROFILER: Right.
Well, you do this kind of thing for 20 years, you see this happen over and over. When they kept him for seven hours and then he ducked and dodged out the back of the church and didn't make a statement in front of cameras, as his wife has been doing, I knew something was up.
SCARBOROUGH: And, Rob, let me ask you a question. What do you do? Obviously, you're with NYPD. You have done investigations when you have family members together like this. It's got to be harder to crack the father and crack the son if they are the only two people that know the truth about Natalee Holloway's disappearance. How do you do it?
ROB DINAN, AUTHOR, “DRUG-FREE TEEN”: Well, that's true, Joe.
But with normal investigations and investigations into a crime scene like this, you are mainly looking to separate the two individuals. And, meanwhile, in this case, they really haven't had the opportunity to do that, because they had the son in custody, and then released the son later that week.
So the father and the son did have the opportunity to speak and come up with a story that would...
SCARBOROUGH: For 11 days. They gave them—they gave them 11 days to get rid of the evidence. They gave them 11 days to get their stories straight. And then, when they talked to the father on Sunday, they gave him four more days before they brought him back in. I mean, so much evidence can be destroyed in that amount of time, can't it?
DINAN: Oh, that's true. I mean, the crime scene needs to be protected right away. And not protecting the crime scene, not knowing exactly where the crime scene was here in Aruba, and with their current status with investigations, they seem like they haven't done such a good job on protecting the crime scene itself.
SCARBOROUGH: Yes. They have done an absolutely—they have done an absolutely horrible job at that. You are exactly right.
Candice, let me bring you back in and ask you this question. We hear from the mother, Anita van der Sloot today, that her son is now admitting that he was on the beach with Natalee the night she disappeared. Changed his story. According to reports, this is the second or third time that he has changed his story.
First of all, what does it mean that he keeps changing his story? Secondly, what does it mean to Police officers that he has now put himself at the scene by himself with this missing girl?
DELONG: Well, of course, to me, the fact that he keeps changing his story indicates that he has at least lied about the first—you know, he has lied about probably the first two stories. Now the third story, third that we know of, he has actually apparently named a place on a beach where he was. The first thing that occurred to me when I heard that was shades of the Scott Peterson case.
Scott deliberately put himself at what turned out to be the crime scene. We know now because he suspected he might have been seen by some other fishermen. But, of course, Scott never thought that body was going to float up. Now we have Joran saying, OK, well, what I told you before wasn't really true. But, OK, I was with her on this beach.
What occurs to me is that he thinks maybe he had been seen or perhaps something is going to turn up that is going to put him at somewhere where he said he wasn't. And now he can always say, well, yes, I know you found her shoe there, but I told you I was there.
SCARBOROUGH: Yes.
And let me ask you this, Rob. What do you do next? What are we missing here? What are the Aruban authorities missing here? What do we do to crack this case?
DINAN: Well, obviously, with the two individuals who are now the main suspects, the father and the son, you really need to separate them. And then the mother is having the visits, which is really not a proper cause of action for the Aruban authorities.
SCARBOROUGH: Why not? Because she can pass information back and forth?
DINAN: She can pass information back and forth to both individuals. And separating them and having their stories clear and concise, what they are saying, which they are really not saying the truth at this point. But...
(CROSSTALK)
SCARBOROUGH: So, Rob, you keep the mother away from both of them, so she can't see her father or her son.
DINAN: That's correct.
SCARBOROUGH: It sounds like strong medicine, Candice. Do you agree that's what you need to do?
DELONG: Unless, under the system of law they are dealing with, they can wire the room up and surreptitiously record what is going on.
But if they are not doing that, I would say definitely they should not be allowed to visit, with the same person visiting both of them. She has an interest in the well-being of both of them, wouldn't you say?
SCARBOROUGH: No doubt about it, Candice. Thanks for being with us, Candice DeLong and Rob Dinan. Greatly appreciate it.
And I will tell you what. The first thing I would do is, I would drag the young kid out to the scene of possibly the crime and make me show—have him show me where he last saw Natalee, and then start the search there. You just don't know, though, with these Aruban authorities, whether they are doing that or not. We will be following it, though.

On 6-23 BETH HOLLOWAY-TWITTY stated to FOX News that, maybe, something that Current Murder Suspect PAULUS VAN DER SLOOT claimed BETH and FOX News GRETA VAN SUSTEREN on 6-21 that BETH has generally spoken about is substantially different from what Current Murder Suspect PAULUS VAN DER SLOOT had told the ARUBAN Police Investigators, and that is one reason why he has been arrested. (since 6-23 we have learned that up to the 6-21 meeting with BETH and FOX News GRETA VAN SUSTEREN that Current Murder Suspect PAULUS VAN DER SLOOT was initially claiming he picked up Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT at 4:00 AM on May 30, 2005 but in their 6-21 meeting he started saying the pickup was at 11:00 PM--additionally, we now have confirmations from several Murder Suspects defense attorneys that video cameras at “McDonald’s” show no Murder Suspects at “McDonald’s” AT ALL on 5-29 or 5-30)

On 6-23 NADIRA RAMIREZ, ANITA VAN DER SLOOT , and Current Murder Suspect STEVE CROES uncle stated to FOX News:

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, HOST: Natalee Holloway (search) has been missing for nearly a month, and investigators still have no idea where she is. Deepak and Satish Kalpoe (search), two of the young men seen leaving in Aruban bar with Natalee the night she disappeared, have been in jail for two weeks.
Earlier today, we got an exclusive interview with their mother, Nadira Ramirez. She told us about the night Natalee vanished.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NADIRA RAMIREZ, SATISH AND DEEPAK KALPOE 'S MOTHER: They always come clean to me. You know, they are soft. They are not really scared of me, but I have them in line with everything. I have to know where they go, what time they come. You know, I keep controlling them, calling them, my cell always with me.
And then he start to tell me that, Mom, you know the girl that's missing. Maybe you guys read the paper and news and all those things. I said, Yes. And like, you know, I said, What do you know about this? And then he said that we give that girl a lift that night. So then I said, What, you know? Then he said, Don't be scared, Mom, that, We know we didn't do nothing. It's just a lift Joran asked us to give him and her, or something like that.
And I start to find out everything, and I said that, So what is it now? He said, Well, I think he went already to the Police, or, like, investigation and those things, and maybe we will come over or ask you guys, and so, but we are telling you that it's just a lift. We don't know her at all.
VAN SUSTEREN: Do you know where your boys met up with Joran?
RAMIREZ: OK, I know that Deepak was working that day. And normally, he works, like, until 11: 30. Depends how busy is the place because it's one man running that place. If he's on that shift, he have to close.
VAN SUSTEREN: At the Internet cafe.
RAMIREZ: At the Internet cafe. So depends how if it's busy. If they paid down (ph) for some hours and they're not finished, then he just wait on them, like, it don't make any difference for 10 minutes on those things. So I assessed, like, maybe 11: 30. Maybe he's finished 11: 30. So I don't know. He told me that Joran called him and asked him that he need a lift.
VAN SUSTEREN: From the home to Carlos and Charlie's?
RAMIREZ: I don't know what he told him, but he just said that, Deepak I need a lift, if you can give me a lift or — and then maybe he asked him where or whatever. And why Satish is with him, because he don't go with his car to work. He love his car so much, that if it's a scratch, is a war (ph) in this house. And so he leave his car home. And like, his brother keep contacting him, What time you can pick me up, you know, like...
VAN SUSTEREN: Deepak?
RAMIREZ: Yes. Or he know his time, like, five to 11: 00 or 10 to 11: 00, something like that, he comes out. And then he sit and wait in the car for his brother.
VAN SUSTEREN: So Deepak doesn't have the car at work. He needs a ride from Satish?
RAMIREZ: No, it's his car.
VAN SUSTEREN: But — but Satish...
RAMIREZ: He don't go with his car to work. Satish drop him and bring back his car home.
VAN SUSTEREN: OK. So Satish is at home with Deepak's car and goes to pick up...
RAMIREZ: Pick him up every night, yes.
VAN SUSTEREN: OK.
RAMIREZ: So he went there automatically. Maybe his brother said that, yes, Joran asked me for a lift, or tat-tat-tat. I don't know. And then that's why the two were together to go.
VAN SUSTEREN: So in all likelihood, we don't know for sure, but they probably picked him up at his home and then went back to Carlos and Charlie's?
RAMIREZ: I don't know where they reach each other. He just said that he asked us a lift. So I don't know if they go home and pick him up or they go to Carlos and Charlie's. Those really small things I can't say exact what is it.
VAN SUSTEREN: What did Satish and/or Deepak say about Natalee Holloway? What did they say about her? What do they remember?
RAMIREZ: What you really mean, while she was in Aruba or what she said or...
VAN SUSTEREN: Anything. What do they know about her, or what do they remember from that night?
RAMIREZ: They don't know nothing about her. Only they know that she was with Joran, and he ask him a lift to bring her down by the hotel, that she have to drop her off, and seeing (ph) that Joran is with them, and he said, OK, it's fine. What he said when she went in the car, did her friends call her or something. And he said, I stopped my car, that if she want to go, it's fine. It's not that, yes, we forced her, or not we, she was with Joran. My son said that she didn't even introduce herself to them, like, hi, I'm Natalee or whatever. She didn't talk a word with my two sons.
And she was more like friend with Joran. My two sons were in front. Deepak was driving, the next one other side, and Joran was at the back with her. And he didn't say anything. I mean, he's a boy. I mean, if he have her like a girlfriend, he didn't interrupt. He just drive up, and then...
VAN SUSTEREN: Was something going on in the back seat?
RAMIREZ: Yes. He said that they were kissing. And he was getting a little bit upset because he said that he didn't like it in his car, that if you want to make love, go and pay a hotel and go in a hotel room, not in my car.
And then he said my brothers told me, Satish, he's a little more soft and understanding. (INAUDIBLE) yes, they're coming out just — I don't want to say nothing. And then when they reach up somewhere, he said that — I think Natalee asked that she can see the lighthouse, that she have to leave tomorrow morning, and if they can drive her up there. But he said he don't know if he can go because his car is very low. But he went up. He tried. He said he didn't stop at all because she was drunk. And she was like, Hey, here I am. I want to go back to the hotel.
They turned around back, what they told me, and they dropped her off by the Holiday Inn. I said, You're sure? He said, Yes, we dropped her. And then they put Joran home, and then they come home. Now that I heard that the story changed. I asked Satish (INAUDIBLE) that Satish, why you guys lie to Mama? Said, Yes, he's our friend, and we tried to lie — that — just, you know, to cover him or something. I said, Are you sure? He said, Yes. Joran asked us to leave him by the Marriott beach with Natalee.
And that's all. They come home, and they said they don't know further.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAN SUSTEREN: Up next "On the Record," we spoke with Anita and Paul van der Sloot just hours before Paul was arrested. More of our exclusive interview coming up.
Plus, we're going to hear from the uncle of the party boat deejay who was arrested last week.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAN SUSTEREN: Tonight, we are live in Aruba. Paul van der Sloot was arrested today just hours after our exclusive interview with him and his wife Anita. Their son Joran has been in jail since June 9, along with Deepak and Satish Kalpoe. The three men were the last people seen with Natalee Holloway the night she disappeared. Now I asked Anita how well she knows Deepak and Satish.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANITA VAN DER SLOOT , JORAN'S MOTHER: I met them a few times.
VAN SUSTEREN: Your impression of them?
A. VAN DER SLOOT: Nice guys, ordinary teenagers, yes.
VAN SUSTEREN: Both friends of your son or was one more a friend and one is just a brother?
A. VAN DER SLOOT: I don't know if you can tell because Joran had a few real good friends who he would share everything with. These were just like mates that were passing by and talking about soccer. He didn't see them that often. He doesn't know them that long but he introduced them to us and we thought these are nice but one is more — the one who is passing by and his brother is not really known to me at all.
VAN SUSTEREN: One of the things that you told me yesterday is that you have a house rule that when he came home with his father the night of May 29, his father picked him up at the McDonald's he sneaked out. Did that violate the house rules?
A. VAN DER SLOOT: He did.
VAN SUSTEREN: Do you know if he'd been doing other things behind your back? I mean is it possible that you just don't...
A. VAN DER SLOOT: No, I don't know.
VAN SUSTEREN: You're the loving mother. I mean is that possible?
A. VAN DER SLOOT: You know when I asked him when I was in Holland that weekend or a week because of a family celebration and when I spoke to him the first time I was so angry, so angry with him.
"Why did you sneak out of the house?" He said, "Mom, if you would have been there, I wouldn't even have thought about it." And my husband was deep asleep. He didn't hear anything.
So, I don't think Joran is someone who would do things against the house rules often. I don't think so. He's a normal teenager. You remember how you were when you were a teenager. I remember how I was when I was a 17-year-old. Of course you try to come home a little bit later every time.
But he was ready to stand on his own feet, so we gave him a little bit more freedom just to know that we trusted him and, yes, he could go out once a weekend and it was almost party time because they were in the middle of their exams and it was almost over. So, I don't see anything negative about that.
VAN SUSTEREN: What has been seized from this house?
A. VAN DER SLOOT: The first time it was one computer that we all use. There's no lock on it so we can see what the kids are doing, one laptop of my husband that he only uses for his work, my digital camera what was on my desk, not in Joran's room on my desk. And I just had a field trip with middle-schoolers and I took pictures of a sand sculpturing project that we were doing because I'm an art teacher and there were like maybe 20, 25 pictures on it and I told the Police, listen, this is material I want to use for school but for the rest there's nothing on it. You can look at it but they took that too.
They took all kind of things from Joran, a little kind of an MP3 player. They took tapes, also a tape of his tennis, college tennis camp. And the second time they took — they did a house searching, the garden, the pool. They took the two cars.
VAN SUSTEREN: Have you gotten any of that material back?
A. VAN DER SLOOT: No.
VAN SUSTEREN: They still have it?
A. VAN DER SLOOT: They still have it.
VAN SUSTEREN: Do you know why they took even your computer or your husband's laptop?
A. VAN DER SLOOT: No, we have no clue.
VAN SUSTEREN: How about your digital camera, any idea?
A. VAN DER SLOOT: No, no clue, ridiculous.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAN SUSTEREN: Coming up, party boat deejay Steve Croes was arrested on Friday. He was not with Natalee the night she disappeared so how is he connected to her disappearance? His uncle goes "On the Record" next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAN SUSTEREN: Tonight we are live in Aruba where five men are behind bars in connection with Natalee Holloway's disappearance. One of the suspects, party boat deejay Steve Croes, was arrested last Friday. We took our cameras to the house where Steve lives with his grandparents and spoke to his uncle who lives right next door.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VAN SUSTEREN: Have you talked to your nephew at all?
RUFO SOLOGNIER, STEVE CROES' UNCLE: No, not for a week.
VAN SUSTEREN: What is your...
SOLOGNIER: My wife went to the courtroom this morning.
VAN SUSTEREN: Right. What did they say in court today?
SOLOGNIER: Nothing. Nothing. They can't say nothing. He can't speak to her.
VAN SUSTEREN: They won't let Steve Croes talk to his...
SOLOGNIER: No, nobody.
VAN SUSTEREN: Why not?
SOLOGNIER: I don't know. I have to ask the lawyer.
VAN SUSTEREN: Steve is not your son, he's your nephew, right?
SOLOGNIER: He's the nephew of my wife.
VAN SUSTEREN: Where is Steve's parents?
SOLOGNIER: In Curacao.
VAN SUSTEREN: And sorry, he lives next door with his grandmother?
SOLOGNIER: Grandmother, grandfather.
VAN SUSTEREN: With your wife's mother and father then?
SOLOGNIER: Yes, yes, yes.
VAN SUSTEREN: And his grandparents. Any idea why they picked him up?
SOLOGNIER: I don't know. I can't even.
VAN SUSTEREN: Are they telling you anything at all?
SOLOGNIER: Nothing. I know nothing about Steve.
(END VIDEOTAPE)



6-24-05
On April 20, 2006 ARUBAAN's news-source "Diario" provided a Police transcript it anonymously received in the mail of ARUBAN Police secretly taped conversations 6-24 between Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT , Current Murder Suspect DEEPAK KALPOE , and Current Murder Suspect SATISH KALPOE while they were being transported together in an ARUBAN Police vehicle:

Translation of the Natalee Holloway Case Police report
Kalpoe brothers and Joran van der Sloot accuse each otherORANJESTAD (AAN)D says to J: How do you feel Joran?
J says to D (in an upset tone): You had them arrest my father, my friend
D says to J (very calmly): That’s what I’m telling you, how do you feel?
J says to D: You know very well my father’s not involved
J says to D: I read your declaration, my friend.
D says to J: That’s bullshit.
J says to D: You lied, shit.
J says to D (very calmly): You know what happened to the girl, if you don’t know, then nothing happened to her.
J says to D: Then fuck you.
J says to D: What did you say that Freddy has to be detained?
D says to J: That Freddy has to say the truth.
J says to D: You know very well that Freddy told the truth.
S says to J: You’ll see, you’ll see.
D says to J: From the beginning, you could have avoided the matter of your dad.
D says to J: You know.
J says to D: What, where, how?
D says to J: That he wouldn’t have been detained.
J says to D: Hoe, hoeooooooo.
J says to D: You declared shit against him.
J says to D: My friend, the only thing my father wanted to do was to help you.
J says to D: My father only wanted to help you. My father even arranged a lawyer for you.
J says to D: And this is how you pay him back.
J says to D: (angry): I have to give you both a klap/wanta [punch in the face?]
D says to J: Try numa [?]
D says to J: You can straighten everything out in one shot, you know
J says to D: Why?
J says to D: You can straighten things out too
J says to D: Straighten things out how?
D says to J: You have to tell the truth.
D says to J: Tomorrow I’m getting my last 8 days and then I’m going home.
J says to D: That’s what you think.
D says to J: I’m going home.
J says to D: Wait until I start saying things about you.
J says to D: Then I want to see if you’re going home.
D says to J: I guarantee you.
J says to D: You don’t think the Police are interested to know that Satish hit a girl with the car?
S says to D (should be to J): He he, you make me laugh, my friend, simply laugh.
D says to J: You know very well, you’re always trying to come between us.
J says to D: Then you’re going to start talking shit about the choller (drug addict).
J says to D: My friend, it was me that helped you with that shit / the matter of the choller.
D says to J: I said that too.
J says to D: I didn’t read that, I also read the declaration.
S says to J: The thing about the choller was from me.
D or S says to J: That’s what I just said.
D or S says to J: I also said that in my first declaration. I did that for myself.
S says to J: I said that in my interest.
J answers back: That’s what Police are telling me now.
J says to S or D: Police told me about you now, if you go against me then that’s when I will go against you.
Brothers laugh: Heheheheheh
S says to J: We didn’t put you in this problem.
S says to J: We simply told the truth.
J says to the brothers: You didn’t do that.
J says to the brothers: Half of what you said isn’t the fucking truth.
J says to the brothers: That’s going to show in time.
J says to the brothers: Same as they control me, they control you too.
S says to J: About us, about us. They can find proof, but not about you.
S says to J: With lies there is no proof.
J says to the brothers: Everything is shit from Karen, you don’t know shit.
J says to the brothers: Fuck you.
D says to J: You think the girl doesn’t have anything on, you’re going to see who, who fuck/coy (the last part could not be heard well).
J says to D: We will see.
J says to D: You know when I’m going to laugh; when I give you a wanta [punch?] in the face.
J says to D: And I’ll laugh if they find the girl alive, fuck you.
J says to the brothers: I know very well that you’re scared.
J says to the brothers: If you did something bad to the girl, then we will see.
S says to J: I’m not scared.
S says to J: What do I have to be scared about?
D says to J: I want them to find the girl.
D says to J: You’re going to say shit about me in regards to the girl, that I buried the girl at the fisherman's hut.
J says to D: Who said anything about a burial, I didn’t say anything about a burial.
D says to J: You declared that.
D says to J: Stop with the bullshit.
J says to D: I didn’t say anything about a burial.
J says to D: The only thing I can think of is that you know people, who are people of Automotive Enterprises.
S says to J: (apparently in a sarcastic tone): Hahahaha, after I’ll get a flat tire he.
S says to J: Hahahaha, after went to get you and after I went back to the beach for the girl.
J says to S: Who said that.
S says to J: That’s what you said.
J says to S: My friend, I didn’t say that.
J says to S: My friend, I never said that you went back (apparently referring to the beach).
J says to the brothers: That’s your problem.
J says to the brothers: If they find the girl, then they will see the shit.
D says to J: 8 more days and I’m going home, I guarantee you this 1000 per cent.
J says to D: We will see.
D says to J: You don’t give a shit about your family members.
J says to D: The only thing I can think about is my family, I am doing what my family told me to do.
J says to the brothers: He, retard.
D says to J: You’re like your father, incredible.
J says to D: What about my father, it’s your fault he was detained. I didn’t declare anything against my father, it was you who spoke against my father.
S says to J: I didn’t declare anything.
J says to the brothers: Of course you did.
S says to J: What did I say / against your father?
J says to the brothers: You said that he (Joran’s father) said that if there’s no corpse there’s no case, or I don’t know what more sorts of shit.
J says to the brothers: That’s not true. The only thing he (Joran’s father) said that if there’s no body they don’t have a case.
D says to J: That’s true.
J says to D: Nothing of that is true.
D says to J: I also said in my declaration that he wasn’t kiermen [?] like that.
J says to D: 20 (what’s is 20? Should be the word ‘esey’) I didn’t read that in your declaration.
J says to the brothers: That’s what they’re using against my father.
D says to J: We have suffered a lot because of you.
J says to the brothers: That’s the price that you’ve let my father pay. That you’re suffering so: fuck you. If you let me suffer, I say OK. I don’t have cunes [?] I can sit calmly 160 days here, for me it doesn’t make a difference. I’m ok here.
Brothers say to J: Me too, me too.
J says to S: And you Satish, they told me that you son of a bitch…see spirits in your cell.
J says to S: They told me that you see the girl in your cell and you get very scared.
S says to J: I saw a spirits? Two other guys saw spirits.
S says to J: You also believe people who are in this prison.
S says to J: What you say has nothing to do with spirits and is cheap shit.
J says to S: They speak well of me, but not of you.
J says to the brothers: And also the two guards (the two security guards who were detained the first time) guaranteed me that they will kill you when you get out of prison.
D says to J: Oh, yeah?
J says to the brothers: Who made the declaration about the guards; it was you and not me. Why? Because I didn’t want to bring anyone into the problem who has nothing to do with this case.
D or S yells to J: The lie was for you.
J says to the brothers: It was you who admitted that.
D or S again yells to J: The lie was for you.
J says to the brothers: You paid (with money) him (referring to a male person) however.
Brothers laugh: Hahahahaha.
J says to the brothers: You called by telephone saying that ‘I’ (the ‘I’ here is referring to one of the Kalpoe brothers) hit the jackpot. You said by telephone: “I hit the fucking jackpot.” You forgot that the telephone was tapped.
S or D says to J: Shut your face.
J says to the brothers: You forgot that, retard!
J says to the brothers: And when you got home and said that you fixed everything. You told me “I fixed it’.
J says to D: Good for you. Because of you I’m also in prison.
D says to J: Ayiaaaiaaai.
J says to the brothers: Juffle [?] man, what can you do?
D says to J: What can you do?
J says to the brothers: Make me shut my face, no.
Brothers say to J: Fuck you, we’re not talking to you anymore.
D says to J: Talk until you get tired.
S says to D: You have clothes
D says to J: What are you going to do with that. I’m getting out of here in 5 days.
J says to O (apparently D): That’s what you think.
D says to J: Shut your face.
D says to J again: Shut your face, you bitch.
J says to D: What can you do.
J (should be D) says to J: Fuck your father.
J says to D: If my father doesn’t get out tomorrow, then you’ll see.
J says to D: My friend, shut your face before I hit it shut.
D says to J: Do it if you can. You’re already in prison.
J says to D: It doesn’t make a difference, they can put me in the fucking Cachot [?] I don’t have cunes [?]
D says to J: They’re going to give you 15 years if they find the girl.
J says to D: Why? Why?
D says to J: That scholarship of yours. Gooooooodbye, you can forget about it.
J says to D: Yes, because of who, because of you, retard.
J says to D: You know very well that you did something bad, otherwise you wouldn’t lie.
Brothers say: Aaiaiaiaiaiaiai.
J says to the brothers : I should kill you, retard.
J says to the brothers: Shut your cancer face.
D says to J: Won’t it be nice if tomorrow you’re standing in front of the RC (judge).
D says to J: How not? Too much proof.
J says to D: Then they can hit me too.
J says to D: You think that to me that makes a difference? One strike will be enough.
S says to J: You think, you think.
J says to S: You think that you can go home to get your gun.
S says to J: That I have a gun?
J says to S: Satish, you go get a gun from home, I shoot you dead [?]
S says to J: Look, Police went to my house, they searched the house and they found a gun?
S says to J: What did they find?
D says to J: It’s been hours you’re talking bullshit.
J says to D: How is this shit not true, witnesses saw you.
S says to J: In the end, we’ll see who gets out and who stays.
S says to J: You tell the truth, we will see.
J says to the brothers: I know that I’m getting out.
Brothers say: We will see hahahahaha.



On 6-24 Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT gave the following statements to his ARUBAN Police Interrogators:
(Thank You and Hat Tip to "Scared Monkeys" blog and “Debbie”)
http://blogsfornatalee.com/forums/index.php?PHPSESSID=a14a42aebbbbcefd259fc3c3bf0409ab&topic=4557.0

PROCES – VERBAAL We, Ghrizanti Anuar TROMP and Marcelino Antonio Gregory RAS respectively officer and officer first class with the Korps Politie Aruba and both attached to the Robbery Project Team (Atraco Team) declare the following.On June 24th 2005, at approximately 10.00 hours, we, the reporting officers, went to the correctional facility Aruba to pick up suspect "Joran Andreas Petrus van der SLOOT" to be questioned. There we, the reporting officers, were informed by the watch-commander on duty of the KIA that the suspect J.A.P. van der SLOOT refused to go with us.The suspect J.A.P. van der SLOOT talked to us subsequently, and informed us that he did not want to go with us to the Police station in Oranjestad to make a statement.The suspect J.A.P. van der SLOOT gave us as a reason:- he would only go with us, the reporting officers if is father was released;- that his mother and his lawyer had advised him on behalf of his father to not make any more statements and to invoke his right to not make statements;- that he would receive a message from his father's lawyer when he should make statements;- that according to his lawyer, if he would stop making statements, his father would be released in two days;- that he listens to his families advise;- that the lawyers "Antonio CARLO" and "OOMEN" are good friends of his father- that these two lawyers out of friendship with is father would defend them- that he know that if he would make a statement he could bring his father into trouble- that his father suffers from bad memory and that because of that his and his fathers statements would not correspond- that his father even can't remember what kind of clothes he himself wore the day before- that his lawyer had said that the Police arrested his father because according to the Police his father had picked him up in the late night hours of May 30th 2005 at McDonalds- that he wished the Police would leave his friends and family alone/stop bothering his family and friends- that he would only answer new questions asked by Investigators- that his lawyer had advised him only to make statements in his presence- that his lawyer had started a lawsuit so that he would only make a statement with the lawyer present- that he wouldn't come with us today because his mother would be visiting him at 14.00 hours that day- that if he gets a visit from his mother he would discuss making another statement with her- that only if his father, by way of his lawyer would say he should make a statement he would do so- that he was waiting for the statement of his father and after that make another statement.Of this, we, the reporting officers, on our oath of office, have made this proces-verbaal, closed and signed in Oranjestad on June 24th 2005.The reporting officers,S.A. TROMP M.A.G. RAS



On 6-24 Current Murder Suspect SATISH KALPOE gave the following statements to his ARUBAN Police Interrogators:
(Thank You and Hat Tip to the “Scared Monkeys blog" and “Debbie”)

PROCES – VERBAAL We, Johny Melvis ERASMUS and Zoraida Magaly De CUBA, respectively agent first class and head agent, at the Korps Police Force Aruba, at the section multidiscipline crime district II and last mentioned team classified, explains the following at the research to cooperation classified. On June 24, 2005, around 15:35, the suspect S.S. KALPOE was interrogated more closely. Before interrogating the suspect was told by me, ERASMUS, that he was not obliged to give a declaration. He subsequently finished the declaration in Dutch, which was put on record and sounds as follows. Before questioning started, you informed me that I am not obliged to give a statement. Even if that is so I never the less will prepare to give you a statement. To your question whether I can remember that during one of the many talks at Joran's house the father was supposed to have said "no corpse no case" I can state the following. With the use of different words Joran's dad did say that but it boiled down to the same thing. "If there is no corpse there are no grounds to arrest us".To your question what Joran's father could have meant by grounds/reasons, I can state the following. I assume that he meant, that if a corpse were found with trace-evidence on or in the body, that this could lead to us being arrested.On your question if my brother, Joran and I had sexual contacts with the missing girl, I can explain to you the following: My brother and I definitely did not have sex with the missing girl. Joran I can’t say. All I saw was Joran kissing the missing girl in the car. We, my brother and I, at around 01:50, left Joran and the missing girl at the beach off Marriott hotel, hence why I cannot say if Joran had sex with the missing girl. On your question if during getting out of the car,were Joran and missing little girl entirely dressed, I can explain the following: Joran and the missing girl had everything still on that they had when they got into the car. On your question if I cleaned the car on another day after May 29, 2005, I can explain the following: I can you insure that I have not cleaned the car after May 29, 2005. On May 29, 2005, around 22.45, was the last time my brother and I vacuumed and cleaned the car. On your question if I have new floor mats in the car, I can explain the following: No, the floor mats, which are in the car, are not new. On your question if someone else in the family could have seen us vacuuming, I can explain to you the following: Only my little sister was home and she was sleeping. Perhaps the neighbors had seen, however, that we vacuumed the car. To your question whether after that we still had problems with ants, I can state the following. After that time we still had problems with ants. Not immediately but in the days afterwards we did. You ask me what I meant when I said to the Police force Wednesday June 1, 2005: "then I saw this and I said to Deepak, Joran is crazy”, I can explain it following: Joran and the missing girl that he just met that day was satisfying himself already with a French kiss with the girl. I found that normal and my brother did not indeed and told me that Joran was crazy. On your question where we were ourselves when I saw that Joran and the missing girl were French kissing, I can explain to you the following: When we were driving in the direction of the "lighthouse" past the road to the Holiday Inn hotel, a car came very close beside us. My brother said in the car "What is wrong with these men?" That was the moment that I looked back and saw that Joran and the missing girl were kissing. All I saw at that time is that Joran and the missing girl were kissing. We arrived at the lighthouse and the missing girl was sleeping already. The missing girl lay with her head on the lap of Joran. My brother asked Joran if the missing girl would still see the lighthouse or not. Joran said to my brother, "I do not think so" On your question if this the first time that we have dropped young American girls off at their hotel, I can explain to you the following: This is not the first time that we have dropped young American girls off at their hotel. Generally after closing time of Carlos & Charlies, we drop young American girl at their hotels. With we I mean, my brother, Joran and I. Each weekend Joran is with us. We are then together, at home, at the cinema or go out. On the day of May 30, 2005 after around ten after 02:00 when my brother Deepak and I dropped Joran and the missing girl at the beach north of the Marriott, I had no personal contact and I think no telephone contact also with Joran. On Tuesday May 31, 2005 I sent a message to Joran. On Wednesday June 1, 2005 after I had driven round with the Police force I called my brother Deepak and together we went to meet Joran at the Racquet club. In the evening hours at around 10:30, I went with my brother Deepak to Joran’s apartment. His father and mother were with him and we told them the invented tale of the Holiday Inn. What I noticed was that each time that my brother Deepak and I were visiting with Joran, his father Paul was there, therefore we could talk with Joran. The father Paul told us that we could be interrogated as suspects also after being interrogated as witnesses. Also I can explain that there was a time that when I was with my brother Deepak and Joran and his father was also there, Joran said “if a body is found that we are in big trouble”. My brother and I said to Joran that is impossible because we had done nothing. Joran said then laughing, “Yes, yes you are right”. On your question why we lied with Joran about the missing girl, I can explain to you the following: I have lied to protect my friend. On your question who Joran's best friend is: Freddy Zedan is Joran’s best friend. Freddy knew about the invented Holiday Inn and the tale which my brother and I and Joran told and that the missing girl was dropped off at the beach at the Marriott. My brother Deepak had told me that he and Joran invented the tale but to Freddy the beach tale was told. I thought that stunk, because I was not aware Freddy was told the beach tale. (note: tale does not necessarily mean lie, could mean story). I have met Freddy two times after it was confessed that the girl became missing. The first time I was with my brother Deepak at Joran’s apartment where Freddy was with his girlfriend Carmen, the sister of Carmen and another girlfriend came along to Joran’s. We spoke with Freddy but not concerning the matter of the missing girl. That day Freddy slept at Joran’s apartment. I cannot remember what day that was. The second time was when Joran, my brother and I took the camera to Freddy’s house. We delivered the camera to Freddy, and afterwards all four of us ate Chinese in the area of Freddy’s house. Freddy also lives in Montanja. I do not remember his house number. We had bought food and we then we went to Joran’s apartment afterwards. According to me Freddy was informed then already about the missing girl. We may have spoken some about the missing girl, it is possible but I don’t remember. You ask me if I was scared when we were talking with Freddy about the missing girl. It is possible that I don’t remember. I say that we, Deepak and I, did not know that Freddy knew the real story. The real story, which was on the beach. It do not understand why Freddy was told that, according to me he knew both stories already. My brother and I have asked Joran what really happened with the girl. Joran had told us that he had gone to the beach. There he had taken off his shoes. He and the girl had then walked through the water. Then he had come out of the water. I assume they both got out of the water. The girl supposedly had fallen asleep. We, my brother and I, had asked him how far from the water's edge he had left the girl laying there. Joran had said that he had left the girl laying about 1 meter from the water's edge.
Deepak and I have known Joran for approximately a year. I’ve known Joran longer, a little longer than a year. On your question how I believe that Freddy knows both tales, I can explain the following: Freddy himself had told both tales to my brother and Joran. Afterwards my brother asked Freddy to ask Joran what really happened, since Freddy is Joran’s best friend and certainly Joran would tell Freddy the truth. My brother and I had doubts concerning what Joran had told us. I found Joran acting nervous when he told us what happened on the beach. I found it also strange that he left the missing girl this way near the water for that time. Okay avoided he ask that direct do had concerning missing little girl and him on the range. (He avoided direct questions regarding the missing girl on the beach?) How did I know that Joran became nervous? I can explain the following: Joran looked around then visibility was gone and tried to avoid eye contact. Also his eyes opened further. Also he gave me the impression that he had to think of what he would say. Also it was notable to me that he didn’t want to talk long regarding the beach, but always concerning the tale of the Holiday Inn. On your question on how I think that Joran my brother and I are involved and will tell the truth, I can explain the following: Joran was the last person that was with the missing girl and wants to involve us. He wants to give only his account. During questioning with the suspect S.S. KALPOE, it was asked if he wanted to drink something. The suspect S.S. KALPOE wanted nothing to drink. S. S. KALPOE (unsigned) After the suspect S.S. KALPOE was read his declaration, he persisted thereby but would not sign before his lawyer had read this declaration. The warrant is closed of what by our, ERASMUS and the CUBA, on oath of office, and signed at Oranjestad on June 24, 2005. Signed, J.M. ERASMUS Z.M. De CUBA



On 6-24 Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT gave the following statements to his ARUBAN Police Interrogators:
(Thank You and Hat Tip to the “Scared Monkeys blog" and “Debbie”)

PROCES-VERBAALWe, Dennis Domenico JACOBS and Luigi Angelo Giovanni CROES, head-officer and officer-first class with the Korps Politie Aruba, first mentioned attaced to the robbery project team (Atraco Team) and the latter with the section often occurring crimes district 2, declare the following.On Friday, June 24th, at approximately 18.40 hours, we, the reporting officers, interrogated/interviewed the suspect:Joran Andreas Petrus van der SLOOT born in Arnhem, the Netherlands on August 6th 1987, without occupation student (International School of Aruba) and living Montanja 19 on Aruba, for further information.His statement that was given in Papiamento was translated and transcribed by me, JACOBS, into dutch and goes as follows.Before we, the reporting officers, started the interview, I, JACOBS, informed the suspect that he was not obliged to make any statement.I, JACOBS, also informed the suspect that this interview is being taped."You are informing me that you have several questions for me and want to hear an answer to those questions. I am prepared to give them.To your question whether I know a girl named "Karen" and whether I had a sexual relation with her, I answer you the following. Ik know the girl named "Karen". I do not know Karen's last name. I had a sexual relation with her but I do not remember the time period. (With Karen we mean the witness "Karen Theresa Paulina MARTINA"; remark JACOBS).To your question whether I had a sexual relationship with Karen during "Carnaval" this year, I answer you in the affirmative. During the "fakkeloptocht" this year I was dancing in the "Last-Lap". I think it was near the bridge of the "Renaissance Hotel" when I saw Karen. I saw that Karen went to dance with Jaime CAARASQUILLA, nickname "Beto". I suspect that Karen was drinking at that moment in time but I did not see that. After the "fakkeloptocht" "Jaime CARRASQUILLA", "Freddy ZEDAN", "Karen" and myself walked to "Carlos & Charlies". According to me "Koen GOTTENBOS" was also with us when we were walking to Carlos & Charlies. Inside Carlos & Charlies Karen and I walked upstairs and started french kissing. After that Karen and me walked outside and walked to the "Pier" due east of Carlos & Charlies. When we were standing on the "Pier" I asked Karen if she could give me a "blow-job". Karen agreed to this and started sucking my penis. I do not remember if I was standing upright or if I was lying down on the ground when Karen gave me the blow-job. I have to state that I wanted to have a sexual relationship with Karen but that I did not have a condom on me at that precise moment. After Karen had given me the blow-job Freddy ZEDAN called me on my mobile phone. Freddy told me that they were going to go home and asked me how I would get home. According to me Freddy also told me that he was at that moment in time sitting in the car of "Chato". The name of "Chato" is "Leonardo" but I do not know his last name. According to me Chato is from Mexico. Freddy, Karen and me got a ride from Chato. Chato and Freddy were in the front and Karen and me got into the back. When Karen and me were sitting in the back I think I asked whether I had a sexual relation with her, I answer you the following. I know the girl named "Karen". I do not know Karen's last name. I had a Karen to give me another blow-job, something that she did then do. Chato saw then that Karen was giving me head in his pick-up. Chato drives a green 4-door pick-up of the Ford make when he brought us three, meaning Freddy, Karen and myself a ride to my house. I do not know the license plate of Chato's pick-up. When we arrived at my appartement the 4 of us went inside the appartement. Chato had a hip flask containing whiskey. Chato and Karen drank from the contents. I have to say that I am not sure any more if "Freddy ZEDAN" or "Fernando VIANA" was in the appartement with us. Karen and I went to lie down on the sofa-bed and had put a blanket over us. Karen and I started fondling and having "foreplay". Chato tried to pull the blanket off of us to see what we were doing. Chato asked me to ask Karen if he and I could have sexual relations with Karen together. On Chato's request I asked Karen if she was willing to have sex with me and Chato together. Karen told me that she did not want to have sex with me and Chato. After that Chato and Freddy left. I do not know where Chato and Freddy went to. Karen and I were on the sofa-bed. We started kissing and I fingered Karen. After that I had taken my clothes off. Karen then took off her clothes. At that point I was told by Karen to put on a condom. I went to my drawer and took out a condom and put it on. After that we had sex with each other. I do not know if Karen bled when I had sex with her. At no time did Karen say to me that she did not want to have sex with me. I can also not tell you anymore what the condition was of Karen when I had sex with her in my appartement. She had been drinking but I also had been drinking. We had also both drank from Chato's hip-flask. I don't remember right know what kind of alcoholic drink was in that hip-flask. After Karen and me had sex I went to the bathroom and threw the condom into the toilet. I have no recollection of what happened after that.I only had sex with Karen three times. The first time I had sex with Karen was on the beach close to the "Havana Niteclub". I do not remember the date, but it was during a "Moonlite Party". On the day Karen and me had sex the first time we had both had alcoholic drinks but we were not drunk.About two months ago I had sex with Karen for the last time. This happened in my appartement and on that day Karen stayed the night with me. According to me I had told my mother that Karen would be staying for the night.To your question whether or not I had sex with a girl named "Stephania", I answer you that I have not.To your question whether I know the girl named "Stephany BOEKHOUWER", I answer you the following. This year, I don't remember the exact date, Freddy, Jaime and me went to a "Houseparty" in Oranjestad. We drove in Jaime's car to the houseparty. The car of Jaime is famous because we had experienced a lot of things in Jaime's car. Jaime has a 4-door green "Honda". On that day Freddy had sex with Stephany BOEKHOUWER on the backseat of Jaime's car. I gave Freddy a condom before he had sex with Stephany. While Freddy was having sex with Stephany on the backseat, Jaime and myself stood down at the trunk of the car and drank alcoholic beverages.To your question whether I had a relationship with a girl name "Rika", I answer you the following. Rika was my girlfriend but we did not have a sexual relationship with each other. We may have done some french kissing but I did not have sexual relations with her because she is twelve (12) years old. Rika's parents found out about our relationship and that is why we stopped the relationship. I do not know Rika's last name.This is my statement in accordance with the truth".J.A.P. van der SLOOTAfter the suspect J.A.P. van der SLOOT had read the statement he had given, he stated he would persist in it and signed the statement.The reporting officers, JACOBS CROES



On 6-24 the Aruban Attorney General spokeswoman, Mariaine CROES, said the senior van der Sloot is suspected of three crimes. They are: complicity to premeditated murder, complicity to murder and complicity to kidnapping. "Complicity means that someone intentionally has been helpful in letting another person commit a crime," CROES said. “That can include providing the means, opportunity or information for someone else.”
On 6-24 the “AP” reported “The elder van der Sloot ‘is a suspect in the disappearance’ of Holloway, said Mariaine Croes, spokeswoman for the Aruban Attorney General's office. Authorities have described all five men currently in custody as ‘suspects.’ But it was not clear if each was suspected in the woman's disappearance or if some were suspected only of a lesser crime in connection with the case, such as withholding evidence. Contacted by the AP hours before his arrest, Paul van der Sloot declined to comment on the case.” “Anita van der Sloot said she and her husband received a call from neighbors saying Police were waiting for them at their home in Noord, northwest of the capital, Oranjestad. She then called Police Superintendent Jan van der Straten, who asked them to come to the Police station. When they arrived, authorities ‘took my husband into custody as a suspect,’ Anita van der Sloot said, adding, ‘I don't know what to think.’” “Police say Joran met Holloway at a casino two days before her disappearance. [5-28]”
On 6-24 CNN reported:

Five people now in custody in the case of Natalee Holloway. She's the teenager gone missing in Aruba. The latest arrest was a surprise to many. No charges have been filed.CNN's Karl Penhaul in Aruba with the latest.(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Judge Paul van der Sloot was just returning from taking his wife, Anita, to the prison where their 17-year-old son Joran is being held when he himself was arrested by police. Prosecutors say the judge is now being held on suspicion of being involved in some way with the disappearance of Natalee Holloway.Anita van der Sloot, wife of Paul and mother of Joran, had this to say about her husband and her son... ANITA VAN DER SLOOT , HUSBAND, SON PRISON: I will hold up. I will be strong. I have to, because I believe in my husband, I believe in my son. I believe in my family.UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. van der Sloot...PENHAUL: Judge van der Sloot had been interviewed by police over the weekend, who said at that stage he was being viewed as a possible witness, not a suspect. Obviously with today's arrest, he is now viewed as a suspect in this case.Judge van der Sloot came to Aruba from Holland about 15 years ago. Before becoming a judge, he was an official in Aruba's prosecution service.His son Joran was arrested two weeks ago, along with the two Kalpoe brothers, Satish and Deepak. They were the last three young men known to have seen Natalee on the night she disappeared, May the 30th, from outside Carlos 'N Charlies bar.Karl Penhaul, CNN, Palm Beach, Aruba.(END VIDEOTAPE)COSTELLO: Holloway's family members are in Aruba to help in the search. They're hopeful that the latest arrest will make the difference in finding out what happened.(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)GEORGE "JUG" TWITTY, NATALEE'S STEPFATHER: Hopefully now we can get some answers. I mean, how would you like to be in there, in prison, and knowing that your father is now, you know, under arrest, and saying, hey, your dad may be going to jail now because of something you may have done. I know how my son and I would feel about that.(END VIDEO CLIP)COSTELLO: A four-man search team from Texas arrived from -- arrived in Aruba. The team's four search dogs and sonar equipment are expected to arrive tonight.



On 6-24 CNN reported:

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: … New developments in the Natalee Holloway case. A fifth arrest and what the other suspects are saying about what happened the night Natalee disappeared.
…
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, turning now to Aruba, there have been many big developments in the case of Natalee Holloway's disappearance. The mother of three of the suspects -- or the mothers, rather, of three of the suspects now say that the boys lied. Satish and Deepak Kalpoe's mother says that her boys tell her that they made up the story that they dropped Natalee off at the hotel in order to protect their friend Joran van der Sloot. Joran van der Sloot's mother says that he told her on Thursday that he took Natalee to a beach then left her there alone. Meanwhile, van der Sloot's father, who ran from the cameras over the weekend, is now under arrest in the case. Mariaine Croes is the spokeswoman for the prosecution team. She is in Palm Beach, Aruba this morning. It's nice to see you, Miss. Croes. Thanks for talking with us. Paul van der Sloot, the father of the teenager who is being held, is now jailed himself. Why is he a suspect now? MARIAINE CROES, PROSECUTION SPOKESWOMAN: Stated in general terms, I can say that he is a suspect because at this point in the investigation there is a reasonable suspicion that he is somehow involved in the disappearance of Miss. Holloway. S. O'BRIEN: When you say somehow involved, are you saying you think he has some information or are you saying that you think that he was somehow physically involved in this girl's disappearance? CROES: Exactly what his involvement is, that is something that must result from the investigation that is also focusing on him now as a suspect. S. O'BRIEN: Meaning you don't know or meaning you're not saying? CROES: Meaning that at this point I cannot say specifically. No, I cannot. S. O'BRIEN: Would he be in jail if his involvement was just helping the young men with their story? CROES: It depends if his involvement is not that big and also if it's not necessary for him to be kept in jail, then he will be released. But that's a decision that in the first 10 days has been made by the prosecutor. S. O'BRIEN: One of the mothers of two of the suspects says they told her that they lied to protect Joran van der Sloot. That's the son of the man we were just talking about. Joran van der Sloot's mother, Anita, says that her son is now admitting to her that he lied, that he admitted now that he was alone at one point with Natalee. Is Joran van der Sloot the primary focus of this investigation now? CROES: At this moment we cannot say we have one primary suspect. We only say we have five suspects in custody and as we go along further in the investigation, then we can say OK, now we have more clear information and then maybe we can say we have one primary suspect. S. O'BRIEN: So five people still held, but not charged officially. At what point will we see somebody officially charged in the disappearance of this girl? CROES: The official charges will be made when the investigation is closed and the prosecutor has revised the whole investigation so all the documents and all the evidence pertaining to this investigation. And when that is done, then the suspects will be, if they are, formally accused. S. O'BRIEN: Meaning -- what kind of a time line are we talking about? Do you think you're days away from formally charging someone? Weeks? Months? CROES: I cannot give a specific time. I can just say that between now and 146 days, they have to appear before a judge. So then you must have your accusations formulated more clearly. But at this point I cannot give a specific time for when that will happen. We have to wait for the investigation first. When that is closed, that's when the prosecutor can make that decision. S. O'BRIEN: Mariaine Croes is a spokeswoman for the prosecution. Thanks for talking with us this morning. We appreciate your time


“Texas EquuSearch” went to ARUBA with 27 member team and volunteers on 6-24 to help search for NATALEE using modern equipment and search methods. Went to ARUBA with 4 cadaver dogs.
The first week of their search, the team members searched many sites, including….
….A field close to the Murder Suspects SLOOT’s home
….A garbage dump
….A water-filled rock quarry
….A grave yard (tipped-off to by a local ARUBAN)
….various shoreline locations
On 6-24 PAUL LILLY (the trip chaperone), one of the Mountain Brook high school chaperones said that the title "chaperone" conveys an incorrect impression of his role and that of the six other adults who accompanied Mountain Brook graduates to ARUBA this year. "The word 'chaperone' is a misnomer. The correct description would be a facilitator," said Lilly, a Mountain Brook Junior High School social studies teacher. "We were there to handle any problems that might arise.” Lilly said that's what their role was as chaperones — or "facilitators" or "escorts." They had meetings with the graduates at noon every day. After they landed in ARUBA on May 26, Lilly collected their passports and passed out hotel room keys.
On 6-24 CNN played a recording of an unidentified Mountain Brook high school male classmate who said he was on the ARUBA trip. The male said “When we were watching roulette, Natalee and her friends came, and I -- while I was there, I saw that she came and asked if -- what Joran was going to do tonight, to make sure that he went to Carlos 'N Charlie's that night.”
????.... Did NATALEE meet Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT for the first time on 5-28 (or earlier), and some classmates who did not know they met previously just think that they met for the first time on 5-29 at the “Holiday Inn” “Excelsior Casino” blackjack table?
On 6-24 CNN reported “And that's the "Tattoo" party boat anchored out there. Steve Croes, one of five men now being held in connection with Natalee's disappearance, worked as a deejay on board. But his boss, Marcus Wiggins, says the vessel doesn't normally sail on a Sunday night. But when we asked him to show us the log of where the boat was the night Natalee disappeared, he refused. (MARCUS WIGGINS states) ‘He does have some seaman capabilities, and he was working as a relief engineer for us, working his way up in the company.’ ”
On 6-24 CNN reported “In their original statements, Police say van der Sloot and the Kalpoe’s say they dropped Natalee off at the "Holiday Inn" between 2:00 a.m. and 2:30 a.m. But Investigators say the young men's stories changed during interrogation. Since their arrest, they've told their own mothers they were lying.”
On 6-24 CNN reported “Ramirez, though, says her two sons were home in Hoiiberg, about 20 minutes' drive away, by around 3:00 a.m.” On 6-24 CNN correspondent KARL PENHAUL reported “According to his mother, Anita, Joran van der Sloot admits he never left Natalee at the "Holiday Inn." ( ANITA VAN DER SLOOT on film) ‘He says, mom, I dropped the girl at the beach. I walked with her. I left her, because she wanted to stay there. I left, and I don't know what happened.’”
From 6-17 to 6-24 MB families held fundraisers totaling $38,000.
On 6-24 ANITA VAN DER SLOOT claimed, “This is not about Natalee anymore. It's about enormous pressure from the States and the media,"
On 6-24 the “MagerWager.com” forum identity “clevfan” wrote “I surely hope the same result is not going to happen in Aruba, but someone from there told me that the local fishermen are complaining about a bad smell from under the sand on the north side of the island.”

On 6-24 CNNHN reported:

NANCY GRACE, HOST: … Also, the Aruba mystery unsolved. The search for 18-year-old Alabama beauty Natalee Holloway rages on as a team of specialists fly into the tiny island of Aruba to find her. Natalee, on her high school trip, vanished into thin air just hours before she was headed back home to the States. Tonight, five suspects remain behind bars in connection with Natalee's disappearance, including an Aruban judge, Paul van der Sloot. His son and three others also locked up tonight.
…
We go live to Aruba. New developments tonight in the disappearance of 18-year-old Natalee Holloway. The newest suspect, Aruban Judge Paul van der Sloot, under intense questioning tonight, even as a team of specialists touches down in Aruba, joining FBI and Aruban Police in the search for American girl Natalee Holloway.
…
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)ANITA VAN DER SLOOT , MOTHER OF JORAN VAN DER SLOOT : Because in my conversation with Joran, Joran said, "I'm so afraid. They're picking up Daddy, because that's what they're telling me. They're going to pick him up because to ask him about all kinds of things, and they think he's involved in anything. And I don't want this to happen, and they should have respect for him."(END VIDEO CLIP) GRACE: That is Anita van der Sloot. Both her husband, an Aruban judge, and her son, a 17-year-old, behind bars tonight in connection with the disappearance of Natalee Holloway. Thank you for being with us. I'm Nancy Grace. Tonight, the questioning goes on with Aruban Judge Paul van der Sloot. He is now behind bars. Let's go straight down to CNN correspondent Karl Penhaul. Karl, what's the latest on the questioning of the judge? KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Police say they have been questioning Judge Paul van der Sloot for much of the day, and a law enforcement source close to the investigation says, right now, he's not cooperating, Nancy. GRACE: Not cooperating? Explain to me exactly, Karl, do we know if, in Aruba, which is under the Dutch legal system, do they have the right to remain silent and not answer questions? PENHAUL: I believe that they do. And also, the other point to point out here is that during the first six hours of those interrogations, the suspects aren't allowed a defense attorney to be present. And usually, as time goes on, in many of the other interrogation sessions, a defense attorney is not present, either. And we understand today, while the judge was being questioned, his defense attorney was not present, Nancy. GRACE: Now, I'm having a difficult time hearing you, Karl. Are you telling me they do not have a right to have an attorney present? PENHAUL: Not during the first six hours, Nancy. They have no right for a defense attorney to be present. After that, as they get into the 48 hours and the eight days, during those interrogations, technically, they do have a right to have an attorney present. In practice, though, few suspects ask for that right. And so few suspects actually have a defense attorney present during the interrogation. GRACE: Well, Karl Penhaul, if his behavior earlier is any indication of whether he's answering questions tonight, I doubt he is. Elizabeth, could you show that video of this Aruban judge taking off and literally running from Karl Penhaul and others when they were trying to ask him about his knowledge of the disappearance of Natalee Holloway? Karl Penhaul -- there he goes. He didn't run for long, however. He's behind bars tonight. Karl, many legal scholars opined that his involvement could be as simple as covering for his son, helping his son and the other two, the Kalpoe brothers, then there's the other deejay, helping the Kalpoe brothers and son come up with a story, covering for them, maybe removing something from his son's car. Now, there is speculation rife that he is even more involved in Natalee's disappearance. What can you tell us? PENHAUL: Well, what the prosecutors have told us is that he has been arrested as a suspect for possible involvement in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway. They haven't given us any further details. And of course, as those experts have been mentioning, that involvement could go from something very minor to something much bigger. Certainly, prosecutors at this stage not giving us any further details of that, Nancy. GRACE: Also with us tonight from Aruba, a very special guest, Natalee Holloway's aunt, Linda Holloway Allison. Ms. Allison, thank you for being with us. LINDA ALLISON, AUNT OF NATALEE HOLLOWAY: Well, thank you for having us on. We want to obviously say we're just so thankful that the media is covering this. It also gives us information that we weren't privy to by this media coverage. GRACE: You know, Linda, that is so ironic that you are having to learn things about Natalee's disappearance from the media. ALLISON: Well, from the way this Dutch law is set-up, they cannot disclose any information that may jeopardize this case. So by Karl or any of these other reporters out here getting information, we learn a lot of our information by the TV. The family is briefed at least once a day, but, again, it's very generic information and not very much detail. GRACE: Linda, when you say the family is briefed every day, that it's generic information, what type of information are they giving you, apparently, not anything about the facts of the case? ALLISON: Just more like what they would tell the media. They're very generic in what their comments are. And they tell us they can't disclose any detailed information as far as what evidence they're holding currently, why they might be holding the Dutch boy's father. So we just have to wait and let them do their investigation. GRACE: Everyone, with us is Linda Holloway Allison. This is Natalee's aunt. Linda, what do you make of this grown man, a judge, for Pete's sake, being taken into custody? ALLISON: Well, obviously, when we look at that video and see the body language, where he's running in the car, we've seen other video where he's sweating profusely, wringing his hands during the interview on another network.And we've seen his body language. And with Beth and Jug confronting him the first night, and he's telling his son, "Do not speak, do not say anything." If you had nothing to hide, you would come out very confidently and tell the truth. And with the stories changing constantly, we hear a different story every few days, that there's a different location that they've taken Natalee to, you know there's something going on that's not right. GRACE: And very quickly, Karl Penhaul, before we go to break, is it true that a local lake was searched today with divers? PENHAUL: Indeed. It's more of a flooded refuse pit, from what I can gather, Nancy. It's about 15, 20 minutes from the van der Sloot's home. There are cars, old cars, that have been dumped there. It's a pretty deep lake, not very big, though. And today, coast guards, together with Police and four FBI agents, floated over that lake searching it. And also, a sniffing dog went around the perimeter of that lake, sniffing in the refuse. Nothing was found, though, Police have told us, Nancy. GRACE: Any divers? PENHAUL: Not in the pit, as far as we understand. It was a small boat that was floating on the surface, but no divers, as far as we understand. GRACE: You know, Karl, we've got to go to break, but I just don't understand it. Do they really believe they can look down in the water and see everything? The interminable wait to bring in divers in this case is astounding to me. With me in Aruba with the latest regarding Natalee's disappearance, Karl Penhaul, CNN correspondent. Also with us tonight, a special guest, Natalee's aunt, is speaking out, Linda Holloway Allison.
…
Welcome back, everyone. I'm Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Let's go live back to Aruba and CNN correspondent Karl Penhaul. Karl, I understand they have searched a lake, which is basically a man-made pit, and that there are cars and debris in that lake. What I don't understand is the delay in bringing in specialists.For Pete's sake, Karl, people have flown down from America, specialists from America, to join in the search. What's the problem in Aruba? PENHAUL: Well, of course, we do know those FBI divers were in here what seems like weeks ago now, Nancy. I guess it was probably two weeks ago now. But because the government never pinpointed a search area in the ocean for them, they never put a flipper in the water. What we do know now, though, of course, is a Texas volunteer search team is on the ground, or should be on the ground completely in the next few moments. They've got all sorts of specialist equipment. They've got divers, they've got sniffing dogs, they've got sonar, and they should be getting their search underway in earnest as of tomorrow, Nancy. GRACE: Well, you know, Karl, I appreciate all that, that the American crew from Texas is flying in. But what I keep wondering is why the Aruban government has been twiddling their thumbs waiting for the Americans to fly in to try and help. We'll be straight back down to Aruba with Karl Penhaul. And Natalee Holloway's aunt is with us, Linda Holloway Allison, and our legal panel. As we go to break, I want to remind you that we here at NANCY GRACE want very much to help solve unsolved homicides, help find missing people. Tonight, take a look at Bethany Markowski, now 15. Bethany has been missing for four years, taken when she was 11. She disappeared from a mall in Jackson, Tennessee, March 2001. Take a look. If you have any info on Bethany Markowski, please, contact the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, 731-984-6662, or go on-line to beyondmissing.com. Please help us.(COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)MARCIA TWITTY, MISSING GIRL'S AUNT: You know, you see a lot out there. You know, your head might travel there for a second, but your heart won't let you. So you just bring it back to what the focus is, what we so desperately want, and that's for Beth and Natalee and the whole family, everybody, all the Holloways, everybody, to get home safe. You know, we're not losing hope.(END VIDEO CLIP)GRACE: Welcome back, everybody. I'm Nancy Grace. We will continue to update you on the discovery of the three young boys found dead in a car trunk in Camden, New Jersey. Intensive search for the three boys. We don't know yet whether any foul play was involved. We are live there and are waiting for a press conference.But right now, straight back down to Aruba. I want to go to Natalee Holloway's aunt. Linda, what do you make of this specialist team flying in from America?LINDA HOLLOWAY ALLISON, NATALEE'S PATERNAL AUNT: Well, when we first got news that the Texas EquuSearch was coming in, it was almost, like, for me, a sigh of relief. This is like a big brother coming in to help. And we feel like here's another resource that we can utilize to get closer to finding out where Natalee is.GRACE: To Renee Rockwell here in the studio, who's not only familiar with Dutch law but has spent a great deal of time on the island of Aruba. Their system very different from ours, Renee.RENEE ROCKWELL, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Absolutely, Nancy. And this is a system where you can be held for 116 days without formal charges. And it's absolutely incredible that they would have five different individuals in jail. The interesting thing is now the father of van der Sloot is in jail. The incredible difference is now we've got the father, the son, the two Kalpoe boys and the deejay that was working on the boat.GRACE: What's so incredible about that?ROCKWELL: Well, because, now you can think of three things why the father would be in jail. Number one, was he involved in cooking up a story? Number two, was he involved with the disappearance or perhaps removal of the body? Or number three, is this a tactic? Tomorrow morning, Saturday morning, all five individuals appear in front of a judge. Now, van der Sloot 's going to see his father in court with him, and this could be a tactic by the Dutch Police, the Aruban Police, to maybe break him down and say, OK, fine. I'm not going to have my father go to jail for this.GRACE: Well, Eleanor Dixon, what's so incredible to me, unlike in our country, you don't put somebody in jail, throw them in and throw -- hide the key without at least telling them what they're charged with and what your evidence is, Eleanor.ELEANOR DIXON, FORMER PROSECUTOR: That's right, because you have to have probable cause to arrest someone, although I think I would like the Dutch system a little bit more.GRACE: As a prosecutor.DIXON: As a prosecutor, Nancy. That's right.GRACE: To Michelle Suskauer, defense attorney. How long can they keep these five behind bars without telling us the evidence?MICHELLE SUSKAUER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: You know, it's so different because if it was here, you know, they would have to have some probable cause before they arrested them. They certainly would be entitled to have an attorney present. But I think they're going to be able to hold them for a while, and I think that, certainly, the prosecution would like this system...GRACE: Yes.SUSKAUER: ... that they could try to break these people down without having an attorney present...GRACE: Up to...(CROSSTALK)GRACE: Up to 116 days, Michelle Suskauer, you're right about that. You, as a defense attorney, and Renee will be doing a back flip if your client is behind bars over three months without even knowing any of the evidence.And I'm directing this specifically to Natalee's aunt, who is with us tonight, Linda Holloway Allison, because they're not even releasing the information to you -- You're Natalee's blood relative -- much less to the defendants, the suspects in this case.ALLISON: Right. And they don't give information to my brother or Beth in any detail, as far as the evidence that they have. An attorney told me last night, as I was speaking to them just socially, sitting down, visiting, that you can actually pursue, I guess, an arrest if you have enough evidence. Even if we do not find Natalee, they assured me that there would be an arrest if there is enough evidence.GRACE: To Dr. Patricia Saunders, clinical psychologist. Dr. Saunders, we're showing a shot of the judge running from the cameras. According to Karl Penhaul, when he was -- and Linda, Natalee's aunt, he was sweating, he was fidgeting, he was wringing his hands, said Linda, while they were asking him questions. What do you think, Patricia?PATRICIA SAUNDERS, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: I think he's clearly in a panic. You know, unfortunately for the law, and in this case, blood is thicker than water, and parents will trash their whole lives to protect a child when they've committed a crime.GRACE: So bottom line, Dr. Saunders, his reaction could simply be him being distraught over his son and not having involvement.However, Karl Penhaul, apparently, the Aruban authorities think differently. Karl, why won't the owner of that party boat hand over the logs of whether the boat went out the night of Natalee's disappearance? Everybody, this boat is a party boat. People go out with a deejay. They party hearty. They come back in the same night. It's my understand, Karl, that boat is always docked about 1,000 yards or is it 1,000 feet from the Holiday Inn where Natalee was staying.KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's probably about 1,000 yards from the Holiday Inn, and it's moored a little ways off shore. And what typically happens is that they'll ferry passengers from the pier in a smaller boat onto the party boat. Now, certainly, the owner of that boat has refused to hand over to us or to show to us the ship's log to see whether it was actually out on the night of May 29 and early May 30, the night that Natalee disappeared. But he says that normally, that boat isn't out at sea on Sunday. Normally, that's the boat's night off, Nancy.GRACE: Well, if it's normally not out, then why won't he hand over the logs? That's my question. Take a listen to this.(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)ANITA VAN DER SLOOT , HUSBAND AND SON ARRESTED IN CASE OF MISSING GIRL: I think it's ridiculous. But of course, it -- it hurts. It hurts because my husband gave 15 years of his integrity to this island, and that this could happen is just so bizarre.(END VIDEO CLIP)GRACE: I think it would hurt even more if your little girl had disappeared without a trace.To Eleanor Dixon. Eleanor, let's get real. They all started off with the same story, that they had dropped the girl off at her hotel, at the Holiday Inn, watched her walk in. She stumbled. A security guard tried to help her. And they drove off. Now, suddenly, they're pointing the fingers at each other having been with her last. Now van der Sloot, the judge's son, is saying he left her alone out on the beach. She wanted to be there alone at about 3:00 AM in the morning. Changing stories, pointing the finger, the judge running away from questions?DIXON: I think it's real interesting because as far as the judge is concerned, in leaving, you've probably heard it said that a wicked man flees when no one pursues, but the righteous stand as bold as a lion, something always good to tell a . So you wonder why he's fleeing and also why these people are changing their stories. The truth doesn't change. And you can tell a story -- if it's the truth, you can start in the middle or at the end, and it's the same story. But they're not doing that. They're changing their stories completely. And that's very suspicious.



On 6-24 CNN reported:

CNN LARRY KING LIVE
Latest From Aruba
LARRY KING, HOST: Tonight, 26 days after Natalee Holloway's disappearance, a crack search team from Texas, plus the FBI and Coast Guard are now in Aruba trying to find any sign of her. While an Aruban judge, taken into custody yesterday, is due in court tomorrow as a suspect along with his son and three others.We've got it all. The latest with Natalee's aunt, Linda Allison, in Aruba, another of Natalee's aunts, Kelly Holloway, who's very close to Natalee and has a daughter of her own the same age, Tim Miller the director of that Texas search team that's now in Aruba. CNN's Karl Penhaul on the scene in Aruba. Assistant Florida state attorney, Stacey Honowitz, high profile defense attorney Michael Cardoza and Marc Klaas, the child safety advocate whose daughter Polly was abducted and murdered in 1993. And they're all next on LARRY KING LIVE. First, Marc Klaas, any comment on the tragedy of the three boys in Camden, New Jersey? MARC KLAAS, KLAAS KIDS FOUNDATION: This is the first I've heard of it, Larry. I'm sorry, I've been traveling all day. You caught me by surprise on this. KING: OK. We don't know if it's a crime yet, but three young boys, 5-year-old, 6-year-old and I think an 11-year-old girl, were found in the trunk of a car, Camden, New Jersey -- all boys, I'm told. KLAAS: I'll tell you, you know, in the past few years they have put trunk release valves in the back of trunks so that if somebody is stuck in one, they are alive, they are able to affect their own escape. So, it sounds to me on the face of it like they were not in a situation like that. KING: All right. Let's move to Aruba. Kelly Holloway, what's the latest -- as Natalee's aunt, what's the latest you've heard? KELLY HOLLOWAY, NATALEE HOLLOWAY'S AUNT: The latest I've heard is that the dad was arrested yesterday. But I'm not sure why he was arrested or why he's been held. KING: That's the judge? HOLLOWAY: Yes. KING: Do they keep you informed, the Police and the authorities, on a regular basis, as to what's happening? HOLLOWAY: I rely more on my family and my relatives that are there. KING: Linda Allison, Natalee's aunt, who is the sister of Natalee's father, what do you hear? LINDA ALLISON, NATALEE HOLLOWAY'S AUNT: Well, the family -- Dave and Beth -- have meetings with the FBI, usually once a day, and there is some communication going on, but it's on a very limited basis. They again, don't want to provide any details to this investigation, because they don't want to do anything to jeopardize this case. They even go so far as just to only give initials of the suspects that they have in custody. So we rely on the media to determine what that person's name is, and other information that we have. KING: Karl Penhaul, I know this may sound weird, but has there been any thought given to the fact that she may have just gone into the ocean and drowned? KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Police and prosecutors the last time I spoke to them, which was mid-week, were saying that they were still keeping all avenues of investigation open, all hypothesis. And that does include, in addition to the fact that something terrible may have happened to Natalee, also the hypothesis she may have gone missing of her own accord, i.e. a runaway or that she may have been kidnapped. But obviously, as this investigation goes on, the Police are narrowing down those lines of investigation. There's certainly nothing they're pointing to right now to suggest whether Natalee is alive or dead, Larry. KING: Very little hope though, wouldn't you say, Karl? PENHAUL: Well, you talk to the family here, and they are keeping hope alive. That's why they're still here, Larry. And when you see the family pressing as hard as these guys are doing, you've got to share in some of that hope. KING: Stacey Honowitz, what do you make -- I know it's Aruba's laws are very different, but what do you make of arrest, held, not arrest, not charged, the judge, the father, could that happen in Florida? STACEY HONOWITZ, PROSECUTOR: Well, no. It's very different. We've discussed this before on the show. You know the bottom line is, the standard of holding them say lot less. It's mere suspicion. Over here it's probable cause, the standard is much higher. Probable cause to believe that a crime's been committed. Here, obviously, these five suspects that are in custody, there's stories, there could be inconsistent stories. And under Aruba law, they can be held just under suspicion. That's what's happening now. Obviously, the father was arrested because, in somebody's story or even when they met with the father or six hours the other day, something did not match up, something that they're not happy with. There's a suspicion that somehow he's involved somewhere down the line. We're going to have to wait and see what comes with this. KING: Michael Cardoza, what's your read on this bizarre story? MICHAEL CARDOZA, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, I tell you. The first thing is, I think it's interesting what goes down in Aruba. What they can do is hold the person for eight days. Then they have to go before the judge again for another eight days. Then they can do it for another eight days. So, they get three eight-day increments. And then they can go back to the judge and try for a longer detention. They can go up to 116 days before they bring a charge against anybody. So I'll tell you what, with that facing them, it certainly gives the law enforcement people down there a great hammer over people's head. You better start talking, or we're going to keep you the entire 116 days until we figure this one out. Here in the states, as Stacey said you can't do that. You have to have probable cause to arrest someone. Once arrest them here in California, you have to bring them into court within 72 hours or let them out of jail. So, this is really unusual to us lawyers here, to be able to keep someone in custody for up to 116 days without bringing a charge. KING: Marc, from your experience, would you say the odds are very low for recovery of Natalee? KLAAS: Well, she may be recovered in some way or other, but I don't know that she'll be recovered alive. I believe that Beth is doing an absolutely amazing job of leading this charge. She is absolutely the general in this battle for her daughter's life. And I think she's a brilliant strategist. And if they are going to get to the bottom of this, it's only going to be because of her. KING: We're going to take a break. When we come back, we're going to talk to Tim Miller, he's director of Texas EquuSearch, now part of the search for Natalee. It's a good story. And we'll talk to him about what they do. Don't go away. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)PENHAUL: Investigators say the young men's stories changed during interrogation. Since their arrest, they've told their own mothers they were lying. NADIRA RAMIREZ, SUSPECT'S MOTHER: So I asked my son, where you guys really put off her. You said the Holiday Inn. He said, no, mom. That he asked to leave him somewhere by the beach there, by the Mariott. (END VIDEO CLIP) KING: Let's go Aruba now and talk to Tim Miller, director of Texas EquuSearch, now part of the search for Natalee in Aruba. He went there at the request of the family. His own daughter was kidnapped and murdered 21-years-ago. Tim, what is Texas EquuSearch? TIM MILLER, DIRECTOR, TEXAS EQUUSEARCH: Well, we're a search group that's got bigger than we wanted to get. And that was even before this case here. We've been on 450 plus searches. And we've have some pretty good results. We have a lot of determination. We've got some wonderful resources. And we're bringing some resources here that have not been used yet. And you know, this is a small island, unless you're looking for a small girl, and you know, this island certainly grows, that's for sure. KING: Is this full time? MILLER: You know what? We're a volunteer organization. Nobody in our organization gets paid anything. You know, we got people take off work. We got -- you know, it's incredible what our people do. You know, we're bringing sidescan sonar over here. We're going to be doing a lot of things in the water. We brought our own divers over here. We've got search dogs over here that are more than qualified to find something, if it's findable. I think we've got 24 people here now, and we're bringing three other dog teams that are flying in tomorrow. And in defense to Police chief over here, I've spent a fair amount of time with him, and one-on-one time with him behind closed doors, just the two of us, and there's a lot of frustration on his end. He's doing a -- I think he's doing a tremendous job in what he's doing in this investigation, and unfortunately, who knows how far it can go until Natalee is located. And without sugar-coating anything, odds are against us bringing Natalee home alive, but you know, we need to bring her home. KING: Did you get started in this because of what happened to you and your daughter? MILLER: Larry, I couldn't have done it the first seven or eight years after Laura's death. There was a grieving process. There was a healing process. And I've got compassion for this family, and many, many families across the country that still have missing children. And I know this much -- there's not -- this family can never even start that healing process until they know what happened to their daughter. Their life will never, ever, ever be the same again. And we've got to do everything we can do to give them that opportunity, to have a place to go visit their daughter and put flowers down and know where she's at. Even the thought of them leaving this island without their daughter is just heartbreaking right now, and we all got to get together and make sure that they don't leave alone. We need to be here for this family, this community, and we can't go home without Natalee. KING: What do you do for a living, Tim? MILLER: That is a good question, Larry. I used to be in the construction business, and we thought we'd be doing two or three searches a year when I first started this out, and you know, it's grown from that. We've had some real financial struggles, and my life is upside down. I can't make plans or anything. But you know what? It's OK. I'm certainly not complaining in any way. I know when my own daughter was missing, and they said she was a runaway, there weren't any search groups, I couldn't get any cooperation from law enforcement, even in the States. And 17 months later, her body was found two miles from our house. So I know what wasn't done in Laura's case, and I just promise never to leave another family alone again, as long as we can help. And when Natalee's uncle Paul called me up on Sunday, I mean, that was Father's Day, I had things to do, but you know what? I took time, and he met at my office, and it's history from here. So we got a lot of work ahead of us, but you know, we need all the hopes and the prayers from everybody at home. And you know, Natalee's became America's girl right now, so let's bring her back home. KING: Marc Klaas, you're very aware of this organization, aren't you? KLAAS: Well, yes, and quite frankly, their whole approach to looking for missing children is brilliant. They have all undergone background checks. They work as a team; they train as a team. They've got an awful lot of experience. So I think if anybody is going to -- if any one entity is going to be able to locate Natalee and find out what happened on this island, these are probably the folks to do it. KING: Linda Allison, you're in Aruba, you're an aunt of Natalee. What would you ask Tim? ALLISON: Well, if you'll excuse me just for a moment, I want to go back to the previous comment that you made about the possibility of Natalee being a runaway. And on behalf of the family, I want to say that is not an option that Natalee would be a runaway. She had too much of a future ahead of her. Her bags were packed the evening before. Her passport was in her bag. This girl was ready to go home, and she is not a runaway. KING: Anything you wanted to... ALLISON: Yes, I did...MILLER: I support you in that, Linda.ALLISON: I did visit with Tim earlier today, and he discussed some things that he was going to be doing in the investigation, and maybe Tim can at this point share with the audience some of the things that he's going to be looking at, as opposed to what has already been searched. KING: Tim? MILLER: Well, a lot of things that, you know, that have been done, we're going to redo. You know, I've gotten a green light from the prime minister over here, from the Police chief. And a lot of things we're not going to share right now, for reasons that just... KING: Sure. MILLER: .... don't need to be shared. We'll share them with the family and stuff, but I promise you, we're not going to do one thing to interfere in the investigation of this. And part of the investigation, you know, they're doing their job, but until we find Natalee, you know, people could be let out somewhere down the road. So we want to make sure that doesn't happen. KING: How many people are in your group, Tim? MILLER: We've got 24 of them here right now, I believe. We got three other dog teams coming tomorrow, and we're also going to be getting this community together and we're going to, you know, kind of run this search. KLAAS: Larry? KING: Somebody -- yeah, go ahead. KLAAS: Larry, one of the most important components of a search for a missing child is never to tip your hand. You don't want the people that know where the child is to know where you're going or what you're doing. Therefore, as Tim just explained, you have to be very, very close to the cuff on these kinds -- these kinds of decisions and choices. KING: Tim, I salute you on behalf of everyone who cares about children and children lost and the work you do. I wish you the best of luck. We'd love you to come up with Natalee live. MILLER: Thank you. KING: And we'll keep in close touch. MILLER: Thank you so much, Larry. KING: Tim Miller, director of Texas EquuSearch. They are now part of the search team. What a guy. What a story. He might be worth, when this is all over, an hour sitting right here and just talking about his life and what they do. We'll be back with our panel and your phone calls later. Don't go away. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)KING: Stacey Honowitz, from your vantage point some miles away in Miami, what do you make of how the authorities are dealing with this? HONOWITZ: Well, I can't tell you firsthand. It's only, of course, what we hear on the media and what we see on television but we talked about whether or not this Aruba Police force is competent and sophisticated enough to handle an investigation like this and I think by Tim's team going in there and by Natalee's mother calling in this team, certainly they're not satisfied with what's going on because nothing's come of it so far, but I think that the fact that a sophisticated group is coming in with sophisticated technology is only going to enhance this operation, this investigation. So, I'm sure everybody's hoping, not just me, as a prosecutor, but everybody's hoping that, with this new team coming in, the sophistication of the investigation will become a little bit tighter and will lead us to some answers. So, that's what everybody is hoping for. KING: Kelly Holloway, in Memphis, Natalee's aunt, are you optimistic? HOLLOWAY: I am optimistic. I believe Natalee is alive until they've proved differently. KING: This is an inner belief of yours? HOLLOWAY: Yes, I mean, I just have to believe that. I have to believe that. It's all I can hold onto, until they find her, one way or the other. KING: Do you think the possibility, Kelly, of an accidental drowning? HOLLOWAY: I think that what happened, happened with the people who are in jail and I think they are the people who know what happened. And I think that's where the key lies, and that's the people that need to be questioned, to get to the bottom of this. KING: Michael Cardoza it must be terrible to be a family member in a situation like this. One can only imagine. CARDOZA: I really can't even imagine, Larry. I mean, you're the father of a number of children. I have four children. I can't even begin to imagine what this is like, but when you talk about the Police investigation, I'm telling you, from everything I've heard and I've read, Beth, the mother, is the best Investigator on that island. I mean, she's tireless. She's the one, remember, that looked at the videotapes and found Joran. She said: Look, there he is on the tape, there's the one that was with my daughter. Because one of the boys was playing cards with him the night before. So, she's actually doing a lot of investigation. When we talk about the Police, remember, they're here to solve the crime. It's a whodunnit, if it was done. There also ancillary to that; to find out: Where is the body. That's why when i hear Tim' down there to find the body -- he can certainly help that. I think the greatest thing they have down there is: Keep them in jail until somebody talks. But I've often thought what you were thinking, Larry, what if what Joran says, that he goes down to the beach with her, and I'm not saying this is true, but what if he takes her and walks her down to the beach and then for some reason, she leaves him or he leaves her and that is, in fact, what Joran says and then she sleeps on the beach or passes out on the beach and that ocean waves come in and take her away. I'm sure they're going to have people down there plotting where the body may end up. Are there currents that would take her out into the ocean. There are a lot of unanswered questions here and I bet that's exactly what's going on. I mean, it's smacks of Scott Peterson to me. KING: Marc Klaas is it possible we may never find out? KLAAS: It's possible, Larry, but listen, miss Holloway is correct. They have to hold onto hope that she is alive and that's part of the frustration. The local authorities' job is to find Natalee and they haven't done it. Every day they don't find Natalee is another day they don't do their job. That's why they're bringing in other resources. That's why the FBI is there, to be able to push that. Now, we can't believe anything this guy, Joran van der Sloot, says. Remember, this is a guy that tried to assassinate her character, he tried to finger two other guys. He would have let those guys go down forever if he could have gotten away with this. Now, he has changed his story. He's proven to the world that he is a liar and has absolutely no credibility. So, I would give nothing to this story of his that he just left her there and walked away. HONOWITZ: Larry, that's what happens when you have people in custody for the amount of time. That's why it's good that they keep him in custody because eventually, they start talking. KLAAS: Sure.And eventually, they start pointing fingers and they become inconsistent. So, as the days go on and as the interrogation gets a little bit deeper and a little bit longer and a little bit further, you might get some answers which is exactly why the father, now, is in custody, because something came out somewhere about him. KING: Karl Penhaul, what do the people on the street say, people in Aruba -- everyday people? PENHAUL: Well, certainly, they don't go with the theory that Natalee may have fallen asleep on the beach and that an ocean wave may have come and engulfed her in some way. There are no ocean waves here, certainly on the west side of Aruba. The ocean just gently lapse at the shore, certainly at that beach where these boys are now saying that they dropped Natalee off along with Joran van der Sloot. And according to the Aruban search and rescue teams and I've tried it myself, by jumping in the water out there, you have to be more than a mile off the coast here, for the currents to actually catch you and when they do, yes, they will drag you northwest and then out direct west to open ocean. You've got to be a long way out, otherwise, the gentle surf will simply bring any object back into the shore. Different story on the north side, though, the waves there will always bring an object back to the shore, however far out you throw it, Larry. KING: Linda Allison, does it seem like 26 days? ALLISON: Well, each day that we get up I tell someone that it's like "Groundhog Day." We get up and we do the same thing. I go with my brothers out to help search some of the areas, some of the remote areas and yes, it does get long here and we just want to continue to do the search until we find Natalee. KING: It's strange, isn't it, because you're looking, like for a body, right? You're looking for a clue. ALLISON: We're obviously looking for evidence, any kind of evidence, because as of that Monday -- Sunday night, she's disappeared, vanished and there are no clues, that we are aware of and we just -- until the boys who were last seen with Natalee, until they come up with some information or this EquuSearch group, if they're going to do a search and recovery, maybe there's answers within the next two to three days. KING: We'll take a break and then we'll be going to your phone calls and we'll ask Karl Penhaul to give us a wrap, bring us up-to- date and then go to your calls. Tomorrow night, we're going repeat our interview with Jermaine Jackson; the first sit-down interview he did following his brother's acquittal. Billy Graham: We'll repeat that historic interview on Sunday night and Monday night: the Hiltons will join us. You've heard of them. They'll be our -- and by the way, our guests next week will include Mary Tyler Moore. We'll be back with your phone calls for Kelly Holloway, Linda Allison, Tim Miller is gone, Karl Penhaul, Stacey Honowitz, Michael Cardoza and Marc Klaas. Stay right there.(COMMERCIAL BREAK)KING: Let's reintroduce the panel and go to calls. In Memphis, is Kelly Holloway, Natalee Holloway's aunt. In Aruba, is Linda Allison, Natalee's aunt, sister of Natalee's father. In Miami, is Stacey Honowitz, Florida assistant state attorney -- won a big case today, by the way. In San Francisco is Michael Cardoza, criminal defense attorney, who's sorry she won it -- a little joke. In Louisville, Kentucky is Marc Klaas... CARDOZA: Congratulations.KING: ... is Marc Klaas. His daughter, Polly, was kidnapped and murdered in 1993, and he's the founder of the Klaas Kids Foundation. Before we go to calls, back to Aruba. Karl Penhaul, our CNN Aruba reporter, bring us right up to date with this story. PENHAUL: Well, today was the second day of questioning for Judge Paul van der Sloot. He's the father of 17-year-old Joran van der Sloot, another of five suspects now in Police custody. Paul van der Sloot, the father, according to a law enforcement source close to this investigation, said that he wasn't being very cooperative during interrogation by Police in the course of today. Also, we know that a Coast Guard boat, along with four FBI agents, searched a lake near the van der Sloot home, about 15 minutes from the home. They came up with nothing, though, from that search. A search dog was also used in the area around the lake, but nothing found -- Larry. KING: All right. Let's go to calls. Cleveland, Ohio, hello. CALLER: Yes. My question is, why would her friends let her leave with van der Sloot and, like, where were the chaperones? KING: Linda Allison, what do we know about that? ALLISON: Well, at this point, we have not looked back on the issue with the chaperone and where the friends were. At this point, we're just trying to find Natalee and looking forward in this investigation. It's something that we can review after the fact. KING: Karl Penhaul, do you have any knowledge about the chaperones? PENHAUL: Again, no more than Linda has said. I understand that both the friends and chaperones back in Alabama are not saying too much at this stage. All eyes are looking forward to where is Natalee, not how it happened at this stage. KING: Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, hello. CALLER: Hi, Larry. KING: Hi. CALLER: For the attorneys, I'd like to know in a legal sense, how long can these suspects actually be held in custody, and has there been any physical evidence that we know about? KING: Stacey?HONOWITZ: Well, they can be held, Michael told the viewers earlier, they can be held up to 116 days. They have intervals where they go in front of a judge. As a matter of fact, there's a hearing tomorrow where they're all going to be brought into court to make a determination if they can be held for another eight days. But they can be held for about 116 days before any kind of formal charges are filed. With regard to any physical evidence, certainly nobody is tipping their hand in this investigation. Nobody wants to jeopardize the investigation at this point, so as far as we know, there has been no physical evidence. But you have been able to see on television that they've taken into -- they've seized computers and a car. We're just waiting for any tests to see what comes back on it. But as of now, we haven't heard anything. KING: Under that law, Michael, what can a defense lawyer do with a person being held? CARDOZA: There is not a whole lot you can do, because under their law, as Stacey just talked about, you've got those three eight- day increments. You keep them for eight days, you go before the judge and go, Judge, we want another eight. And if you have a reason to do that, the judge grants it. You get three of those, 24 days. Then you go back for two longer requests, say, Judge, we want to keep them even longer. The most you can keep them is 116 days. And just by way of comparison, here in the States, it's a matter of days before we have to charge here. You know, a prosecutor has to charge, or you release them. So certainly they have a big weapon down there to keep someone or people that long before they let them go. I mean, think about that. You're sitting in jail, you are not charged. KING: Karl Penhaul, you know anything... HONOWITZ: And here, we have the bond, we have bonds here. KING: Yeah, that's right. Karl... CARDOZA: Yeah, exactly, that's another great point.KING: (INAUDIBLE) Karl Penhaul?PENHAUL: Well, certainly each time here, the reason why they're arrested is on the basis of reasonable suspicion, as the prosecutors say. And each time, those increments to continue custody are approved by the judge, each time the burden of proof that prosecutors have to present to the judge increases. So they're not being held for a 116- day period with no evidence at all. To continue that detention period, each time a little bit more evidence, a little bit more evidence has to be presented to the judge to convince him that prosecution really has something on these people. And the defense attorneys at each stage of the game can appeal that and take it a further appeal if they believe there is not sufficient evidence to continue holding their clients, Larry. KING: Dayton, Ohio, hello. CALLER: Hi. I was wondering about the possibility that Natalee could have been sold into prostitution and taken to another country? Is anything being done searching for her in neighboring countries? KING: Linda? ALLISON: Well, in talking with local authorities, they have said there is no way that Natalee could leave the island without a passport. There are small boats around the island, and you know, that's one possibility that the family has considered, is there an option for someone to take her off this island in a small boat? There are Coast Guards around, and I have been told that they monitor the waters between here and South America. So they continue to tell us no, that that's not an option. KING: Although wouldn't, Kelly Holloway, in a sense, you'd hope for that? HOLLOWAY: Would I hope for that? KING: Well, that means she's alive. HOLLOWAY: I understand what you're saying. I just hope that we find Natalee. I just want to find Natalee, and I want to bring her home, and I want her to be OK. KING: Frankfort, Kentucky, hello. CALLER: Yes, the lady from Cleveland, Ohio kind of was going to ask the question I did. I, as a parent of two grown children, who are out of high school and in college now, I've chaperoned, I would say, 10 to 12 trips. I wonder how many students were on the trip, and how many chaperones? KING: Linda? ALLISON: It's my understanding that there was somewhere between 130 to 140 chaperones -- I mean, I'm sorry, students, and I have heard various things of the number of chaperones. And again, it's not the issue of the chaperones or where were her friends. That's irrelevant at this point. Our focus is she was last seen with the three boys. They know something about where her whereabouts are, and that's where our focus is at this time. KING: Linda has to leave us now. Thank you for joining us, Linda. ALLISON: Thank you, Larry. KING: Linda Allison. Kelly remains, so do Karl, Stacey, Michael and Marc Klaas. We have something for Marc, too, right after this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When we were (INAUDIBLE), Natalee and her friends came, and while I was there, I saw that she came, asked if -- what Joran was going to do tonight, to make sure that he went to Carlos 'n Charlie's that night. (END VIDEO CLIP)(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KING: Marc Klaas, before we take our next call, what was the waiting like? KLAAS: The waiting was absolutely excruciating, Larry. I lived in fear for 65 days, fear that something horrible was happening to my daughter, or that I might not see her again. Closely behind the fear, though, was the anger, the anger that the Police weren't doing enough to solve the case, and that we were being left hanging. Now, by the end of it all, I had lost about 35 pounds. I had thrown my back out in several places, and was really only a shell of what I had been on October 1st, at the beginning of our ordeal. KING: How did they finally tell you what happened? KLAAS: Well, you know what, the Police were very, very good to us. They always made sure that we heard relevant information about the case from them before we heard it in the media, and I would hope that the Arubaans are following suit. That way, every time we would hear a rumor on television, we would know it was not true. The Police were always very, very good about that. And what they finally did is after convincing us that Polly probably wasn't alive several times or trying to, they finally called Polly's mother and I into a room. When we got there, we knew, because Mark Marchand, the FBI agent and Pat Parks, the local Police captain, were already crying. And they told us that they were so sorry, but that Polly was dead. At that point, Polly's mom started crying. It took several hours for the emotional impact to hit home with me. And at that point, I was back in my condo and Sausalito. Fortunately, there were a lot of men around who, once it all finally -- the emotional impact met the intellectual knowledge that I had of it -- the closest thing I could say is that it resembled what Sean Penn did in the movie "Mystic River" when he found his daughter dead. It was excruciating. KING: Kelly Holloway, are you angry? HOLLOWAY: Part of me is angry. I want Natalee back. And it makes me mad that we don't know and they're not telling us a whole lot. And this whole investigation has moved so slowly. I don't understand why the whole thing took so long to get to this point. KING: Smithfield, Ohio, hello. CALLER: Hello. Thank you, Larry. I would like to ask your panel if anyone knows if lie detector tests are admissible in the courts of Aruba. And if any of the suspects have volunteered or been asked to take a test. KING: Karl? PENHAUL: No, Polygraph tests aren't permissible on the island or under Dutch law. But what has been brought in are behavioral experts and demeanor experts. And we understand they've been allowed to sit in on some of the interrogations to try and fulfill that function to detect where some of the suspects are telling lies. KING: Alexandria, Louis -- yeah, I'm sorry. Go ahead. CARDOZA: It's me, Larry, Michael. KING: I know -- hold on, Alexandria. Go on, Michael. CARDOZA: I was wondering -- I know the Netherlands control Aruba. What are the chances -- do they know if this will be tried there? Let's assume they do find out of what happened, and let's assume these boys are involved or at least one of them. Will they be tried there in Aruba? Or is there a chance they will be taken to the Netherlands to be tried? KING: Karl? PENHAUL: There's a chance that a Dutch judge may be flown in. Already in part of this case we've seen a judge being flown in from neighboring Curacao. But essentially it will be tried under the appeal system, if there isn't an appeal against any conviction, for example, that can be heard in various instances including in Holland itself. KING: And is it by unanimous jury vote? PENHAUL: There is no jury. It's not a jury system here, Larry. It's a judge trial. And then the appeals are heard by a greater number of judges, up to three judges could hear an appeal. KING: Alexandria, Louisiana, hello. CALLER: Yes. Do we know if Natalee has runaway before, or is this totally out of her nature? KING: Kelly?HOLLOWAY: Natalee has never ran away before. This is so out of character for her. She's responsible. She's intelligent. She has a happy, wonderful, loving family. She would have no reason to run away. KING: Anderson, Indiana, hello. CALLER: Hi. I'd like to know if the party boat had any security cameras on it? And if they can test it for Natalee's DNA? KING: Karl, what do you know? PENHAUL: We asked earlier on shortly after the arrest of Steve Croes, the party boat deejay. We asked the owner of the boat, Marcus Wiggins, if that boat had in fact had been searched by Police or impounded by Police. He told us no. But then yesterday, a spokesperson for the prosecution office said that the boat had been searched. And nothing showed up there. But we don't know from the ship's log whether that ship was sailing that night, although normally on a Sunday night, as this was that Natalee disappeared early Monday, the ship is normally in dock and doesn't sail. But no security cameras as far as we know on board. KING: At this point, let's say it were a Miami investigation, Stacey, would the prosecution be involved at all, or do they not get involved until an arrest? HONOWITZ: Well, they get involved sometimes early on before the arrest. The investigation can go on certainly before it's presented to the state attorney's office, or the district attorney's office. And what Karl was just talking about, looking for surveillance, taking DNA, we do do those things before an arrest is made. So, the prosecutor can be in early on in an investigation before an actual arrest or formal charges are filed. KING: We'll take a break and be back with more calls on this edition of LARRY KING LIVE. Billy Graham will repeat that historic interview Sunday night. Don't go away. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)KING: We're back. Toronto, hello. CALLER: Hi. I would like to ask a question. If it could be determined, there's an innuendo or rumor that the young son of the judge may have had a gambling problem. And if that is true, is it possible that he might have been indebted to some unscrupulous individuals and made a deal to the devil, so to speak, to have Natalee kidnapped? KING: Anything's possible, right, Karl? PENHAUL: Anything's possible. But I was down in the casino at the Holiday Inn, and that's where Joran van der Sloot usually played, poker was his game. But talking to some of the dealers there, they tell me sometimes he won, sometimes he lost. He didn't play high stakes games. He wasn't a great player, he wasn't a bad player. But no huge debts wracked up in this casino at the Holiday Inn where he usually played, Larry. KING: Houston, Texas, hello. CALLER: Yes. Hi, Larry. I just wanted to ask a question. First of all, I want to send my prayers out to the Holloway family. And the question I have is, is Miss Holloway Twitty, is she still planning to sue the Aruba government? I notice that now all of the government officials are coming out, and -- or do you think it might be a scare tactic that she's trying to get them to respond? KING Kelly, what do you know? HOLLOWAY: All I know is that Beth wants her daughter back. She wants her daughter back. And she wants to know what happened to Natalee. That's what Beth wants. KING: Marc Klaas, you think a suit is possible here? KLAAS: Well, you know. I think anything is possible. We have to remember, they let these very major suspects run free for ten days. And we now have a situation where young van der Sloot is apparently changing his story on a regular basis and old van der Sloot is not being cooperative with law enforcement. I can imagine her mounting frustration, and her exploration into a lot of different ways to get to the truth. KING: New York City, hello. CALLER: Yes, I had heard early on, I think, that Joran had anger management problems. I wondered if any of the panel are familiar with this? And I wonder if Natalee resisted some of his overtures and things got out of control?KING: Karl?PENHAUL: We have heard that rumor. That said talking to his friends, nothing that came up in conversation with his friends that he really had an anger problem. And as far as the witness statements read to defense attorneys, they say that there was a friendship between Natalee and Joran. That they'd met the previous night in the casino at the Holiday Inn, and they'd been talking and joking with one another at Carlos 'n Charlie's. KING: Franklin Park, New Jersey, hello. CALLER: Hi, my question is for Kelly. Has any thought been given to possibly bringing in a psychic to help? HOLLOWAY: To my knowledge, they have had a psychic come in. I don't know what the outcome of that was. KLAAS: It's a waste of time and it's a waste of resource. KING: Why? KLAAS: Because they don't find anybody. We had a million psychics. Here's what these folks want. They want a free ticket to Aruba. They want a free vacation. I would stay far away, leave this to the professionals. KING: Stacey, have you ever used a psychic in an investigation? HONOWITZ: I never used a psychic in an investigation, and I think basically what they really need are good interrogators. I mean, Michael knows that there are Police officers, detectives, and Marc knows this, that are specially trained in interrogations. And over there, as I said before, we don't know how sophisticated the Police force is. They certainly haven't seen a crime like this before, and I think bringing in the behavioral specialists, along with very, very talented interrogators is going to be the answer to this case. KING: Do you agree, Michael? CARDOZA: I do agree. I'll take off my defense hat. I remember, I was a prosecutor for 15 years. Yeah, the answer is with Joran and his dad. I can understand as a defense attorney what they're doing, especially the dad. That's his son. If his son was involved -- I mean, any dad listening right now would say, that's my son, and they're going to try to protect their son. That's the reaction of fathers. But on the other side of the coin now, yeah, he's the answer to this whole case. I mean, he's the last one with her, and the last one with her has the answer, plain and simply. To say that, I walked away from her on the beach, I mean, that doesn't smack of common sense. Why would he walk away from her? Did they have a fight? I'm telling you, my gut tells me what's going to happen, there was some sort of advance, they got in a fight, and something ugly happened on that beach. What then happened with the body, that remains to be seen. I hate to be blunt about it, but I think that's what really happened here, and that's just my gut talking. KING: We'll take a break and come back with some more moments with our panel on this edition of LARRY KING LIVE. Don't go away. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)KING: Karl Penhaul can tell us about psychics who have been brought in. What do you know, Karl? PENHAUL: Well, we do know from the family, from Jug Twitty, that's Natalee's stepfather, that a number of psychics have called in at certain stages of this investigation from the U.S., and that they've said, oh, we can see Natalee being held against her will in a dark place, possibly in a crackhouse. We of course went through some of the crackhouses, and no information there. Also, some of the local psychics did float one day in a boat off the north coast of Aruba. Nothing was found. They brought up nothing, but they have been involved at certain stages, Larry. KING: Kelly Holloway, do you know if -- there's stories, we don't know if it's true, that a former boyfriend was on the trip with her, is that true? HOLLOWAY: I don't know if he was on the trip. I know that, you know, she had a former boyfriend. I'm not sure if he was on the trip or not. KING: You don't know if he went to Aruba? HOLLOWAY: I'm not sure -- I'm not sure if he was at Aruba. KING: OK. Little Rock, Arkansas, hello. Little Rock, hello. CALLER: Yes, Larry. What I would like to ask is, if Natalee's computer at home has been checked to see if she had tried to reach any pen pals or anyone before she left, to see if those guys' names maybe have come up, some kind of way, if her chat room or anything has been checked? KING: Anybody know? Do you know, Kelly? HOLLOWAY: I don't know that information. I'm not sure. KING: Do you know, Karl? PENHAUL: Not if Natalee's has been checked. Of course, we do know that Deepak Kalpoe, one of the suspect, that a computer was seized from his home, and that agents have been checking through Internet histories there, Larry. KING: Stacey, wouldn't it be logical to check hers as well? HONOWITZ: Well, absolutely. I mean, they're looking for any kinds of leads or clues at this point. So if there was some indication that there was contact, of course it would be a smart move. You want to -- you want to investigate every angle that you possibly can. So maybe later on, they will, if they haven't done it already, they will, you know, seize her computer and see if there's been any contact between her and any of these suspects. KING: Syracuse, New York, hello. CALLER: Hello, Larry. I'm just wondering if Natalee's -- what Natalee's frequency is of taking trips to island resorts or even taking trips with her friends to some places, what that might be? KING: Kelly, is she a frequent traveler? HOLLOWAY: Yes, Natalee has traveled the world. I mean, you know, she's traveled with her family, and you know, I think that she is very smart about going abroad. I just think that on this one particular trip, something really bad did happen to her. But I don't think that it was because of something Natalee did. KING: Michael Cardoza, do you believe in your heart we will have a conclusion? CARDOZA: I do believe in my heart we'll have a conclusion of this case. I've got to think while these guys are in jail, that if they can, they should be talking to their defense attorneys right now, telling them the truth, and that's what Joran should be doing, if in fact he's involved. In my heart, I don't believe that he intentionally killed her if that's in fact what happened. It just doesn't smack of the truth. Maybe something untoward happened. Maybe he went a little too far sexually with her, she resisted him, and something bad happened. That's not first degree murder, that's not second degree murder. So I think they should be talking, maybe saying, here's what happened, here's where you can find her. Here's what I did. And cut a deal with the prosecution, and let this family have peace with what happened here. KING: Marc, do you think we'll have a conclusion? KLAAS: Well, I hope we do have a conclusion. It's certainly -- the secret is with Joran. But I think that there are a couple of lessons that the rest of us have to take out of this, Larry. Number one, we don't let our friends get into cars with strange men in strange countries. We see what can happen. And number two, any American citizen that gets lost in another country is subordinated to the customs of that country, to the authorities in that country and to the law enforcement of that country, and again, we can see what happens. KING: Kelly, we wish you all good luck. We hope that Natalee is found, and found alive. HOLLOWAY: Thank you. KING: Thank you for spending time with us. Karl, thanks for your outstanding reports on this nightly and daily on CNN. You're doing a great job. PENHAUL: Thanks, Larry. KING: Stacey Honowitz, congratulations on winning your case today in Miami. HONOWITZ: Thank you, Larry. KING: Michael Cardoza, as always, thank you for joining us. CARDOZA: You're welcome, Larry.KING: And Marc Klaas, thank you for your insight and for all you've done. KLAAS: Thank you, Larry. KING: That's our show for tonight.



On 6-24 the BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA “Birmingham Post Herald” reported:

Was Aruba trip managed well?
Most defend chaperones' actions as properJune 24, 2005By ANDREW NELSONBIRMINGHAM POST-HERALD To Paul Lilly, the title "chaperone" conveys an incorrect impression of his role and that of the six other adults who accompanied Mountain Brook graduates to Aruba this year. "The word 'chaperone' is a misnomer. The correct description would be a facilitator," said Lilly, a Mountain Brook Junior High School social studies teacher. "We were there to handle any problems that might arise." While the word "chaperone" is the most common term used for those adults, the recent graduates who went on the trip and previous unofficial Mountain Brook school trips to the Caribbean agree: Their role was to keep the kids out of trouble, not act in the place of their parents. In Mountain Brook, there seems to be widespread agreement: Whatever happened to Natalee Holloway, the 18-year-old who disappeared on the last night of this year's trip to Aruba, it's not the fault of the chaperones. "I think it's inappropriate to blame what could be a horrific crime, in any respect, on the adults that went on that trip," said Robert Spotswood of Mountain Brook. That doesn't mean supervision of some kind isn't needed, said Spotswood, whose daughter, Mary Hayward Spotswood, went to Jamaica on a similar trip. "These are 18-year-old kids," he said. "You certainly want to make sure that parents are present or chaperones are present to take care of problems when they come up." Lilly said that's what their role was as chaperones — or "facilitators" or "escorts." They had meetings with the graduates at noon every day. After they landed in Aruba on May 26, Lilly collected their passports and passed out hotel room keys. A lot of attention has focused recently on the chaperones as media interest in the case increased. Their role has been the subject of discussion on national TV, particularly on "The O'Reilly Factor" show on the Fox News channel. Host Bill O'Reilly has said he thinks the young tourists needed more supervision. Alana Jordan, 18, a 2005 Mountain Brook graduate who went to Aruba, was one of two students who defended the chaperones during a June 15 appearance on that show. Her father, Alan Jordan, said the chaperones are being blamed for not doing something they were not expected to do in the first place. "As a parent of a student that went, I feel like immediately, everybody is trying to pick on the chaperones," he said during a telephone interview Monday. "Obviously, if something is wrong, you always want to re-evaluate. "I certainly do not fault the chaperones, and I certainly feel sorry for them being picked on." Holloway family spokeswoman Marcia Twitty has also defended the chaperones, saying they should not be blamed for what happened. Alana Jordan saved money from two years of waitressing to pay for the 2005 trip to Aruba. Unofficial postgraduation trips to the Caribbean have become a tradition at Mountain Brook High School. The trip cost roughly $1,400 per person, according to Alana Jordan's parents. According to the 2000 Census, Mountain Brook has the highest median household income in the state: $100,483. About 130 of Mountain Brook's 300 high school graduates went to Aruba this year. Alana Jordan said the chaperones had a limited mission. "The only two reasons they were there is, one, in case of a medical emergency, and two, to distribute passports ... to make sure we didn't lose them," she said. But the chaperones frequently went beyond the call of duty, she said. "They stayed up for us, lost sleep, made sure we were all right," she said. "Despite the fact their role was minimal, they really stepped it up and really went beyond what they were required to do." Robert L. Pavone, a retired Cortland, N.Y., police chief, has, since Holloway's disappearance, argued on O'Reilly's show that there were too few restrictions on the students during the ill-fated Aruba trip, and on similar trips made by other schools. Pavone, 57, was a chaperone on many trips for his three children when they were in school, although never for one abroad. He doesn't buy the argument that recent high school graduates are adults. "Seventeen and 18-year-olds are children. Just watch the way they drive," Pavone said during a telephone interview with the Birmingham Post-Herald on Thursday. Pavone is now head of the New York State Police Chiefs' Benevolent Association and New York State Crimestoppers. "If you think their risk assessment is adult, you are wrong." The chaperones on the Aruba trip would have been responsible for 15 to 20 people each and that is not enough supervision, he said. "In the police department, we don't allow a sergeant to supervise more than five to seven adult police officers," he said. "That's a lot of responsibility." Right or wrong, such limited control appears to have been standard operating procedure during previous trips to the Caribbean made by Mountain Brook grads. Travelers couldn't agree where they wanted to go for the 2004 trip. So one group went to Aruba, the other to Jamaica, said Mary Hayward Spotswood, who graduated that year. She was one of about 50 who chose Jamaica. Four to six adults accompanied them, and they were called chaperones. "They would drink with us," she said. "They made it pretty clear they were not here to baby-sit us. And I think most of the parents had a pretty good idea they were not going to be with us 24 hours a day. "They were basically there to keep us out of jail and (help) if one of us got sick or hurt." The traveling teens stayed at a resort near Montego Bay, Jamaica. And it was legal for them to drink alcohol there. "You don't go completely crazy, but you definitely take advantage," Spotswood said. As in this year's trip to Aruba, the chaperones held a meeting at the resort after they arrived, she said. She said the recent graduates were told they were 18, so they had to take care of themselves. They told them to be smart. We know you are going to drink, they said, so control yourself. The chaperones gave out room numbers and passed out the keys. They took the students' passports and tickets, Spotswood said. They told the graduates where they were staying, that they were available 24 hours and not to feel bad about disturbing them, she said. "They (would) stay out pretty late with us, but we didn't really leave our resort," said Amber Andrews. Andrews, 19, is now a student at the University of Mississippi. A 2004 graduate of Mountain Brook High, she went on the trip to Aruba that year. During several meetings, it was made clear to parents that their children would stay at an all-inclusive resort, where the cost of alcohol was part of the bill, Andrews said. The chaperones were not there to be their parents, she said. "We went to Carlos 'n Charlie's a couple of times, where Natalee was last seen. It was nothing I ever felt threatened about," Andrews said. Two chaperones accompanied the 20 to 30 graduates to Aruba that year. The smaller group made it easier for the chaperones to keep track of them. "The difference between this trip and last trip," Andrews said, "is that there were 150 of them. There were so many groups of friends. But we were one big group. We all kind of hung together." They stayed at the Holiday Inn SunSpree Resort, where this year's group also stayed. Pavone, the retired police chief, takes issue with such trips. He said he cannot understand why parents would allow their children to travel to a foreign country without them at that age. This was not a trip for educational purposes, he said. They went there to party. "You have got to characterize these trips for what they are: These are party trips," he said. "It seems like the chaperones went there to party as much as the kids."



On 6-24 FOX News reported:

Aruba Authorities Detail Murder SuspicionsFriday, June 24, 2005ORANJESTAD, Aruba — For the first time, Aruban authorities on Friday detailed their suspicions in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway (search), saying they believe the Alabama teen was murdered.Joran van der Sloot (search) and his friends Deepak and Satish Kalpoe are being held under suspicion of murder and kidnapping as well as being an accessory to murder. A fourth man, party boat DJ Steve Croes, is being held under the same conditions.The fifth man, Paul van der Sloot (search) — the father of 17-year-old Joran — was being held on suspicion of complicity to pre-meditated murder, complicity to kidnapping and murder and kidnapping. Under the Aruban system, complicity is a lesser charge.None of the men have been charged with a crime, but all are in police custody. An Aruban government spokesman confirmed the allegations.Joran van der Sloot and the Kalpoes were arrested 10 days after Holloway disappeared. Police say Joran van der Sloot met Holloway at a casino two days earlier. The last time anyone saw her alive was May 30. The 18-year-old Mountain Brook, Ala., woman was celebrating her high school graduation with a trip to Aruba with other students, who realized she was missing on May 31 as they were getting ready to return home.Deepak and Satish Kalpoe first told police that they dropped off Holloway at the Holiday Inn where she was staying because they had agreed on that version of events with Joran van der Sloot, said Nadira Ramirez, the Kalpoes' mother, in an exclusive interview with FOX News' Greta Van Susteren.Ramirez said that on the day of Holloway's disappearance, Deepak, 21, and Satish, 18, picked Joran and Holloway up somewhere on Aruba after Deepak got off work at an Internet cafe. As they drove, the two brothers sat in the front seat while Holloway and Joran kissed in the back."[Deepak] said he was getting a little upset” that they were doing that in his car, said Ramirez.But she said her sons told her they didn't even know Holloway, who they said had been drinking that night and wasn't walking steadily."They don't know nothing about her. Only they know that she was with Joran. ... She didn't even introduce herself to them."Joran's story is coming under even more scrutiny now that his mother, Anita, has acknowledged that Joran has changed his story about the night of Natalee's disappearance. In an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, his mother said Joran now admits to being alone with Holloway on a beach but that he still denies hurting Holloway.Complicating things further for the van der Sloots was the Thursday arrest of Joran's father, Paul, a judicial official on the Dutch Caribbean island.Before his arrest, Paul van der Sloot told FOX News that he was sure his son had nothing to do with Holloway's disappearance."We still believe in Joran," said Paul van der Sloot.Beth Holloway Twitty, Natalee Holloway's mother, has insisted that Joran van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers know what happened to her daughter and that police should press them harder to tell the truth. She has asked why the three were initially released after only a couple of hours of questioning, and arrested more than a week later.Anita van der Sloot also questioned that tactic. She told FOX News: "Joran should have been interrogated from the beginning. But they let the kids go."Separately Friday, a source familiar with the investigation told FOX the FBI only has three agents in Aruba working on the case, down from seven. The source, who requested anonymity, said the team has been reduced because there is not much to investigate now that arrests have been made.



On 6-24 FOX News reported:

Jailed Brothers' Mom Speaks OutFriday , June 24, 2005ORANJESTAD, Aruba — The mother of two brothers detained in the Natalee Holloway (search) case acknowledged that her sons initially lied about the night of the 18-year-old's disappearance, but said it was because they were protecting another suspect.Deepak and Satish Kalpoe first told police that they dropped off Holloway at the Holiday Inn where she was staying because they had agreed on that version of events with Joran van der Sloot (search), the 17-year-old also jailed in the case, said Nadira Ramirez, the Kalpoes' mother, in an exclusive interview with FOX News' Greta Van Susteren.Click here to watch part one of the interview with Ramirez. Click here to watch part two.But Joran's mother, Anita van der Sloot, told The Associated Press on Thursday that Joran now admits to being alone with Holloway on a beach. Still, Joran denies hurting Holloway.Ramirez said she talked to her sons about what they first told police."They said he's our friend and we lied to cover him," she told FOX News.Ramirez also described what her sons told her about May 30, the day of Holloway's disappearance: Deepak, 21, and Satish, 18, picked Joran and Holloway up somewhere on Aruba after Deepak got off work at an Internet cafe. As they drove, the two brothers sat in the front seat while Holloway and Joran kissed in the back. "[Deepak] said he was getting a little upset” that they were doing that in his car, said Ramirez.But she said her sons told her they didn't even know Holloway, who they said had been drinking that night and wasn't walking steadily."They don't know nothing about her. Only they know that she was with Joran. ... She didn't even introduce herself to them."Ramirez said she didn't doubt that her boys were now telling the truth: "They always come clean with me."Separately Friday, a source familiar with the investigation told FOX the FBI only has three agents in Aruba now, down from seven earlier. The source, who requested anonymity, said the team has been reduced because there is not much to investigate now that arrests have been made.Meanwhile, Joran's father was himself in custody after being arrested Thursday. After an initial interrogation, a judge ordered Paul van der Sloot (search) held at a police station jail for another 48 hours.Aruban prosecutor's office spokeswoman Mariaine Croes said Paul van der Sloot was arrested under "reasonable suspicion" in the disappearance of Holloway."We have a reasonable suspicion at this point that he may be involved in the disappearance of Miss Holloway," Croes told FOX Friday morning."The decision to bring him in and arrest him was based on the police investigation done on him up to this point," Croes said, when asked whether he was brought in over anything his son may have said to police.Aruba government spokesman Ruben Trapenberg told FOX the elder van der Sloot may have been arrested after investigators heard inconsistencies in media interviews, like the one with FOX News' Greta Van Susteren, and what he told police.Trapenberg added Paul van der Sloot has been cooperative with investigators.Paul van der Sloot is an island judicial official.The source told FOX the FBI knew about the arrest of Paul van der Sloot in advance but did not accompany authorities to the house because of political sensitivities.FOX was told computer hardware taken from the van der Sloot home on June 15 will be sent to The Netherlands for inspection.Before his arrest, Paul van der Sloot told FOX News that he was sure his son had nothing to do with Holloway's disappearance."We still believe in Joran," said Paul van der Sloot.Joran van der Sloot and the Kalpoes were arrested 10 days after Holloway disappeared. Police say Joran van der Sloot met Holloway at a casino two days earlier.Beth Holloway Twitty, Natalee Holloway's mother, has insisted that the three know what happened to her daughter and that police should press them harder to tell the truth. She has asked why the three were initially released after only a couple of hours of questioning, and arrested more than a week later.Anita van der Sloot also questioned that tactic. She told FOX News: "Joran should have been interrogated from the beginning. But they let the kids go."Holloway disappeared May 30. The 18-year-old Mountain Brook, Ala., woman was celebrating her high school graduation with a trip to Aruba with other students.A fourth man detained in the case, 26-year-old party boat disc jockey Steve Gregory Croes (search), said he knew one of the two Surinamese brothers arrested with Joran van der Sloot from an Internet cafe, according to his boss, Marcus Wiggins. Wiggins' boat, the Tattoo, docks near the Holiday Inn.FOX News' Greta Van Susteren, Catherine Herridge and The Associated Press contributed to this report.



On 6-24 “About Crime.com” reported:
http://crime.about.com/b/a/180410.htm

Aruban Authorities Confirm Murder SuspicionsAruban authorities for the first time provided details concerning the allegations against five men being detained in connection with the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, suggesting that they believe the Alabama teen was murdered.A prosecution spokesperson told reporters Friday that Joran van der Sloot, Deepak Kalpoe, and Satist Kalpoe are being held under suspicion of murder and kidnapping and being an accessory to murder. Steve Croes, a local party boat DJ arrested last week, is also being held on those same charges.Paulus van der Sloot, the father of Joran who was detained yesterday in the case, is being held under suspicion of complicity to pre-meditated murder, complicity to kidnapping and murder and kidnapping.Still Not Charged With a CrimeThe announcement marked the first time that Aruban authorities have used the word "murder" in connection with the investigation. Under Aruban law, the five men are being detained under suspicion of those charges, they have not yet been charged with a crime.Also today, Fox News reported that the FBI team in Aruba had been reduced from seven to three agents. The team was reduced because "there is not much to investigate now that arrests have been made," an anonymous source told Fox.



On 6-24 “Court TV” reported:

Aruban judge's son changes story about being alone with missing Alabama teenUpdated June 24, 2005, 10:12 a.m. ETORANJESTAD, Aruba (AP) — Aruban police arrested the father of a young Dutch teen already in custody in connection with the disappearance of a young Alabama woman, and said Thursday that he was considered a suspect in the 3-week-old case.The teen's mother, meanwhile, told The Associated Press that her son had changed his story, admitting to her that he was alone with 18-year-old Natalee Holloway on a beach the night she vanished --and that he left her there, not at a Holiday Inn as he earlier stated. But Joran van der Sloot, 17, insisted that he did not hurt her, Anita van der Sloot said.Paul van der Sloot, 52, a justice official on this Dutch Caribbean island, was arrested Thursday shortly after he and his wife left the San Nicolas prison where Joran is being held, Anita van der Sloot told the AP.Holloway's mother, Beth Holloway Twitty, said she was pleased with the development."We are very pleased that the investigation is progressing," she said. "We feel like this will lead to more information to give us the answers we need for finding Natalee."But Anita van der Sloot insisted her husband had done nothing wrong and said Aruban authorities arrested him because they were under pressure."My husband is a man of integrity who has been working in the justice system 15 years and was taken without evidence," she said, describing him as "the most honest, beautiful man.""How can this happen? This is not about Natalee anymore. It's about enormous pressure from the (United) States and the media," she said.Authorities did not immediately respond to van der Sloot's allegation.The elder van der Sloot "is a suspect in the disappearance" of Holloway, said Mariaine Croes, spokeswoman for the Aruban Attorney General's office.Authorities have described all five men currently in custody as "suspects." But it was not clear if each was suspected in the woman's disappearance or if some were suspected only of a lesser crime in connection with the case, such as withholding evidence.Contacted by the AP hours before his arrest, Paul van der Sloot declined to comment on the case.While Anita van der Sloot had been allowed to visit her son occasionally at the San Nicolas prison, authorities denied similar access to Paul van der Sloot, saying they believed contact between the two could damage the investigation.Anita van der Sloot said she and her husband received a call from neighbors saying police were waiting for them at their home in Noord, northwest of the capital, Oranjestad. She then called Police Superintendent Jan van der Straaten, who asked them to come to the police station. When they arrived, authorities "took my husband into custody as a suspect," Anita van der Sloot said, adding, "I don't know what to think."Repeated searches of the island have produced no trace of Holloway, who vanished in the early hours of May 30, the last day of a high school graduation trip with 124 other students. Her passport and packed suitcase were found in her hotel room.Joran van der Sloot has been in custody since June 9, along with two Surinamese brothers, Deepak Kalpoe, 21, and Satish Kalpoe, 18, in connection with Holloway's disappearance.Authorities also have arrested a 26-year-old party boat disc jockey, Steve Gregory Croes.Police say Joran met Holloway at a casino two days before her disappearance. He and the Kalpoe brothers told authorities they took her from a popular restaurant to a beach, where Joran and Holloway were kissing in the back of the car, then dropped Natalee at the Holiday Inn about 2 a.m.But Anita van der Sloot said Joran has since changed his story, telling her that he was alone with Natalee on a beach."He says, 'Mom, I dropped the girl at the beach. I walked with her. I left her there because she wanted to stay there. I left and I don't know what happened. There my statement ends,"' Anita van der Sloot said.Anita van der Sloot didn't say which beach.When asked if Joran had changed his initial story, she replied, "Joran changed his story only one time. I think he was scared because he sneaked out of the house that evening. I think he was scared and wanted to cover other people too. He changed his story once and added details."Nadira Ramirez, the mother of the Surinamese brothers appeared to back the new story. She said her son told her they had dropped the missing girl with Joran near a beach. She told Fox News Channel Thursday night: "I asked Satish why (to) you lie to mama.""He said he's our friend and we tried to lie to, you know, to cover him or something"



On 6-24 the “Home Town Channel” reported:

Special Search Team Joining Search For HollowayPOSTED: 12:18 pm CDT June 24, 2005UPDATED: 8:54 am CDT June 25, 2005ORANJESTAD, Aruba -- More help has arrived in Aruba to search for an Alabama teenager who disappeared on the island nearly four weeks ago.Seventeen more volunteers with Texas EquuSearch arrived in Aruba from Houston Friday night to join the search for Natalee Holloway, 18, from Mountain Brook, Ala., who disappeared on the resort island May 30.Joe Huston said the volunteers will use search dogs and sonar equipment to look for the teen in areas that have not been searched, mainly inland and coastline areas."Many of us have lost individuals and that is why we do what we do. So, there is something else pushing us other than just looking for this person. We want to bring some closure to that family. And so we are pushed a little bit more than most individuals," EquuSearch volunteer Jessica Marish said.The group brings three more cadaver dogs -- two from Florida and one from New Mexico -- all trained in water searches.Tim Miller, the organization's founder, and three other volunteers arrived in Aruba Wednesday night. Miller met with local authorities Thursday and said he is optimistic about finding Holloway."We got a thumbs-up from the prime minister. I think people are going to be surprised with how we are going to be working with authorities hand-in-hand," Miller said. "Everybody is going to be there for one reason and that is to find Natalee."Paul Reynolds, Natalee Holloway's UncleHolloway's uncle, Bacliff resident Paul Reynolds, asked Texas EquuSearch on June 19 to help Aruban authorities find his niece.Paul Reynolds, Holloway's uncle who lives in Houston, asked the organization on June 19 to aid in the search for his niece because the family was frustrated that three weeks of searches on the island had turned up nothing.Reynolds said he hopes EquuSearch's special equipment and knowledge will help find his niece.EquuSearch has also asked about a dozen professional athletes to join in the search. The group has not yet named the athletes asked to participate.Five people have been detained in connection with Holloway's disappearance, including a Dutch teen who had been seen with Holloway, and the boy's father, who was arrested Thursday.However, no one has been charged yet in Holloway's disappearance.Dutch Teen Changes Story About Missing WomanJoran van der Sloot, 17, has reportedly changed the story he initially gave police about his involvement with Holloway.The boy's mother told The Associated Press her son now admits to being alone with Holloway on a beach. But she said he insists he did not hurt Holloway.Van der Sloot and two of his friends first told police they dropped Holloway off at the hotel where she was staying. But his mother said her son admits the story is not true and that he and Holloway were in fact alone together on the beach. But she said he insists he left Holloway there unharmed.Holloway's mother, Beth Holloway Twitty, has insisted that the three young men in custody know what happened to her daughter. She said police should press them harder to tell the truth.In another development, authorities took the teen's father into custody Thursday as the fifth suspect detained in the case.A spokeswoman for Aruba's attorney general said Paul van der Sloot is "a suspect in the disappearance" of Holloway.Paul van der Sloot is a justice official on the island.His wife insists that Paul van der Sloot has done nothing wrong. She said Aruban authorities arrested him because they were under pressure from the U.S. government and from the news media to produce results.Anita van der Sloot told The Associated Press her husband was "just picked up by police." She added, "I don't know what to think."While Anita van der Sloot had been allowed to visit her son occasionally in jail, authorities have denied similar access to her husband. They did so because they were treating the father as a potential witness, and believed contact between the two could damage the investigation.Officials said that lie detector equipment was brought in for the questioning. Polygraphs aren't admissible in court in the United States, but attorneys said that if everyone agreed, they would use a polygraph in the investigation there.Joran van der Sloot's mother visited him in the jail on Tuesday and described him as very upset and sad, but hanging in there. She said that she and her family were very frustrated with a lack of information -- a similar complaint from Holloway's family."He's very upset because today would have been a very great day for him," said Anita van der Sloot. "We would have made preparations for his study in the states, so he's very sad, but he's doing OK."



On 6-24 the “National Enquirer” reported:

MISSING NATALEE WAS DRUGGED AND LEFT FOR DEADBy DAVID WRIGHTMissing teen Natalee Holloway overdosed after being slipped Ecstasy at an Aruba night-spot, died on a dark beach and was dumped at sea by one of the panicked boys she had befriended.The National Enquirer can reveal that is the chilling theory secretly being pursued by police on the Dutch Caribbean island.Our own investigation shows that Natalee's classmates from Mountain Brook, Alabama, who were with her during her final hours, support cops' fears that the normally responsible honor student was drugged.A source close to the case said: "The detectives are certain that Natalee is dead. And if she was dropped by boat far enough from shore where the currents are right, it's unlikely her body would ever be found."Joran van der Sloot, 17, and three other men have been treated as suspects and are being questioned in the grim Aruba prison in San Nicolas. They have not been charged.Our investigation in Aruba has uncovered a disturbing portrait of the apparent main suspect — 6 ft 5 in van der Sloot, the son of a wealthy Dutch lawyer. Friends claim that hard drinking, violence-prone Joran:º PREYS on naïve young American girls for sexº LIKES to fight and was forced to get anger management counselingº POSTED pictures of himself on a personal website acting out sadomasochistic gamesFor more on Natalie's disappearance, pick up this week's issue on newsstands June 24.