Six Years Later, Laptop in Peru May Hold Key to Teen’s Presumed Murder in Aruba

By Mario A. Flores
Senior Desk Officer, South America

LIMA, Peru — Joran van der Sloot, the prime suspect in teen Natalee Holloway’s 2005 suspect disappearance in Aruba may soon attempt to enter a plea of guilty by temporary insanity to his confessed murder of a young woman in Peru.

Holloway’s presumed murder has gone unresolved for more than five years. Van der Sloot, the person last seen with her, remains the only suspect. The teen’s disappearance occurred during a high school graduation trip to the Dutch island, where van der Sloot’s late father had been a prominent judge.

Van der Sloot was questioned repeatedly by Aruban authorities. He was twice arrested but released and never charged for lack of evidence.

At one point, Dutch crime reporters got a series of sensational “confessions” from van der Sloot, which he later denied, disproved or dismissed as lies. And last year, Van der Sloot was indicted in the United States on charges of extorting $25,000 from Holloway’s parents in exchange for revealing how Holloway died and the location of her body.

In June of 2010, van der Sloot was arrested in Chile in connection with the murder of Stephany Flores in Peru. Her body was found in his hotel room in Lima after he escaped to Chile. Van der Sloot apparently killed the young Peruvian student five years to the day after Holloway disappeared.

Chilean authorities extradited van der Sloot to Peru, where he subsequently confessed that he killed Flores in a rage when she found material regarding Holloway on his laptop. His defense team recently said that the homicide of Flores was a crime of passion provoked when the young woman began digging through van der Sloot’s laptop.

Oscar Gonzalez, Peru’s police chief of the Division of High Technology Investigations said that the laptop found in the possession of van der Sloot contained “additional information that could be of interest” to the Holloway case. This week, the FBI is sending agents to Peru to examine the laptop hoping that it will shed light into Holloway’s disappearance, considering that it may have prompted van der Sloot to slain Flores.

In the meantime, Maximo Altez, van der Sloot’s attorney, said that his client is considering pleading guilty to killing the young Peruvian woman and argue temporary insanity in a bid to significantly shorten his sentence. Temporary insanity or “violent emotion” is a plea specific to Peru, where van der Sloot could spend just 20 months in jail if the court accepts the argument.

Michael Griffith, senior partner at the International Legal Defense Counsel, stated that even in the unlikely event that van der Sloot gets a lesser sentence, he is going to be extradited to the United States on the outstanding warrant in Alabama for his alleged extortion in the Holloway case. There, van der Sloot would probably face a five-to-10-year sentence for the alleged extortion, according to Griffith.

However, Griffith believes that the chance a judge accepts the temporary insanity plea is slim. “This is such a big case in Peru that I don’t see them accepting a violent emotion insanity defense,” he said. “It would get the populace in an uproar.” As things stand, Van der Sloot is accused of first-degree murder, and faces a 15- to 35-year sentence if his plea is not accepted.

For more information, please see:

Daily Mail – FBI flies to Peru to scour Dutch murder suspect’s laptop in bid to end mother’s five-year agony over missing Natalee Holloway – 15 March 2011

Living in Peru – Peru police hands over copy of disc from van der Sloot’s laptop to FBI – 15 March 2011

AOL News – Expert: Van der Sloot Free in 5 Years? ‘So What? – 8 March 2011

Author: Impunity Watch Archive