Portrait of a Monster: Joran Van Der Sloot, a Murder in Peru, and the Natalee Holloway Mystery (25 page)

“Joran is always hard to wake up. It didn’t seem any harder than usual to get him to wake up. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.”

Paulus van der Sloot was vague, seemingly forgetful, and spoke in generalities. When police had first talked to him, he had been very precise. Now, his memory was deficient. He couldn’t remember if Joran had gone to school that Monday or if he had or hadn’t picked him up at school during the period of May 30 to June 9. He couldn’t remember the exact dates of his wife’s trip to Holland.

Detectives also focused on the gym bag that Joran claimed to have left behind the bar at the racquet club the day after Natalee went missing. Something about the sneakers that Joran claimed to have lost on the beach seemed suspect. If Paulus had helped dispose of any evidence that could link Joran to a homicide, they wanted to know about it.

“I don’t recall whether or not I returned to the racquet club to pick up the bag Joran had left there. I don’t think I returned to the club after I dropped off Joran. I can’t be completely sure.”

The police wanted to know exactly what Paulus had discussed with Joran and the Kalpoe brothers. “I don’t recall if I had a conversation with Joran, Deepak, and Satish about the missing girl on June 1, 2005,” Paulus recounted. “I did speak extensively to Deepak, Satish, and Joran from the time that they were questioned to the time they were arrested. We read the papers, saw the news and spoke about it.

“I was in touch almost every day with Jan van der Straten. At no time did I doubt the boys’ story. When we spoke of the girl, it was about what the consequences would be if she didn’t show up somewhere. I was under the impression that the boys assumed that the girl would turn up sooner or later.

“Naturally we spoke of the possibility that she would not show up. I based my hope on scanty information provided by Jan van der Straten that the girl had been seen again after they dropped her off at the Holiday Inn. He didn’t say so in so many words, but I made the assumption seeing that the boys were not questioned again.”

“Weren’t you suspicious when the boys asked a lot of questions about the consequences if the girl didn’t show up?”

“My recollection is that the boys didn’t even bring it up. I was the one who initiated the conversations about the girl.”

“Why did you do so?” Detective Tromp pressed.

“I kept bringing it up in conversation because I was concerned. I was concerned for her and for the boys, due to the fact that if they were the last ones to be seen with her, the investigation would turn back to them. I had no doubts as to the validity of their statements.”

Paulus had been in the hot seat for more than five hours. Aruban law allowed police to interrogate a suspect for no more than six hours unless they believed the suspect had more information vital to a criminal investigation. At that point, the prosecutor’s office could request an additional forty-eight-hour hold.

At just after 8:00
P.M.
, the elder Van der Sloot was informed that he would be taken into custody and held overnight in a cell at the Noord Police Station.

“This is completely ridiculous and absurd,” Paulus objected. “I consider it to be malicious in intent if the purpose of my detention is to bring my son to make false statements.”

Paulus told police he was more than happy to tell them everything he remembered, if it would help in clearing up the case of the missing girl. But he felt that he could better serve this purpose as a witness rather than a suspect.

After learning that he would be detained, Paulus continued to answer questions for another hour. Police wanted to know why he arranged legal representation for the boys if he thought they were innocent.

“At a certain point, I realized that I needed to face the fact that they might be considered suspects in the future. I wanted to allow that process to run more smoothly and facilitate their release from custody. Again, I believed their story to be true.

“If they already had an attorney at their disposal, then the whole process would move along more quickly, their statements could be taken and no time would be lost. It was meant purely to facilitate the process.”

Sergeant Burke jotted a note on the pad in front of him. “Why did you make these arrangements even though you were convinced they were telling the truth?” the officer asked.

“Because the boys could have been the last to see the girl before she disappeared, was enough to make them suspects, I reasoned. As I said, I wanted to facilitate the process.

“Moreover, I didn’t want the boys to panic due to pure lack of knowledge about the procedure they would be subjected to. I wanted the truth to prevail and not get clouded with half-truths. The situation as it was and its subjectivity to police and justice department pressures for results could have resulted in such buckling to these pressures.”

“Why were you so concerned that the boys would buckle under the police questioning if you were so convinced of the truthfulness of their statements?”

“I have said that I believed the boys’ statements. I was more concerned that the pressure put on the police to produce evidence would influence the amount of undue pressure put on the boys. I was afraid that the boys might be influenced into making false statements.

“I told them repeatedly that they are lucky that there were three of them and that their interrogations would not be difficult since they were just telling the truth.”

“Mr. Van der Sloot, isn’t it true that Joran has lied in the past?”

“Yes, Joran has lied in the past,” Paulus affirmed. “He lied about money he had stolen from us. We discussed it as a family extensively and there was also guidance from a youth psychologist with whom he had several talks while going through puberty. I was under the impression that he had turned over a new leaf. I did not assume that I would have to question everything he said to me.”

*   *   *

Anita van der Sloot was frantic when she left the Noord Police Station that Thursday afternoon, alone. She had not missed a day of work since returning from Holland on June 1, when she learned from her husband that Joran and his two friends, Deepak and Satish Kalpoe, were the last people seen with Natalee Holloway.

Over the weeks, the situation had intensified, but she and Paulus had each other for support. Now, both her son and her husband were suspects in a potential murder investigation. She had been told that they were both facing life in prison and she was terrified.

Anita believed in a karmic order to life. She could believe in her son’s innocence and grieve for Natalee at the same time. Even though the lives of these teens had intersected, she hoped that their encounter could emerge from this current shroud of tragedy with Natalee safe and Joran exonerated.

Since coming back from Holland, she had gone into a Christmas storage box to retrieve an angel. With the angel, a lit candle, and a photo of Natalee, she created her personal shrine to the missing American teen, praying for her well-being and return.

Still, Joran’s recounting of his grueling ten-hour interrogations was heart-wrenching. He said the detectives had placed him under extreme pressure, calling him a psychopath and a murderer, and demanding that he reveal where he buried Natalee. He also told her that the interrogators were withholding food and threatening him with acts of physical violence.

Anita was devoted to her three teenage sons, and her two younger ones still needed her at home. She wanted to conceal her grief when she arrived home that Thursday afternoon without her husband, but the anguish on her face was unmistakable. She wasn’t even able to get inside to embrace them without navigating the reporters camped outside her orange ranch house.

Needing to be the spokesperson for her family, she invited the group onto her enclosed back patio. Dressed casually in a short-sleeved pink top and dark purple slacks, she summoned her courage and called her husband’s arrest “ridiculous.”

“My husband has done everything that authorities have asked of him,” Anita said, choking back tears. “It hurts because my husband gave fifteen years of his integrity to this island, and that this could happen is so bizarre. He is the most honest, beautiful man that you can think of,” she proclaimed. When she spoke about her husband, Anita’s face was filled with soulful admiration.

Forty-nine-year-old Anita was convinced that Aruban justice had been hijacked by the American media. “This is not about Natalee anymore. It’s about enormous pressure from the States and the media.

“I’m very angry,” she explained. “But, I will hold up. I have to because I believe in my husband. I believe in my son. It will be fine.”

Anita and Beth Twitty had met for the first time earlier in the week. Beth, accompanied by news anchor Greta Van Susteren and a Fox news crew, was in the Van der Sloots’ neighborhood passing out flyers and prayer cards.

Paulus was outside when the group showed up on Montanja Street. After he and Beth talked briefly over the fence, Paulus invited her inside to her complete surprise. News anchor Greta Van Susteren was invited to accompany her, but all cameras were to remain outside.

The visit lasted ninety minutes. Beth, dressed in blue jeans and a white tank top, her red hair pulled up in a ponytail, tried to stay upbeat. She presented Joran’s parents with the “Hope for Natalee” bracelets she had been handing out to everyone.

Natalee’s friends back in Mountain Brook had made thousands of the three-thread yarn bracelets as a project to keep Natalee’s search filled with hope. The wristbands were being distributed throughout Alabama, and many more had been shipped to Beth in Aruba to hand out on the island.

The Mountain Brook community was deeply invested in finding Natalee and helping the Holloways and the Twittys in their efforts. Daily prayer vigils were held at the Mountain Brook Community Church, and members tied yellow ribbons to mailboxes, storefronts, fences, and lampposts throughout Birmingham.

Although the face-to-face meeting with the Van der Sloots had ended with Beth and Anita in an embrace, Natalee’s mother left that Tuesday convinced that Joran’s father knew more than he was revealing. She noticed that Paulus had been sweating profusely and his hands had been trembling, so when news of his arrest that Thursday afternoon broke, she was elated.

“We are very pleased that the investigation is progressing,” Twitty told reporters. “We feel like this will lead to more information to give us the answers we need for finding Natalee.”

*   *   *

Joran had only been at the KIA prison in Sint Nicolaas for two days when his father was taken into custody. Since arriving at the facility, the teen had been struggling to manage his anger. Already, he had gotten into a scuffle with the police officers who had transported him there.

The men had been compelled to use force to subdue him.

Aruban prison director Fred Maduro wasn’t surprised at Van der Sloot’s level of aggression. Maduro was a fair-skinned man who shaved his gray hair down to the stubble. He had worked with Paulus van der Sloot in the past, and knew Joran from his youth. He had noticed even then that Joran had an explosive temper when he didn’t get his way.

On the afternoon of June 24, detectives arrived to transport Joran back to Oranjestad for more questioning. But Joran refused to go.

In an arrogant tone, he announced he was not cooperating. He would only go if his father was released from jail. Advised by his mother and his attorney, Antonio Carlo, he said he was no longer giving statements, instead invoking his right to silence. His father was being represented by Antonio Carlo, as well, and a second attorney, Rudy Oomen, was helping in their defense out of friendship, Joran explained. He, himself, would not speak again until clearance came from either lawyer. If he stayed silent, following legal advice, his father would be released in two days.

“I realize that by making another statement, I could get my father into more trouble,” Joran explained. “My father has a poor memory and that’s why our statements don’t match. He can’t even remember what clothing he had on yesterday.”

Joran took the position that his father’s detention was centered on the McDonald’s time line, the time Paulus said he had picked up his son at the McDonald’s on Palm Beach on the night Natalee went missing. His father had said “middle of the night, May 30” and Joran had described, “11:00
P.M.
, May 29.” But Beth Twitty had remembered a different time. Natalee’s mother had claimed to have heard Paulus say that it was 4:00
A.M.
on May 30. Joran thought this was absurd. He wanted the police to leave his friends and family alone. He would take new questions only, and only then with his lawyer present.

Furthermore, he was not going anywhere that afternoon because he was expecting a visit from his mother at 2:00
P.M.
He needed her to brief him about how the lawyers wanted to proceed. “Only if my father’s lawyer advises me in the meantime to give a statement, will I do so,” Joran announced. “I’m waiting to see my father’s statement before giving another one myself.”

In spite of Joran’s many objections, he was transported to police headquarters in Oranjestad that day anyway. Two investigators began a line of questioning completely unrelated to Natalee Holloway. They wanted to know about a different sexual assault on another young woman.

For six hours, Joran was interrogated about his interactions with a girl we’ll call Bridgette. He denied the allegations presented to him and said the sex was consensual.

“I know the girl Bridgette, but I don’t know her last name,” Joran told the detectives. “I had sexual relations with her, but I can’t remember exactly when.”

“Did the sexual relations take place during Carnival this year?” Detective Jacobs asked, referring to the country’s annual celebration in downtown Oranjestad.

Joran nodded in the affirmative, recalling that when he first saw Bridgette that past January she was dancing with his friend Jaime “Beto” near the bridge of the Renaissance Hotel. “I suspected that Bridgette had been drinking.” Joran explained that after the festivities, Bridgette joined him and his friends Jaime, Freddy, and Koen at Carlos’n Charlie’s. “Inside Carlos’n Charlie’s, Bridgette and I walked upstairs and started French kissing.”