Natalee Holloway might be alive today if a Dutch student had called doctors instead of having her lifeless body dumped into the sea, the teen’s heartbroken mom said yesterday.
Aruban authorities are again interested in Joran van der Sloot after he implicated himself in the Holloway case in a conversation with a Dutch journalist.
Van der Sloot, 20, said that after Holloway passed out during sex, he had a friend he identified only as Daury use his boat to get rid of her body.
If van der Sloot were ever brought to trial in Aruba, the island’s top prosecutor said the hidden-camera statement – engineered by Dutch investigative journalist Peter R. de Vries and businessman Patrick van der Eem – would probably be admissible.
“I take it [the taped statements] very seriously,” said chief prosecutor Hans Mos.
The hidden-camera disclosures, aired on ABC’s “20/20” last night, offered a ray of hope to Holloway’s mom, Beth Twitty, that someone will be held responsible for the Alabama teen’s unsolved disappearance in 2005.
“It’s what I have prayed for 2½ years,” Twitty told “20/20.”
“I’ve just prayed for an answer, and that’s all I’ve ever wanted. I’ve just wanted an answer to what happened.”
Van der Sloot’s New York-based lawyer, Joe Tacopina, insists his client’s statement was no confession.
Tacopina noted that Aruban authorities have had the Dutch TV interview for more than a week but still haven’t arrested van der Sloot.
“Joran denies any role in Natalee’s death,” he said.
“It is important to point out that the prosecutor has viewed this tape over one week ago and Joran is at liberty. I think it speaks volumes about the evidentiary value of this tape, considering he has been arrested previously in this case with little evidence against him.”
But if van der Sloot was telling the truth about Holloway becoming unconscious after sex, he could have saved her life by just calling for help, Twitty said.
“Dear God! Joran could have called, he could have called an ambulance,” Twitty said. “He’s not an EMT. He’s not a, a doctor! You know? He’s not a, he’s not anyone that could, could make a decision on my daughter’s condition.”
Meanwhile, a lawyer for van der Sloot’s friend Daury Rodriguez, 21, who may have been the friend who dumped the body, denied his client was involved.” With Post Wire Services