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ISSUES WITH JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL

Van Der Sloot Captured on Murder Charge

Aired June 3, 2010 - 19:00:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HOST (voice-over): Tonight, a stunning finish to an international man hunt that captivated the world. Joran Van Der Sloot has finally been captured. Take a look as he`s led away by authorities in Santiago, Chile.

Tonight Van Der Sloot is accused of brutally murdering a 21-year-old girl that he met at a casino in Peru. He`s also the prime suspect in the Natalee Holloway case. Tonight he`s finally in police custody. What happened inside that blood-filled hotel room? Why did Joran flee Peru and change his hair color? And could all this help solve the Natalee Holloway mystery? We`ll have all the creepy connections between these two cases. Could this be a signature murder by a serial killer? We`re searching for answers.

ISSUES starts now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight stunning, breaking news. Massive, and I mean mind-blowing developments, in the frantic manhunt for Joran Van Der Sloot. After a dragnet that had cops from four South American countries in hot pursuit, Joran has been captured. Right on the heels of that, American authorities have just -- just -- charged Joran in a bizarre, a wild extortion scheme involving a promise to reveal the location of Natalee Holloway`s body in exchange for -- are you sitting down -- a quarter of a million dollars.

Joran, the prime suspect in the murder of a 21-year-old Peruvian woman. He was caught just hours ago by Chilean police. He had shaved his head. He appears to have died his buzz cut orange.

The Dutch playboy behind bars in a Chilean jail as we speak, and he will be extradited to Peru. We are getting fast-breaking, brand-new details about Joran`s movements on the run. He made it all the way from Lima, Peru, across the border and deep into Chile, roughly 3,000 miles. He was alone in a taxi when he was caught. Authorities believe Joran was headed to Vina Del Mar, a tourist hangout and beach community with a large casino. Was Joran planning to hop on a boat, or possibly to strike again, at another casino?

Van Der Sloot met Stephany Flores Ramirez at a casino in Lima, Peru. Witnesses saw the two of them going into a swanky hotel room at about 5 a.m. Sunday morning. Four hours later, Joran left alone, carrying two large suitcases. He made it all the way to the border, paying two brothers $650 for a ride.

Tonight grizzly new details about what happened inside that hotel room. Stephany`s battered body found facedown on the floor, wrapped in a blood-soaked blanket. She was brutally stabbed, brutally beaten, and her neck was broken, all five years to the day after Natalee`s disappearance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL REYNOLDS, NATALEE HOLLOWAY`S UNCLE: Joran made many confessions to Natalee -- what he did to Natalee that may have been somewhat confusing, but nevertheless, he confessed to wrongdoing, whether he dumped her in the ocean or he sold her to someone on the beach, they`re both crimes, and he should have been held accountable. And if he had been, this other young girl might still be alive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Will there finally be justice for Natalee? I want to hear from you. Give me a call: 1-877-JVM-SAYS. That`s 1-877-586-7297.

We have a fantastic panel of the top experts in the Natalee Holloway case with us tonight. But first, straight out to investigative reporter Michelle Sigona.

Michelle, what is the very latest?

MICHELLE SIGONA, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Right here in the United States, Jane, we are learning that the United States Alabama attorney has been working on a case against Joran Van Der Sloot for the last three weeks now. And right now there`s an arrest warrant out charging him with extortion and also wire fraud.

The complaint alleges about $250,000. That`s what he was seeking for the location to find the remains to Natalee Holloway. So as of this particular point, this is unrelated to Van Der Sloot as a suspect in the Peruvian murder. It just so happens that this is all coming out at the same time.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, absolutely. This is a bizarre new turn, Joran now accused of trying to sell information about Natalee Holloway`s death and the location of Natalee`s body. Unbelievable. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our charges resulted from an FBI investigation into efforts by Van Der Sloot to extort $250,000 from an individual in exchange for information about the location of Natalee Holloway`s remains and the circumstances that led to her death.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: He was already allegedly wired $15,000, so now we know where he was getting his money to globe trot. What`s fascinating is there is this mystery person in Alabama who was apparently willing to pay Joran a quarter of a million dollars to find out where Natalee Holloway`s body was buried and how it all happened.

Got to go to T.J. Ward. You were the private investigator in Aruba searching for Natalee. Is this a shocker? Any idea who might have been willing to pay that money?

T.J. WARD, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR: No, I sure don`t. That is new news, on and this is going to be interesting. And I hope the Alabama authorities send the information to Aruba, so they can start extraditing their case, and hopefully, they`ll open the case back up against Van Der Sloot as far as the disappearance and quite possibly murder.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Sharon, Wisconsin, your question or thought?

CALLER: I just want to make a comment. I am finally glad to hear that -- that they captured him, and I hope that justice will be served. And my condolences to Natalee Holloway`s family and to Stephany Flores`s family. Justice needs to be served, and he doesn`t have his father anymore to protect him. So it`s just -- it`s good to hear something positive coming out of this.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I think we`re all thrilled. We`re all thrilled, and we share that, because we`ve all been so frustrated watching this cocky guy seemingly getting away with one misdeed after the other.

Now we`re getting some stunning new information about possible motive in this killing of Stephany Flores Ramirez. ABC has reported that an ex- girlfriend says that Stephany was a lesbian struggling with her sexuality because of her parents` disapproval. That ex-girlfriend expressed disbelief on "Good Morning America" that Stephany would ever willingly go to a hotel with a strange man. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANIE JIMENEZ, FRIEND OF STEPHANY FLORES: This guy, I mean, appeared out of nowhere. They went to a hotel, and I just can`t believe that. I don`t see how she could have gone to the hotel with this guy. She wouldn`t do that. She wouldn`t do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Pat Brown, criminal profiler, could this have been a motive? Van Der Sloot makes a move, finds out she`s gay. She`s not interesting. Then he drugs her and takes her to the hotel room, as she fights back ?

PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER: Well, actually, Jane, I think this is his general M.O. I think he`s a serial date rapist. He`s not a serial killer, because he`s not looking for women to grab and jump into -- you know, take into the bushes and kill and murder. He -- what he is is a serial date rapist who gets made when somebody says now or his drugs don`t work. He doesn`t get what he wants, and he loses control. We see that in these two cases. So any woman who went with him, if he didn`t get what he wanted, she was in trouble.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Stephany`s dad says cops told him there is evidence of a date rape drug in his daughter`s SUV. Joran and Stephany allegedly took that car from the casino back to Joran`s hotel. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICARDO FLORES, STEPHANY`S FATHER (through translator): They left in her car, and they found some wrappings of pills they use to drug people. We will have samples of this man`s skin underneath the nails of my daughter. So once he is captured, we will be able to show that he is the killer, and he won`t be able to walk away like he did in Aruba.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: That`s right. This time we have a body.

Vinda De Sousa is on the line. She is the Aruban attorney for Natalee Holloway`s dad, Dave.

Vinda, we have just learned that a delegation from the Dutch embassy visited Joran minutes ago in a Chilean jail. Do you think that this could open -- reopen Natalee`s case? You`ve been talking to Natalee`s dad, Dave. What is he saying about all this?

VINDA DE SOUSA, ATTORNEY FOR DAVE HOLLOWAY: No, I didn`t. Good evening, first of all. I didn`t -- I haven`t been talking to Dave Holloway as yet.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK. You represent him, though? You represent him?

DE SOUSA: Yes, I do. I do, here in Aruba.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK. What are your thoughts of the fact that the Dutch embassy visited him in jail in Chile?

DE SOUSA: Well, you know, that`s -- that`s not unusual. Whenever a Dutch citizen is jailed abroad, either the embassy or the consul general will visit the person detained or in custody, being a Dutch citizen, to offer assistance, it`s part of the Dutch policy.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Do we have Tim Miller? Is Tim Miller with us?

OK, Tim Miller, you are the director of Texas EquuSearch. You searched high and low for Natalee Holloway. Your reaction to all of these developments, particularly the fact that he was allegedly trying to extort somebody in Alabama for a quarter of a million dollars to reveal the location of Natalee`s body?

TIM MILLER, DIRECTOR, TEXAS EQUUSEARCH: I think that we all know that he`s received money for stories he`s done in the past. I mean, we know that some drug dealings is going on. We all questioned how he made his money to travel around as much as he did without having a job. And we got to realize that Joran is a very slick talker, a very sly person.

And three years ago Dave Holloway and I were in Aruba doing the search for Natalee, and I believe it was actually on Natalee`s birthday, when Gerald Dompig, the police commissioner at the time, got us to his -- to a private room and said that we need to be searching in the sea, that Joran Van Der Sloot was a sociopath, that he controlled the entire family, that his father was afraid of him.

We actually had a witness that`s seen Joran Van Der Sloot and Paulus Van Der Sloot on the night that Natalee disappeared that went to the authorities in Aruba to tell them where he`d seen them. They wouldn`t listen to him. He -- that witness came to the United States and got polygraphed two times. I flew back to Aruba with the polygraph results.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Let me ask -- let me cut to the chase. Let me cut to the chase, Tim Miller. Did that Aruban official tell you, "Don`t bother looking for Natalee; we know she`s dead"?

MILLER: No, he said -- Gerald Dompig said you need to be searching in the water. And then that`s when we actually put the deep water search together, which we was in that water for nearly three months. We`ve got 140 plus targets out there.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: But she would be dead, searching in the water.

MILLER: Oh, definitely. No, definitely dead. Definitely dead and feel as though that she is in some type of container. Otherwise Natalee would have floated.

And we have to remember the night Natalee disappeared, the fisherman`s hut was broken into. The knife was stolen. Let`s remember: Stephany was stabbed with a knife. We got a knife stolen from the fisherman`s hut. Also, the large fish trap was stolen with -- plenty big to put Natalee`s little body in.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tim Miller, we`re going to talk about some of the other creepy parallels right on the other side of this very short break.

Everybody stay right where you are. We`re just getting started. We`re devoting our entire hour to this extraordinary story. Joran Van Der Sloot faces justice, and I want to hear from you: 1-877-JVM-SAYS, 1-877- 586-7297.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NANCY GRACE, HLN HOST: When you saw this and you heard him refer to her as a bitch and a whore, what was your response?

BETH TWITTY, NATALEE`S MOTHER: I mean, Nancy, it`s just -- when I hear Joran talking about her like that, my gosh, you just -- first you want to come to the TV, and I want to kill him, I mean, and peel his skin off his face. And he was just totally, totally dragged us all through hell, this Joran Van Der Sloot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVE HOLLOWAY, NATALEE`S FATHER: I just hope that he can`t explain. He`s got an account to settle, and I hope he settles it on this earth this time. If he doesn`t, God bless him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight, fast-breaking news. Just hours ago after a massive manhunt, Chilean police captured Joran Van Der Sloot. He was on the run in South America.

Authorities say Joran is the prime suspect in the violent, brutal beating and stabbing of a young Peruvian woman he met at a local casino. Joran the only suspect in the disappearance of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway. He met both of these women at casinos exactly five years apart.

Phone lines lighting up. Tina, Florida, your question or thought, ma`am?

CALLER: Hi, Jane. First of all, I just want to say how absolutely wonderful you are and thank you for all that you do for the fight against women and children.

My -- what I want to say was, since it appears that Joran was given free reign at an early age, as a teen with, like, a $50,000 credit -- line of credit at the casinos, could it be possible for authorities in other countries that have popular casinos that he could have visited, go back and see whether there are any unsolved murders or missing young girls from back then?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I think it`s an excellent question. Pat Brown, could this be the tip of the iceberg?

BROWN: You know, I know everybody is really thinking this, that they`ll murder girls all over the world. But I just don`t think so. As I said, I think it`s a serial date rapist and this is the rare occasion when he loses complete control and he wigs out. I just don`t think he`s looking for girls to kill. I think these are two unusual ones.

Are there a lot of rapes? Yes, I bet there`s a lot of rapes out there, but I don`t think there`s a lot of murders.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Naomi Mapstone, we are very delighted to have you. You`re a freelance journalist in Peru joining us via Skype. First of all tell us how all of this is being perceived and what kind of a reaction people in Peru are having to this hideous murder of this -- of this daughter of a very prominent person. Tell us what you know.

NAOMI MAPSTONE, FREELANCE JOURNALIST: Well, Peruvians are very upset at what they perceive as a great miscarriage of justice, that a man who`s being accused of the disappearance of an American student has -- has been free to roam the world and has arrived in Peru and is now the prime suspect in a very brutal murder of a young girl who is blameless.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now I understand that the victim`s father once was a presidential candidate according to the "New York Post"? He`s very powerful? He`s -- he`s a wealthy businessman?

MAPSTONE: Ricardo Flores is a businessman. He`s a racing car driver. He`s known for bringing his circus acts and his entertainment acts into the country. He`s quite (UNINTELLIGIBLE). And he has run for political office as a political candidate in past elections. He`s very well known.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, you know, if he`s convicted and put in a Peruvian prison, I wonder, Stacy Honowitz, how he`s going to fare when the father of the girl he was -- if he`s convicted -- I`m not going to convict him now -- but if he`s convicted, the father of the girl he`s convicted of murdering once ran for president, that`s going to be tough. Peruvian prisons are already tough, right?

STACY HONOWITZ, FLORIDA PROSECUTOR: Well, they`re very tough, and I`m going to tell you something very interesting. The sound engineer in my studio down here in Florida is from Peru, and so we were having a whole discussion before I went on the air.

And he told me that this Dutch citizen, anybody who`s not part of the culture down there is going to have a very difficult time in the Peruvian jail. And very interesting: if he`s convicted of murder, he`s only looking at 35 years, but they will be a horrible, torturous 35 years.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: But what about this extortion case in the United States? Would he have to face that first or afterwards?

HONOWITZ: No, he`ll face that afterwards, but it`s interesting. It`s like a perfect storm that all of this has come together this week: the charges down in Peru and the charges in Alabama.

And what`s interesting for your viewers to know, it will be very, very interesting in this case. We will have all the clues that they never had in the Holloway case, because there is a body. We will know a toxicology report. We will know if there are drugs in her system.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right.

HONOWITZ: We will now if she was sexually assaulted. All the clues that you never had, we will have.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Other side of the break, more analysis.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TWITTY: He was just totally, totally dragged us all through hell, this Joran Van Der Sloot. It`s just despicable what he has done. It`s a sad form of a human existence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Breaking news is at ISSUES tonight. Joran Van Der Sloot, the Dutch playboy infamously linked to the disappearance of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway, arrested tonight. He was on the run for the brutal murder of a young Peruvian. He met her at a casino in Lima. Hours later, she was dead in his hotel room. Authorities call it a violent, hideous crime. She suffered blunt force trauma to her torso and her head. Her neck was broken, and she was stabbed repeatedly.

Phone lines lighting up. Nancy, Pennsylvania, your question or thought, ma`am?

CALLER: Hi, Jane. It`s so nice to finally get through to you.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Thank you.

CALLER: First of all, I`m so glad that they finally caught this arrogant little snot. I think he thought he was above the law. And I think it`s significant that he did this, allegedly, five years to the day, because I think that after this happened to Natalee Holloway, and the case just wouldn`t go away, I think he was so arrogant, he started to feel like he was the one being victimized, and he wanted to get on with his life. So I think that might be some of the significance of that.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I want to just say, I think you`re absolutely right. In fact, you bring me to my big issue tonight: creepy parallels between these two crimes.

Stephany was murdered exactly on the five-year anniversary of Natalee Holloway`s disappearance and presumed death. Joran met both Natalee and Stephany at casinos, both young women, initially with groups of friends but ended up alone with Joran.

On Monday, Joran reportedly hired two brothers to drive him to Chile. In Natalee`s case, you all remember the infamous Kalpoe brothers. Natalee was last seen in a car with Joran plus Deepak and Satish Kalpoe. Those brothers were once considered suspects.

T.J. Ward, private investigator who searched for Natalee in Aruba, it`s too much coincidence. It can`t be coincidence. These parallels are absolutely creepy. Do you agree or not?

WARD: I agree. I agree. And I will tell you, as you know that I`ve talked about already, but this is a cover-up. So I want to go on to one thing, and I`m glad Tim Miller was with us tonight.

The -- the crab trap that we are talking about that was found out in the -- out behind the Marriott that was missing, we believe that Natalee was put in that crab trap and dumped in the ocean. Ironically, nobody has ever talked about there was the Persistence, the boat that went out and swept the ocean floor in January of 2008. And I believe Tim Miller was on that boat, found remains in a crab trap.

And after the -- after the Aruban authorities found out that they found that, they took -- and I think Tim was taken off the boat. And we`ve never heard anything about the remains that were found in that crab trap. None by the Aruban authorities whatsoever. So I`m telling you, this whole thing in Aruba stinks.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. But I`m just wondering, could this reopen -- this new murder case reopen the old one? Remember Drew Peterson...

WARD: Yes.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: ... when Stacy Peterson went missing, then they reopened the case of his ex-wife who supposedly had died in the bathtub, but then it turned into a homicide? Could the same thing happen here, Pat Brown?

BROWN: I actually don`t think so, Jane, because they would have done something with what they already have and they don`t have any more today. They do have a pattern, that`s true. We`re seeing the same pattern, but that doesn`t necessarily prove anything.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Somebody agree with me -- Stacy.

BROWN: I mean, I wish they would.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Hold on. Stacy.

HONOWITZ: I said this last night. It`s very difficult to take, even though you have a case that has similar parallels to take that evidence to try to bolster a case or even close. Now, listen, if he`s in custody and somehow he confesses and they get a credible confession...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Confesses. More on the other side. Hang in there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: A stunning, climactic finish to an international man hunt that captivated the world. Joran Van Der Sloot has finally been captured.

Take a look as he is led away by authorities in Santiago, Chile.

Tonight, Van Der Sloot`s accused of murdering a 21-year-old girl that he met in a casino in Peru. He`s also the prime suspect in the Natalee Holloway case. Tonight, he`s finally in police custody.

What happened inside that blood-filled hotel room? Why did Joran flee Peru and change his hair color. And could all this help solve the Natalee Holloway mystery? We`ll have all the creepy connections between these two cases. Could this be a signature murder by a serial killer?

We`re searching for answers.

Tonight, stunning, breaking developments: a massive man hunt for Joran Van Der Sloot comes to an explosive crescendo in South America. Joran was wanted for the brutal murder of Stephany Flores Ramirez, a 21-year-old Peruvian woman he met late at night at a casino in Lima.

Stephany was found viciously beaten and stabbed to death in a hotel room registered in Joran`s name. Joran and Stephany were spotted entering his hotel room, registered to his name, at about 5:00 on Sunday morning.

Four hours later, Joran left alone with two large suitcases. Joran paid two brothers $650 for a ride. He then managed to get across the border from Peru into Chile.

Authorities say he was headed to Vina del Mar, a beach town with tons of tourists and a casino. Was he looking for a boat to try to flee even further? Chilean police nabbed him in a taxi cab right near Santiago, Chile. He had shaved his head and it looks like he even dyed it reddish blond. Was he trying to change his appearance?

Joran, the main suspect, of course, in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway who vanished exactly five years earlier after partying with her friends in Aruba. They were celebrating their high school graduation.

Straight out to CNN legal analyst Lisa Bloom: Lisa, your analysis of all the developments extraordinary developments today.

LISA BLOOM, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Absolutely. You know, Jane, the change in hair color really strikes me today. Reminds me very much of Scott Peterson who also fled south and dyed his hair blond, as you might remember.

Is this consciousness of guilt? Why is he trying to hide his identity? Did he really think he was going to get away with this Jane? Did he really think that Interpol and international authorities wouldn`t catch him? I mean the arrogance of this guy.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, but these types are very arrogant. We know one thing he is, is arrogant. He considers himself a ladies` man. He`s even described himself that way.

I want to talk about psychological motivations. You know, when you talk about motive in a case, there`s conscious motive and then there`s unconscious motive. Let`s examine that for a second.

As we`ve said, Stephany was murdered exactly on the fifth anniversary of Natalee Holloway`s disappearance. Let`s go back and look at the O.J. Simpson case. He was convicted of armed robbery on the 13th anniversary of his murder acquittal. Many folks believe he got away with killing his wife and her friend.

Was the robbery his way of seeking out punishment? Because he got away with those murders? Did he subconsciously want to get caught?

Crime can bring up a lot of emotion. We all feel emotion on anniversaries, but do killers feel rage on the anniversary of some kind of previous crime? Do killers feel the need to return to the crime? If not physically, then metaphorically in some way?

Did the Holloway anniversary spark rage within Joran and caused him to lash out? Or could this be a signature killing where he chose a date to make a defiant statement?

I want to open it up to anybody who has thoughts on this. But why don`t we start with Pat Brown, criminal profiler.

PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER: Ok, I would say absolutely this wasn`t a premeditated homicide because it would be really stupid to be on camera and then take the girl to your own hotel room and kill her. It`s not premeditated, I do believe Jane, you have a good point.

I don`t think he -- you know, this kind of emotional thing in his head, I think the rage could be there, the memory of this is the date that that other woman caused me this problem. And then he took this girl with him and she caused a problem and it just exploded on him.

So agree with you there. I think the rage was there for that particular day.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And I have to go back to Lisa Bloom. Could this new accusation be used as leverage against Joran to come clean? It kind of reminds me of the Cummings case. You know, Misty Cummings is facing drug charges and they`re trying to use that as leverage to get her to come clean about what happened to little Haleigh. Could they do the same thing in this case, Lisa?

BLOOM: They could, Jane, but the problem is two different countries, Aruba and Peru. To what extent are they going to cooperate with each other? I think the main connection between these two cases is, it`s got to force Aruban officials to reopen the case, to re-interview witnesses. Witnesses who may have been protecting him in the past now might think twice and now might come forward with information they did not previously reveal.

So if the Aruban authorities don`t start re-interviewing, re- opening the evidence, looking at everything all over again, including all of his inconsistent statements and his videotaped confessions, then I think they`re going to be lax.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, T.J. Ward Jr., you were down there in Aruba searching for Natalee. I would assume that given the fact that they didn`t seem to ever get around to prosecuting him even though he confessed numerous times through various renditions of what happened that there might be some people in Aruba who know something but would be afraid to come forward because, hey, he`s out and about walking around. But if he`s behind bars which he is now --

T.J. WARD, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR IN NATALEE HOLLOWAY CASE: That`s correct. That`s correct. If they go back to Deepak (ph) and Satish (ph), they might get some answers out of them because they definitely know. Satish and Deepak were good friends of Van Der Sloot. And I`m sure they know, they need to start and go through that whole case. And I hope that something comes out or he comes clean with the confession or telling the family where Natalee is so they can get some closure.

STACEY HONOWITZ, FLORIDA PROSECUTOR: We need a fresh pair of eyes for that, Jane. I`m not -- I agree with Lisa, you know, to reopen, to look, that maybe people now might come forward that didn`t want to come forward before. But you need a fresh set of eyes and law enforcement in there, everybody else is too saturated, too close to it.

WARD: Exactly.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And then you have this whole wild development of the extortion allegations that were made vis-a-vis Joran today with authorities in the United States saying that he tried to extort someone to the tune of $250,000 and already got a $15,000 down payment wired to him. On the promise that he would tell somebody in Alabama, which is where Natalee was from, where she`s buried and what happened to her.

Got to go back to Lisa Bloom -- I`m totally blown away by that development and wondering who the heck was willing to pay $250,000 for that information who is in Alabama?

BLOOM: Yes. That`s a shocking and bizarre allegation, Jane, because extortion is usually, "I`m going to go public with some information unless you give me some money," some information that will embarrassing to you.

Well, if he`s going to reveal where the body is for an amount of money, that doesn`t sound like extortion and P.S., he knows where the body s why didn`t that cause Aruban officials alone to reopen the case?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: You`re so right. Tim Miller, I`m sorry. I don`t buy the idea that none of this -- every action has an equal and opposite reaction, there has got to be some kind of fallout from this development. I cannot see that nothing is going to happen with Natalee`s case despite this dramatic development. It doesn`t wash with me, especially when you have the Dutch delegation going to visit him behind bars today, in Chile.

TIM MILLER, DIRECTOR, TEXAS EQUUSEARCH: You know what? The case was never properly investigated in the very beginning. It was a total cover-up in the beginning.

WARD: Exactly.

MILLER: And we could even remember Van Der Straaten, that was the police commissioner, in the very beginning supposedly was Joran Van Der Sloot`s godfather, Paulus Van Der Sloot`s best friend, left the island. Why would a police commissioner after two months after this disappearance e leave the island, a new police commissioner comes on?

I have the statements right here from a witness that have seen him, that went to law enforcement right after Joran Van Der Sloot and Paulus Van Der Sloot was on TV one week after Natalee`s disappearance. Law enforcement were not even listening to him, even take a statement.

What do we mean reopen the case? This case has never been really open since Natalee`s disappearance. And you know what? There needs to be a whole lot of people held accountable in Aruba.

You know, if they would have investigated this case, Joran Van Der Sloot would be in jail today, probably his father would still be in jail today, along with the other corrupt people in Aruba and -- you know what -- Stephany would still be alive.

So let`s don`t talk about reopening a case, reinvestigating a case that has never really been investigated.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And I got to go back to Lisa Bloom. You know what they say. They always get you on the taxes. And a close cousin of that is getting him on extortion. So one way or another, he is likely very similar to the O.J. Simpson in the situation to remain behind bars even if they never officially get him on Natalee. That`s got to be some comfort to Natalee`s mother and father.

BLOOM: Right. Because look at the mind of a criminal. There`s a lot of ego and there`s a lot of arrogance there. And if they commit one crime and they get away with it then the ego is inflated even more. And they`re going to keep going, and they`re going to keep going and keep going. I think that`s what we`re seeing with Joran Van Der Sloot.

He hasn`t been accused officially yet but we know he`s about to be. He hasn`t been convicted yet, so there`s just too much similarity here Jane. And I think even the best defense lawyer in the world is going to have a problem with all the similarities between these two murders.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes and we had his attorney, Joe Tacopina online tonight who said hold on everybody, he`s got a bull`s-eye on his back. So we always have Joe on whatever he wants, because we want to be fair. He has not been convicted.

Stay right where you are.

BLOOM: He`s got his work cut out for him with this one, though.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, maybe he has to start checking out fares to Lima, Peru because I think that Joran is going to need some help down there.

Will Van Der Sloot finally face justice? Did the anniversary of Natalee`s disappearance trigger this attack? We are taking your calls on this 1-877-JVM-SAYS. Give me a holler.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE TACOPINA, ATTORNEY FOR JORAN VAN DER SLOOT: I think if history teaches us anything, in the Joran Van Der Sloot cases if you will, is that you really need to really wait and see what`s fact and what`s fiction. There`s been so many false reports out there time and again regarding tainted evidence and whatnot.

And I think you really have to sort of step back and let the investigation take its course.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And that`s Joran Van Der Sloot`s U.S.-based attorney Joe Tacopina. But once thing we do know for a fact tonight is that a young woman is dead, brutally murdered in Joran Van Der Sloot`s hotel room.

Fast breaking news tonight Joran Van Der Sloot arrested for the murder of a 21-year-old Peruvian woman. After a massive manhunt, Joran picked up in Chile, he was been riding alone in a taxi, he had shaved his hair and dyed it red.

Authorities say the murder was violent and brutal. The victim`s neck was broken and she was stabbed multiple times.

Lisa Bloom, we have been talking about another aspect of this case. There were published reports that were on television today that a young woman says that she was the ex-girlfriend of the murder victim and says that the murder victim was gay and would no way, no how go to a hotel room with Joran Van Der Sloot on her own.

We also have knowledge that authorities and the father of the victim saying that there were date rape drugs, either the drugs themselves or wrappers in her vehicle which they apparently used to go from the casino to her hotel, your thoughts?

BLOOM: Yes, that`s very disturbing, Jane, how did he get her into the room, if she`s an out lesbian, as we have heard, why would she go to his room with him? Did he drug her? Did he threaten her? How did he get her into the room?

Also Jane, consider that she was not sexual assaulted, her clothes, she was completely clothed. So did he attempt to do something with her sexually, she rebuffed him, that`s why there`s so much sign of struggle and that`s why there`s so much blood in the room?

I mean, those are the questions I have. But it is a very disturbing story.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Norma, of North Carolina, your question or thought?

LORMA, NORTH CAROLINA (via telephone): Yes, first of all I want to give my condolences to both families and I just want to say that --

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Absolutely.

LORMA: -- history does repeat itself and as long as he was a free man and he was out there being a spoiled young man like he is, then it was only a matter of time before he done it again.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Oh I --

LORMA: And I just hope justice is served to both families and I would love to see him rot in prison.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, you know this is an arrogant guy. ABC`s "Nightline" re-aired clips last night from a 2007 interview with Chris Cuomo. Van Der Sloot didn`t show very much emotion at all even when he described what he allegedly did with Natalee on the beach. Let`s listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JORAN VAN DER SLOOT, SUSPECTED IN DISAPPEARANCE OF NATALEE HOLLOWAY: No sex.

CHRIS CUOMO, ABC HOST: No intercourse?

VAN DER SLOOT: No intercourse.

CUOMO: Why not if that`s what you thought she wanted?

VAN DER SLOOT: Well, I asked her if she wanted to have sex and she was fine with it. And I didn`t have a condom with me, though, in my wallet and I said I won`t have sex with a girl without a condom.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Oh, what a gentleman -- not.

BROWN: Oh my God.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right, it would seem Joran kept telling different stories about what happened with him and Natalee that night, a whole bunch of different stories. Oh, she fell off a balcony, oh, I left her with the Kalpoe (ph) -- left her with the Kalpoe brothers. I can`t even keep track of all the different stories he tells, for two reasons, one was to make money, he sold his story and the other I believe was to get attention and keep his face in the news.

Pat Brown is it possible that from a subconscious standpoint he wasn`t in the news recently and he had gotten kind of addicted to all these negative attention and decided, hmm, I better make some news. I`m going to be a headline again.

PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER: I don`t think he could do it this way. No I don`t think that at all, I think it`s just so poorly planned, he`s no -- he`s not Jason Bourne, and he try go into, and you know, he`s trying to run away but he`s doing a horribly rotten job out of it, you know with this silly hair cut, that hey, it still looks like him. And he`s wearing a shirt that stands out and says look at me, look at me.

I think he`s just quite not as smart as he thinks he is, so he -- he lost control that night, he tries to run from the country, tries to do what he thinks he can do. He`s just not that -- that good at it. He should be in Argentina now with a fake passport but he isn`t.

So I don`t know what`s wrong. He didn`t do the right thing to get away.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Stacey Honowitz, you`re a -- the supervisor of the sex crimes unit, you`re a Florida prosecutor. This is so disturbing to hear about the details of how this young woman died, it could have been a four-hour torture session, for all we know.

They went in at 5:00 in the morning into the hotel room, he left at 9:00. She had stab wounds, her neck was broken, she had blunt force trauma. There is always the possibility that she was sexually assaulted.

What are your thoughts on how all of the information is going to emerge about what happened to her?

HONOWITZ: Well, it`s very interesting, Jane. When you deal with defendants or people like Joran Van Der Sloot who used drugs and we`re going to assume that he does only because there`s wrappers and we`re going to wait for a toxicology report and if she was a lesbian and would haven`t sex with a man, then she probably was drugged and taken to the room.

And the bottom line is, these guys knows that they can get away with it. And in this case we`re going to wait for these details to emerge. We might even be able to see on camera if he`s carrying her, if she seems to be out of it but she doesn`t know what`s going on. And I believe that probably he did tried to sexually assault her, he might have even sexual assaulted her, it got out of hand like Pat said and he killed her.

I don`t think it`s reminiscent of an anniversary. I think he`s an arrogant guy who didn`t care about being in the news, but knows that he can get away with drugging women, putting them in a room and try to sexually assault them and then it goes bad.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well --

BROWN: He should drug -- he should drug them better. He`s not doing a very good job with the drugging. It`s only like a little bit drugging because obviously they`re putting up a heck of a fight and he`s having to kill them. So he`s not even good at drugging.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, let me say this -- again, he`s only accused of this crime. He hasn`t even been charged in Natalee`s case even though he confessed numerous times.

I personally believe -- and I wrote a book about this "Secrets Can Be Murder" -- that everything in a crime has some kind of significance if not consciously then subconsciously. I really do not believe it is possible for these two incidents to occur exactly to the day five years apart without there being some kind of significance in the mind of this individual you`re looking at right there, if not consciously than subconsciously. Anniversaries do create emotion.

Stay right there. We have lots more.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVE HOLLOWAY, NATALEE`S FATHER: I would be surprised if he told the truth this time. I think his pattern is the same pattern. Try and lie and get his way out of it. He`s tried to avoid this justice system for a long time and, you know, I`m afraid it`s going to come back and haunt him some day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Breaking news. This just in. We have new photos just in as we speak of murder victim Stephany Flores Ramirez. Look at that beautiful young woman, and she, the victim, of a hideous murder in a hotel room registered to Joran Van Der Sloot. A more concrete time line emerging of Joran`s critical last few days, video from the Atlantic City casino shows Joran and murder victim, Stephany Flores together on Saturday night.

At about 5:00 a.m. the next morning, they`re seen entering Joran`s hotel room. Four hours later Joran leaves the hotel alone with two suitcases. Around midnight Joran pops up in a town in Peru more than 600 miles south of Lima. Then on Monday Joran allegedly pays two brothers 650 bucks to drive him across the border to Chile. On Wednesday Flores is found beaten and stabbed to death, wrapped in a blanket, face down in Joran`s hotel room. And then just hours ago, Joran caught in Chile in a taxi.

You know everybody is saying, Pat Brown, why would anybody the whole world is hunting for take a cab down a main road? If criminals didn`t do stupid things, we wouldn`t have caught any of them.

BROWN: Exactly. You know, I think that problem is he hasn`t really - - he`s not as good a world traveler as he thinks he. And he`s always had too much money. So he needed to learn how to use the regular bus system and just slither around that way. Like I say, he`s not Jason Bourne and he`s not that bright when it comes down to this kind of stuff. So I`m glad.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. You know, what`s interesting? Joran`s dad, Paul Van Der Sloot died suddenly back in February. He was playing tennis, his heart just stopped. The elder Van Der Sloot was a powerful lawyer on Aruba who is actually training to be a judge. And he really, many people believe, tried to protect his son as any father would. But it was after, after his father died that Joran made a so-called new confession.

Do you think -- And I guess I`ll throw this to Lisa Bloom because you have covered so many cases -- that the death of his father may have had a very potent psychological impact on him? Here he is sort of, you know, at loose ends just traveling the world. His father`s dead. He`s despised in some quarters. That`s got to be a guy who`s spiraling downward.

BLOOM: Absolutely Jane. I mean think about it. Most of us care very deeply what our parents think about us especially in his case because his father is a judge. His father did try to help him at every step of the way during the Natalee Holloway investigation. Once his father is gone, he may have felt more free to confess. Also since he`s now confessed to a number of crimes and yet nothing has happened to him, he may have felt, look, I may as well keep confessing, keep selling my story, keep on confessing because obviously I am impervious to being arrested. I think he got that idea.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, Stacey Honowitz, do you think he thought, well, I confessed all this time and nothing happened so I`m living in a no- consequence world?

HONOWITZ: Absolutely. The arrogance of this individual is unbelievable. We saw it through all the interviews that he gave; the non- emotion, the non-affect in his face whenever he spoke. I mean you have that kind of ego and that kind of arrogance you really think you`re made of teflon. That nothing will stick to you.

And in this case, because all of the investigations in Aruba panned out to absolutely nothing --

VELEZ-MITCHELL: We got to leave it right there. We`re out of time but we`re going to have more on this tomorrow night on ISSUES.

Thank you, fabulous panel.

END