If there's one thing you can say about 22-year-old confessed murderer Joran van der Sloot, it's that he is at least consistent. The self-described pathological liar, ("know thy self,") can always be counted on doing what he believes is best for him, to the exclusion of the rest of the world.
As I've suggested since his apprehension in Chile for the murder of a young woman in Peru, "he would soon offer to once again tell what he did to Natalee Holloway in Aruba in 2005 if he could get a transfer from a Peruvian prison to one in his home country of Aruba. True to himself, he has told police in Peru that he would finally tell the truth about the disappearance and believed death of Holloway if and only if he is returned to Aruba, thus, in his mind, escaping the reality of a prison cell in Peru. Van der Sloot is a reasonably smart young man, smart enough at least to realize that should he be placed in the general population of a prison in Peru, that his life expectancy would likely be measured in hours and not the 15-35 year sentence most expect him to get for the murder of 21-year-old Stephany Flores, a woman he had just met in a local casino.
Van der Sloot allegedly confessed to murdering Flores to Peruvian investigators during a multi-day interview. His current story suggests that the two had spent some time in Van der Sloot's hotel room playing video poker when Joran went out for coffee. Upon his return he allegedly found her searching his laptop for information, information that linked him to Holloway's disappearance. They argued, Flores allegedly struck Van der Sloot, and he reacted, beating Flores and finally breaking her neck and, according to investigators, smothering her with his undershirt. Hotel surveillance cameras confirm that no one other that Van der Sloot entered the room after he left Flores alone, and when a hotel employee opened the door, the victim was lying on the floor, her slacks removed, her body long dead.
Van der Sloot told Chilean investigators a far different story when he was detained in that country after fleeing Peru. He said he and Flores encountered two robbers in his hotel room, one armed with a knife and the second armed with a pistol. They attempted to rob Van der Sloot and Flores; she resisted, and the robbers beat and murdered her. "But why," we must ask, "didn't he immediately call the police?" Joran, the ever-ready liar, had an answer prepared for that question too. He said that the previous day Peruvian police had extorted $4,000 and a watch from him for reasons unknown. Joran, therefore, gives us a neat, if unbelievable, story to explain his behavior and actions. But why didn't we see him run from his hotel room in panic, if, after all, Flores had just been murdered in that very room, and why didn't the two alleged robbers show up in the surveillance film? No answer from van der Sloot, but he will probably suggest it was a gap in the tape like that in the Nixon White House tapes...
Desperate for a breath of possible freedom, van der Slooth has integrated the disappearance of Holloway in the murder investigation concerning Flores. Now he tells both Peruvian and Aruban investigators that once again he is ready to tell what happened to Natalee if, and only if he is transferred to Aruba. Desperate men do desperate things. In Joran's self-absorbed, narcissistic, sociopathicmind he is scrambling for a one-way ticket to Aruba. Even if he is left in solitude confinement for the length of his expected murder sentence in Peru, the chances, the real odds of his staying alive are something even Joran, the ever present gambler, is not willing to bet his life on. Flores was the daughter of a well-known, well-respected, and well-wired family in Peru. To begin with Joran is likely the most hated man in Peru, and then there's the victim's family's potential ability to reach out to van der Sloot, even behind bars. We'll see if Joran can save his own life as he tries to play "Let's make a Deal, Peru style."
Motive
But would a reasonably smart young man like van der Sloot take Flores to his hotel room, a room registered in his own name, to kill her? Unlike statements from at least one private investigator with prior law enforcement experience who called van der Sloot a homicidal maniac, or those talking heads on television who call him a serial killer, there is no current evidence to support either of these assertions. Van der Sloot grew up a privileged young man, someone who had a $50,000 line of credit established for him by his parents in a casino in Aruba before he was even old enough to legally gamble. He was accustomed to getting his own way, in his home, in his school, when he gambled, and with women. He was, after all, caught in a hidden media video sting offering to bring young women from Thailand to Aruba for purposes of prostitution. While he lies with wild abandon, uses people for his own purposes, cheats, steals and extorts from others, and was desperate for money, I don't believe he took Flores to his hotel room to kill her. To rob her; yes, of course! But when she resisted, when she fought back and when she committed the unpardonable sin of telling him "no," well that was likely when he lost his temper and beat her. Once he saw what he had done, he, like so many other murderers have said, he felt he had to kill her. "After all," as some have told me in other cases, "she was the best witness against me, she could testify against me." "I had to kill her." If, as police suggest, he smothered her and left the room, the video tape of him leaving does not show a challenged man, but someone cool, calm, and collected. He also stopped long enough to allegedly steal all the cash Flores had with her. He also took her credit cards and stole her car and ran, probably leaving a treasure trove of forensic evidence that will be used to link him, to the exclusion of the two mythical robbers, to the brutal murder of Flores.
Where to from Here
As must as everyone would like to see the disappearance of Natalee Holloway resolved, likely by the confession of van der Sloot, it remains to be seen of what he might say, and if the Peruvian's will take the chance of letting him travel out of their prison and their hands to Aruba, a place where he has managed to avoid justice for the past five years. And were I one of the two Kalpoe brothers, the two young men who were with van der Sloot when she accompanied them in their car and into infamy, I would have to consider my future in the light of van der Sloot's need to deal. Remember, van der Sloot recently "threw his deceased father under the bus," i.e., implicated him in helping Joran dispose of Holloway's body. If Joran rolled over on his own father, what chance do the Kalpoe brothers have?
The deals will be flying, but if one is offered to van der Sloot, other than the chance to reduce his sentence in Peru by confessing to Flores' murder, such has yet to be seen. It was van der Sloot's father Paulus who allegedly said of the time of the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, "No body, no case." Well Joran, now there is a body and a case and your lies and your arrogance may have finally painted you into the corner of a 20-man cell in a Peruvian prison from which you may have no escape.
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