Judge to rule whether p
olice can continue to hold man in missing teen case By Peter Prengaman The Associated Press
Originally published June 20, 2005, 10:00 AM EDT ORANJESTAD, Aruba -- A fourth man arrested in the disappearance of an Alabama teenager -- a disc jockey on a party boat -- is to appear in court today for a judge to decide whether police can continue to detain him, officials said.
On Sunday, police questioned the father of a Dutch teenager held in the case, hoping the island justice official might know something to help solve the mystery of her disappearance three weeks ago today.
Paul van der Sloot, a judge-in-training on the island, was questioned for two hours Sunday afternoon after five hours of questioning Saturday night, said Police Superintendent Jan van der Straaten.
Joran van der Sloot, 17, and two friends were among the last people reported to be with Natalee Holloway the night she disappeared. All three and the disc jockey, arrested separately Friday, have been detained. No one has been charged.
Van der Straaten said the father was asked to come back Sunday because officials were not able to finish the interrogation on Saturday, but declined to give more details.
"He was questioned as a witness, no more or no less," van der Straaten told The Associated Press.
During Sunday's interrogation, van der Sloot's wife, Anita van der Sloot, met with Joran in jail, said van der Straaten.
But the father was not allowed to meet with the son, according to a ruling by the judge on Friday, the attorney general's office belatedly revealed to The Associated Press.
"Prosecutors felt that allowing the father to see his son could be harmful to the investigation," the attorney general's spokeswoman, Mariaine Croes, said today.
Judge Bob Wit had been deciding on a motion by the father to see his son, and a counter-motion by the prosecution to prevent that, she explained.
Holloway, 18, of Mountain Brook, Alabama, disappeared in the early hours of May 30, the last day of a five-day vacation with 124 students celebrating their high school graduation. Her U.S. passport and packed bags were found in her room.
Joran van der Sloot and two friends said they took Holloway to a northern beach but dropped her off at her Holiday Inn, where they claim she was approached by a security guard.
On Saturday, a judge ordered Joran van der Sloot and his friends, brothers Deepak Kalpoe, 21, and Satish Kalpoe, 18, to stay in jail for at least another week while the investigation continues.
The fourth man was arrested Friday after giving police a statement, said Marcus Wiggins, his boss on the boat Tattoo. He identified the detained man as Steve Gregory Croes, 26, who is not related to Mariaine Croes.
It was not known how the disc jockey might be connected to the case. The boat Tattoo docks near the Holiday Inn where the missing girl was staying.
Under Dutch law, which Aruba follows as a Dutch protectorate, authorities can detain people for up to 116 days without charging them.
Investigators refuse to say whether they believe Holloway is dead. Her mother, Beth Holloway Twitty, has said she will continue to believe the teen is alive until she has proof to the contrary.
Holloway Twitty, 44, has insisted that Joran van der Sloot and the Kalpoes hold the key to the investigation and that authorities pressure the young men harder to tell the truth.
In Alabama, a Holloway family friend said Holloway's relatives identified and located Joran van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers less than a day after the teen vanished. But the three young men were not detained until 10 days later.
"It's just disappointing that they (authorities) weren't able to move faster," Jody Bearman, who organized the graduation trip, told AP.
I thought Joran was in the prison now. Did they bring him back to the jail to meet with his mother?
The key to finding out who in part is responsible for her disappearance is a polygraph test, plain and simple.