Reporter
(Twan Huys): Jan van der
Straaten.
Paulus
van der Sloot: That was Jan van der Straaten, yes.
Reporter
(Twan Huys): And you know
each other very well?
Paulus
van der Sloot: Yes.
Beth Twitty
Arrives
Host (
Jeroen Pauw): Twan, let's go back to Monday evening, the thirtieth of
May. That was a crucial night. What happened then?
Reporter
(Twan Huys): It is the
evening, Jeroen, on which the parents of Natalee fly into Aruba.
More precisely, the mother and the stepfather. They don't believe she just
walked away, or that there is nothing wrong. They are sure something
serious is going on. So they take the first plane from Alabama, where they
are from, to here, Aruba, and arrive
in the evening.
They go to the police and together
go to the house of Joran, of the van der Sloot family . Then, it is
night already, around two. In
the middle of the night, they arrive there with a company of police and
other people and they ring.
The father, van der Sloot is
sleeping, he opens the door and asks, "What is going on? Why are are
here?" " For our disappeared daughter, who was last seen with your son."
He doesn't know all that yet. The father van der Sloot goes to an apartment,
next to the house, where Joran always sleeps and opens the door and Joran is
not in his apartment. He is not sleeping there.
And then, the father picks up the
mobile phone, he calls his son and he appears to be in a casino somewhere
here on Aruba at that time. And that is where we pick up the story.
The son is in a casino and eventually there is a meeting at the house of van
der Sloot with all these people. The parents of Natalee, the son and the
father.
Paulus van der Sloot: He
was, at that moment, again, not at home without me knowing it. Then, I
called Joran on his mobile phone, and then he said that he was by the Wyndam.
That is also a casino here in the neighborhood. Then, we drove there
immediately, but he had, he said that he had misunderstood me, because he
came home already. So, then all of
us went back home, and around three, with quite a group, we spoke with Joran
that night.
Reporter
(Twan Huys): How did that conversation go?
Paulus
van der Sloot: Understandably, these people were quite excited [3]. I
tried to calm these people down as much as possible. I also said to Joran,
he has to direct himself as much as possible to the police officers and not
to the people of whom it was uncertain what their status was.
Reporter
(Twan Huys): You didn't
want him to let himself be interrogated, or maybe started saying things that
were not right to total strangers?
Paulus
van der Sloot: Yes, I
think, anyway it was, for me, more trusting, if he would direct himself to
the police officers.
Reporter
(Twan Huys): Did it become clear for you what happened that night, with
Joran in relation to Natalee?
Paulus
van der Sloot: Yes, that became clear to me.
Reporter
(Twan Huys): Which story did he tell you then?
Paulus
van der Sloot: That he initially met her earlier that day in the
Holiday Inn casino, where he was, as well, to play a free tournament. That,
then it was agreed to meet in Carlos and Charlies. That, he initially did
not want that, but that he went there anyway, and that he met her there, in
Carlos and Charlies. That, then, with his two friends, Deepak and Satish,
drove around a bit with her around the island, that they were making out [4]
some on the backseat and that in the end he dropped her off at the Holiday
inn. That was the story.
Reporter
(Twan Huys): And you thought, "This is it, now it is done."
Paulus
van der Sloot: Yes, I continued to believe in that story. I had never,
all these days after, received a clue that it would be incorrect.
Reporter
(Twan Huys): When did you find out that it was, nevertheless, different
than how it was told by your son in the first place?
Paulus
van der Sloot: He was arrested and then he changed his declaration.
Host (
Jeroen Pauw): Ok, Twan, so there are different declarations. What did
Joran say in his second declaration?
Reporter
(Twan Huys): Very simple, Jeroen, in his first declaration, he has said
that, indeed, that he went, together with his two friends and Natalee, to
the beach and that, that night, deep in the night, actually in the morning,
all of them went back to the Holiday Inn hotel, where she was staying, and
dropped her off there. That story is incorrect. That story, as told, has
been retracted by Joran and also by his both friends, who are also still
stuck [in jail]. He did that as soon as he was arrested and was
interrogated by the police. He also never told the story as he told to the
police to his parents. His declaration now is that he left Natalee
alone on the beach, and then went home by himself, and that his two friends
were nowhere near that. That is the second version, and until now Joran
holds on to that, under severe police interrogation.
Host (
Jeroen Pauw): Any idea how Natalee's parents will react if they will
see this interview, between you and the parents of Joran?