Those Boys Know What Happened to Her

Joran Van Der Sloot

Things in Aruba have taken some dramatic turns since it was reported last Friday that one of the three men being held in Natalee Holloway's disappearance had confessed. Now, all are claiming innocence and their stories are diverging.

From FOX:

ORANJESTAD, Aruba — Cracks have emerged in the stories of three young suspects in the case of Natalee Holloway...

The three young men have reportedly changed their stories since being moved to separate jail cells, Chris Lejuez, the lawyer for one of two other men being held in the case, told FOX News.

One of the trio detained since June 9, the Dutch son of a judicial official, is now saying that his two Surinamese friends — who are brothers — dropped him off at his house after he exchanged e-mail addresses with Holloway and said goodnight, Lejuez said.

The brothers have also changed their story, now saying they left their friend with Holloway at the beach that night, FOX has learned.

The Dutch teenager, 17-year-old Joran Van Der Sloot, and the Surinamese brothers, 18-year-old Satish Kalpoe and 21-year-old Deepak Kalpoe, originally told police they brought Holloway to a lighthouse beside the island's Arisha Beach, but didn't get out of the car.

The Kalpoe brothers also told police that Holloway and Van Der Sloot were kissing passionately in the back seat of the car. They said they dropped her off at her hotel about 2 a.m. and last saw her being approached by a black man in a black security guard uniform before they drove off, a lawyer for the brothers has said.

That story led to the June 5 arrest of two black former hotel security guards, 28-year-old Abraham Jones and 30-year-old Antonius "Mickey" John — both of whom are still in custody.

"They know these boys have been lying," Jones' attorney Lejuez told FOX News on Monday, saying his client is in a cell next to Van Der Sloot's and overheard the boy giving the new explanation. "They should not keep our clients any longer and yet they do."

The mother of the missing girl, Beth Holloway Twitty, also believes the three more recent detainees aren't telling the truth. She said she herself reviewed security videos from the Holiday Inn and has concluded that the three younger men never brought her daughter back to the hotel.

...Holloway Twitty also said Monday she believes the three young men last seen with her daughter know much more than they are letting on about what happened the night her 18-year-old daughter vanished on the island two weeks ago.

"All three of those boys know what happened to her," Holloway Twitty said in an interview with The Associated Press in her room at the Holiday Inn, the same hotel where her daughter was staying before she disappeared early May 30. "They all know what they did with her that night."

Holloway Twitty, 44, declined to say what her theories were on what happened or whether her daughter was still alive.

She said that if she didn't see results soon, she might start to believe authorities were trying to protect the three, one of whom is the son of a government official.

I can understand the frustration of Natalee's mother. The fact that the stories of the three men have changed over the past few days clearly indicates someone is lying, someone is covering up.

The whole matter gets stickier when you take into consideration that Joran Van Der Sloot is the son of an Aruban judge. Defense attorney Carlo Antonio said the teen "has admitted to no crime whatsoever. My client has maintained that he is innocent." If Van Der Sloot is, in fact, innocent, I would think there would be a tremendous effort made to clear his name as quickly as possible.

The longer this drags on, the more it appears that the Aruban government is not being forthcoming about the case. It may be completely unfair to blame Van Der Sloot for Natalee's disappearance, but as things stand now, he's looking guiltier to me as each hour passes.