THE HAGUE, Netherlands – Hidden camera footage broadcast by a crime reporter Sunday apparently showed Dutch student Joran van der Sloot admitting he was with American teenager Natalee Holloway when she died on a beach in Aruba in May 2005, and that he called a friend and asked him to dispose of the body at sea. “She suddenly didn’t do anything anymore,” Van der Sloot said of the 18-year-old Holloway in a conversation with a man he believed to be his friend.
Holloway vanished just before she was due to fly home to Alabama, at the end of her high school graduation trip to the Caribbean island. No trace of her has been found since. The exchange, in Dutch, was recorded in a car that had been rigged with three hidden cameras by Peter R. de Vries, a Dutch television crime reporter who claims the footage solves the mystery surrounding Holloway’s disappearance. It was shown on Dutch television. In the video, Van der Sloot said he panicked and tried but failed to revive Holloway after she began shaking and then slumped to the sand.
He then used a pay phone next to a hotel’s swimming pool to call a friend with a boat to dispose of the body, he said. “The ocean is big,” he added. Van der Sloot said his friend assured him he had taken care of Holloway’s body and that the police were not going to locate it. “They will know nothing,” Van der Sloot quoted the friend as telling him. In the images, Van der Sloot speaks matter-of-factly about the case, saying at one point, “I’ve not lost any sleep over this.” In a telephone interview with a Dutch news show Friday night, Van der Sloot acknowledged that he had discussed his alleged involvement in Holloway’s disappearance with a friend, but insisted it was a lie and he had nothing to do with the case.
Is this kid really so stupid as to confide in a crime reporter? He could have gotten away with murder, and may still. It almost seems like he wanted to get caught. Either that or he is thumbing his nose at the system.
