A suspect confesses to killing the teenager missing in Aruba

[AlpineJay]

Some late-night after work browsing and this is the breaking news from CNN:


ORANJESTAD, Aruba (CNN) -- One of three young suspects arrested Thursday in the investigation into the disappearance of an Alabama teenager has confessed to her murder, a senior police official said late Friday.

The suspect has agreed to lead police to the body of 18-year-old Natalee Holloway, the police official said.

Police did not say which of the three teenagers confessed.

The three have been identified as brothers Satish Kalpoe, 18, and Depak Kalpoe, 21, and their friend, 17-year-old Joran Van Der Sloot, the son of a judge.

The three, taken into custody early Thursday, were the last people to have reported seeing the missing student.

Police said Van Der Sloot met Holloway May 29 at the casino in the Holiday Inn where she was staying. The Birmingham, Alabama, student was in Aruba with classmates celebrating their high school graduation.

Later that night, Holloway went to a popular nightclub, Carlos'N Charlie's, with about 40 of her classmates. She left around 1:30 a.m. on May 30 with the Kalpoes and Van Der Sloot, authorities said.

Holly Brown, a Holloway friend who was at the club that night, said she found Van Der Sloot to be "very different."

"He lied about his age, and when we went on the [Carlos 'N Charlie's] Web site, we found pictures of him there one week before at the same place, wearing the same clothes," Brown told CNN.

In interviews with police, the three men acknowledged leaving the bar with Holloway. They told police they visited a beach before taking her back to her hotel about 2 a.m.

According to police statements, the Kalpoe brothers described her as stumbling on the way into the hotel, possibly as a result of alcohol, and that a "dark-colored" man in a black T-shirt with a radio helped her.

That testimony led to Sunday's arrest of Abraham Jones, 28, and Mickey John, 30, two security guards at a hotel near where Holloway was staying.

But a Holiday Inn employee who has reviewed surveillance tapes from that morning said the tapes do not show any sign of Holloway. Authorities had no explanation and were looking at whether the five men have any connections to each other.

The guards' attorneys maintain the two are innocent.

None of the five men have been formally charged.

Van Der Sloot's mother said she was confident her son had told authorities everything and that he was innocent.

"He was willing to help with anything, and he had a kind of quiet resolve -- I mean he said, 'Mom, don't be upset because everything will be fine. I know I am innocent, I didn't do anything,'" Anita Van Der Sloot told CNN.

"And in a very almost naive way he was very open with us, told us everything what happened," she said, adding that he has offered to speak with the Holloway family.

Government officials have said solving Holloway's disappearance is a national priority on the small Caribbean island where tourism is a top industry.

A massive search operation has involved authorities, family, friends and volunteers.

[gear02]

:(

[navyones]

It sounds like the Aruba police do a very good job. The part that struck me about this whole ordeal is how the people of Aruba came together to search for the young lady.

[bricheese]

have they found her yet?

[BrewMaster]

have they found her yet?
from the reports i've seen it appears that they are going to get her body now. very, very sad.

[RIVERWIDOW]

I'm sorry but I have to really question the wisdom of taking 124 high school seniors to Aruba with only 7 chaperones. Thats 18 kids per chaperone. It was a diaster waiting to happen. And I really don't think I would have ever let my daughter go to a foreign country w/o me at 17-18. The whole thing just seems like a horrible mistake on the part of the school board who allowed it. I hope they find her body to give the family closure. It is truly a sad thing to happen to someone so young. :neartears

[bricheese]

Your right so sad..the poor parents dont want to find her dead, but we shall see. Im glad that guy is confessing and feels guilty (hopefully)...thats a long trip for a teenager..maybe they should have been more careful..NOT enough chaporones, your right..i feel bad for the family and friends who were on the trip with her

[ufcrusher]

I'm sorry but I have to really question the wisdom of taking 124 high school seniors to Aruba with only 7 chaperones. Thats 18 kids per chaperone. It was a diaster waiting to happen. And I really don't think I would have ever let my daughter go to a foreign country w/o me at 17-18. The whole thing just seems like a horrible mistake on the part of the school board who allowed it. I hope they find her body to give the family closure. It is truly a sad thing to happen to someone so young. :neartears

You do realize that alot of senior trips have no affiliation with the schools at all. Companies sign up teens to convince their friends and classmates to buy these package trips. The incentive is that their trip can be fully covered and/or they make money. The local news here (NBC 7/39 since you are here in SD) even showed that many of the trips were called things like Poway High Senior Trip when the school had nothing to do with it. The reports also went on about true trips and the differences such as the chaperones never leave the kids unattended, wouldnt allow them to attend clubs, and similar differences.

[MikeD]

Your right so sad..the poor parents dont want to find her dead, but we shall see. Im glad that guy is confessing and feels guilty (hopefully)...thats a long trip for a teenager..maybe they should have been more careful..NOT enough chaporones, your right..i feel bad for the family and friends who were on the trip with her

Initial reports keep stating that alcohol was a big factor that night. If true, just another reminder that teens + booze = bad things.

It's sad, such a young life to be wiped out...

[cruelpupet]

It sounds like the Aruba police do a very good job. The part that struck me about this whole ordeal is how the people of Aruba came together to search for the young lady.

Well missing white girls (rich, even more) do tend to hit the news more often then others, and bad publicity for aruba means a crumbling economy for them.

[Yossarian]

as nasty as it sounds, cruel is right. aruba has nothing without tourism.

[gwilks98]

I'm sorry but I have to really question the wisdom of taking 124 high school seniors to Aruba with only 7 chaperones. Thats 18 kids per chaperone. It was a diaster waiting to happen. And I really don't think I would have ever let my daughter go to a foreign country w/o me at 17-18. The whole thing just seems like a horrible mistake on the part of the school board who allowed it. I hope they find her body to give the family closure. It is truly a sad thing to happen to someone so young. :neartears

According to the mayor that was interviewed on Larry King, they weren't even chaperones. He also said that everyone knew the trip would not be chaperoned.

Still, very sad.

[Memo]

Initial reports keep stating that alcohol was a big factor that night. If true, just another reminder that teens + booze = bad things.

It's sad, such a young life to be wiped out...

Uh, it's not just teens + booze, it's anyone + excessive drinking. Even then, murder is a little extreme. Anyways, sucks for this chick. Though, from everything I've heard, the people she was hanging out with sound very shady. I'm wondering if this girl was as innocent as she has been portrayed in the media.

[mcs328]

I keep thinking on this radio as they keep playing (well not anymore now) about they guy repeating how the temperature is constant 82 degrees and always ends with "Aruba...where happiness lives".

[RIVERWIDOW]

According to the mayor that was interviewed on Larry King, they weren't even chaperones. He also said that everyone knew the trip would not be chaperoned. Still, very sad.

If this is the case, I find it even harder to believe that this many parents would allow their children to go to another country so woefully unprotected.
There comes a time in every parents life where you have to say no and stick to it. This would seem like one of those times. But of course hind sight is always clearer. I am sure her parents will suffer with the what ifs for the rest of their lives. Still a sad story. And unbelievable that the major suspect is a judges kid :neartears

[Jenny]

And I really don't think I would have ever let my daughter go to a foreign country w/o me at 17-18.

I was 16 1/2 or so when I made it into the Oklahoma Baptist All-State Choir and we went to London to perform for a week over in that area of England. We had quite a few chaperones and we all were fine. ;) Sad that it didn't turn out that way for her. :(

[Thesifer]

Im reading more reports that say this story is false.

[oblongmelon]

I was 16 1/2 or so when I made it into the Oklahoma Baptist All-State Choir and we went to London to perform for a week over in that area of England. We had quite a few chaperones and we all were fine. ;) Sad that it didn't turn out that way for her. :(

Loads of schools and organizations in which the youth of America are involved, travel abroad and have no problems at all..they are very structured,chaperoned trips-usually for a purpose (ie: your choir, French Clubs, Key Clubs etc)
But when you are taking a bunch of kids to a place like Aruba (fun in the sun), and they go with the intense purpose of getting drunk and crazy, chaperones probably won't have much control..it would be like taking a group of horney 17 year old boys to a nude beach and telling them not to look at boobs.

[molecularfire]

Or any group of straight guys at any age in any state of mind for that matter.

[Jenny]

Loads of schools and organizations in which the youth of America are involved, travel abroad and have no problems at all..they are very structured,chaperoned trips-usually for a purpose (ie: your choir, French Clubs, Key Clubs etc)
But when you are taking a bunch of kids to a place like Aruba (fun in the sun), and they go with the intense purpose of getting drunk and crazy, chaperones probably won't have much control..it would be like taking a group of horney 17 year old boys to a nude beach and telling them not to look at boobs.


Oh, I know. I was just responding to RW's comment about not letting her child that age going overseas without her. :)

[nickel]

Im reading more reports that say this story is false.
yeh, they are saying that there was no confession
http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/2005/06/13/misleading.shtml

[zenbooty]

Got this off yahoo. Let's see if this turns out to be the truth.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aruba Police Arrest Father of Dutch Teen

ORANJESTAD, Aruba - Aruban police on Thursday detain the father of a Dutch teen already in custody in connection with the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, the teen's mother said.

"My husband was just picked up by police," Anita van der Sloot, referring to Paul van der Sloot, said in a telephone call to The Associated Press. "I don't know what to think."

Paul van der Sloot is an island judicial official.

Anita Van der Sloot was about to leave the house for an interview with the AP when she said police came for her husband. She did not have any additional information about the detention.

Four other people have been detained in connection with Holloway's disappearance May 30. The 18-year-old Mountain Brook, Ala., woman was celebrating her high school graduation.

The others in custody are Joran van der Sloot, 17; his friends Deepak Kalpoe, 21, and brother Satish Kalpoe, 18; and Steve Gregory Croes, 26. No one has been charged in the case.

While Anita van der Sloot had been allowed to visit her son occasionally in jail, authorities denied similar access to Paul van der Sloot, saying they believed contact between the two could damage the investigation.

[Airencracken]

She should've went to kokomo.

[nickel]

he's probably obstructing justice.

[LPMiller]

I dunno, I'm getting a very strong white slavery vibe from this whole thing.

[Merlin]

I dunno, I'm getting a very strong white slavery vibe from this whole thing.
That was my initial reaction as well. I figured she was now somebody's pet in South America. But now, with her picture all over tv and the like she would be way too hot to keep alive.