I finally found a version of the confession video with English subtitles.

Natalee Holloway's mother and reporter Peter R. DeVries were on Larry King. You can watch the video over at CNN. She brings up the point I mentioned last week about how investigators in Aruba kept asking Natalee's parents over and over if Natalee had ever had a history of epileptic seizures.

The Aruban authorities have also questioned Joran Van der Sloot again, this time in the Netherlands. deny. deny. deny. He is claiming that everything on the video tape is lies and that he was just making it up so that he could get a job with the bad guys :)

He was apparently interviewed for two hours again and he denied any type of role in Natalee Holloway's disappearance according to the prosecutor's office. He claims that he was under the influence of Marijuana when he was secretly videotaped saying that he was with Holloway when she died. In the video tape he also says that he couldn't be sure that she was dead when they disposed of the body. That's just messed up.

The Aruban courts have said that there is enough evidence to re-open the investigation, which they obviously have, but not enough to arrest Joran, so the scum sucking loser is still walking around free. The prosecutor's office has appealed that decision and a three-judge panel is supposed to rule on that this next week.

Investigators have taken a hard drive from Joran's computer as well as a laptop in order to look for new evidence.

I have not had the time this week to really devote to checking out the updates on the case until recently, nor did I get the chance to search and see the video that was on Dutch television Sunday night.

According to authorities in Aruba, the secretly-taped video could be admitted in court in the case however.

According to the tape Joran van der Sloot said that he "didn't lose a minute of sleep" knowing that Natalee Holloway's body had been dumped out in the sea.

Van Der Sloot admits to being with Holloway the night of her disappearance, having sex with her, and when she died, most likely from a combination of the drugs and alcohol she had used, called a friend who took her out in his boat and "threw her out, like and old rag"

According to Van Der Sloot's attorney the friend that Van der Sloot named in the video wasn't even in Aruba in 2005 and has never owned a boat and there are a couple of other issues as well that don't fit, including the fact that the coast guard had checked the phone in 2005 that according to his story he used to call the friend. There was no such call made from the pay phone on that night.

Aruban investigators are saying that there is more evidence against Joran van der Sloot than what was revealed in the hidden camera interview. They have also searched two places in Holland on Monday where Van der Sloot has lived, removing some evidence. They will not specify what that evidence is but supposedly they knew exactly what they were looking for.

Sprocket brings up an interesting point and now that I have seen that I will have to go back through some of the old reports. Anyway, it was mentioned over at Trials and Tribulations about the fact that early in the investigation Aruban investigators asked Holloway's parents several times if Natalee had ever had any seizures. Kind of funny considering that's exactly what Joran describes on the tape...

Anyway, about the guy named that owned/doesn't own a boat. Remember party boat DJ Steve Croes? Supposedly THAT'S who Joran called that night and then the two of them took Natalee out and dumped her body. I have also read in several places that Lorenzo van Rijn, a known underworld figure and drug dealer in Aruba is probably the person that Joran called that night. It's not the first time I have seen that either. Missing in Aruba is a site that hasn't been updated since the fall of 2005 and I think that may be the first place I saw mention of Lorenzo, who very well may be Joran's half-brother.

I found the taped confession from Joran over at Youtube. Of course unless you speak Dutch it's pretty much useless.. I am just now sitting down to watch...

Now if I could just pick out more than a couple of words...

Updated 2-2-08 --- Joran Van der Sloot was interviewed again on the show Pauw & Witteman yesterday and made the statement that he had nothing to do with Natalee Holloway's disappearance and that he had lied when he privately told someone he was involved.

"It is true I told someone. Everybody will see it Sunday. This is what he wanted to hear, so I told him what he wanted to hear" adding that he had built up a relationship with the man but had never fully trusted him.

According to his lawyers, the confession was obtained by an Aruban employee of DeVries who was handsomely rewarded for winning Joran's trust and betraying him , although according to Joran's statement he never fully trusted him. I guess he's not choosy about who he spouts lies to, as the past has shown us.

A Dutch Judge should make a ruling today or tomorrow as to whther or not Joran Van der Sloot can be re-arrested.

Updated 9:55 p.m. I have posted several times today but my damned blog won't rebuild and my host keeps telling me there are no problems. Apparently the fact that the last six entries plus this one that I have edited several times is a figment of my imagination. Anyway, Equivocation Nation is also keeping us updated on the case as well. ABC has apparently purchased the video for an undisclosed, very large amount and Peter Cuomo is flying to the Netherlands to interview Peter DeVries.

Updated 9:45 p.m. The Aruban prosecutor has requested that Joran Van der Sloot be arrested based on new evidence, sources have told CNN. Hans Mos, the chief prosecutor said that he expects an answer from a judge as soon as Saturday or Sunday. If the judge rules that he can be arrested he would be brought back to Aruba for detainment and more questioning.

I mentioned yesterday in my post about Peter R. DeVries that prosecutors in Aruba were looking at the case again and sure enough, they have decided to reopen the case, 33 days later.

In a statement made earlier today the public prosecutor's office in Aruba said "The recordings made available to the Public Prosecutor have given the Public Prosecutor a reason to reopen the investigation".

They haven't made any references to the possibility of arrests but I am sure that will be forthcoming in the next few weeks.

DeVries is supposed to be broadcasting a Secretely taped confession on Sunday by Joran Van der Sloot. It's not clear exactly what he has has confessed to but obviously since Aruba is reopening the investigation  it will either be her disappearance or murder.

Updates toward the bottom of the entry

Just received a breaking news alert from CNN. Investigators in Aruba are looking at some new evidence that has been provided by Peter R. de Vries, a Dutch reporter. I posted about de Vries earlier this month but really didn't go into the report much. He along with Joran van Der Sloot were on the Dutch TV show Pauw & Witteman earlier in the month and Joran lost his temper and threw wine at the reporter on camera after being confronted with his lies. If you haven't seen the wine incident yet, this is the part of the show where Joran throws it in his face.

7:13 p.m. - Now CNN has reported that the office of the prosecutor in Aruba has intensified it's investigation of the case of Natalee Holloway after having received the information from Dutch crime reporter Peter R. de Vries. They are stating that the information may help considerably in the solution of the mystery of Natalee's disappearance and assumed death. The statement does not say what the information is. Sound like an all too familiar situation? If so it's because that's the same line of crap we heard last fall from the prosecutor's office who ended up dropping the case at the end of the year because they didn't have enough evidence.

Apparently Joran has pissed off the wrong person. According to the report the information may help resolve exactly what happened to Natalee Holloway during a 2005 graduation trip to Aruba during which she disappeared after spending time with van Der Sloot.

Prosecutors had to dismiss their case late last month after they finally figured out that they didn't have enough evidence and information to prosecute van Der Sloot or the Kalpoe brothers. Perhaps whatever it is that de Vries has turned over to police will be enough this time.

He has had at least a couple of positive findings in the past. DeVries tracked down the Heineken-kidnapper Frans Meijer in Paraguay and has had other achievements as well.

7:30 p.m. I don't know how true this is but go read Joran Did It! and see what you think. Here is Peter R. de Vries home page. The headline on his site (click the American flag for English version) states that he has "solved the crime!" Apparently he has conducted an undercover camera operation and turned the results over to the Aruban prosecutor.

de Vries has put out a press release which you can get to here. Beth Twitty is now in the Netherlands and has screened portions of the video and apparently Beth reacted extremely shocked by what she saw along with the certain news that her daughter is indeed dead.

9:28 p.m. The AP released this video earlier this evening:

Other Links:

The Anniston Star

Eyes For Lies

ABC News

Trackposted to The Virtuous Republic, Rosemary's Thoughts, The Random Yak, Right Truth, Big Dog's Weblog, Cao's Blog, Leaning Straight Up, The Pet Haven, Conservative Cat, third world county, Pirate's Cove, The Pink Flamingo, A Newt One, Right Voices, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Updated January 14th, 10:00 p.m. I wasn't aware of it at the time that I put the timeline together, but I had already posted one, albeit incomplete, back in May of 2007.

Scared Monkeys has some recent posts up about Joran and his antics if you want to go check them out. Apparently Joran appeared on the late-night talk show Pauw & Witteman and by the end of the show threw wine in the face of a crime reporter. Good thing he wasn't alone on the beach with him.

Ever since June of 2005 millions of people around the world and most particularly here in the United States have been wondering just what happened to Natalee Holloway and if she will ever be found.

Although this is titled a "Definitive Natalee Holloway Timeline" this is certainly not meant to be the last source of information and I plan on adding to it as time goes by. I have not added a lot of the stuff that has happened the last couple of months but will when I get the free time. I also need to arrange it in more or a chronological order. I have worked on it off and on when I had free time over the last week or so, it jumps around a bit.

The first I heard of the story was right around the time of this news story at CNN.

Natalee Holloway was on a post-graduation trip to Aruba along with about 100 students from Mountain Brook High School in Alabama in order to celebrate their graduation. Along with the students were seven adult chaperones.

She was last seen in the company of three young men, Joran van der Sloot as well as Deepak and Satish Kalpoe, leaving Carlos & Charlies, a nightclub in Oranjestad. According to initial reports the three men claimed that they took her to Arashi Beach before dropping her off at her hotel about 2 AM. Somewhere between 20 and 40 of her classmates saw her leave the bar with the three young men around 1:30 AM. None of the security cameras at the Holiday Inn where her class was staying show Natalee returning. The class of 124 was scheduled to fly back to the states on that day, May 30th. Her passport, packed luggage, camera and cell phone were all in her hotel room.

This photo was taken with Natalee's disposable camera on May 29th 2005 with Natalee's disposable camera just hours before she disappeared.

One interesting thing about the security cameras is that on April 19th, 2006 Beth Twitty stated that the security cameras at the Holiday Inn were not working on the night that Natalee vanished. She has made other statements in public as well as in her book, that the lobby camera was working. This could just be a matter of simple confusion. I would be pretty darned confused if my child had been missing so long. It could also point to the fact that she didn't know what the hell she was talking about and just had to say something to the media.

This post is extremely long. If you are interested in finishing it, the rest is below the fold.

According to this article over at CNN (seems I have been hanging out there a lot lately) the investigation of Natalee Holloway is not closed but has entered a new phase as four detectives assigned to the case continue to look for evidence. Regardless of what happened or who killed Natalee (if indeed she is dead as I and most people assume) the family needs some kind of closure as does the Aruban people. Exactly how much do they trust their own authorities if they can't even prosecute the killers of one girl?

Hans Mos stated that the charges were dropped against

Joran van der Sloot and the two Kalpoe brothers, Deepak and Satish not because they don't have a case but because they couldn't be sure of a conviction. If they were to be prosecuted and then the case were to be dismissed, because of double jeopardy (as in our laws) they couldn't be tried again. It actually makes sense to make sure that they have all of their ducks in a row before they go for a conviction. Then again, they could just be assigning the four detectives to a never-ending case just to appease the traveling public.

Some of the conflicting statements from the three young men include the fact that the Kalpoes told police that they dropped Holloway and van der Sloot off near a lighthouse on the northern tip of the island. Joran van der Sloot's mother says that he told her he was on the beach with Natalee but left her there because she wanted to stay. If you will recall, during the interrogation of Joran van der Sloot he initially told police that Natalee Holloway wanted to go to the north side of the island to see sharks (interesting only in the fact that it was dark and you wouldn't see shit, but if she were drunk the fact that it was dark wouldn't matter), but later on said that 'at no time did Natalee ask to go to the north side of Aruba and then later said that the idea of going to the lighthouse was his?

Anyway, the good thing is that under Aruban law criminal prosecution is possible until the punishable acts become too old. For voluntary manslaughter that is six years and for homicide it's twelve.

From FOX News last night:

Starting to ramble now. For other recent stories and developments:

• Holloway Suspect Wrote Teen Was Dead
• So Is It Really Over?
• Aruba Investigation Not Over
• No Charges For Holloway Suspects
• Natalee Holloway Case Over?

Seems to be a bit of a recurring theme lately :)

I just found this video from the AP concerning comments that one of the three suspects made in an Internet chat room concerning Natalee Holloway

Apparently one piece of the 'new' evidence (according to reports) that prosecutor's used to justify the re-arrest of the three suspects in the Natalee Holloway case was a bit of chat log retrieved from the computer hard drive belonging to one of them. In the chat, one of the suspects said 'The fact that she's dead is not good', referring to Holloway.

There was no further discussion of Holloway's death or how she died. Other evidence included two new witnesses but they were only witnesses as far as the behavior of the suspects after Holloway's disappearance, not of the deed itself.

One other piece of evidence included a conversation about what happened that night after the authorities bugged the Kalpoe home.

So, apparently that one report at FOX News was right in that Hans Mos did an interview today but wrong in the fact that they have closed the case barring any new evidence.

What gets me is the fact that it is an admission that they know she is dead and had something, no matter how small, to do with it, yet are now just considered persons of interest in the case since they refused to talk to the prosecution.

According to the news video from CBS, the investigation into the disappearance of Natalee Holloway has definitely been closed because there is not enough evidence.

John Q. Kelly, the lawyer for Natalee Holloway's family says that they are extremely frustrated that the investigation was closed. Harry Smith Interviewed Kelly for CBS

According to Rosemarie Arnold, attorney for Joran van der Sloot, a bungled investigation unfairly implicated him in the disappearance.

Seems to me that the biggest problem is the damned attorneys and politicians that are so worried about Aruba's image that are getting in the way of the investigation.

All we can really hope for now is that Texas Equusearch actually finds her body. How the heck are they going to keep from prosecuting the killers then?

I had one of the readers send me a link yesterday afternoon that contradicts the story over at CNN that I had mentioned, wherein the lead prosecutor said that they were closing the case and not going to charge the three suspects in the Natalee Holloway case. Somehow I missed it yesterday evening.

According to FOX News, despite the report yesterday in which everyone said the case has been closed, Aruban officials have NOT closed their investigation into the disappearance of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway. The media liaison for Hans Mos dismissed the earlier report and said that a press conference was scheduled for Thursday that will reveal new evidence against the three young men last seen with Holloway.

Damn, they need to make up their minds...Seeing is believing so I guess I will just wait until Thursday and see what there is to see.

Thanks for the link, Loral.

Here is the original report from about 2:45 yesterday afternoon.

I am not sure what time the FOX story was posted at this point in time.

CNN is reporting that none of the three suspects in the disappearance of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway are going to be charged. The prosecutor in the case, Hans Mos, said that there isn't enough evidence to take the case to trial. WTF? Just weeks ago they all kinds of new evidence and evidence that had been analyzed incorrectly that he said was sure to prove that they had killed Natalee Holloway and now all of a sudden there is none?

According to the prosecutor's office the new evidence had consisted gathering advanced techniques used to re-examine cell phone records and text message exchanged the night that Holloway disappeared. Mos said last month that the evidence would show that Holloway is dead although her body has not been found.

According to Scared Monkeys, Aruba was warned by the IMF (International Monetary Fund) about having to heavy a dependence on tourism. Wonder how this news is going to affect their tourism now?

As I mentioned over the weekend prosecutors are pretty likely to close the Natalee Holloway case at the end of the year if the body is not found between now and then. CBS News' Julie Chen interviewed the Holloway's attorney John Q. Kelly.

Does this mean that the case is over forever and everyone is just going home? No, her father is still enroute in a search ship where they are going to be looking in areas that have not been searched yet. Even if the body were to turn up several months or years from now the case could be reopened. It just means that the Aruban government will quit expending time and money on the case. Regardless of what I and others think about how they have handled it, Aruba has expended quite a bit of time and money in this investigation.

Amigoe has an article up about Joran and his release as does Scared Monkeys. In all actuality, even though the Aruban government may have made a few blunders early on I doubt very seriously that he would have even been jailed a second time in the U.S. considering our court system. The outcome would not have been so much different than it is now, particularly without a body.

Scared Monkeys seems to think that there was a cover up in the case. I don't know about that but they have certainly been much closer to the case and the people involved over the last two years. They had an interview with Jossy Mansur, the managing editor of Diario recently, who offers the same opinion and is planning a new investigation into the details.

Friday Aruba's chief prosecutor Hans Mos said that they will most likely close the case of the missing teenager Natalee Holloway by the end of the year unless his office finds that there is enough evidence to charge someone with a major crime. Mos said that he wouldn't comment on the type of evidence that the prosecutor's office is reviewing but that he does not anticipate finding Natalee Holloway's remains and prosecuting a case is going to be extremely hard without said remains, which pretty much throws it back in the lap of Natalee Holloway's father who is to be searching in deep sea areas for her remains.

According to CNN, Holloway's parents did not return multiple messages left at their homes and on cell phones.

Mos said that he and the Holloway family feel pursuing a minor charge would not serve any kind of purpose. Under Aruban law a person convicted of making a body disappear would only server six months in jail.

There is always the tiniest chance that her father along with Texas Equusearch will find the body, at which point the case could be pursued. I, along with many other people, would really like to know what happened.

Commenter Grace made a point a few days ago in that we are all stupid enough to believe that  a person is innocent until proven guilty, except in Aruba. She is from Ottumwa, Iowa (according to her IP address) but in comments discusses Aruba and some things that go on there as if she is extremely familiar with the island and it's inhabitants. She has been defending Joran endlessly in the murder/disappearance and pointing at the Kalpoe brothers.

It very well may be that he had nothing to do with it but the fact is that he has made several different conflicting stories and statements and it's very clear that even if he didn't do the deed he knows who did and what happened and that would make him an accessory, at least under our law. If you walk like a duck and quack like a duck you damn sure ain't a pig.

The search for Natalee Holloway has spanned two and a half years and involved hundreds of volunteers, Aruban soldiers, FBI agents and even F-16s laden with search equipment. Prosecutors in Aruba do not anticipate ever finding Holloway's remains.

Wyatt Earp over at Support Your Local Gunfighter feels like Hans Mos is not taking the feelings of Natalee's parents under consideration and that they are not showing any respect for Holloway or her family. I don't think it's so much the prosecutor's office as it is the fact that if they chose to press charges they would end up losing the case, as shown by the fact that at least four different judges felt that the three suspects should be freed last week. I am all for prosecuting them but the fact remains that as Joran van der Sloot's father told him two years ago, you can't be convicted without a body.

Mad Cow calls the Aruban authorities are incompetent and wonders if they will ever be held accountable.

An Aruban judge ordered the release of Joran van der Sloot earlier today. This could possibly end any hopes for prosecutions in the disappearance of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway in 2005.

The other suspects, Satish and Deepak Kalpoe have already been released and prosecutors decided not to appeal the decision of the judge today in light of the denied appeal that a three judge panel turned down earlier this week.

The judges reasons for freeing Van der Sloot followed along the same lines as the previous decision about the Kalpoes, that the prosecution had not brought any new significant information that would incriminate the suspects in the murder/disappearance of Natalee Holloway.

The prosecution will announce before the end of the year whether that will proceed to try the three suspects in the case.

A three-member panel of Aruban judges ruled today that the two brothers who have been arrested more than once in the Natalee Holloway case should remain free, which may mean trouble in the investigation into the disappearance of teenager Natalee Holloway. The panel turned down a request from prosecutors to reverse the decision of a judge made last week in the case against the two brothers.

The panel of judges said that the case against Deepak and Satish Kalpoe fails to show whether or not Natalee Holloway died as the result of a crime. The trouble that prosecutors may have now is the fact that Joran van der Sloot may not be able to be held as well. Van der Sloot was slated to have a hearing on Friday but at a request from defense attorneys he will get his hearing tomorrow, Thursday December 6th.

The decision of the court in this matter is final and does not allow for further appeals but it does not stop further investigation or prosecution later.

According to what I read over at Scared Monkeys, Chief Aruban Prosecutor Hans Mos will appeal the decision of the judge that allowed the release of Deepak and Satish Kalpoe. The judge reviewing the case said that there are serious objections against them and although the evidence shows that they wiped out traces of a crime scene and possibly helped spirit a body away, that is not enough to hold them in custody.

WTF?

This is the same evidence that has extended Joran van der Sloot's stay at the crossbar motel and which prosecutors are going to try and get him held for another 60 days later this week.

According to the news reports I have read, two of the suspects that were arrested in connection with the Natalee Holloway case last week are going to be released from custody. Prosecutors wanted Deepak and Satish Kalpoe held for another eight days but a judge rejected that request today according to a spokesman for the prosecution.

The third suspect, Joran van der Sloot is still being held in jail. All three of the young men were the last to see Natalee Holloway before she disappeared in May 2005.

A judge is expected to rule today on whether or not to continue to hold the two Kalpoe brothers as suspects in the Natalee Holloway case. Lawyers for all three suspects were in court Thursday to argue different motions.