Replies

Prosecutor: Aruban judge told son 'when there is no body you don't have a case'

ORANJESTAD, Aruba (AP) — The father of a Dutch teenager arrested in the disappearance of a young U.S. woman told his son and his two friends that "when there is no body you don't have a case," Aruba's attorney general said Wednesday.

Paul van der Sloot, a judge in training in Aruba, gave his 17-year-old son Joran van der Sloot and two Surinamese brothers legal advice the day after 18-year-old Natalee Holloway disappeared, District Attorney Caren Janssen told MSNBC in an interview.

"They spoke about the situation that when there is no body you don't have a case, and that was already in the first day after the disappearance," Janssen said.

Janssen said that the elder van der Sloot had obstructed the investigation by asking a friend of Joran, who had been interrogated by police, what he had told them.

Story continues

advertisement

Paul van der Sloot, 52, was arrested last Thursday in the disappearance but released Sunday when a judge ruled there wasn't enough evidence to hold him.

Janssen told MSNBC that he was arrested because investigators believed he was also a suspect in the disappearance.

Janssen also said that a month after Holloway's May 30 disappearance, investigators had found nothing concrete to suggest she was dead.

Calls to Janssen seeking further comment late Wednesday were not returned.

Joran van der Sloot and his Surinamese friends, brothers Deepak Kalpoe, 21, and Satish Kalpoe, 18, were arrested June 9. No one has been charged.

Also Wednesday, Steve Croes, a disc jockey who was arrested and held 10 days before being released Monday, told The Associated Press that his detention was based on a lie he told police.

Croes, 26, said he told police he had seen Joran van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers drop Holloway off at the Holiday Inn the night she disappeared, as the three originally told police.

"That was a lie," Croes told the AP during an interview Wednesday night. "I didn't even know those guys and they didn't know me."

Croes said that while he was at an Internet cafe a few days after Holloway's disappearance, he heard Deepak Kalpoe talking on a cell phone about how the young men had dropped Holloway off. Croes said the story seemed plausible and he went around repeating it, adding that he had seen them drop her off. Police questioned and then arrested him, Croes said.

"I learned that if you don't know something, keep your mouth shut," said Croes. He said has veen fired from his disc jockey job on the Tattoo party boat.