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Joran van der Sloot

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Joran van der Sloot
Born
Joran Andreas Petrus van der Sloot
NationalityDutch
Parent(s)Paul and Anita van der Sloot
Criminal chargeextortion, wire fraud

Joran Andreas Petrus van der Sloot (born August 6, 1987, in Arnhem, Netherlands) is a Dutch national who lived in Aruba. He is charged in the United States with wire fraud and extortion related to the whereabouts of Natalee Holloway, who disappeared in Aruba on May 30, 2005,[1] and is the main suspect in the homicide investigation of Stephany Tatiana Flores Ramírez, who died on May 30, 2010, in Lima, Peru, exactly five years after Holloway's disappearance. Van der Sloot was apprehended on June 3 in Chile and was deported to Peru the next day.[2][3] While in Peruvian custody on June 7, 2010, he confessed to causing the death of Flores Ramírez.[4][5][6] His role as a suspect in the Natalee Holloway disappearence and his erratic behaviour, have labeled him in a negative light as a social pariah in both the United States and the Netherlands.

Natalee Holloway disappearance

Main article: Natalee Holloway
Carlos'n Charlie's, where Natalee Holloway was last seen with Van der Sloot, in Oranjestad, Aruba.

Van der Sloot and brothers Deepak Kalpoe (then age 21) and Satish Kalpoe (then age 18), were arrested on June 9, 2005, as suspects in the May 30, 2005 disappearance of an 18-year-old American woman, Natalee Holloway. The Kalpoes were released from custody on July 14, but were re-arrested on August 26 on suspicion of rape and murder, while Van der Sloot remained in custody. Van der Sloot and the Kalpoes were released on September 3 due to lack of evidence.[7] Since September 6, 2005, Van der Sloot has resided in the Netherlands while attending college.[8] After his release, Van Der Sloot was required to stay within Dutch territory pending the results of the investigation. On September 14, a higher court removed the travel restrictions.[9]

On November 21, 2007, Van der Sloot was re-arrested in Arnhem, The Netherlands, simultaneously with the Kalpoe brothers in Aruba for "suspicion of involvement in voluntary manslaughter and causing serious bodily harm that resulted in the death of Natalee Holloway" due to what the Aruba prosecutor's office stated was "new incriminating evidence" related to the disappearance of Holloway. Van der Sloot was returned to Aruba on November 23, and a court hearing on November 26 ruled to continue his detention for eight days.[10] The Kalpoe brothers were released on December 1. Van der Sloot was ordered released on December 7, and was released without charge the same day.[11]

Dutch television stings

On January 11, 2008, after being challenged on the Dutch late-night talk show Pauw & Witteman by crime reporter Peter R. de Vries, Van der Sloot threw a glass of red wine into De Vries' face.[12]

On February 3, 2008, an undercover video made by De Vries was aired on Dutch television purporting to show Van der Sloot smoking marijuana and admitting to being present during Holloway's death. The show was watched by 7 million viewers in the Netherlands and was the most popular non-sports program in Dutch television history.[13] Patrick van der Eem, working undercover for De Vries, had befriended Van der Sloot, who was unaware that he was being taped when he said that Holloway had suffered some kind of seizure while having sex on the beach. After failing to revive her, he said that he summoned a friend named Daury, who loaded her on a boat and dumped her body into the sea.[14] The prosecutor in Aruba determined the video was admissible,[15] but the evidence was deemed insufficient to warrant re-arrest. Although the taped confession appeared damning, Van der Sloot argued that he was lying to impress Van der Eem, whom he believed was a drug dealer.[16] On September 22, 2008, in New York, De Vries accepted an International Emmy Award in Current Affairs for his coverage while accompanied by Natalee's mother, Beth Twitty.[17]

In November 2008, De Vries aired undercover footage of Van der Sloot making preparations for the apparent sex trafficking of Thai women in Bangkok. De Vries claimed that Van der Sloot was making $13,000 for every woman sold into prostitution in the Netherlands.[18]

Father's involvement in the case

Paul van der Sloot, Joran's father, who was a lawyer training to be a judge in Aruba, was arrested in June 2005 on suspicion of involvement in the case and was released after three days of questioning.[19] According to Aruba's chief prosecutor, one of the Kalpoe brothers told investigators that Paul had advised that without a body, the police would have no case.[20] Paul discussed the possibility that his son had trafficked Holloway rather than killed her in a taped conversation that received varying opinions of authenticity by experts.[21] On February 11, 2010, Paul died of a heart attack at the age of 57 while playing tennis.[22]

Extortion charges in the United States

Around March 29, 2010, Van der Sloot contacted a representative of Natalee Holloway's mother, Beth Twitty, with an offer to reveal the location of her daughter's body and the circumstances surrounding her death for an advance of US$25,000 against a total of $250,000.[23] After Twitty notified the Federal Bureau of Investigation, they secretly arranged for her to proceed with the extortion plot.[24][25] On May 10, Van der Sloot allegedly accepted the amount of $15,000 by wire transfer to his account in the Netherlands, following a cash payment of $10,000 that was videotaped by undercover investigators in Aruba.[26][27] Authorities determined that the information that he provided in return was false, because the house in which he claimed Holloway's body was located had not yet been built at the time of her disappearance.[28] Twitty was shocked that the FBI did not promptly file extortion charges against Van der Sloot, allowing him to leave freely with the money to Bogotá, Colombia, on his way to Lima, Peru.[24][28] The FBI and the office of the U.S. Attorney contended that the case was not sufficently developed until June 3, when Van der Sloot was charged in the U.S. District Court of Northern Alabama with extortion and wire fraud.[25] U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance issued an arrest warrant to go through Interpol in an effort to prosecute Van der Sloot in the United States.[29] On June 4, at the request of the U.S. Justice Department, authorities raided and confiscated items from two homes in the Netherlands, one of them belonging to reporter Jaap Amesz who had previously interviewed Van der Sloot and claimed knowledge of his criminal activities.[30] Police in Aruba are preparing to launch new searches on the island for Holloway's remains near a hotel where she was last seen and a dam at Monserat.[31] However, the Solicitor General said that they would not seek his extradition to Aruba.[32]

Death of Stephany Tatiana Flores Ramírez

On May 30, 2010, the fifth anniversary of Holloway's disappearance, Stephany Tatiana Flores Ramírez, 21, died at the Hotel TAC, S.A.C. in the Miraflores District of Lima, Peru.[33] On June 2, her beaten body was found by a hotel employee in room 309,[34] which had been registered in Van der Sloot's name.[35] He had departed from the hotel without returning the room key and left the television blaring.[36] According to Peruvian investigators, Flores Ramírez suffered blunt force trauma to her head, causing a brain hemorrhage and breaking her neck.[27][34] A tennis racquet, identified by the coroner as the likely homicide weapon, was recovered from the room.[24] A hotel guest and an employee came forward to claim they saw Van der Sloot and the victim entering the hotel room together, and the police have video of the two playing cards at the same table the night before at the Atlantic City Casino in Lima.[37][35] Van der Sloot had entered Peru via Colombia on May 14, 2010 to attend the Latin American Poker Tour.[38][39]

Flores Ramírez was a business student at the University of Lima.[40] She was the daughter of Ricardo Flores, a former president of the Peruvian Automobile Club and winner of the "Caminos del Inca" rally in 1991. A prominent businessman and entertainment organizer, he ran for vice president in 2001 and for president five years later on fringe tickets.[41] Flores said that police found date rape drugs in his daughter's car, parked about 50 blocks from the hotel where she died.[42] Her jewelry and money were missing; about US$1000 was provided by her father to purchase a laptop and more may have been won at the casino.[43] After Stephany was reported missing by her family, police retrieved the hotel surveillance tape and obtained Van der Sloot's name and national identification number. Her brother's wife discovered Van der Sloot's background in a Google search about an hour before her body was found.[44]

Homicide investigation

Peruvian officials named Van der Sloot as the sole suspect in the homicide investigation.[35] Interpol issued an international arrest warrant for Van der Sloot, believing that he had fled the country to Chile and was traveling to Argentina.[45] Van der Sloot was sighted entering Chile via the Chacalluta border crossing, north of Arica, on May 31, 2010.[46] He was arrested near Curacaví by the Investigations Police of Chile on June 3 while traveling in a rented taxi on Highway 68 from the coastal city of Viña del Mar to the capital Santiago.[47][48][49][50] He was found with a laptop, foreign currency, a business card case, detailed charts of ocean currents around Lima, and bloody clothes, which are being tested for DNA along with the previously recovered tennis racquet.[51][52][35] Van der Sloot denied to Chilean police that he killed Flores Ramírez and his Dutch attorney claimed that he was on his way to Santiago to turn himself in.[53] He was subsequently transported by Chilean police in a Cessna 310 back to Arica and handed over to Peruvian authorities at the Chacalluta border crossing on June 4.[3][54][55] Van der Sloot arrived at Lima police headquarters on June 5, where he was immediately interrogated about the death while represented by a state-appointed lawyer. The Dutch consulate volunteered an attorney for his defense.[35] He was permitted to contact his mother and is being held in a seventh-floor cell where he is fed the same meals that police officers receive while on duty.[56] Van der Sloot was placed on suicide watch by guards after he deliberately hit his head against a wall.[57][58]

Police released hotel security video showing Van der Sloot entering the Hotel TAC together with Flores Ramírez and later leaving the hotel alone with his bags. Deputy medical examiner Dr. Cesar Tejada of Lima said that test results for the presence of drugs would be known in two weeks.[51] An autopsy ruled out that Flores Ramírez had sexual intercourse before her death and that she was under the influence of sufficient alcohol to prevent her from resisting an attack.[57]

Confession to homicide

On June 7, 2010, a Peruvian government official said that Van der Sloot confessed to killing Flores Ramírez.[4][5] According to an expert in Peruvian law, the confession fits a defense strategy of trying to get the charge reduced to manslaughter, which is punishable by 6 to 20 years in prison, while a conviction for murder could result in up to 35 years imprisonment.[59] Peru does not issue life sentences in standard cases of murder and has abolished capital punishment in all but exceptional circumstances, such as crimes committed under military law.[6][60] However, a life sentence can be issued for a murder committed during the commission of a robbery.[61] Van der Sloot's mother expressed concern that the confession may have been coerced.[62]

On June 8, Peruvian investigators planned to take Van der Sloot back to the hotel room for a re-enactment of the crime scene as part of standard procedure,[62] but waived it after concluding that his confession was sufficiently thorough and corroborated by evidence.[63] Van der Sloot recounted that he briefly left the hotel to get some coffee and bread, and returned to find Flores Ramírez using his laptop computer without his permission. A police source stated that she may have found information linking him to the disappearance of Holloway. An altercation began and she attempted to escape.[6] Van der Sloot stated, "I did not want to do it. The girl intruded into my private life . . . she didn't have any right. I went to her and I hit her. She was scared, we argued and she tried to escape. I grabbed her by the neck and hit her."[4] Van der Sloot stated that he was intoxicated with marijuana at the time.[6] A detective linked to the case said that Van der Sloot considered getting rid of the body, but decided against it because he would have been stopped at the front desk.[52] He then drank espresso and took amphetamines to counter fatigue before fleeing.[64]

Public reaction

Public outcry in Peru has been fueled by local media, which labeled Van der Sloot a "monster," "serial killer," and "psychopath." The coverage of this controversy highlighted cases of other women dying at the hands of foreigners.[61] Colombian police are also investigating the disappearance of two young women who frequented casinos during Van der Sloot's stay in at least two Bogota hotels from May 6 to 14, prior to entering Peru.[65][66][67] Dutch daily newspaper Trouw warned that the overwhelming pressure on authorities of Van der Sloot's presumed guilt risked turning the case into a show trial.[68] The Dutch consulate told Peruvian authorities that it was concerned how Van der Sloot was being treated and presented to the media.[43] Peruvian president Alan García Pérez said that Van der Sloot would have to stand trial for the homicide before any extradition request from the United States would be considered.[56]

References

  1. ^ "Very bad situation - Appears the FBI dropped the ball and young woman is dead". Fox News. 2010-06-03.
  2. ^ "Suspect in Peru woman's slaying arrested in Chile, police say". CNN. 2010-06-03.
  3. ^ a b "Dutch murder suspect Van der Sloot in Peru". Associated Press. 2010-06-04.
  4. ^ a b c "Van der Sloot confesses to Peru slaying - Paper reports suspect lost his temper after victim grabbed laptop". NBC News. 2010-06-08. Retrieved 8 June 2010.
  5. ^ a b "Report: Van der Sloot Confesses to Peru Murder". FOX News. 2010-06-08. Retrieved 2010-06-08.
  6. ^ Van der Sloot and Kalpoes go free America's Most Wanted (Television series)
  7. ^ Papôt, Thijs (3 June 2010). "Joran van der Sloot: a treat for psychiatrists". Radio Netherlands Worldwide. Retrieved 7 June 2010.
  8. ^ "Natalee Holloway timeline". CBS News. 2008-01-31. Archived from the original on 2008-01-17.
  9. ^ Holloway Arrest CNN, 2007-11-27.
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  62. ^ "FBI Paid Joran Van Der Sloot At Least $15,000 In Sting Operation, Private Investigator Says". Huffington Post. 2010-06-09.
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  67. ^ "Dutch concern over Van der Sloot 'show trial'". CNN. 2010-06-08.

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