Of course, from the video we've seen, Joran looks guilty. The problem is, we haven't seen video from before they came back together to his room (which would have shown someone else entering the room), and more importantly we haven't seen any video from the time after Joran left the hotel, which would have revealed if anyone else entered or left the room after that.
My suspicions were aroused immediately when I heard that a dead girl was found in Joran Van Der Sloot's room, on the exact five year anniversary of Natalee's disapperance. Yes, I'm prejudiced here, just as most people who already thought Joran had escaped justice in the Holloway case are prejudiced, too. I'm looking for loopholes in the Peru case, because I find the "coincidences" and ever changing "evidence" to be suspicious, and because I think Joran was unfairly hounded for Natalee's disappearance. Miost posters here, and most people in general, are looking for things to justify their predisposed antipathy towards Joran, which was fed and fueled for five years
by Nancy Grace, JVM, Geraldo, etc.
As I noted, we don't know if the real killer(s) left the room after Joran or not. The videotape would prove this one way or the other. You mention that the killers would have been covered with blood- that's exactly the point I made about Joran. Where was the blood on him? He looked totally clean (and unmarked from the struggle Stephany put up against him) when he left. And we do have video of this. We also don't have video of Joran stealing her money and her car. We have to take the Peruvian authorities' word for that....frankly I think their reputation for integrity leaves a lot to be desired...[snippped]
Again, all I'm doing is posting my thoughts, speculating, theorizing. The rest of you are doing the same thing. It's just that my thoughts and speculation run contrary to the majority of opinions here.
1. I agree. Joran looks guilty.
2. We haven't seen video taken before Joran and Stephany got to the hotel room. But we can be certain that Peruvian LE
and Joran's defense attorney(s) have seen it. Why would Peru LE not want to know, for example, if Joran had an accomplice or if someone else was hiding in the room or if a hotel employee had gained access? It might also be that those cameras were monitored somewhere in the hotel; the hotel itself would be interested if only to check for security leaks.
3. Why would anyone pick the anniversary of Natalee's death to set up this guy? How could anyone count on him to even talk to Stephany? Note on the video that he is
leading her as they go into the hotel, which suggests that she wasn't the leader or aggressor. It's a far more likely scenario that the date of Natalee's death had significance for
Joran and might have triggered a response in him, given his stress over the extortion sting, his financial problems, and the narrowing options for him to support himself.
4. I don't consider myself prejudiced against Joran. I made a reasoned judgment about him after following the Holloway case, seeing him interviewed on TV, and hearing and seeing him confess to being present at Natalee's death. He has acknowledged that he is a liar, a characterization that his mother has agreed with publicly. I am just not surprised to see him repeat his mistakes in Aruba, this time without "home court advantage," people to clean up his mess, and someone to pay his bills.
5. If Joran was "hounded" after Natalee's disappearance, that seems to me the price of doing business--in this case, killing a tourist, telling lie after lie, and using connections to cover up and get away with it. I don't have a lot of sympathy for him, especially since he has
made money on the death of a young woman who was last seen with HIM and
confessed to knowing where her body is.
5. You say the "facts" keep changing. What changes are the details reported in tabloid media and Internet sites. What never changes are the facts that point to JORAN as the murderer.
6. The fact is that the US had no reason to set up a man who was already caught extorting money from US citizens and that the US probably also has grounds to charge him with murder of a US citizen abroad.
7. Joran doesn't look bloody because it was his hotel room and he could change clothes. Forensics will determine if there is DNA or blood from Stephany on Joran's clothes. Another killer would have to carry clean clothes and shoes. But that's a ridiculous scenario anyway, since the tape shows only Joran coming and going. There is no other "killer" lurking in the hotel room, waiting to kill
only Stephany. Here's another thought: if people in the US wanted revenge, why not kill Joran instead of an innocent girl? Ya think there are no professionals capable of that in the Western hemisphere? And why wait 5 years?
A person who starts with the notion that Joran is never guilty will end up arguing that LE in Peru, Chile, the US and Aruba; Interpol; all of the psychologists who are seeing him; the hotel and it's employees; Stephany and her parents; the Holloways; respected attorney John Q. Kelly; and his own defense attorneys are in cahoots to frame Joran. 'Cause it would take all of them to do it. All to frame a guy stupid enough to get caught on tape extorting money and to insist on signed documents that make it clear that he was breaking the law. And even his mother has to be in on it, since she says he is "sick in the head."
