No body, no clues, no case

Clint Van Zandt • Profile • E-mail

The now month-old mysterious disappearance of 18-year-old Natalee Holloway from a high school graduation trip to Aruba continues to frustrate Americans and others across the world who are following this case, while the Aruban Police continue to plod along in their investigation, one that has seen seven arrests and four of these seven quickly released due to lack of evidence against them.

After the release this week of 26-year-old now former party boat DJ Steve Croes, (he's been fired from his job on the "Tattoo,") someone who said he did not know any of the three currently incarcerated suspects, to include 17-year-old Joran Van Der Sloot and brothers Deepak (age 21) and Satish (age 18) Kalpoe; and Paulus van der Sloot, an Aruban judge in training and father of Joran, one must wonder where the local authorities in Aruba are going with this case. Of course the suspects haven't been much help either. Croes, for example, denies knowing any of the three primary suspects. He indicated that he made up the story that he saw them drop Natalee off at her hotel the night she disappeared (thereby providing the three suspects with their initial alibi) just to be a good guy -- (makes you question his veracity, if not his sanity), noting, of course, that Croes frequented the Internet cafe that employed one of the Kalpoe brothers and supposedly happened to overhear Deepak telling this story, so he retold the story and made himself a witness (dumb). The senior van der Sloot may well have been arrested to put pressure on his son, everyone's current leading suspect, but Mr. van der Sloot was quickly released, again due to lack of evidence connecting him to the disappearance of Natalee Holloway.

He said that he said...
We now hear that Mickey John, one of the two security guards originally implicated by Joran and the two Kalpoes as being the last people seen with Natalee -- men that were themselves arrested and subsequently released -- has now suggested that Deepak Kalpoe told him that Paulus van der Sloot may have counseled or otherwise advised the three current suspects on how to deal with the authorities and the questions that would be asked of them should they be arrested, or that Mr. van der Sloot might, perhaps, have been otherwise complicate in Natalee's disappearance. The Aruban prosecutor has indicated that Paulus' counsel to the three included "when there is no body you don't have a case," with this advice provided to the three the day after Natalee disappeared. Who knows at this point? Was the former security guard telling the truth, i.e., did Paulus coach his son and the Kalpoes that only their own words could send the three of them to jail, or was this simply a tit-for-tat by Mickey John, i.e., "You guys lied about me and got me thrown in jail, so I'll lie about all of you and keep you in jail."

As I discussed in my previous article, "Holloway: Two steps backward?" there are a number of potential scenarios to explain Natalee's disappearance, and many of you have written to suggest variations of the eight theories that I discussed. It would be logical that Paulus, due to his legal background, would have the ability (and motive) to coach his son and the Kalpoes as to what they would encounter at the hands of the authorities. This could be especially true since the police delayed for days the arrest of the three at the start of this investigation, thereby, perhaps, losing the opportunity to find linking physical evidence, and/or at least allowing the three suspects to develop and practice their mutual story. But all of this is now water under the bridge. The police are very tight lipped about their investigation, and that's ok if they have something going, i.e., they may well have information and/or evidence that makes this case far tighter than any of us can imagine -- at least I hope so!

Who might talk and why
If, in fact, the Kalpoes were "only" accessories after the fact, by this they helped Joran to kidnap or otherwise dispose of Natalee, even if successfully coached by Paulus or someone else, they would seem to have a lot to gain by striking a deal with the police, if, that is, they know anything about Natalee's disappearance. Were I interviewing them, I'd make sure that they knew that someone involved in this matter would get a one-way ticket off the island, and that anyone else involved was going to get a one-way ticket to jail. Which ticket did they want? But again, if the Kalpoes were more than just a little involved, and if they had been successfully coached or intimidated, would they talk or not? If between the three principal suspects, with or without the coaching of another, they all came to the conclusion that without a victim, without a body, without a crime scene, and without linking physical evidence they would all eventually be released, then they just might be able to keep their collective mouths shut. And Joran, well, he's changed his story a number of times, (why did he need to keep changing his story if he is truly innocent we need ask), and as the current primary suspect, he would appear to have the most to lose by talking, and the most to gain, unfortunately, by his continued silence.

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