Mother Is Convinced Suspect's Father Has Information

ByABC News via GMA logo
June 28, 2005, 8:54 AM

June 28, 2005 — -- Natalee Holloway's mother says she is convinced Paul van der Sloot, the father of one of the suspects in the Alabama teen's disappearance, has information crucial to the case.

Van der Sloot, a judge-in-training who was being held for questioning by Aruban officials, was released on Sunday after a judge ruled there was "insufficient evidence" to hold him.

His 17-year-old son, Joran, is still in police custody. Joran's mother, Anita, said her sonadmitted he was alone on a beach with Holloway the night she was last seen but says he left her there alone. Natalee Holloway was last seen on May 30.

Beth Holloway Twitty said she and her family are "devastated" by Paul van der Sloot's release.

Twitty said her suspicion that the elder van der Sloot had information about the case was "confirmed" during a 90-minute meeting with him and his wife at their home on June 21.

"When we had that visit at his home, I had the confirmation that I needed that he definitely, definitely had some information that he could help us in this case," Twitty said today on "Good Morning America."

Twitty said van der Sloot's behavior in the meeting was disturbing to her.

"I have never sat across from an individual in a well-ventilated room and seen a man sweat so profusely, and only increasing in intensity as the 90 minutes went on," Twitty said. "It would drip on the table, and his wife would have to get up and get a kitchentowel and wipe him and wipe the table and lay it before him. I have never seen anything like that."

Police also released Steve Croes, a 26-year-old party disc jockey, on Monday.Croes was detained for questioning on June 17. He had no comment as he left the courthouse in Aruba's capital on Monday.

Three suspects remain in custody -- Joran van der Sloot and his friends, brothers Satish and Deepak Kalpoe.

There has been very little information released about why Croes was detained in the first place.