Aruba: SNAFU

Joran Van Der Sloot, center, Satish Kalpoe and Deepak Kalpoe


Joran Van Der Sloot


ORANJESTAD, Aruba (AP) -- A court ruled Friday that DNA samples collected from the Dutch youth jailed in the disappearance of an Alabama teenager and one of his friends could not be used in a case against them.

...Joran van der Sloot, 17, the only person who remains jailed in the case, has admitted he spent part of the evening with her. He has said through his family and lawyers that he had nothing to do with her disappearance.

The court ruled Friday that prosecutors did not clarify what his DNA samples would be compared with, but said the prosecution could request new DNA samples from van der Sloot if they had documents clarifying what would be used in the comparison.

In the case of Satish Kalpoe, van der Sloot's friend who was jailed and then released in the case, the court ruled there was not enough evidence to warrant using the tests.

Also Friday, police and a volunteer group from Texas searched a landfill in hopes of finding clues about what happened to Holloway. Edwin Comenencia, the police spokesman, declined to say what prompted the search.

"So far they have found nothing," he said.

Situation normal in Aruba--

The prosecutors have screwed up, AGAIN!

Without question, the court appears to be stonewalling to protect Joran van der Sloot.

However, if the law demands that thorough clarification regarding use of DNA samples be supplied, the prosecutors should have followed that procedure.

Can they do anything right?

I do find it interesting that Joran van der Sloot's attorney would be trying to prevent DNA samples from being used in the case.

If Joran is as innocent as he claims to be, why would there be any concern about how his DNA sample would be used?

He has admitted that he was with Natalee. It's not as if DNA is needed to prove that, nor is it criminal to have been with someone.

Joran's legal representation must be fearing that prosecutors have some evidence that could connect him to a crime. That fear would be baseless if Joran was not involved in some foul play with Natalee.

Regarding the DNA testing on the hair strands found on duct tape, Beth Holloway Twitty, Natalee's mother, found comfort in the results being negative.

"I was completely relieved" by the FBI results, said Beth Holloway Twitty, the teen's mother. "Everytime we exhaust something like this it's a possibility that Natalee is still alive."

A sample of the hair also was tested at a crime lab in the Netherlands, but the results have not been released.

Aruban government spokesman Ruben Trapenberg said he doubted the Dutch results would differ from the FBI's findings. Aruba, a Dutch protectorate, doesn't have a lab to conduct the genetic testing.

"The hair was never something we considered significant but it needed to be checked out," Trapenberg said.

Do Aruban officials have ANYTHING they consider to be significant in the case?

They seem to want to give the impression that they are making strides in the investigation. So far, any notion that the case of Natalee's disappearance is closer to being solved is a false one.

Aruban authorities do insignificant DNA testing, spend days draining a pond, and take Joran out for walks on the beach with little purpose, resulting in no breaks at all.

It's possible that all hope of solving this case was lost when Joran was released from jail early on in the investigation. He, his father, and the Kalpoes were given ample opportunity to clean things up, if they are in fact guilty of wrong-doing.

Whatever the final outcome of the case, I imagine it will take a long, long time before Aruba and would-be tourists can shake off the memory of Natalee Holloway.