There’s a sense of deja vu for Americans in the news from Peru. Joran van der Sloot has reportedly confessed to the murder of a 21-year-old Peruvian woman. Yet, for years he was suspected in the disappearance of Natalee Halloway. Will this be like O.J. Simpson who many Americans felt got away with murder but wound up going to jail for another crime?
Van der Sloot, the 22 year old Dutchman long been the prime suspect in the disapperance of Natalee Halloway 5 years ago, has reportedly now confessed to the murder of a 21-year-old Peruvian woman who he told police used his laptop without his permission, discovered his alleged involvement in the Halloway case, got frightened and wanted to leave.
And so, the confession reportedly goes, he got mad — and grabbed her by her neck. And there may be more to come, ABC News reports:
Peruvian authorities are pressuring Joran van der Sloot to give them information about the disappearance of Natalee Holloway in the wake of the Dutch playboy’s reported confession that he murdered a 21-year-old Peruvian woman.
Police investigators told Lima’s La Republica newspaper that van der Sloot’s bombshell confession came late Monday night when he tearfully admitted that he grabbed Stephany Flores Ramirez by the neck when she began reading articles about him on the Internet.
“I did not want to do it. The girl intruded into my private life,” he told investigators, according to La Republica . “She had no right.”
“I confronted her,” he continued. “She was frightened, we argued and she wanted to get away. I grabbed her by the neck and I hit her.”
Dave Holloway, Natalee Holloway’s father, told “Good Morning America” today that search teams had been assembled in Aruba in case Peruvian investigators are able to glean any more information about the teenager’s 2005 disappearance while on a school vacation.
Here are some videos that deal with the latest break in this case — which some hope could wind up definitively solving two cases rather than just one.
ABC News:
The AP:
CBS:
CNN:
NBC’s The Today Show:
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The Today Show also has this segment wondering whether this will re-open the Halloway case:
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In 2008 Halloway’s parents blasted the suspect on CNN:
See TMV’s Doran de Wind’s earlier post on the confession HERE. Also read our earlier news/video roundup on van der Sloop’s arrest.
MSNBC has these details from the Peruvian newspaper:
According to La Republica newspaper, van der Sloot said he broke Stephany Flores’ neck after she grabbed his laptop without his permission and found out that he was involved in the disappearance of an American woman.
The paper quoted van der Sloot as saying, “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.”
NBC News reported that a lawmaker confirmed that van der Sloot confessed to a police officer during interrogation. However, the source did not know the circumstances under which the confession was allegedly obtained.
Some conspiracy theory buffs are already hard at work: this You Tube video suggests (whether seriously or not — you decide) van der Sloot was set up (what would a murder news story be without the alleged perpetrator being painted by someone as the victim?).
Gamarra said the case would now be turned over to prosecutors to present formal charges and Van der Sloot will be assigned to a prison while he awaits trial. Murder convictions carry a maximum of 35 years in prison in Peru and it was not immediately clear if a confession could lead to a reduced sentence.
Van der Sloot remains the prime suspect in the 2005 disappearance of Alabama teen Natalee Holloway, then 18, on the Caribbean resort island of Aruba while she was celebrating her high school graduation.
He was arrested twice in the case — and gave a number of conflicting confessions, some in TV interviews — but was freed for lack of evidence.
A fixture on true crime shows and in tabloids after Holloway’s disappearance, he gained a reputation for lying — even admitting a penchant for it — and also exhibited a volatile temper. In one Dutch television interview he threw a glass of wine in a reporter’s eyes. In another, he smashed a glass of water against a wall in a fury.
The 6-foot-3-tall Van der Sloot had been held at Peruvian criminal police headquarters since arriving Saturday in a police convoy from Chile, where he was captured on Thursday.
He had crossed into Chile on Monday, nearly a day after leaving the Lima hotel — five years to the day after Holloway’s disappearance.
The Christian Science Monitor, which has done original reporting on the confession, asks whether in the end van der Sloot will “get off easy.”:
If charged with homicide, that would take off the table the potential charge of aggravated robbery, which carries a life sentence here. Officers had been investigating leads that van der Sloot had killed Flores to steal her winnings (about $1,000) from a hot streak at the local casino where they had met.
Van der Sloot could face between 15 and 30 years for murder, with the severity depending on how the prosecutor views the evidence.
First degree murder would get him the maximum sentence and few opportunities for parole.
The five-year old disappearance of Holloway could play a big part in van der Sloot receiving the maximum sentence even though he was not charged in that case and has not confessed to her death, say legal experts.
A lesser charge could mean 15 years and two-for-one benefits in which each day served counts as two if the inmates works, studies, and is generally well-behaved.
The question of such benefits is a top-of-mind issue in Peru these days in the wake of another high-profile case involving Lori Berenson, the American woman paroled in late May after serving three-fourths of her 20-year sentence. There have been calls from lawmakers for the Justice Ministry to eliminate benefits for heinous crimes.
Dog the Bounty Hunter says van der Sloot is a serial killer:
Alcohol and sexual motives are ruled out in the young woman’s death:
An autopsy determined that the 21-year-old homicide victim in Lima, Peru, Stephany Flores, did not have sexual intercourse prior to her death. Nor did she consume enough alcohol to prevent her from resisting an attack, reports local press.
Some weblog reaction:
—Talk Left’s Jeralyn, who is an attorney:
Had robbery been the motive, he was looking at life. Without it, it was a maximum of 35. If it’s manslaughter, like if he just snapped and lost it, it might only be 6 to 20 years, according to a Peruvian lawyer. They’ve had days to convince him that their justice system works differently and he’d get life unless he confessed and gave a “heat of passion” explanation, in which case he might get as little as 6 and up to 35, but not life. Sounds like they plea bargained with him and helped him come up with the best possible explanation. Who chose the Peruvian lawyer who was with him during todsy’s questioning? The prosecutor. That’s how their system works.
The prison director says they’ll be sure to keep Joran safe. Sure they will, but for how long? A week, until everyone forgets about him and moves on to the next crime, and the world is no longer watching?
He never stood a chance in Peru, which is probably why I’ve been covering it so closely. If the process is not going to be fair, at least we can try to make it transparent.
This comes as Holloway’s family is opening the Natalee Holloway Center in D.C., to counsel families whose loved ones go missing and to teach students about safe travel; Holloway went missing while vacationing in Aruba.
RIDDLE ME THIS BATMAN AGAIN … how does a girl get beaten to death like this at the time of the morning Joran would have stated and no one heard her scream? If some one came back into a room and saw some one on their computer, the victim would have shouted and screamed for their life as Joran Van der Sloot killed them. It is more plausible that Van der Sloot killed her in her sleep and stole the money, went to get coffee to create a phony alibi.
Also, one more time BATMAN, RIDDLE ME THIS … did Stephany speek Dutch? How about read it? Joran Van der Sloots laptop had to be set to Dutch and ever thing in it was written in Dutch. So how exactly did she invade his personal life?
Once again we see Joran Van der Sloot blame the victim and play the victim himself. PERU … fry the SOB and charge him with the maximum. He is a predator, a killer and a liar … JUSTICE FOR STEPHANY & NATALEE.
—Pajamas Media’s Richard Fernandez finds an old song that fits Van der Sloot’s version of why the girl died.
He killed Stephany Flores because she intruded into his private life? What the heck was on that notebook anyway? Was Van der Sloot so stupid as to put evidence of his guilt on his computer? Whatever the case may be, I hope the Peruvian justice system gives Van der Sloot the max and then some. I also hope now that Van der Sloot realizes the jig is up, he will confess to killing Natalee Holloway and give that poor family some much needed peace of mind.
WMAR ABC2 News:
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Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.