On Friday January 11, 2008 I saw the news show Pauw & Witteman with a discussion about the Natalee Holloway case on dutch TV. Natalee Holloway is a American high school girl who disappeared a couple of years ago on Aruba, a dutch island in the Carribean. No evidence of crime has been found though the police has been investigating the case until the end of 2007. The police investigation focussed on Joran van der Sloot, who probably was the last one who saw her.

Guests in the news show were Joran van der Sloot, his parents and Peter R. de Vries, a dutch crime journalists who has investigated the case. Joran van der Sloot seemed to have written a book about his last moments with Natalie, and the police investigation that followed. He and his parents wanted to tell their side of the story once again on TV.

Crime journalist Peter R. de Vries has investigated the case on Aruba. In his TV show he came to the conclusion that Joran van der Sloot knows a lot more about the disappearance than he has been telling the police. He thinks that Joran might not have killed Natalee but that there might have been an accident or that she suddenly died of a heart attack or  something like that. Therefore Peter was invited to the news show to ask critical questions in the second half of the show. There are two main reasons for Peter's conclusions:

•  Joran and his friends Satish and Deepak lied initially together about their last moments with Natalie. If nothing serious had happened then they would not have any reason for making up a lie story together. 
  
• The story Joran told the police after he was caught as a liar is not supported by much evidence. Moreover some important aspects of this story are quite unlikely. 

Joran's mother said that she initially had their doubts but that they are convinced that their son does not have anything to do with Natalie's disappearance. They believe his story that he left her on the beach in the night of May 30, 2005. The parents emphasized that even after such a long time no direct evidence of any crime has been found. Joran said that his life has got a lot more difficult than before the disappearance because many people think he is has made Natalee disappear. Despite that there was no direct evidence of any crime he has spend 116 days in jail.

Joran's father said that the investigations focussed entirely on his son. He regrets that other aspects around Natalie were not investigated, such as her other friends, with whom she was emailing, etc. He thinks that the investigations were so unsuccessful because of the focus on his son.

Indeed in Peter R. de Vries's show the police files were discussed and the focus was entirely on Joran and his two friends. Even Peter's own investigation seemed to focus entirely on Joran. In all the stories around the disappearance I did not hear of any plausible reasons for a crime or disappearance either. I had expected Peter to ask some critical questions on the unlikely details in Joran's final story to the police. Unfortunately these questions were not asked.

At the end of the programme, when people left their seats, Joran suddenly threw a glass of wine into the face of Peter R. de Vries. This incident was not broadcasted but you can find it on many places on the internet. This supports Peter's claim that Joran can be aggressive.

A couple of weeks later, on Februari 3, 2008 Peter broadcasted a new show with new facts on the case. It turned out that he had set up an undercover operation to make Joran confess. He had videotaped conversations with secret camera's while Joran was talking to Peter's undercover in a car. He told that Natalee died on the beach and that a friend (not Satish or Deepak) of him had dumped the body in the sea. After the show, it turned out that this friend had a perfect alibi and did not have a boat either. Therefore the recorded confession was not sufficient for the authorities to reopen the case and arrest Joran for the third time.