Natalee Holloway's Mom Confronts Daughter's Suspected Killer in Jailhouse Hidden Camera Meeting
Beth Twitty pleads with Joran Van Der Sloot for answers, gets none yet.
Nov. 8, 2010 -- The visibly shaken mother of missing American teenager Natalee Holloway pleads for answers from the prime suspect in the girl's disappearance in recently released hidden camera video of the dramatic, face-to-face jailhouse encounter.
"I want to know what happened and I want to move on, Joran," Beth Twitty is seen telling prime suspect Joran van der Sloot during a secretive meeting in September at Peru's Castro Castro prison where van Der Sloot is being held in connection to a Peruvian woman's murder. "I want to move on in my life and I can't close the book."
But van der Sloot offers her nothing more than a vague admission to making "bad decisions" and says he'll tell her more in a letter.
"It's very hard for me to talk to you. It's really not easy," he says in the video which was part of a recently released Dutch documentary. "I've made so many bad decisions for all the wrong reasons... I'm really very addicted to perks, especially gambling. That's why I've told so many lies."
Twitty tells van der Sloot that she's trying to help him.
"I felt like you didn't listen to me and I wanted you to tell me what happened and let me take her home," Twitty tells van der Sloot, apparently referring to the last time the two spoke in person five years ago.
"That's always been my problem," van der Sloot says. "I've never listened to anyone who's meant well for me."
After the meeting's conclusion, Twitty is left crying alone in the room, apparently no closer to knowing what happened to her 18-year-old daughter who disappeared from a school vacation in Aruba in 2005.
Though he has not been charged in Holloway's disappearance, van der Sloot stands accused of murdering 21-year-old Stephany Flores hours after the two met at a Peruvian casino.
He signed a confession admitting to the murder, but later disavowed the confession and claimed he was tricked into signing it.
Van der Sloot reportedly confessed to involvement in Holloway's death several times, but later retracted the confessions as well.
Documentary: Holloway's Mom Speaks on Alleged Extortion Plot
The video of Twitty's meeting with van der Sloot came to light a week after Twitty spoke publicly for the first time about van der Sloot's alleged plot to extort $250,000 from her in exchange to information that would allow Twitty to find her daughter.
"He was ready to tell the truth and lead me to the truth and lead me to Natalee's remains," Beth Twitty told Dutch reporter Peter De Vries in the first part of the same documentary that featured the meeting recently.
In the documentary, Twitty said that van der Sloot reached out to her nearly five years after her daughter disappeared, offering information that would lead to Holloway's remains for the right price.
"I want to do something good," van der Sloot wrote in an e-mail to Twitty's lawyer, John Kelly, according to Twitty. "This is a hurtful situation for all of us and it will stay this way until it's over. I will bring you to Natalee, but the information that comes from me has to remain a secret. In return, I want to receive $250,000. If you're interested, I'll give you more details."
"I'm thinking, OK, if this is the way that I can get her remains, then I'm in," Twitty said.
Kelly, however, was convinced the offer was a scam and asked van der Sloot to Fed Ex him a bone fragment to be tested for Holloway's DNA. Van Der Sloot refused.
Still desperate, Twitty said she paid van der Sloot $25,000, but never received any information. Instead, van der Sloot traveled to Peru where a few weeks later he was arrested and charged in Flores' murder.
Days before Twitty's meeting with van der Sloot, he admitted to Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf that he extorted money from Natalee Holloway's parents for revenge.
"I wanted to get back at Natalee's family. Her parents have been making my life tough for five years," the newspaper quoted him as saying from prison. "When they offered to pay for the girl's location, I thought: 'Why not'?"