Ex-Holloway suspect admits role in video

Hidden camera footage broadcast by a crime reporter Sunday apparently showed Dutch student Joran van der Sloot admitting he was with American teenager Natalee Holloway when she died on a beach in Aruba in May 2005, and that he called a friend and asked him to dispose of the body at sea.]Hidden camera footage broadcast by a crime reporter Sunday apparently showed Dutch student Joran van der Sloot admitting he was with American teenager Natalee Holloway when she died on a beach in Aruba in May 2005, and that he called a friend and asked him to dispose of the body at sea.
The exchange, in Dutch, was recorded in a car that had been rigged with three hidden cameras by Peter R. de Vries, a Dutch television crime reporter who claims the footage solves the mystery surrounding Holloway's disappearance. It was shown on Dutch television.

Van der Sloot on Friday acknowledged he was caught on tape, but added that he was lying when he spoke to his friend.

In the video, Van der Sloot said he panicked and tried but failed to revive Holloway after she began shaking and then slumped to the sand.

He then used a pay phone next to a hotel's swimming pool to call a friend with a boat to dispose of the body, he said.

"The ocean is big," he added.

He said he and his friend agreed that Van der Sloot would go to school the next day so as not to arouse any suspicion.

Van der Sloot said his friend assured him he had taken care of Holloway's body and that the police were not going to locate it. "They will know nothing," Van der Sloot quoted the friend as telling him.

In the images, Van der Sloot speaks matter-of-factly about the case, saying at one point, "I've not lost any sleep over this."

He also said that while Holloway looked dead he could not be sure she was not still alive.

Her mother: 'I hope his living hell' begins
De Vries also aired images of Holloway's mother, Beth Twitty, as he showed her the footage.

Clasping together her hands, she moved her lips silently as she watched the images.

"They could have just dumped her alive in the ocean, unconscious," she said. "They don't even know."

"I hope his living hell is about to begin and that he never gets another night's sleep," she added.
Chief prosecutor Hans Mos and others in his Aruban office did not return calls or e-mails about the show. Prosecutors have previously said they cannot prove a crime was committed without finding Holloway's body.

In an interview with De Vries that was aired Sunday, Mos said he was "very impressed" by the footage.

"We find that in what he (Van der Sloot) now says there are things we say are consistent with the case file," he told De Vries.

A Dutch newspaper reported Sunday night that it had located the friend with the boat, whom Van der Sloot identified only as Daury, and that the man claimed he was in the Netherlands at the time of Holloway's disappearance.

De Vries has acknowledged paying the friend Van der Sloot spoke to, Patrick van der Eem, about $37,000 for his help, saying it was to cover his expenses.

American network ABC has bought the rights to the show and is expected to air a show Monday night.

Van der Sloot says he lied
In a telephone interview with a Dutch news show Friday night, Van der Sloot acknowledged that he had discussed his alleged involvement in Holloway's disappearance with a friend, but insisted it was a lie and he had nothing to do with the case.

"That is what he wanted to hear, so I told him what he wanted to hear," Van der Sloot said, adding that he had built up a relationship with the man he spoke to, but had never fully trusted him. He did not identify the man.
"It is so stupid, it is so stupid, it is really stupid," Van der Sloot said, his voice cracking.

Van der Sloot said an investigation in Aruba could easily prove he lied in the conversation with the friend, a recording of which is expected to form part of Sunday's show.

"It's easy to prove that what I said is not true, and that actually this is much ado about nothing," he said.
Van der Sloot's statement Friday came hours after Aruban prosecutors announced they were reopening their investigation into Holloway's disappearance after seeing De Vries' material.

Aruba prosecutors made no reference to the possibility of an arrest, and Van der Sloot said he does not expect to be arrested again.

Prosecutors last year closed the case due to lack of evidence, but reopened it last week after De Vries showed them some of his findings.

Her mom is convinced she is dead
Twitty said she is now convinced her daughter is dead.

"I can let her go now and begin mourning," Beth Twitty said in an interview published Saturday in Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf. "The 1 percent of hope I had that she was still alive is gone."

An American lawyer for Van der Sloot says that whatever his client said, he was not involved.

"The evidence refutes what Joran supposedly said," Joseph Tacopina said after hearing of the interview through media reports. "It doesn't change the truth of this case. And the truth is, Joran had nothing to do with Natalee's death."

Holloway, 18, was last seen in public leaving a bar with Van der Sloot and two Surinamese brothers — Deepak and Satish Kalpoe. All three men have always denied any role in her disappearance.