Anita van der Sloot Speaks Out


Anita van der Sloot Interview on GMA with John Quinones

Anita van der Sloot is the mother of Joran van der Sloot, a young man believed to have killed Stepany Flores and Natalee Holloway. She speaks out in her first interview here. As a mother, I don’t think there could be any greater pain in life than to know you have a murderer for a son. My heart goes out to his victims first and foremost, but it also goes out to her, too. I see her as a victim, too. I hope in someway she can find it in her heart to love Joran despite his sickness.

Anita van der Sloot: Changes Her Mind

Joran Van der Sloot (L) is escorted by police officers on an airplane in Santiago June 4, 2010. Van der Sloot, who was arrested twice over the disappearance of a U.S. student in Aruba in 2005, has been expelled from Chile and will be handed out to Peruvian authorities where he is a prime suspect in a new murder probe, according to local media reports. REUTERS/Danny Alveal (CHILE - Tags: CRIME LAW POLITICS)

ABC News is now reporting that Joran van der Sloot’s mom, Anita, gave an interview to the De Telegraaf and has apparently changed her stance on believing what Joran is capable of. ABC’s news article is titled,”Joran van der Sloot’s Mom Says He ‘Could Have Done Something’ to Peruvian Woman.'”

Read moreWhen I translate the Dutch paper into English with Google, it reads, “My son is sick in the head.” According to the article, Anita broke her long silence in an interview with the Associated Press, and said she can’t rule out that Joran “slain” Stephany Flores. Shortly before Stephany’s death, Anita said that she spoke to Joran and he sounded paranoid. “He felt monitored and reviewed”.

It is fascinating to read that Anita said that Joran believed he was responsible for his dad’s early death. Why would he ever feel that unless he put his dad under undue stress?!

ABC quoted Anita as saying about Natalee Holloway, “I believed Joran. Despite his many lies. I felt that he didn’t have anything to do with the disappearance of Natalee Holloway in 2005. He had left her on the beach. I still believe that.”

Anita goes on, “After he was arrested for Natalee’s disappearance, he was traumatized,” the paper quoted her as saying, “We made a big mistake then. We sent him to the Netherlands to study. He should have gone to a closed clinic, he needed psychological help even back then. He wasn’t getting any rest, he was being persecuted.”

She said, “He lied so much, that we became desperate. He said to me too, ‘Mom, I sometimes don’t know any more if something is a lie or the truth. Joran is sick in his head, but he didn’t want any help.”

The saddest thing I saw was in ABC’s article. They wrote on behalf of Anita, “And she said she thinks it is time to ‘let Joran go.'”

No matter what I child did, I get sad when a parent no longer stands beside their child. I am not saying that she should support what he has done, agree with it nor approve of it — that would be wrong. It’s okay to acknowledge the nightmare, but she can still love him, even in his sickness. There is no other love as special as a parent’s love, and if Anita pulls away from Joran, she is another cold heart, if you ask me.

You can read more on ABC’s website here, or you can translate De Telegraaf for yourself.

Thanks, Karon, for the update!

Stephany Ramirez’ Family Speaks Out

The Ramirez family spoke out to Greta Van Susteren on Fox this week. You can really feel the emotions of the family as they speak. The man who does the majority of the speaking in this interview is very expressive. His face reveals a lot of his emotions, if you watch him. He is a great study for honesty.

George and Cindy Anthony on GMA Today


Exclusive (video): George and Cindy Anthony Speak on
Anniversary of Caylee’s Disappearance

It’s been two years today since Caylee Anthony disappeared and her parents marked the anniversary by going on Good Morning America and speaking. It was gut wrenching for me, because I can only imagine the pain they must experience knowing their granddaughter will never return, and their daughter is now facing the death penalty for their granddaughter’s murder. Cindy made a statement that they have now lived without Caylee as long as they lived with her.

Read moreI feel people have been unfair to the Anthonys and very harsh on them, because the Anthony have lashed out in their pain with sharpness, or they reverted to denial to cope — Cindy more so than George. So many people believe the Anthonys are lying, and I couldn’t disagree more.

The Anthonys have gone in and out of denial, and it now looks like they are in complete denial. I am not surprised in the slightest.

Denial is a coping mechanism that helps us deal with circumstances when emotionally we are unable. The Free Dictionary.com gives a medical definition: “A primitive–ego defense–mechanism by which a person unconsciously negates the existence of a …stress-producing reality in his environment.”

Many people confuse denial with lying, when the two are very different animals. Yes, sometimes people deny things consciously, and that is not denial. That is lying, but that is not what we are witnessing in Cindy Anthony.

While Cindy likely was not the perfect mother, I don’t think we can blame her for what Casey did or for “raising Casey wrong” as so many people suggested. If you’ve never witnessed the wrath of a psychopath, you have no clue how incredible challenging they can be. You can never win when you compete with fairness and honesty with a psychopath. You can win if you lie with a psychopath. There is no winning, period. They will always make sure you lose. They are master, cunning manipulators that I believe are a result of a genetic flaw.

I believe Cindy loved little Caylee so much that Casey was jealous and ended Caylee’s life because of it. Casey had been the center of her parents world up until Caylee arrived and Casey resented losing that spotlight. In all the videos we see, it is quite clear that Cindy is the one who cared and financed everything for Caylee and gave her the beginnings of normal childhood. There is no doubt it, the Anthonys doted on little Caylee and truly loved her, yet they wanted Casey to take responsibility of being Caylee’s mom, which I suspect sparked a lot of fights and ultimately Casey to let it out on Caylee.

If Cindy Anthony were still “covering” for her daughter as many people have said, we would have never seen Casey write about them so cold and callously as she did in her jailhouse letters. Casey wrote about her mom:

Come to find out that she put a trademark on Caylee’s name months back, never told me, and even talked about doing the same with mine. This is the same time she publicly states that she plans on writing a book about this! B-E-T-R-A-Y-A-L!!! I’m so sick to my stomach even thinking about this. I’m the only person who has tried to protect Caylee throughout all of this, and it kills me!

Casey goes on to write:

I’ve officially lost my entire blood-related family in the blink of an eye, in the middle of mourning my daughters death, trying to exonerate myself, and figure out what steps to take in achieving these things, and I get [expletive] over by my entire family.

I believe Cindy absolutely put a trademark on her granddaughter’s name, and perhaps Casey’s, too, and it wasn’t to profit! Casey knows this, but she is twisting things to get sympathy. Cindy likely did it because a company made little Caylee dolls and starting selling them in the heat of the search for Caylee’s body, and this was the legal way to stop this from every happening again. Did Cindy ever talk about writing a book?

If Cindy was in on this with Casey, she would have never called the cops and been so honest when she made that 911 call — talking about the car smelling like a dead body. It never, ever would have happened. Cindy would have coached Casey and hid the body and waited for someone else to discover that Caylee was missing, but that never happened. I am surprised people have such a hard time seeing this.

Melissa Huckaby sentenced to life in prison


CNN Video: Melissa Huckaby Gets Life Sentence

Today former Sunday school teacher, Melissa Huckaby, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder and kidnapping of little Sandra Cantu, 8, of Tracy, California. Sandra Cantu was found in a suitcase and dumped in a drainage ditch on April 7, 2009. Huckaby escaped the death penalty by pleading guilty to the murder of Sandra on May 10th.

At her sentencing, Melissa Huckaby gave an emotional apology to the Cantu family, her own family, and her little girl, who was a playmate of Sandra’s. Huckaby saying that she loved little Sandra, who was a sweet, loving little child.

Huckaby admitted to killing Sandra, and she assured Sandra’s family that she didn’t suffer. However, in spite of charges claiming Sandra was sexually molested, Huckaby denied molesting the child. Huckaby said that Sandra did not deserve having her life cut short, and she admitted that she alone was responsible for Sandra’s death.

Huckaby said that saying sorry is not enough, but that is all she can do, and she says she will live with the guilt of what she had done for the rest of her life.

Eyes for Lies never got to see Melissa Huckaby speak before she was arrested, but did comment on Sandra Cantu’s mother, Maria Chavez, here.