Rumor: Joran Confesses

A very kind reader in the Netherlands sent me to a link to the headline news there, and translated it for me.

Read more The reader writes:

I got a link to the website of the AD the biggest paper in the Netherlands. Where there also is the link to the page of Vkmag.com. This is an article about the case. I will translate the article at my best.

The headline says ‘Joran confesses murder on Holloway

Amsterdam-Joran van der Sloot possibly has confessed the murder on Natalee Holloway. This will appear in an interview between Peter R de Vries and Aruban prosecutor Hans Mos. A clip of the interview has leaked out on the internet but the link to the video has been removed from the website of Peter R de Vries, Vkmag.com, a weblog that discovered the text, has published a screenprint of there foundings.

On this weblog you can read a conversation between de Mos en de Vries about a hidden camera confession from van der Sloot. Mos says that the video inducted a re-opening of the case. De Vries could have solved the murder on Natalee Holloway with this.

De Vries has returned from Aruba last weekend, where he had informed the Aruban authorities on his findings.

The justice department on Aruba are now investigating the new clues on the case, and have said that the new information had also come from Peter R de Vries.

‘This information can in considerable extent lead too the solving of this case’ says the justice department.

The solution on the case is thanks too a hidden camera action which Peter R de Vries had worked on for 2 months.

The mother of Natalee Holloway, Beth Twitty is in the Netherlands on invitation of Peter R de Vries. She has been notifyed today by Peter R de Vries of his break-through.

SBS6 will broadcoast a special 2 hours during edition on sunday night 21:30, which will have a detailed final end of this mysterious disapearance.

My original opinion on Joran Van der Sloot, February 24, 2006.

New Holloway Evidence?

The Associated Press has released news today that Aruban prosecutors are looking at new evidence brought to them by crime reporter Peter R. de Vries, the man who Joran Van der Sloot tossed wine at a few weeks back.

Information from reporter Peter R. de Vries may help resolve what happened to the American teenager, who vanished during a May 2005 school vacation to the Dutch Caribbean island, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

The statement did not say specifically what the new evidence was.

“This information may shed a new light on the mode of which Natalee Holloway has died and the method by which her body disappeared,” the prosecutor’s office said.

I wonder what will materialize from this…

If you see the news develop, please keep me posted, and many thanks to the anonymous commenter (from Amsterdam) for this tip!

UPDATED:
The same anonymous person also wrote: “Joran did it! http://vkmag.com/” I don’t know the validity of this website, or anything about the commenter, but it sure looks interesting if this is what develops…

ABC News says more here.

My original opinion on Joran Van der Sloot, February 24, 2006.

48 Hours: Jenny Eisenman

Last night, 48 Hours profiled the case of Jenny Eisenman. Jenny was a wife, a mother, a second grade teacher, and a woman who admitted to shooting her husband dead. Jenny, however, claims she acted in self-defense and that her husband abused her.

Is Jenny being honest when she claims she acted in self-defense, or is she being deceptive?

A jury decided that Jenny Eisenman was not acting in self-defense, and sentenced her to 23 years in prison. Yet 48 Hours brought back some of the jurors and discussed case facts that were withheld from them during trial.

Read more In trial, photos of bruises on Jenny’s legs taken after the murder were withheld from jury as was testimony from a friend of Drew who said Drew admitted to him that he got “physical” (at one point) with Jenny.

Juror Ann Robey says if she had known then what she knows now, it could have changed everything because she could not have voted to convict. “What I now know? I don’t think so. It probably would’ve been hung,” she says.

It could have been a hung jury. “I would have really held my ground,” Robey says.

Clearly, this is a case where people fall on both sides of the pendulum. Some believe Jenny, others don’t.

When I watched the 48 Hours interview, I saw a mountain of clues that led me to doubt Jenny’s story, over and over again. Do I think she and Drew fought at times? Yes. Do I think things got physical between them at times? I do, but I don’t believe Drew was the monster Jenny wants us to believe he was. And I don’t believe the night that Drew was murdered that he came at her like she tells us he did.

Jenny told police that on the night of murder in the interrogation video “He came at me, then he just kinda he fell back, then he kinda got up like to come at me again.” She says this as she talks of shooting him.

This sentence was a huge red flag for me.

First, when someone is threatening me and violating me, they don’t “kinda” do anything. They are coming at me, attacking me, scaring me…not kinda getting up to come at me again! They either did or they didn’t. They didn’t kinda do it.

People who are deceptive, I have noticed, try to make strong sentences, but inadvertently, most likely subconsciously, use the word “kinda” ( or kind of) in the mix. They want to make a strong statement but kinda weaken it a bit which makes no logical sense.

Another person who used the word kinda is Matthew Gretz. He is facing trial for murdering his spouse. He was trying to play the part of a distressed husband, kinda. You are either distressed or you aren’t. You aren’t kinda distressed.

Think back to something in your life where you felt threatened or violated. Describe the incident. Say it aloud. Did the perpetrator “kinda” scare you, or did he scare you, come at you, threaten you? Or did he kinda threaten you, kinda scare you, kinda come at you? It’s illogical when you look at it for what it is.

Furthermore, Jenny recounted her life much like an actor would who was creating a scene. She would play the parts as she discussed them. She said something to the affect that she and Drew were pretending to live the perfect life, and when she said that, she put on a “pretend” posture as if she were pretending to be happy for that second when she recalled it. Honest people when recalling a story don’t re-enact the facts as they tell them (i.e I was happy at that time so look at me smile now). They usually tell the scenario again with deep emotions, showing their pain, and feelings in the aftermath.

Instead, Jenny seems to have no pain in the aftermath, whatsoever. Rather, she genuinely laughs at points during her interview which is hair raising. Most people after a serious traumatic event, such as murder in self-defense, typically don’t feel like laughing for a while afterwards. This is another red flag.

Look at Jenny on the interrogation video, she is matter-of-fact. She is without emotions as if she is telling someone about a spat between two children, not the self-defense murder of her husband. This was a traumatic event, but she shows not signs of trauma. If your life is threatened, you are traumatized. Period. Why isn’t she?

When the interrogator asks Jenny if Drew was panicked, Jenny says, “I think he was tryin to stay calm.” This is not how someone who experienced this situation would respond. They would give the facts by stating yes or no. The would not speculate what Drew was attempting to do with his emotions. After all, if she wants us to believe her life was on the line, how did she have time to speculate about Drew’s emotions? It’s nonsense and rubbish.

The investigator asks if she had her “eyes open when she was firin?” Jenny says “The first time?… When I shot the wall, I did.” Here she pauses after the asking the question “The first time?”, and thinks about it. Then she answers. This appears to be thinking-on-her-feet speech. She doesn’t seem to be recollecting a memory, or be confused, or have no memory from the trauma.

Jenny’s tone of voice is another red flag for me. I don’t know why, but it is.

Jenny tried to dispose of her husband’s body, bought all the things she needed to conceal the crime, and shows absolutely no real genuine emotions of sorrow or fear when she talks to police. She is quite content to read People magazine, have a soda and a snack. Is this a woman who feared for her life? A woman who is traumatized by a cruel husband?

Her body language shows no signs of stress outside of the fact she is chewing her finger nails which could also be a sign of nerves, fear or even boredom.

Jenny could have experienced shock from a trauma like this, but in the police interrogation I would expect to see signs of that such as confusion or denial, but I don’t. I see none of it.

Justice, in this case, if you want my opinion was served as deserved.

Hot Search Today: Rick Mims

I am getting blasted by visitors searching for “Rick Mims” today. I don’t see any news relating to Rick, so I have to wonder what show aired last night, or what interview was shown that have people searching for him.

Do you know? If so, spill the beans!

New Witness in Kercher Case

A new Albanian witness has come forward nearly three months from the horrific murder of Meredith Kercher to say that he saw the three suspects (Knox, Sollecito, and Guede) together at the cottage the night before the murder.

The new witness, an Albanian who lives in Perugia, told police that about 8 o’clock on the night before Ms Kercher was killed he parked his car near the cottage, but in doing so scraped the rubbish bins at the gates. He told investigators: “It was dark and pouring with rain, but I stopped the car, put the hazard lights on and got out to see if I had damaged the car. Suddenly two young people came out. It was them, Raffaele and Amanda. They seemed as if they were looking for a quarrel, they were shouting.

“We began arguing and at a certain point Amanda pulled out a knife and started waving it around in an aggressive way. She was shouting and pointing the knife at me.

“I’m quite certain it was her, and the guy with her was Raffaele Sollecito.”

The witness said that he was scared. “I was ready to run back to my car when out of nowhere in the dark another guy turned up, a black man. It was the Ivory Coast guy, Rudy.” He said that he did not know any of the three at the time, “but I recognised them afterwards when I saw their photographs in all the newspapers.” Source: Times Online

It doesn’t look good for the three suspects, nor does it bode well for Knox’s version of events, which from what news reports have said, has changed several times.

Read moreI originally wrote about Amanda Knox back on November 9th, eight days after the murder. When I did, someone rightly pointed out that Knox’s statements could have been translated from English to Italian to English again, and with that, I couldn’t depend on the actual verbiage to guide me in spotting deception. They were correct.

But even if there was a translation, one event that Knox described that night, of being in the kitchen and hearing Kercher scream from behind closed doors, and covering her ears because of it (if that is the end message before and after translation), makes absolutely no sense. It defies logic and honesty.

When we are startled by a loud noise, a scream, our natural instinct when we are in our own home (or in a place where we feel safe) is to go running toward the noise, to ask if everyone is okay, to see what happened.

We only cover our ears when we know what is going on, and we can’t stop it, nor can we bear to hear it anymore. When we are startled, no one goes, “Oh my” and covers their ears in ignorance…not knowing the cause or reasoning. It’s unheard of…

It makes you wonder if, at one point, Knox was in the kitchen, and Kercher was crying out, and Knox heard it, knew Kercher was dying, and just covered her ears so she didn’t have to endure it. Reports say they believe Kercher died slowly by bleeding to death. Then again, the whole story could be completely made up. I’m just speculating because sometimes in lies there are pieces of the truth.

The only thing we can say with some certainty from this statement by Knox about covering her ears in ignorance, if that is the gist of what she is saying, is that Knox is not telling the truth. It doesn’t tell us anything more than that.

This new Albanian witness only seems to support that Knox hasn’t been honest and forthright, again.