Portrait of a Monster: Joran Van Der Sloot, a Murder in Peru, and the Natalee Holloway Mystery (41 page)

After the psychological exam, authorities next wanted to effect a reenactment of the crime scene. Like in Aruba, reenactments are commonly used in Peru, allowing a perpetrator to demonstrate his version of a crime. The reenactments are visual aids for the police officers establishing the scene. They help uncover inconsistencies in a defendant’s statement. They are also important in the sentencing phase after a conviction.

Joran’s account suggested that Stephany had not been murdered, but had died as a result of his self-defense. He claimed that a robbery had not been his motive, but an afterthought.

In Peru, the charge of homicide, or second-degree murder, carries a sentence of as little as fifteen years. With good behavior, Joran would be eligible for release in less than seven years. However, if police proved the death was premeditated, the mandatory sentence was thirty-five years. Peru has no death penalty. They believe in inmate reform.

Aggravated robbery, in which a victim is killed during a robbery, was also a consideration. Police had evidence that Stephany had won money at the casino and believed Joran knew about the bonanza.

Not surprisingly, the press, local and international alike, knew about the reenactment in advance and filled the street outside the Hotel Tac on its scheduled Tuesday. The scene reached mob proportions, with reporters using labels of “monster,” “psychopath,” and the “May 30 killer” when referring to the suspect.

Late Tuesday afternoon, amid security concerns, the reenactment was postponed and by Wednesday was canceled altogether. Officials believed they had ample evidence to present their case without it.

In Peru, police can hold a suspect for twenty-four hours. With a judge’s order, they can hold a suspect for an additional seven days while they conduct an investigation. After that, investigators must submit their findings to a judge, who determines if a suspect will be held for trial.

Callan had worked feverishly to put together his case before Friday’s hearing in front of a judge. Based on his interviews, he was convinced the Dutchman had charmed Stephany to his hotel room intending to rob her. He chose her specifically because of her winnings. She was a gambler, like him, and he was able to lure her easily with his online gambling accounts accessible from his laptop in Room 309. He knew the two had met before the murder because of the Atlantic City Casino’s surveillance photos. He believed he knew that Stephany had won a staggering $10,000 earlier in the week. No money had been deposited in her bank account, confirmed by bank records. When Joran only found a few hundred dollars in her wallet, Callan suspected he stole the Jeep, hoping to find more.

Callan’s master file was nearly four hundred pages, and contained sixteen witness statements, descriptions of surveillance videos, crime scene photos, the autopsy report, and of course, Joran’s own confession. He listed his twenty-one reasons for believing Joran had murdered and robbed Stephany Flores:

  1.  Before leaving the Atlantic City Casino with Stephany, Van der Sloot observed Flores exchange poker chips for cash, which made robbery an attractive crime.

  2.  Van der Sloot admitted in the presence of a public ministry representative, his defense lawyer, and translator of having robbed Flores of 850 soles, her national ID, credit cards, bankcard, as well as her Jeep on May 30. When Flores resisted the attack, Van der Sloot physically assaulted her, before he asphyxiated her, thus causing her death.

  3.  Stephany’s empty purse was found at the scene of the crime missing her money, bank cards and ID, which Van der Sloot admitted to having stolen.

  4.  The cruelty exhibited by Van der Sloot as evidenced by the lesions on the different parts of her body, leaving open the possibility that inside Room 309 Van der Sloot may have tortured Stephany in an attempt to obtain the passwords to the victim’s credit and bank cards in order to access the money in her accounts, showing no appreciation for human life.

  5.  The way in which Van der Sloot attempted to lighten his penal responsibility in this crime by saying that he committed the murder in self-defense, claiming Stephany initially struck him on the head. This is hardly credible given that Stephany sustained severe injuries to the head, face, and neck.

  6.  The autopsy report established that Stephany’s body, in an advanced state of decomposition—presented signs of cranial, encephalic, and cervical trauma; the cause of death being a blunt instrument, namely, Joran’s fists.

  7.  The time of death coincides with the time when the victim was seen alive for the last time entering Van der Sloot’s hotel room. A fact corroborated by security videos captured inside the Hotel Tac between 5:30 and 8:13
A.M.
on May 30, 2010.

  8.  Van der Sloot employed physical force, which resulted in concussions to the head, traumatic lesions to the face, cranial fractures, and sub-cranial hemorrhaging in order to subdue his victim. He then strangled her with both hands and lastly asphyxiated her, as was corroborated in the autopsy report.

  9.  Footage from the security cameras of the Atlantic City Casino show that Stephany Flores arrived at the casino on May 30 at 2:54
A.M.
driving her black Jeep and was captured again on video at 5:15
A.M.
leaving the casino in the company of Joran.

10.  Through a photo lineup Hotel Tac employees Geidy Salazar Santillan, Reynaldo Cruz, and Adeli Marchena recognized the Dutchman as the guest who on May 30 at 5:20
A.M.
entered Room 309 in the company of Stephany Flores before driving away alone in the victim’s Jeep that same morning at 8:45
A.M.

11.  Upon observing the videos of the security cameras inside the Hotel Tac, one can see the nervous attitude of the alleged perpetrator entering and exiting Room 309 after committing the crime, presumably attempting to come up with a possible alibi.

12.  Driver John Williams Pisconte, his brother John Oswaldo, and Carlos Euribe Pretil all identified Van der Sloot as the passenger they had driven to the city of Arica.

13.  The contradictions between Van der Sloot’s confession while in Peruvian custody and the voluntary deposition given in Chile in which he made up a story about a robbery perpetrated by two subjects that were inside Room 309 armed with a knife and a firearm when he entered the room in the company of Stephany Flores. His first version of events was hardly credible considering that the employees of the Hotel Tac never observed other persons entering Room 309, a fact that is backed up by surveillance footage.

14.  The attitude and criminal conduct exhibited by the Dutch citizen in having abandoned the body of Stephany Flores after perpetrating the crime, demonstrating coldness in his acts, and then fleeing for the Chilean border with the only purpose of evading justice.

15.  The pre-existence of money was established through the Prize Reports and videos of the Atlantic City showing the victim, Stephany Flores, had won on a $10,000 bet on May 24, 2010, and on April 30 she also obtained winnings in the amount of 676 soles. The money was stolen by Van der Sloot, a fact that is corroborated through records turned over to police by the casino.

16.  Video records from the Hotel Tac prove that the striped red shirt Van der Sloot gave the drivers during his trip from Ica was the same piece of clothing that he was wearing when he fled the Hotel Tac.

17.  The recovery of clothing among which was the striped red shirt, this being the piece of clothing that he wore after victimizing Stephany Flores before fleeing the crime scene in her SUV. The shirt was given as partial payment to the cabbies that transported him to the Chilean border with the objective of fleeing Peru after committing a crime.

18.  The clothing abandoned at the scene of the crime after murdering Stephany Flores were clearly recognized as belonging to the suspect.

19.  Police established that the “modus operandi” of Joran Andreas Petrus van der Sloot was selecting female victims in casinos and through deceit obtaining his victim’s money, and in this way obtaining easy money.

20.  It was scientifically established that fingerprints obtained from Van der Sloot while in custody in Lima matched prints lifted from Stephany’s Jeep. The prints corresponded to the pinky and ring fingers of the detainee’s right hand.

21.  It was scientifically established that other fingerprints lifted from the scene of the crime gathered by homicide technicians, from the edge of the glass ashtray, nightstand, the central part of a plastic bottle found on the TV table, and a transparent plastic bottle without a lid, were a match to the middle and ring finger of Van der Sloot’s right hand, as well as the middle finger of his left hand.

Summing up his report, Captain Callan asserted that the death of Stephany Flores was an act of cold-blooded murder, “committed with premeditation, violence, ferocity and cruelty, using physical force to cause her death.” Callan was confident his evidence would lead to a conviction, unlike his predecessors in Aruba five years earlier. He looked forward to presenting his case at trial.

*   *   *

Meanwhile, the threats against Joran and his defense team were formidable. Earlier in the week, the young man had hired a private attorney, Máximo Altez, recommended by his friends. Altez was a former officer with the Peruvian National Police. He had been part of the department’s antiterrorism squad, and had once been shot in the line of duty. When the lawyer agreed to represent Stephany’s attacker, he received outraged letters, phone calls, and death threats. He and his family were harassed, his office was vandalized, and his wife sought temporary refuge in Miami where the couple had a second home.

On June 11, Joran joined eleven other detainees in the back of an armored police van for transport to Lima’s Palacio de Justicia. He emerged from the DIRINCRI building wearing the black hooded sweatshirt he had on when he was captured. The multicolored towel around his neck had been intended to obscure his face, but had slipped, giving the photographers a coveted headshot. Officers in full riot gear escorted him to the van for the ten-minute ride to the courthouse on Avenida Paseo de la República.

The revivalist structure was home to the Supreme Court of the Republic, the Criminal Chambers of the Superior Court, and several criminal courtrooms. The Sheraton Hotel, the Italian Art Museum, and the city’s Civic Center were adjacent to the courthouse. Joran and his eleven van mates were brought to a side door, bypassing the thirty-three steps leading to the building’s grand entrance.

As usual, dozens of reporters and photographers lurked. Police in helmets carried Plexiglas shields and batons in case of a disturbance. Ordinary citizens packed the square and held up their cell phones to catch images of “
El Monstruo
” on their tiny cameras.

Joran was the last to emerge, outfitted in a bulletproof vest. He was immediately bombarded with taunts of “
asesino!
” (“murderer”) and pelted with rotting vegetables. He was unable to adjust the towel, now only partially covering his head, because of his handcuffs. He appeared to shrink in terror as officers pulled him by the elbows and led him up some stairs and into the building.

The hearing was short, with the determination that Joran remain in custody. He was reloaded into the van with the same fanfare. This time he traveled alone. He was destined for Peru’s infamous Miguel Castro Castro Prison.

The prison was an hour’s drive from central Lima, but still within city limits. It occupied a dusty hillside in the desperately poor district of San Juan de Lurigancho. The area was a mesh of unpaved streets lined with single-room cinderblock structures, curtains serving as windows and doors. Ramshackle stores mainly serviced the two prisons in town, Castro Castro and San Pedro.

Castro Castro, as Miguel Castro Castro prison was nicknamed, was the smaller of the two prisons, and with 1,400 prisoners, twice its intended capacity. Prisoners could sleep six to a cell, or in hallways. It was so unsanitary and dangerous that it had been investigated by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Inmate transports occurred daily, but Joran’s arrival in the dusty, squalid barrio was unique. He was heralded by the screeching of sirens atop the twelve security vehicles used in moving Peru’s most nefarious inmate. Shopkeepers capitalized on the event selling bottled water, chewing gum, and candy bars to reporters camped at the prison gates. New arrivals already suffering from dysentery chose the bottled water. Stray dogs wandered through the crowd scrounging for food. Freshly washed laundry flapped on wires stretched across rooftops.

Prison guards with modified Russian AK-47 assault rifles provided the first line of security. They stood guard at a series of twelve cement block buildings secured by metal gates and scrolling barbed wire.

The prison was built in the 1980s, originally to house drug-trafficking terrorists with antigovernment agendas. Severe overcrowding in other prisons had changed the population, and now hardened criminals incarcerated for other felonies, such as murder and child molestation, served sentences at Castro Castro. Sanitary conditions were horrific, and tuberculosis and AIDS were endemic.

One of Joran’s attorneys referred to the facility as “Dante’s Inferno.”

Joran complained of a headache as soon as he was inside the gates. A doctor examined him, and determined he was in good health.

Despite the overcrowded conditions, Joran required a private cell for security reasons. He was too high profile and too reviled to be in the general population. The one chosen for him almost adjoined the warden’s office.

His cell was a six-by-eleven-foot room with no windows, cement walls painted yellow and green, and a heavy steel door.

In a primitive system of bolt plates and padlocks, the steel door was locked with a key by guards from the outside. Once it was closed, Joran could not see the outside world. A single lightbulb screwed in the ceiling provided light. His cell had a twin mattress on a slab, a sink with running water, and a hole in the concrete floor for a toilet. Rats climbed up through the hole at night and chewed on his clothing.