What's Joran's
parents' case?
A few weeks ago, the parents
of Joran van der Sloot appeared with me in the
Dutch talk show Pauw & Witteman. They asserted
that Joran was a boy with a good upbringing, who
always treated girls with respect. They also stated
that if they had any indication that Joran was
indeed involved in the disappearance of Natalee,
they would have gone to the police immediately.
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BORDERING ON NAÏVITÉ -
On this occasion, Joran’s
mother – who was in the Netherlands at the
time of Natalee’s disappearance –
gave me the impression of a kind, honest woman,
who loves her son dearly, but has no idea about
what really made him tick. However, even naïveté
has its limits, which I feel she should have reached
after watching our program.
Especially in the USA, Joran’s
father is seen as someone who knows more about
the case than he is willing to let on. He was
indeed on Aruba at the time of the disappearance,
and later advised his son not to say anything
to the police during questioning. According to
Joran, his father has devoted himself to filing
compensation claims.
In conversations recorded
by us, Joran expressly denies that his father
was involved in Natalee’s disappearance.
However, many see his assertion that on the night
in question, his ‘helper’ urged him
to ‘get home quickly because he had to go
to school the next day’, as an indication
that his father could indeed be involved.
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SMUGGLED MOBILE PHONE -
There is also something
else that Joran admitted to Patrick in some detail.
He said that when visiting him in custody after
his initial arrest, his father Paul van der Sloot,
who was a Judge at the time, smuggled a mobile
phone to his son. The story comes across as highly
plausible, and implies an unforgivable transgression
by the Judge/attorney.
This story, casually related
by Joran, could understandably cast Joran’s
parents’ role in a very different light
from what they would have liked us to believe
during Pauw & Witteman. It is, after all,
in their best interests that everything Joran
has stated be dismissed as fabrications. Any veracity
afforded to Joran’s statements will effectively
also ‘hang’ his father for smuggling
the mobile phone into the prison. In that case,
he would undoubtedly be disbarred as an attorney,
with his reputation in Aruba in tatters. Until
recently, the parents enjoyed a reasonably respected
position on the island. That reputation will be
history, should it be verified that Paul van der
Sloot deliberately sabotaged the investigation
into the disappearance that has caused Aruba so
much damage.
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REPORTING TO THE POLICE -
If the parents’ earlier
pronouncements were in earnest, one would expect
that following our program – during which
their son admits his involvement no fewer than
ten times – they would confront their son
saying: ‘enough is enough. We are going
to the police and you will tell them everything
that happened. You will not reserve your right
to remain silent for another instant.’
This did not occur, however.
Instead, Joran issued a statement through his
attorney, saying that all his pronouncements were
made while under the influence of marijuana joints
and that his litany of admissions is a bizarre
fabrication. Surely the parents must realize that
this is a cheap attempt at a cop-out, that actually
also works to the benefit of father Paul. If everything
is a fabrication, then so is the story about the
mobile phone. Contrarily, if everything is in
fact true, it will undoubtedly be assumed that
the story about the smuggled mobile phone is true
as well, with appropriate consequences.
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NO SMOKE WITHOUT FIRE -
Anyone who has done any
thinking, or has themselves smoked marijuana,
must surely realize that Joran’s story about
the joints just doesn’t hold water. During
the course of five separate drives, on different
days – sometimes separated by more than
a week – Joran made extensive confessions.
His confession was confirmed and repeated during
each subsequent drive. Not once did he say that
last time, while under the influence of marijuana,
he had been sprouting a lot of hot air. On the
contrary. ‘Coincidentally’, the bulk
of his admissions fall perfectly in line with
the vein of the earlier police investigation,
and in them, Joran provides answers to several
open-ended questions (how he got home, what he
did with his shoes, the involvement of the Kalpoe
brothers etc. etc.).
Furthermore, I have to point
out that there were several drives during which
he either DID NOT smoke marijuana, or only did
so AFTER discussing Natalee’s case. The
TV footage shows this quite clearly. He made and/or
repeated confessions even while he was ‘as
sober as a Judge’. Or does Joran now allege
that when Patrick came to pick him up him at around
noon, he had already got stoned sitting on his
grandma’s sofa?
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CONFESSION COMPULSION? -
But even if he was already
stoned – which I don’t believe –
the question remains whether he would suddenly
start to confess to all manner of bizarre crimes
of which he is actually innocent? Or would the
parents and grandma now like us to believe that
he was in the daily habit of confessing to unsolved
murders each time he rolled a reefer??? Of course
not. A marijuana joint does not have that effect
at all. If it did, the corridors of police stations
in the Netherlands and elsewhere would be chock-full
of marijuana users, spontaneously confessing to
all manner of unsolved crimes. That is, of course,
not the case. Joran’s story is untenable.
In my opinion It's simply the only excuse he could
think of to explain his constant confessions –
an explanation that suits his parents just fine.
After all, it is now also in their best interests….
Peter R. DeVries
Translation: Andrew M. Bergman
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