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NANCY GRACE

Nancy Grace for June 29, 2005, CNNHN

Aired June 29, 2005 - 20:00:00 ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

NANCY GRACE, HOST: Tonight, a primetime, live exclusive. The former suspect in the Aruba missing girl case, the party boat deejay Steve Croes, is out and he speaks out. Why did he land behind bars over the disappearance of 18-year-old Natalee Holloway? He is with us tonight.
And Semper Fi, send in the marines. Marines head to Aruba to search for the 18-year-old American girl. She vanished from her high school senior trip.

But first, to Aruba, an Alabama star student, Natalee Holloway, still missing tonight. But now, the Netherlands sends in the marines.

A primetime, live exclusive tonight. Party boat deejay Steve Croes speaks out about his time behind bars as a suspect in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway. Tonight, in Aruba, the deejay who landed in jail over Natalee`s disappearance, Steve Croes is with us.

But first, let`s go down to Aruba and CNN correspondent Karl Penhaul. Karl, what`s the latest?

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Nancy, the Texas Equusearch volunteers have been on the move again today. They say that it was searching rock quarries on the north side of the island. Nothing was found, though.

They say some of the challenges on that side of the island is that the terrain is very rocky. It`s a very rugged piece of land there. That`s one of the challenges. And also, they don`t know the island particularly well because they`re here for a short-term. They`re still finding their way around.

Now, you`ll remember that just over 20 people, I think 24 volunteers, were here from Texas helping out that search. Because they`re volunteers, nine of them have now had to leave the island and return to their jobs. But Equusearch spokespeople do say that they`re hopeful that more volunteers will come from Texas.

And of course, as you mentioned, the Dutch marines, we understand that the prime minister here on the island has done all the paperwork and those Dutch marines can once again join the search to help out looking for clues as to Natalee`s whereabouts or what may have happened to her, Nancy.

GRACE: Before we go to deejay and former jailbird Steve Croes -- he was just released under suspicion of having something to do with Natalee`s disappearance. He is free, and clear, and with us tonight.

Karl Penhaul, very quickly, what is leading them to search in these rock quarries? You told me the other day they were searching in kind of a manmade lake that was kind of a dump. Found nothing so far. Now they`re searching in quarries. Did one of these brothers, or did Joran Van Der Sloot, say something to make them go search in these areas?

PENHAUL: Well, what Joran Van Der Sloot may or may not have said is always subject to his latest statement. In fact, the chief prosecutor on the island, Karin Janssen, told us today that Joran Van Der Sloot has once again changed his story.

You`ll remember that he did say that he`d walked home from the beach after leaving Natalee. Now Karin Janssen tells us he`s changed that story. So we don`t know if there are specific leads leading Equusearch to look at certain parts of the island. More particularly, they`re looking at areas that they`ve flown over in a helicopter and saying, "OK, let`s take a closer look here."

GRACE: OK, well, if this is -- if my math is correct, this is at least his third statement. And I can tell you right now, there is nothing good about that.

Take a listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KARIN JANSSEN, ARUBA CHIEF PROSECUTOR: However, in this stage of the investigation, we cannot exclude the possibility that something happened to Natalee. We are determined to find a truth, to find Natalee, and in case somebody harmed her, to find those who are responsible.

Out of respect for the family Holloway, we did not want to speak about murder and homicides because we did not want to hurt their feelings. It`s human, you know? And because, in that early stage, they were searching for their girl alive. And it was at that time just not suitable to talk about that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: If something happened to Natalee? Here`s a clue to the Aruban prosecutor: Something has happened to Natalee Holloway.

Very quickly, tonight in a primetime exclusive interview, we are very happy to have with us Mr. Steve Croes. Now, Steve Croes is the deejay off that party boat, I think it was called "The Tattoo." And it is parked not too, too far from the Holiday Inn where Natalee Holloway was staying.

Mr. Croes, thank you for being with us.

STEVE CROES, FORMER SUSPECT IN NATALEE HOLLOWAY CASE: Hi. How are you doing?

GRACE: I`m great. Mr. Croes, how did you land behind bars in connection with Natalee?

S. CROES: Well, it was a mistake that I did, by telling the cops something that wasn`t true. And I really like -- how you say, you know, if I could change it, I change it, like, right away. But I`m glad that I prove everybody that I`m innocent. I didn`t have nothing to do in there. So that`s about it.

GRACE: Well, Mr. Croes, what did you tell the cops to make them arrest you?

S. CROES: You know, what exactly I told the cops is -- you know, I didn`t really like to go into those details. Why? Because, you know, it`s like something that...

GRACE: Mr. Croes, Mr. Croes, Mr. Croes, isn`t it true that you were at the Internet cafe and heard a Kalpoe brother on the phone cooking up a story?

S. CROES: Yes.

GRACE: Now what was the story he was cooking up?

S. CROES: The story that everybody knows here on the island, which they dropped the girl at the hotel and left her there. And that`s it.

GRACE: So you heard a Kalpoe brother on the phone at an Internet cafe cooking up this story. And you told the cops, right?

S. CROES: Yes.

GRACE: Now, when you were behind bars, how did you convince the cops that you didn`t have anything to do with it, that you overheard it?

S. CROES: Well, I just start talking everything the truth, like where I was that day, the day I had, like, a night shift on the boat, like as a watchman. So I was sleeping on the boat. And, yes, that I wasn`t even there.

GRACE: Is it true that you have been fired from your job over this whole thing?

S. CROES: Yes. Yesterday during the afternoon I had, like, this meeting with my ex-boss and his lawyer, and they told me that I was fired.

GRACE: Steve, while you were behind bars, did you speak to or overhear Van Der Sloot or the Kalpoe brothers talking?

S. CROES: No, I didn`t -- I don`t even know these guys. The only thing that I know is what I heard, that this guy talking on the phone. But I don`t know these guys. They don`t know me.

During my confrontations with the cops with these guys, they also admitted that they don`t know me. So I just put myself in trouble without knowing anything. So it was like a stupid mistake that I did.

GRACE: Steve, when you overheard the Kalpoe brother talking on, I guess, the cell phone at the Internet cafe, was it Deepak or Satish Kalpoe?

S. CROES: Deepak, Deepak, yes.

GRACE: OK. What was it exactly that he was saying, that you overheard?

S. CROES: Just the story that they dropped the girl at the hotel. The girl fell from the car, and they tried to help her to go back into the lobby, and that was the story.

GRACE: And let me go back to Karl Penhaul, CNN correspondent, standing by there with Steve Croes. Karl, that was the Kalpoe brothers` and Joran Van Der Sloot`s original story to police, exactly what Steve Croes told them.

PENHAUL: It was exactly that, Nancy. In fact, talking to David Kock, the defense attorney for Satish Kalpoe, he backs up what Steve is, in fact, saying, in that Deepak and Joran Van Der Sloot, first of all, cooked up a lie to cover their tracks that night in two or three days subsequent to Natalee`s disappearance.

They then contacted Satish and explained the cover story to him. What David Kock says at that stage is that they invented this cover story because they realized that Natalee had disappeared. And although David Kock still insists on the innocence of Satish Kalpoe, he does say that all three boys were very worried that they were the last three to have seen a girl who had then disappeared.

GRACE: You know, my question to you, though, regarding this whole story, Karl Penhaul -- you`re telling me that Joran Van Der Sloot`s story has changed yet again. What`s his new story?

PENHAUL: Well, David Kock, again, the defense attorney for Satish Kalpoe, has a right to see a number of statements from the other suspects which are presented to him as evidence against his client. He told us that in the file that he had, as of Sunday, bearing in mind that he gets witness statements and suspect statements approximately four days after they`re made, he said, until that point, he had eight different statements by Joran Van Der Sloot, four of them were substantial changes in the story.

He said he expected to get more paperwork through, bearing in mind, as I say, that he`s getting the statement four days late.

GRACE: Steve Croes, when the police came to you, where were you when you were arrested?

S. CROES: I was at home.

GRACE: Did they try to get you to talk?

S. CROES: No, they just came. They tell me that I was arrested for the reason, like, for the confession, for confession stuff. And then that they give me my rights. And then I was, like, in a boxer short.

So I tell them, "Please, let me just get a t-shirt and a short." And they went with me to my room. And I put on my shirt, and then I went with him.

GRACE: Once you got to the police station, did they try to get a statement out of you?

S. CROES: Yes. The first thing they wanted to do is, like, for me to, like, talk. And they wanted to see if I knew anything, like, for real or something like that.

GRACE: Did they ever hit you, touch you, threaten you, harm you in any way?

S. CROES: Not at all, not at all. They treat me good. They treat me good.

GRACE: When you realized -- you had to know about Natalee`s disappearance when police came to arrest you. When you realized they had zeroed in on you in Natalee`s disappearance, what did you think?

S. CROES: Excuse me, I didn`t understand the question so good.

GRACE: When you realized police thought you had something to do with Natalee disappearing, what did you think?

S. CROES: Well, I was relaxed the whole time, because I know that I didn`t have nothing to do. But I was, like, a little scared.

GRACE: OK. Let me take you back one last time to this Internet cafe where you overheard Deepak Kalpoe talking on the phone. Could you tell that he was trying to make up a story?

S. CROES: No. I couldn`t tell that, because I believed him, you know what I mean? So I couldn`t tell if it was true or a lie. But he was just talking like so serious that, you know, anyone could believe what he was saying there.

GRACE: Do you know who he was talking to?

S. CROES: No. I don`t even know the guy. I`m just a client of the Internet cafe where I was there. So I didn`t even know the guy.

GRACE: OK.

Back to Karl Penhaul. Karl, do we have any reason to believe or hope that the Aruban police have gotten the cell phone records from Deepak Kalpoe to prove what Steve Croes is saying is correct and to tell us who Deepak Kalpoe was talking to?

PENHAUL: We do know that the Aruban police and investigators have seized cell phone and internet records. In my conversations with David Kock, the defense attorney for one of the three suspects, he was referring specifically to cell phone records from earlier, the night and early morning of Natalee`s disappearance.

That when supposedly Joran Van Der Sloot, according to cell phone records, called Deepak Kalpoe. And according to Deepak Kalpoe`s statements in that conversation, which was about 2:40 a.m., Joran said, "I`ve left Natalee at the beach. I`m walking home."

And then, about 40 minutes later, what the cell phone records show is that Joran Van Der Sloot sent a text message to Deepak Kalpoe saying, "I`ve arrived home." And then, of course, the Internet records which show, at the time that the text message was sent at about 3:20 a.m., at that time, Deepak Kalpoe was at his house and on the Internet in a chatroom at the time, Nancy.

GRACE: You know, the telephone records, the Internet cafe records, are going to come back and hit these guys in the head like a boomerang.

I want to thank Steve Croes. He is with us tonight in an exclusive interview. As you recall, Croes is the deejay from the party boat that has been behind bars on Natalee`s disappearance. He is out tonight, and has explained his involvement, or lack thereof.

Thank you, Mr. Croes, for being with us.

Also, thank you to Karl Penhaul.