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Holloway's Mom: Dutch Dad Hiding Something

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

 

 

 

ORANJESTAD, Aruba —

 

The mother of an Alabama honors student missing in Aruba for a month said Tuesday she is devastated by the release of a Dutch suspect's father and convinced the high-ranking judicial official is hiding information.

 

"I know in my heart he has some answers," Beth Holloway Twitty (search) told The Associated Press in an interview.

 

She said her suspicions were based on his behavior when she went to his house looking for those answers last week, and Paul van der Sloot (search), who's training to be a judge on the Dutch Caribbean island, could not stop perspiring.

 

"I've never sat across from an individual in a well-ventilated room who was sweating so profusely. His wife had to use napkins to wipe his forehead, and the sweat drops falling on the table" as they sat under a fan.

 

But his wife, Anita van der Sloot (search), insisted on her family's innocence in an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press.

 

She also expressed frustration with police, claiming that they were focusing on the van der Sloots only because they were stymied in their efforts.

 

"Why is the finger being pointed at Joran? Because he's the son of a judge?" she asked. "But there is no proof he did anything. Investigators have lost control [of the case] and don't know what to do anymore."

 

Van der Sloot said her family has been devastated since Natalee Holloway (search) disappeared in the early hours of May 30.

 

"Our lives, and the life of a young teenager, have been destroyed," she said. "For us, the most important thing is Natalee and my son."

 

On Sunday, police released Paul van der Sloot after a judge ruled there was not sufficient cause to continue holding him. He had been arrested Thursday in the disappearance of 18-year-old Holloway, who reportedly last was seen on a beach in the early hours of May 30.

 

"I was absolutely devastated. I didn't expect that to happen," Holloway Twitty said.

 

The judge on Sunday also ordered police to free a party boat disc jockey held for nearly a week in the case. His connection was unclear, though the boat "Tattoo" on which he worked docked near the Holiday Inn where the missing teenager was staying.

 

Three people remain in jail: 17-year-old Joran van der Sloot (search) and his two Surinamese friends, brothers Deepak Kalpoe (search), 21, and Satish Kalpoe (search), 18. None has been charged.

 

The two releases have raised questions about the progress of the investigation and, Holloway Twitty said, have left her feeling bereft of comfort and the assurances she has received that the investigation was moving forward.

 

"I felt like letting him go ripped out of me all the assurances I had that we were progressing," she said.

 

She also has said that if investigators don't make progress soon, she may start to believe that they are trying to cover up something.

 

Still, she remained determined to stay on the island "to see what happens."

 

Prime Minister Nelson Oduber (search) said he filed a formal request Tuesday with the Netherlands to send in a new contingent of Dutch Marines to help in the search for Natalee, based on a recommendation from the volunteer rescue group Texas EquuSearch (search), which said it could use the extra help.

 

Spokesman Ad van der Linde of the Dutch Defense Ministry said around 70 Dutch Marines among several hundred based on the island had assisted in three search mission. "They are definitely prepared to provide additional assistance."

 

Countless searches by Dutch Marines, FBI agents and trained dogs, Aruban police and hundreds of resident and tourist volunteers have failed to turn up any sign of Holloway.

 

Both the Holloway Twitty and the van der Sloots "are feeling like they are losing a son or a daughter," said Ricardo Yarzagaray, an Aruban defense lawyer not connected to the case.

 

"This is one of the aspects that makes the case so dramatic. For anybody with kids, there are two natural fears: that they'll get arrested for a crime or somehow be a victim."