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Texas group arrives to search for missing teen in Aruba

6/24/2005, 8:28 p.m. CT

By PETER PRENGAMAN The Associated Press

ORANJESTAD, Aruba (AP) — Volunteer rescue group members from Texas arrived Friday to start a new search for a missing Alabama teenager in Aruba, a day after police arrested the father of a young Dutch teen already in custody.

Both father and son are considered suspects in the nearly 4-week-old disappearance of honors student Natalee Holloway, of Mountain Brook.

Joe Huston, a diver with Dickenson-based Texas EquuSearch, said the group would start work Saturday with three search dogs and sonar equipment.

Huston said three members had arrived Thursday to meet with authorities and FBI officials on the Dutch Caribbean island where Holloway, 18, was last seen in the early hours of May 30.

"We are coordinating with them to figure out areas that have not been searched," said Huston. "That's mostly inland areas and the coastlines."

Meanwhile, Paul van der Sloot, 52, a judge in training, spent his first night in jail after being arrested Thursday. Van der Sloot became the fifth person detained, joining son Joran van der Sloot, 17, and three other young men. No one has been charged. Under Dutch law, within 48 hours van der Sloot must go before a judge, who will decide whether prosecutors can hold him for an additional eight days.

The elder van der Sloot "is a suspect in the disappearance" of Holloway, said Mariaine Croes, spokeswoman for the Attorney General's office on the Caribbean island.

Joran van der Sloot's mother, meanwhile, told The Associated Press her son had changed his story, admitting to her that he was alone with Holloway on a beach the night the Alabama teen vanished — and did not drop her off at her hotel as he had told police. But the boy insisted that he did not hurt her, the mother said.

Anita van der Sloot also insisted her husband had done nothing wrong. "This is not about Natalee anymore. It's about enormous pressure from the (United) States and the media," she said.

"My husband is a man of integrity who has been working in the justice system 15 years and was taken without evidence," she said, also describing him as "the most honest, beautiful man."

Prosecutors have described all five men currently in custody as "suspects." But it was not clear if each was considered a suspect in the woman's disappearance or if some were suspected of a lesser crime, such as withholding evidence.

Croes told NBC television Thursday that the elder van der Sloot's testimony to police in seven hours of questioning over the weekend had not coincided with other reports and facts of the investigation. "That's when, instead of a witness, he became a suspect," she said.

Searches by Aruban police, Dutch Marines and volunteer islanders and tourists have yielded no trace of Holloway, who went missing on the last day of a five-day high school graduation trip with 124 other students. Her passport and packed suitcase were found in her hotel room.

Joran van der Sloot has been in custody since June 9, along with two Surinamese brothers, Deepak Kalpoe, 21, and Satish Kalpoe, 18. Authorities also have arrested a 26-year-old party boat disc jockey, Steve Gregory Croes.

Police say Joran van der Sloot met Holloway at a casino two days before her disappearance. The three young men told authorities that they took her from a popular restaurant to a beach, where Joran and Holloway were kissing in the back of the car, then dropped the teenager at the Holiday Inn about 2 a.m.

But Anita van der Sloot said her son told her he was alone with the teenager on a beach.

"He says, 'Mom, I dropped the girl at the beach. I walked with her. I left her there because she wanted to stay there. I left and I don't know what happened,'" she related, without specifying which beach.

Asked if her son had changed his initial story, she replied, "Joran changed his story only one time. I think he was scared because he sneaked out of the house that evening. I think he was scared and wanted to cover other people, too."

She didn't say who he might want to cover for.

Anita van der Sloot insisted her son was innocent and that he was going through "mental torture" in jail.

She said he often was interrogated for more than 10 hours a day, and that authorities turned the air conditioning up high to increase the pressure.

Attorney General Caren Jannsen told the AP that allegations of mistreatment were "not true."

"Everything is played by the rules. We interrogate people in only the ways that the law allows," she said.

Jannsen said the law didn't permit the interrogation techniques Anita van der Sloot claims were being used.

I wonder how many other people Natalee "saw" at the casino? Probably a lot were "seen." So I am not going to get too alarmed at that. But, from what her 2 friends who were at the gambling table with her said on TV, Joran was sitting at the same table. They made no mention of the father. They said Joran was winning. Natalee introduced herself to him. Both confirmed that. I don't think Dad was right there, perhaps in the Casino, but no mention of him with Joran at the table. Nor that Natalee actually met the father. I would think that important point would have been mentioned by the 2 friends, or other friends would have brought it up. I wonder why it was not, it seems significant if true. Did the statement specifically identify that she met the father?

I also read Deepak's statement, I think you posted that several days ago also. Of course who knows what is true, but IIFC, Deepak did make mention that Natalee said she had lost $320 of her father's money and asked Joran to help her win it back. (The girls on TV made no mention of any money Natalee lost. That would be an interesting point to hear from them.) Anyway, Deepak said that Joran said he did help her and won $100 for her, but said that was all he could do. It was sometime then that she asked him to meet or join them at C&C's later. One of her friends said she heard that, another said she had not heard that comment. So, it does seem that Natalee did have some contact with Joran and initiated it that night. Whether she had seen him before or not, there seems to be some contradiction among her friends, but all agree that there was a definite meeting at the Casino (as confirmed by both her friends on TV and, then by Deepak in his statement).

Now we know what Deepak says is second-hand from Joran, as Deepak was working when Joran was at the Casino. But apparently Joran called him and asked him to pick him up and take him to C&C's (after Joran's father had brought him home at 11 p.m.) Then, as it has been reported often, Joran sneaked out, went to C&C's. He probably told Deepak something like "this girl wants me to meet her there; I met her at the Casino, it is her last night here...etc." That would be typical for a kid to say.

As to the ATM, someone mentioned that maybe Joran withdrew the money. Could be possible, too. Maybe to help Natalee out with her losses to her Daddy? Maybe to pay some gambling debt he had at the Casino? Maybe it was Daddy vdS for some payment. I am sure that info will come out too, eventually. We still only have assumptions.

Pray for Natalee, her family and all families involved in this horrible tragedy. May God give the innocent strength, and motivate the guilty - whoever they are to come forward and tell the truth.