6/25/2005, 12:44 p.m. CT
By PETER PRENGAMAN The Associated Press
ORANJESTAD, Aruba (AP) — As the mystery of a missing Alabama honors student drags on, questions abound about Aruban authorities' handling of the Dutch Caribbean's highest-profile case in decades.
Why were the youths last seen with 18-year-old Natalee Holloway left free for days after she disappeared? Why did police not search the home of the Dutch youth who was flirting with her until two weeks after she went missing? Why did Aruban officials ask the FBI to send divers, who came to the island but never searched its waters?
Criminal experts say these apparent mishaps could make it harder for Aruban investigators to crack the case, and may ultimately prevent the Holloway family from ever knowing what happened.
Attorney General Caren Janssen, the top prosecutor on the Dutch Caribbean island, refused to comment on the criticisms and potential implications, saying only that "I can't comment on the investigation until it's over. Investigators must be allowed to do their jobs."
Joran van der Sloot, 17, and Surinamese brothers Deepak Kalpoe, 21, and Satish Kalpoe, 18, were the last ones seen with Holloway, an honors student from Mountain Brook, Alabama. She disappeared May 30, the last day of a vacation with 124 students celebrating their high school graduation. Her passport and packed bags were found in her room.
After a night eating, drinking and dancing at Carlos' N' Charlie's restaurant, the three men told police they took Holloway to a northern beach before dropping her off at her hotel around 2 a.m.
The three were questioned soon after she disappeared, but not arrested until June 9. At the time, Janssen said there were "tactical reasons," and there was speculation authorities hoped the freed young men might lead them to a clue.
That was an error, according to Joseph Pollini, a criminal justice professor at John Jay College in New York City, where he spent 33 years as a homicide detective: "Once released, it's problematic because somebody surely coached them," he said. "A lawyer wouldn't be worth his weight in salt if he didn't tell them simply not to say anything."
Pollini doubted any confession was now possible.
Instead, authorities arrested two former hotel security guards, apparently because the young men told police they had last seen Holloway in the car park of her hotel, being approached by a black security guard.
The guards were released a week later, and one, Antonius "Mickey" John, said that while in jail one of the brothers told him they had never taken Holloway back to her hotel but had dropped her off together with van der Sloot at a beach neighboring the Marriott Hotel.
That version was corroborated in part Thursday by the mother of Joran van der Sloot, who told the AP that her son told her he had been alone with Holloway at a beach. Anita van der Sloot said her son said he left Holloway at the beach but didn't harm her.
Investigators led a massive and fruitless search of Malmok beach June 14.
Only the following day, 16 days after Holloway went missing, did investigators search the van der Sloot house, seizing two vehicles, computers and cameras.
"They should have immediately done a forensic sweep of van der Sloot's house, his car, his clothing, and done the same with the Surinamese boys," said Ron Watson, a retired Alabama police chief who runs a crime scene reconstruction business. "You've got 48 hours after a disappearance, after that you are in the red zone and may never find the person."
Police did not interrogate the Dutch suspect's father, Paul van der Sloot, until June 17. In a surprise move, they arrested him Thursday.
The Holloway family has become increasingly vocal in its criticism. Last week, the woman who organized the students' trip to Aruba, Jody Bearman, told The Associated Press that it was the Holloway family, not police, who first identified and located the Dutch youth, and then insisted police go with them to interview the van der Sloot family.
Beth Holloway Twitty, the missing girl's mother, has repeatedly said that the three youths know more than they are saying and that police must press them to tell the truth. She also said before van der Sloot's arrest that if she didn't get answers soon, she might suspect that authorities were protecting him because of his standing as a high-ranking judicial official on the island.
Aruban authorities have defended their handling of the case, saying meticulous police work takes time.
"You have to build up an investigation. You can't just go in there like a cowboy," Janssen said last week when she was asked why investigators waited more than two weeks to search the van der Sloot home.
There are also questions about efforts to find Holloway.
Aruban police, Dutch marines, seven FBI agents and thousands of tourists and locals have done island-wide searches that proved fruitless. In the early days, Aruban authorities appealed for the FBI to send expert divers. The U.S. agency sent two search and rescue divers, but they never got in the water.
"They never had any information like, she could be in this place or that area," said FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela. "That target would have come from the investigation of Aruban authorities because we can't investigate in a foreign country."
So the FBI went there but wasn't allowed to search by water? Is that the way it reads to you? I would suspect a cover up for the training-to-be-a-judge if that's the case.