Natalee Holloway Murder Suspect Joran van der Sloot “Confesses,” Or is it Just Another Stunt? 

Murderer and poker player Joran van der Sloot, who appears to confess to the killing of Natalee Holloway in new video footage, but the Holloways dismiss it as a publicity stunt. (Image: dailymail.co.uk)

Poker player and convicted murderer Joran van der Sloot has been caught on camera apparently confessing to a second murder, that of 18-year-old American, Natalee Holloway.

He has long been a prime suspect in the disappearance of Holloway, who vanished following a night out with van der Sloot on the island of Aruba in 2005. The Dutch national, now 28, was arrested twice by detectives investigating Holloway’s murder, in 2005 and 2007, before being released due to lack of evidence.

Five years to the day of Holloway’s disappearance, van der Sloot killed 21-year-old Stephany Flores, bludgeoning and strangling her in his hotel room in Lima, Peru. The pair had met that day at PokerStars’ Latin American Poker Tour.

Van der Sloot is currently five years into a 28-year sentence for the crime in Peru’s notorious Challapalca prison.

Media Circus

The Holloway case caused a media sensation in the US and Holland, largely because of van der Sloot’s apparent lack of remorse and propensity to lead law enforcement on a merry dance.

And true to form, the self-confessed pathological liar confirmed in apparently covertly-filmed video footage, released this week by the National Enquirer, that he constantly lied to investigators over the Holloway case.

“I always lied to the police,” he grins in the presence of his wife, whom he married last year in a prison ceremony and who recently gave birth to his daughter. 

“I never told the truth. I made up so many stories against the police … Also when I was younger, I never told everything. The police just never knew what they had to ask me.”

“I think that was one of the worst police investigations that ever took place!”

When asked to confirm that he is talking about the Holloway case, he says: “Yes, yes, yes, this is also where I am guilty and I accept everything that I have done.”

Is it Staged?

While the National Enquirer proclaims a “World Exclusive,” and that “Evil Joran Finally Confesses,” others are more circumspect.

The “confession” is ambiguous and probably deliberately so. Is van der Sloot confessing to murder, or merely to leading the police astray? The Dutchman is a clinical narcissist with an anti-social behavioral disorder, according to psychologist reports, and he also has a history of selling his story for money.

He has variously confessed to dumping Holloway’s body at sea after she died from “some kind of seizure” during sexual intercourse, to selling her into sexual slavery. Each time he has retracted these confessions.

Room for Doubt

He also offered to reveal the whereabouts of Holloway’s body to her mother in return for $250,000. He received a $15,000 advance fee from the family for providing information that turned out to be false.

As a result, of that incident, he will be extradited to the US to face charges of fraud and extortion once he has served his sentence in Peru.

Natalee Holloway’s father, Dave Holloway, today branded the “confession” little more than a publicity stunt.

“Tabloids will pay for (his story) because it sells magazines, but that’s never printed,” he told al.com.  “They think they’ve got something when they really don’t. A lot of people don’t realize that in Aruba, a verbal or recorded confession is not valid unless it’s a statement signed in writing.”