I took these pictures. It is inside the bar where Natalee Hollowaywas last seen alive on May 30, 2005. They were taken a few months after Natalee “vanished” - really, murdered. Carlos and Charlies’ no longer exits. In 2008 it rebranded “Senor Frog’s.”

The bar you see in one of the pictures is where Joran was doing “belly shots” with Natalee. That is when he made her his prey. He bought a drug and spiked her drink.

The DJ’s last song he played that night was a special one for the Mountain Brook, Alabama high school students of which there were about 100 + crowded in the bar. The song was Lynyrd Skynyrd “Sweet Home Alabama.” The students cheered when they heard the song - one they all knew very well - begin and they danced wildly in excitement. This was their last night in Aruba.

This was also Natalee Holloway’s last night on earth.

There are many people involved in her murder. Be patient. “I have the receipts.”

I have dozens and dozens of US Senators - Democrats and Republicans - over my 31 years of having a daily show on able news (well, 31 years as of this coming October! Yikes, time flies!) Each of course is different but almost all are nearly predictable. I know their views since I have been in Washington along time and they come on my show to explain their views and I am grateful they will do so.

But Senator John Fetterman? I can’t put him in box. I am not sure what he will say on any issue - other than Israel since he and I have discussed Israel many times.

Senator Fetterman frequently surprises me with his answers to my questions which I find refreshing. No soundbites from him! With his answers, he makes me think about my own opinions on issues - sometimes agreeing, sometimes disagreeing, sometimes agreeing in part, sometimes disagreeing in part and sometimes making me think: I never thought about it that way and thereby encouraging me to take another look at an issue.

With this interview, I am not telling you how to vote, or whether to agree with Senator Fetterman or not, but I do want to note that I appreciate a Senator who doesn’t always follow the party line and makes me think.

As you know by now, Joran van der Sloot is a double murderer - Natalee Holloway in Aruba on May 30, 2005, and then 5 years later, on the same date, Stephany Flores in Peru on May 30, 2010. Everyone in Peru knew the vicious details of Stephany’s murder. The medical examiner and even her family were unable to identify her because her face was so badly beaten. No one in his right mind, and certainly not a woman, would dare get near Joran…..except Leidy Figueroa Uceda.

Leidy is an accountant in Peru. She met Joran when he was first imprisoned in Miguel Castro Castro prison after admitting he murdered Stephany. Leidy met Joran at Castro Castro while visiting a relative of hers imprisoned there. There are multiple reports that Leidy was not just a friendly family member but made regular visits to Castro Castro to sell candy, cigarettes, and other small items to prisoners. Would those other small items also include drugs?

In 2014, Joran was transferred to Challapalca Prison, in a remote Andean region near the Bolivian border, sitting at an altitude of 15,000 feet. He was transferred after he threatened to kill the warden at Castro Castro, despite apparently having special privileges there, which included the internet for online gambling and a mobile phone. Challapalca is one of Peru’s harshest maximum security prisons, known for extreme isolation, cold temperatures below freezing at night, and difficult living conditions - but Joran has written to me that he likes it there because he belongs to a soccer team and other privileges.

In 2014, when Joran wrote me from Castro Castro, he told me that he was going to become a father - he was having conjugal visits with Leidy. He married Leidy on July 4, 2014, in a prison ceremony when Leidy was 7 months pregnant. Dushy (or Dusha/Dushie) Trudie van der Sloot was born on September 28, 2014. Trudie was in honor of his grandmother, his father’s mother. Joran spent time living with his grandmother in the Netherlands between his murders of Natalee Holloway and Stephany Flores.

Joran was known for scamming money — he got the FBI to give him $25,000 from Beth Holloway. In this video, you will see that Leidy employs the same skill, using her daughter as a prop and bait to scam money from Robbert van den Broeke, a famous medium in Holland.

Robbert is widely known as a Dutch psychic/medium/paranormal/spiritual adviser. In the 2000s, he appeared often on Dutch TV shows including Catherine, Life and Cooking, Wonderen bestaan, and JENSEN! In 2005 he wrote a book “Robbert: From Problem Child to Medium.” He has a YouTube channel.

On May 7, 2013, Joran wrote a letter that stated:

“To whom it may concern:

My name is Joran Andreas Petrus van der Sloot. I am 25 years of age, currently in Peru, serving a 28 years sentence for murder…..a couple of weeks ago …..while I was [in prison] something very special happened to me. A man appeared before me and told me not to be scared. I did not know him but I felt an intense amount of love and wisdom that came from him almost as if he had an enormous about of love inside him….he told me his name is Robert van der Broeke….”

This letter helped connect Joran and Robbert. Years later, Leidy contacted Robbert. In this 2023 Skype video recording, Leidy gives an award-winning performance. She says that Joran was dying from COVID and that she needed money for his medicine to save his life. Robbert told me he did not send her money, despite her phony tears and her coached daughter. Like many scammers who play with their identities, Leidy also didn't show her face—she only showed her young daughter’s. (You can watch the first video clip above and the second below)

To enhance her scam, Leidy even created a Joran “shrine.” She shows his framed picture wrapped with a rosary.

After watching this, do you think Joran scammed the U.S. court system when he entered a plea deal and made a statement in Alabama in October 2023? Stay tuned…

Substack is also where I am going to share the results of my 21-year investigation into what really happened to Natalee Holloway, the 18-year-old Alabama student who was brutally murdered during a high school class trip to Aruba.

I’ll share what has kept me following this case for so many years, and the shocking level of corruption and cover-up I’ve uncovered in the US and abroad. You’ll get never-before-seen documents and videos.

Already, I’ve given you a look inside the files the Birmingham FBI didn’t want you to see. Now, I’m going to follow up to see who will be held accountable. But I will also be revealing the full true story in the coming months.

You will also get special content about top stories today. I’ll be going live on video at various points, so we can connect directly. As always, I appreciate hearing from you.

Thanks for joining me!

Greta

- Veteran pollster John McLaughlin explains why polling remains an inexact science shaped by methodology, sample selection and changing technology.

- McLaughlin analyzes the Michigan poll that predicts an Abdul El-Sayed landslide before he wins by only one point.

- He revisits the Iowa survey showing Kamala Harris ahead shortly before Donald Trump wins the state by more than 13 points.

- McLaughlin reveals how polling adults instead of likely voters can produce deeply misleading election headlines.

- John urges reporters to examine a poll’s sponsor, sample, timing and exact wording before repeating its results.

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- An EF-3 tornado with winds reaching 140 mph stays on the ground for roughly 12 miles, destroying homes, overturning vehicles and knocking out power across the Appleton area.

- Senator Ron Johnson surveys the damage as hundreds of volunteers, local officials and relief organizations mobilize to support residents and restore essential services.

- Carla Williamson recounts spending 29 minutes trapped beneath her collapsed house before an unknown neighbor enters the wreckage and pulls her to safety.

- Samaritan’s Purse joins 750 volunteers from 23 states to clear debris, remove fallen trees and help families begin rebuilding their homes.

- A neighbor who previously relies on a walker rushes into the destruction to help rescue Williamson and continues walking without it after the storm.

Today’s podcast is sponsored by :

PARAMOUNT PLUS - Don’t Miss “Lioness” - all episodes now streaming on ⁠⁠Paramount Plus⁠⁠

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- Newly obtained documents reveal that Birmingham FBI agents record Van der Sloot accepting $25,000 during a 2010 extortion sting but enter the operation with no planned arrest.

- Van der Sloot leaves Aruba with the money and murders 21-year-old Stephanie Flores in Peru two weeks later.

- Former U.S. Attorney Jay Town says investigators fail to bring the necessary criminal complaint, allowing a straightforward wire-fraud and extortion case to collapse.

- The FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office allegedly conceal the operation’s failures from the Holloway family while refusing to accept responsibility for losing Van der Sloot.

- Years of pressure ultimately activate a U.S.-Peru treaty and bring Van der Sloot to the United States, but the podcast teases another shocking prosecutorial decision still to be exposed.

Today’s podcast is sponsored by :

PARAMOUNT PLUS - Don’t Miss “Lioness” - all episodes streaming August 2nd on ⁠Paramount Plus⁠

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How could they?

How could a US Attorney and the Birmingham, AL FBI allow a self-confessed killer to outwit them after a textbook, perfect sting operation and escape with $25,000 in cash, and then two weeks later, brutally murder another young woman?

That’s exactly what happened with US federal law enforcement in Birmingham and Joran van der Sloot, the admitted killer of 18-year-old American Natalee Holloway. But it gets worse: the $25,000 came from Natalee’s mother. And the cash was provided so that the local FBI could lead a sting operation against Joran to bring him to justice. And during the sting operation, Joran confessed, on camera, to killing Natalee and hiding her body. Now he wasn’t simply a likely murder suspect — he had confessed. Was he arrested immediately for manslaughter and covering up a crime? No. Was he arrested for the crimes of extortion and wire fraud, both of which were committed during the sting? No.

Instead, both the US Attorney for Northern Alabama and the FBI in Birmingham, AL allowed him to flee, with Beth Holloway’s money, which they made no attempt to recover. Then, for sixteen years, they tried to cover up their failures.

I was one of the first reporters to reach the island after Natalee disappeared in 2006. I landed just after Natalee’s mother, Beth, arrived, followed by her father, Dave, and stepmother, Robin. I have pursued the case of what really happened to Natalee up until this day. Finally, after years of Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests, I’ve uncovered the awful truth.

As a senior FBI official who reviewed the file told me, while giving me more than 1,000 pages of documents, “I’m ashamed. We, the FBI, handed Joran $25,000 to go and kill again.”

I’ve long been impressed with and believed in the dedication of the men and women in the FBI. The Miami FBI field office, for example, devoted tremendous attention and effort to Natalee’s case. But for exactly this reason, the serious failures and mistakes in Birmingham’s operation need to be pointed out.

Now, I’m going to share this tragic, true story with you.

***

When Someone Tells You Who He Is, Believe Him

Joran van der Sloot, who killed American teenager Natalee Holloway in Aruba in 2005, repeatedly told all of us who he was. The only institutions that ignored the truth were the Birmingham Office of the FBI and the then-US Attorney in Birmingham, AL.

In May 2010, the FBI botched a textbook sting operation, caught in full on videotape, and allowed Joran to escape from Aruba after he had extorted $25,000 from Natalee’s mother. He made his way to Lima, Peru, where he brutally murdered another young woman, Stephany Flores, on the five-year anniversary of Natalee’s death.

On June 2, 2010, Rob Haley, the Deputy Head of the Birmingham FBI office, wrote to the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division in Washington, DC with an urgent question. His field agents, who had allowed Joran to escape with the cash and to kill again, were asking whether they needed to lawyer up. “[T]oday have my line agents concerned they need to ‘cover their six’ asking if they need to call the Agents Association lawyer for counsel and advise.” Would these agents be threatened “with administrative sanctions” for their actions, he asked.

But while the family of Stephany Flores was grieving the loss of their daughter in Peru, the agents escaped unscathed - and arguably, by their silence, covered up their failures.

What unfolded starting on May 10, 2010, and in the weeks that followed, is one of the biggest miscarriages of law enforcement and justice in the history of the Bureau, shocking in its depth, incompetence, and callowness. This story has gone unknown and untold, buried in internal FBI files, until now. After years of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, I finally got a first look this spring at more than 1,000 pages of FBI files. They include the FBI’s operational plan for the sting; emails, internal and external; internal memos; the entire sting video; photographs; formal letters requesting cooperation from the Aruban government; and timelines. What I found while reviewing these documents was shocking. I have shared a few key documents and have used stickers to call out some of the most disturbing information. The entire file is absolutely gutting.

The Background: The Disappearance of American Teen Natalee Holloway and the Many Lies of Joran van der Sloot

Natalee Holloway, 18, had just graduated from high school in Mountain Brook, Alabama. Her class traveled to Aruba to celebrate, and she vanished on May 30, 2005, the group’s final night on the Caribbean Island. The last time she was seen alive was around 1:30 a.m., in the back of a gray Honda sedan leaving the popular Carlos ‘n Charlie’s nightclub in Oranjestad. Inside the car were three young men: 17-year-old Dutch local Joran van der Sloot, and two brothers, Aruban locals Deepak and Satish Kalpoe. No one knew that Natalee was missing until she failed to show up for her flight home the next day.

In June 2005, both Van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers were arrested by Aruban authorities on suspicion of involvement in her murder, but they were not charged and were later released due to a lack of physical evidence (including no body) to tie them to the crime. Joran was later detained again, but released. He would tell the Aruban police multiple versions of the events that night.

The best estimates are that he would tell at least twenty different versions of the Natalee disappearance story.

****

I first interviewed Joran in 2006. In that interview, he admitted to lying.

Van Susteren: So two lies, essentially.

Van der Sloot: Yes.

Van Susteren: Any other lies?

Van der Sloot: Any other lies? No.

In another interview that year with Chris Cuomo, then with ABC News, Joran was also clear that he wasn’t to be trusted:

Cuomo: Why should you be believed after all of the lying that you have done in this situation?

Van der Sloot: There is absolutely no reason to believe me.

Cuomo: Would you believe you?

Van der Sloot: Um, I wouldn’t probably not believe myself no.

In June 2008, I spoke to Joran in Thailand. I urged him to tell me the truth in our interview, to “get the monkey off his back.” When we spoke on camera, he claimed that he had sold Natalee for $10,000 to a Venezuelan man who took her away on a boat, presumably for human and sex trafficking.

Eight hours after our interview, he recanted what he had said and told me it had all been a lie. He emailed, “Sorry Greta for wasting your time and making you fiy[sic] all the way to thailand [sic] but everything I told you isnt [sic] true so dont [sic] spend more money looking into it then you allready [sic] did i have no idea what happend [sic] but i needed the money guess I am a bad person after all.”[sic]

In November of that same year, 2008, a Dutch journalist used an undercover sting effort to reveal that Joran was apparently arranging to bring young Thai women to Europe, luring them with the promise of a modeling career, but instead the women would be forced into prostitution. Journalist Peter de Vries set up a hidden camera sting in which Joran detailed how he would secure three-month visas for Thai women to work as models in the Netherlands, but they would actually work as prostitutes, sold to Dutch sex clubs. He was also shown on camera accepting a $1,000 cash advance for his services. Good Morning America and other US news outlets reported widely on this journalistic sting. In addition, Joran was also recorded in a video claiming he had taken Natalee’s body out into the ocean to dump it. De Vries told GMA, “In my opinion, Joran is responsible [for Natalee’s death] and needs to stand trial for it.”

Thai and Dutch authorities began investigating him, and Joran was eventually forced to leave Thailand. He had been arrested by Thai authorities and jailed, and $5000 was sent from Aruba (interestingly, by an American ex-pat) to bail him out.

So, by the beginning of 2010, we had a leading suspect in Natalee’s death who had been detained twice in Aruba and released twice due to a lack of physical evidence. That same suspect had a significant track record of lying – the Associated Press reported that he called himself a “pathological liar” and said if he were an animal, he’d be a snake — and there was significant evidence of him being involved in human trafficking of young women, including, it seemed, several missing young women from Thailand. He used an alias, Murphy Jenkins (the name of a pro-tennis player and coach – Joran was a tennis player), and claimed to be a production consultant for a modeling company. According to reporting from the time, several of the Thai girls who were convinced to travel to Europe were never heard from again.

Then, in February 2010, Joran’s father, Paulus, died while playing tennis, and Joran returned home to Aruba. It seemed like a perfect opportunity.

The Sting: To Catch Joran

Before I was a journalist, I spent more than a decade as a criminal defense attorney. One of the best things about being a defense attorney is that you learn, early on, what makes a strong case for the prosecution and how they can most easily secure a conviction. Having a suspect commit a crime while being videotaped is pretty much a slam dunk. You can’t refute what a jury sees with their own eyes, as long as the suspect is not entrapped but is acting of their own free will. That means they are eagerly following through on the commission of a crime, even if the crime originates with a sting.

That was exactly my idea in early March 2010: plant a seed with Joran that he could try to get money out of Natalee’s mother in exchange for information about Natalee’s remains. Then, allow Joran to develop and execute the plan. By doing so, he would be committing two major felonies, extortion and wire fraud, both punishable by decades in an American prison. It would not be a murder conviction, but many notorious criminals are brought down by these types of RICO (racketeering) charges. It’s been a vital prosecutorial tool to dismantle organized crime syndicates and drug trafficking operations, as well as a huge transnational network that stole tens of millions of dollars from elderly Americans and fraudsters like Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos and Sam Bankman-Fried.

Joran had already repeatedly tried (and sometimes succeeded) to get money for information. A July 2009 email from a Dutch journalist promised Joran 100,000 euros if he made a “correct and accurate statement” about Natalee and where she (or her remains) were.

I raised my idea of a sting operation with Natalee’s mother, Beth Holloway, and she emailed me that she very much agreed. I was still in periodic contact with Joran, so I suggested that he reach out to Beth’s attorney, John Q. Kelly, and I gave him John’s email. The two of them took it from there. Key elements of their correspondence, complete with typos, are below; all the emails were provided to the FBI and were in the FOIA file.

On March 30, 2010, Joran, taking the bait hook, line and sinker, wrote an email in which he proposed to Kelly: “I will take you to Natalee but I do not want it to be known the information came from me. In return I want to receive 250,000$. If you are interested I will give you more details and we can arrange it.”

Kelly wrote back,

“Hey Joran,

Let’s try a very realistic approach to get this accomplished. My client has $250,000 that she won’t hesitate to pay if she knows it will bring her daughter home.

Give me a scenario, other than one that involves cooperation from other people on your end that you, nor I, have any control over, and I can make this happen.”

And on April 1, Joran responded and laid out his terms:

From: “J.P. Sanders” [Joran’s email alias]

Date: April 1, 2010 5:21:15 PM EDT

To: “John Q. Kelly”

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re:

Hey John,

This is a plan that I think is fair for both of us.

1 You fly to Aruba and meet with me. Greta says you are a man of your word so if you bring 25,000$ with you which is 1/10 of what I want I am okay with that.

2 I will take you to the place where Natalee is and once you see it you will understand a lot more. I want this monkey off my back just as much as I know Natalees parents want to bring her home.

3 The situation is different now that my father is no longer with us other bs I have done in the past was before that.

4 Even though you dont want it I want you to sign or co-sign a contract that I will be paid the rest 225,000$ to my SNS Bank:

Account Number: xxxxxx

IBAN: xxxxx

BIC: xxxx

I want this on paper because otherwise I have no garentee I will recieve the money.

1 I want no cameras or anything else it will just be you and me and we will be honest.

2 On Sunday I am leaving to Holland and I am going to a centrum for people with peronality disorders http:// www.csp.nl/I want to work on myself and come out a better person but I would like this to be over as well.

3 I want no funny bussiness and this will finaly be over I also want it to be made known that it was an annonomous tip that solved the case not somthing I said because my mom could not handle that right now.

If you agree to this I am willing to be complety honest but our agreement has to stay out of the press and I want that on paper also.

Kelly agreed and began making plans to meet Joran in Aruba to begin discussions.

If he followed through, Joran would be committing the crimes of wire fraud and extortion. Bringing in the FBI allowed these crimes to be captured in real time through a “sting operation.”

***

Here’s the US Department of Justice’s 2007 definition of a sting: “Sting operations have been part of the modern police response to crime for over 40 years. For the majority, sting operations contain four basic elements: (1) an opportunity or enticement to commit a crime, either created or exploited by police; (2) a targeted likely offender or group of offenders for a particular crime type; (3) an undercover or hidden police officer or surrogate, or some form of deception; and (4) a “gotcha” climax when the operation ends with arrests.”

I want to underscore again: this is the definition of a sting from a 72-page paper published by the Department of Justice: https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/sting-operations

This is the definition that Beth Holloway, John Q. Kelly, and I were operating under. It was what Beth and John Q. Kelly had every reasonable expectation to believe would happen when they first began laying the groundwork for this exchange with Joran.

***

Planning for the Sting:

On Sunday, April 4, 2010, Kelly arrived in Aruba and met with Joran at the Marriott hotel. One of the first things Kelly recorded in his notes was Joran telling him that he had made up the entire story for Jaap. [Dutch TV personality Jaap Amesz had just interviewed Joran in March 2010 using a lie detector. During the interview, Joran claimed that Natalee fell off a balcony and her body was disposed of in a lake.]

Kelly stated that Joran maintained that Jaap knew Joran was telling a phony story, but still paid him for it, and Joran kept the money.

They eventually began to discuss Kelly’s objective, with Joran saying to Kelly that he “definitely could tell/ show me where Natalee’s remains were.” Kelly, in his notes, added, “Discussed plan that if he were to show/ tell me where Natalee was the next day, I would wait until he left Aruba Tuesday night to tell anyone. I agreed.”

But when Joran learned that Kelly had not brought him $25,000, he was unhappy and wanted to leave the hotel.

Joran insisted on receiving a contract signed by both Kelly and Beth Holloway committing to pay him $250,000, and only then would he reveal the locations. He started talking about Natalee being under a five-foot foundation and saying that she had been buried in the gravel before the foundation had been poured. Every additional bit of information he would provide would require a signed agreement. Kelly created a handwritten agreement that he faxed to Beth, who signed it, but in the interim, Joran disappeared. Kelly returned to New York.

Then, Joran reappeared, interested in pursuing the money. On April 16, Beth wired $100 to Joran’s Dutch bank account as a test. This wire would be, or should have been, wire fraud count one. By the end of the month, Kelly and Joran were working on another plan to meet – and Kelly and Beth had reached out to the FBI.

That $100 wire opened the door to charging Joran with extortion and wire fraud, charges that would carry significant jail time in the US and would allow him to be extradited to the US for questioning regarding Natalee Holloway’s disappearance. The relevant federal criminal codes for the sting were 18 U.S.C. Sections 1343 (wire fraud), 875 (interstate communications), and 4 (active concealment of a known felony).

John Q. Kelly, approached the US federal authorities about, as his personal notes state, “an elaborate scheme to have Joran arrested and extradited to the US on wire fraud and extortion charges with the assistance of Gov. Riley of Alabama, Attorney General of Alabama, US Attorney, Northern District of Alabama, FBI, DEA, Aruban Police, Beth (of course).” On April 20, a Special Agent based in the Birmingham FBI office met with Beth, and preparations for the Aruban-based sting operation began.

By May 2, Kelly and Joran were making plans for another meeting. Joran told Kelly he would be leaving Aruba on May 22 to attend a treatment program in Holland. Kelly added in his email to Joran, “no more wild goose chases for me. Final note – worst thing you could do is bring me to Aruba on one of your hoaxes, and put Natalee’s parents through more unimaginable pain.” They settled on meeting in Aruba on May 10, the day after Mother’s Day. The FBI would have a hidden camera in the Marriott hotel room and would also wire Kelly’s rental car to catch the entire sting and the money transfer on videotape. The FBI designated John Q. Kelly as its CHS, Confidential Human Source. He would be acting as the FBI’s agent in conducting the sting.

Here are two separate document timelines uncovered from the FOIA request. The first highlights John Q. Kelly’s communications with Joran. The second highlights what the FOIA documents reveal about the FBI and US Attorney’s internal communications leading up to the sting. At every step along the way, Joran is proposing the terms he wants, the money he wants, and what he will offer in return to Kelly. That is not entrapment; that is preparation for the commission of a crime. I have used a timeline and day by day information, with occasional clarifying notes from me. But the facts speak eloquently for themselves.

JOHN Q. KELLY AND JORAN COMMUNICATIONS TIMELINE FROM THE BEGINNING:

MARCH 30: Joran emails to John Q. Kelly, “If you have someone come meet me in Aruba I will do the right thing this situation hurts everyone involved and will continue to do so until it is over. I will take you to Natalee but I do not want it to be known that the information cam from me. In return I want to receive $250,000. If you are interested I will give you more details and we can arrange it.” [sic]

Later that day, Joran proposes that someone fly to Aruba, they make up a private contract, and if his information leads to Natalee and her remains and solves the case, he wrote, “I will get paid (250,000$). He adds, “I would want 25,000$ in cash so I can leave Aruba because I do not want to be here when that comes out.” He then adds: “If you don’t think this offer is legit you can let it go but here you have nothing to loose except 25,000$ if I am scamming you like you think.” [sic]

APRIL 4: John Q. Kelly meets with Joran at the Aruba Marriott. Joran is disappointed Kelly didn’t bring the money. He again claimed that Natalee’s remains were under a 5’ foundation. Kelly asked Joran if it was also still his story that Natalee died accidentally. Joran said Kelly would have to pay to find out. When Kelly asked, “What if Beth doesn’t want to pay?” Joran responded, “Then she can wait another five years.”

APRIL 16: Beth wires $100 to the Dutch bank account Joran has provided. [first wire fraud incident]

APRIL 29: Joran writes Kelly: “I will tell you where the remains are and how she passed away but I want 250,000$ on my bank account and I will tell you.”

APRIL 30: Kelly responds: “Hey Joran, We already have terms, remember: -- sign contract --$25,000 up front, in hand, for you to “show and tell.” --$225,000 wired upon confirmation of location, identity of remains, and the “how.”

Joran responds that “I want stated in the contract that there is a 1,000,000$ penalty if you do leak out that the information leading to Natalee’s remains came from me. I would also want a 1 week time period before you can act on the information so I can take care of things so put that in the contract also. I would have to turn myself in their is no way it would go without an arrest or charges and then I can better be in Aruba.” [sic] “if I do get jail time I will accept it but I think there is a good chance I will not.”

MAY 2: Kelly emails that he can only travel to Aruba on May 9/10 and that he will bring part of the $25,000K payment with him and have the balance wired ahead to the bank. The contract will require Joran to be specific about the location of Natalee’s remains. There will be no $1,000,000 penalty clause.

MAY 4: They agree on May 10 as the meeting date.

FBI DOCUMENT COMMUNICATIONS TIMELINE:

APRIL 20, 2010/transcription filed APRIL 26, 2010: Beth Holloway Twitty was contacted at FBI Birmingham. She was familiar with the identity of SA [Special Agent] and provided the following information: “Twitty reported that she had the funds to go forward, stating that she pay: “$25,000.00 for a bone.” Twitty believes that should the information prove reliable, Natalee’s remains will be located. If the information proves fraudulent, Twitty is fully supportive of federal prosecution on a wire fraud.”

GRETA BREAKS IT DOWN : The FBI agent has suggested that Joran will be prosecuted on wire fraud charges and notes that Beth Holloway is “fully supportive.” BUT at this point the operation moves on two very different directions.

The FBI operational plan treats this meeting as “closely resembling[ing] that of a controlled drug purchase, except Kelly will be purchasing information rather than drugs.” EXCEPT no one — not John Q. Kelly, not Beth Holloway, and certainly not me — thought that there was any chance that this time Joran would tell the truth. Kelly and Beth both expected that Joran would finally be arrested and extradited to the US.

IF any of us had believed that Joran would tell the truth for the $250,000, that could have been handled without ever involving the FBI in any operation. John Q. Kelly and I could have reached a deal with Joran, alone or together.

Instead, the FBI

1. Disregarded Federal extortion and Federal wire fraud law.

2. Had no “PLAN B” if Joran was lying and fled Aruba with money, other than to belatedly charge him with wire fraud.

3. Didn’t even seem to consider the operation a traditional “sting operation” (as described in their own DOJ manual).

4. Failed to research the basics on Joran’s behavior for the past five years, despite the fact that this was perhaps the biggest case to hit Birmingham, AL, since the tragic Civil Rights-era church bombing. A cursory search on Google would have shown the FBI that Joran had a very low likelihood of ever telling the truth to anyone and that Joran’s history was of repeatedly lying and repeatedly asking (and receiving) money for his lies.

But here’s the proof, in their memos from April 30, 2010 — This is what the Birmingham FBI office sent Bridgetown, Barbados, where the US attache was located:

GRETA BREAKS IT DOWN: Another troubling aspect: the unarmed FBI agents were relying on Aruban police in the parking lot to provide security for John Q. Kelly during the sting. But Joran had likely violently killed Natalee. What if Kelly was attacked or if Joran brought a weapon? How quickly could one Aruban police officer sitting outside in a car respond?

The plan for the sting was laid out in an email request outlining the costs as well: It was to have Kelly give Joran the money, then Kelly would fly out, while “Arbuban authorities will receive a ‘tip’ as to the location. Logical investigation to locate and recover any remains…Should any remains be recovered, Aruban authorities will take over. If the information proves fraudulent, the elements of a federal wire fraud charge should have been met and Joran will be indicted in the Northern District of Alabama.”

To Recap: This plan failed entirely (and with catastrophic consequences for the family of Stephany Flores) - in both its application and in the FBI agents’ and the US Attorney’s understanding of federal criminal law.

When Beth wired Joran the first $100, it was already possible to charge him with wire fraud.

The moment Joran arrived in that hotel room and took $10,000 cash, he committed extortion, and it was possible to charge him with extortion.

When the additional $15,000 wire transfer to his account was complete after that, he was ready to be indicted on another wire fraud count.

All an FBI agent had to do was to swear out a complaint ON THE TELEPHONE to the US Magistrate in Birmingham, Alabama. That would take 15 minutes. Dispatching a follow-up Interpol Red Notice would have stopped Joran from entering another country, including Peru, at a border checkpoint. He would have been detained, and the United States would have been notified.

Even worse, if there can be a worse, the FBI did not share their plan or their reasoning with John Q. Kelly. Going into May, there was no reason for Beth or John Q. Kelly to believe that Joran would not be arrested and charged. But that is not the operational plan that the FBI devised or how they moved forward. At every opportunity, they decided to remain “hands-off” when it came to Joran, and to have no clear plan for what would happen after the operation was completed.

MAY 3: The FBI Birmingham met with Beth Holloway Twitty, and “she advised that she remains fully supportive of FBI efforts. Beth Holloway Twitty also confirmed that she will transfer her funds ($25,000.00) as appropriate.”

MAY 4: FBI Agent William McDermott writes a memo “TO FORMALLY DOCUMENT OTD’S [FBI’s Operational Technology Division] MIAMI DIVISION” in case id #: XXXXXX Holloway, Beth, Sloot, Joran, Van Der

Synopsis: To formally document OTD’s deployment of Miami Division personnel and STE [Secure Telephone Equipment] in response to Miami Division’s request to operate in Aruba, and to document Aruba government’s approval of OTD’s operation. “USAO [United States Attorney Office] NDA [Northern District of Alabama ], Birmingham, is in concurrence and is fully supportive of potential prosecution on wire fraud charges should Joran’s information prove fraudulent.”

GRETA BREAKS IT DOWN: This is a stunningly 100% incorrect reading of the statute on extortion by the FBI and the US Attorney’s Office. Demanding money and receiving money for the whereabouts of a body is the crime of extortion. It is irrelevant to indicting and prosecuting the crime of extortion whether the information provided is true or false / fraudulent.]

Aruban chief prosecutor Peter Blanken provided certification on May 4: “the lawfulness of this technique and the use of FBI STE by FBI personnel,” and “their immunity from prosecution and civil liability.” The memo also notes “Behavioral Analysis Unit 2 review of recent e-mail traffic has identified a strong possibility that Joran may be intending on truthfully identifying the location of Natalee’s remains.”

“Concept of Operation: FBI personnel who travel to Aruba will use the STE to conduct surveillance and gather information that may lead to the recovery of the body of the victim. CHS [Confidential Human Source - John Q Kelly] will meet in person, preferably at CHS hotel, with Joahn [sic] to exchange the Birmingham originated $25K wire transfer (furnished by Beth Holloway) in exchange for Joran taking CHS to the location of Natalee’s remains.”

GRETA BREAKS IT DOWN: Here’s the problem: as noted above, just demanding money to reveal the whereabouts of Natalee’s remains is already a violation of US Federal Law. There should be no “potential” prosecution. Extortion and Blackmail: Demanding cash to disclose the location of human remains constitutes extortion or blackmail under 18 U.S. Code Chapter 41 - Extortion and Threats. As soon as Beth started paying Joran, he had committed a crime, with wire fraud added because the money was transferred electronically between banks. Already, we have a problem with the top federal prosecutor (US Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama Joyce Vance) apparently engaging in her own “interpretation” of the law. And, in this case, she is wrong.

MAY 6: FBI Special Agent in Birmingham writes a memo “TO DOCUMENT CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIVE DIVISION (CID) Synopsis: To document Criminal Investigative Division (CID) concurrence for deployment and operation of Sensitive Technical Equipment (STE) in Aruba for the captioned Extortion investigation.” He also notes, “The FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit 2 review of recent e-mail traffic between the CHS and Van Der Sloot has identified a strong possibility that Joran may be intending on truthfully identifying the location of Natalee’s remains. Concept of operation: FBI personnel who travel to Aruba will use the STE to conduct surveillance and gather evidence that may lead to the recovery of the body of Natalee’s.”

Page 4 of the memo states, “USAO NDA [US Attorney’s Office Northern District of Alabama] opined that Van Der Sloot could be charged with wire fraud should Beth Holloway wire $25,000 to him and the information regarding Natalee’s remains prove to be fraudulent.”

GRETA BREAKS IT DOWN: “Could be charged”? The law says he must be charged because he has committed a crime. Of course, with a cursory search, it would have been uncontrovertibly proven that Joran had never demonstrated truthfulness in the past. Thus there is no basis given for this statement: “The FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit 2 review of recent e-mail traffic between the CHS [Confidential Human Source, John Q Kelly] and Van Der Sloot has identified a strong possibility that Joran may be intending on truthfully identifying the location of Natalee’s remains.”

Let me repeat this fact: every bit of Joran’s previous behavior strongly suggested that this May meeting in Aruba was just another lie and a scam, which was how John Q. Kelly saw it. It was how I saw it. No one could point to an earlier incident when Joran told anything resembling the complete truth.

MAY 7: The BAU [Behavioral Unit] analyst writes a memo to the agents in charge of the sting in which she declares the BAU will be “standing by to offer additional assistance and specific strategies.”

She also states in the memo that the charges are of “undetermined status regarding which country, if any, will be filing charges.”

But most shockingly, she identifies “a strong possibility that Joran was going to tell the truth.”

GRETA BREAKS IT DOWN: “A strong possibility”? It was appartently largely upon this logical absurdity that the FBI field agents and the US Attorney Joyce Vance relied and acted.

Additionally, the behavioralist’s memo suggests interview strategies that include: “Incorporate Joran’s own language in the interview. In Joran’s 04/30/2010 e-mail he wrote, “It would be nice to get it all of my back and move on with my life...” In Joran’s 04/29/2010 e-mail he wrote, “I will tell you where the remains are and how she passed away...Joran mentioned getting this all off back, ‘moving on with his life, and wanting a life at one point. These are themes that seem to be important to him and, therefore, should be utilized by interviewers. In addition, “passed away” is language of which Joran seems comfortable, thereby interviewers should be as well.

* Acknowledge Joran’s “strengths”. Joran should be told the following: he is extremely smart and intelligent; he uses logic and reasoning as opposed to others who are ruled by their emotions and dramatic feelings; and he is steady and cool under great stress/pressure.”

GRETA BREAKS IT DOWN: Why was the behaviorist suggesting interview strategies to the FBI agents? The FBI agents never planned to interview Joran and the agents were never going to interview Joran in that hotel room - only Kelly was to be there - so they needed no strategic interview recommendations for Joran. That was never part of the plan. They had no plan to initiate any contact with Joran. The only interaction planned was John Q Kelly and Joran - and even that wasn’t an interview. It was a sting.

The FBI agents were hidden in the next room listening and watching and recording - and at least from what Kelly thought, preparing to arrest Joran.

This level of involvement and direction by the FBI Behavioral Analyst is unusual, particularly her raising the issues about where charges would be filed. But the fact that she bases her conclusion that Joran will “tell the truth” on a few email exchanges with Kelly is even more concerning. From the emails themselves it was obvious that Joran had one manipulative intention: to get the $25,000 from John Q. Kelly. The fact that the FBI Behavioralist ignored years of Joran’s prior history of manipulating and lying for money is very troubling.

MAY 7: The Lead Special Agent emails a top official in the FBI Birmingham office: “Slight change to the OP [Operations plan]: CW will tell J [Joran] that 15K will be wired by B [Beth Holloway] to his account, based on late legal opine of AUSA XXXX. Ok here, caught transfer [the second wire\ before it went through. AUSA also advised AG advised, don’t screw up. Stand down? Not my feeling. We have taken what has presented itself best we can any ideas or suggestions? [sic]

He replies: “No -You have as solid an OP plan as you can based on the facts, as you have them today.”

GRETA BREAKS IT DOWN: The AG referenced is Eric Holder, the attorney general of the United States, who would have been briefed and responded, “don’t screw up.” Regrettably, they would.

That same day, US Attorney for Northern Alabama Joyce Vance, the woman who would be in charge of any legal prosecution, emails her US Attorney staff with a cc to Patrick Maley of the FBI:

“I want to insure [sic] we have a solid plan with no gaps. We need to meet before Monday…XXXX, please bring in complaint/affidavit and be prepared to give everyone a full briefing on where you are with both the approval to operate on Aruban soil and other conversation with the legat. I want us to work thru every option and have a plan, ie, if he doesn’t show up what we do (extortion is complete, so we can file the complaint, but how does that translate into an arrest on aruban soil and what is the time factor) on thru he produces a body and we do testing….We need to insure [sic] that all outstanding legal questions have been researched and resolved before we meet.”

GRETA BREAKS IT DOWN: The US Attorney has supervision over this operation. This was her job to make sure it was done right, and that the Birmingham FBI didn’t, in the words of Attorney General Holder, “screw it up.” Three days before the sting, on a Friday, US Attorney Joyce Vance is still trying to review “every option and have a plan” and she knows (and writes in her email) “if he doesn’t show up [for the sting] what we do (extortion is complete, so we can file the complaint…”

What she was uncertain about was an arrest on Aruban soil - something that every FBI agent will tell you was or should have been arranged well before the sting.

Significantly, and as Vance notes, even if Joran did not show up, he had still committed the crime of extortion by making a demand for money for the body. And of course, as she also directs her junior AUSA, “bring in complaint/affidavit” which is how you commence a prosecution.

This means that Vance and FBI, before the FBI even traveled to Aruba to witness the crime from the adjoining room, knew that a crime had been committed (extortion) and they had a complaint and an affidavit to commence a prosecution.

I assume that by now, you are asking the same obvious questions as me:

How can the US Attorney, directly supervising the FBI, go forward with a plan that allows a likely murderer to be given $25,000 in cash from THE VICTIM’s mother, have the crime of extortion be committed before they travel to Aruba and then committed a second time on tape, with FBI agents watching, and have no plan for an arrest or even for handling a body? The US Attorney also does not ask the question, what if Joran were to flee Aruba? What are the arrest plans?

How can there be no contingency plan for arrest if Joran confesses to killing Natalee — which is exactly what he did?

How can there be no plan to recover the cash Beth Holloway had supplied to complete the operation with Joran?

How can there be no plan to arrest Joran when the crimes of extortion and wire fraud were completed, and right in front of the FBI and on tape?

And what was the plan if Joran attacked John Q. Kelly, since the Aruban police were set to have one officer outside in the parking lot, and the FBI agents in the next room were unarmed? None of the communications in the FOIA files from US Attorney Joyce Vance answers these questions — or suggests that they were being asked.

MAY 9?: An undated written synopsis of the operation notes that a case briefing with Aruban authorities was held on Friday, May 7, and on Saturday, May 8, a case briefing was held regarding the rooms at the Aruba Marriott resort. One room would be used by Kelly, and FBI agents would record and monitor from an adjacent room. Kelly’s rental car would also be wired (and as it turned out, the car wiring was amateurish and thus almost inaudible.) There would be “surveillance teams” on the suspect, Joran, when Joran and Kelly leave in the car and continuing until the return to the hotel. “Sloot is anticipated to come to S’s room and discuss terms, to include signing a contract, and paying Sloot $10K for information on the location of Natalee Holloway’s remains.”

Under the heading of “Administration,” the operation notes state:

“No arrest is anticipated. FBI SAS will be unarmed. 10K and 15K has been arranged regarding wire transfers.”

GRETA BREAKS IT DOWN: “No arrest is anticipated”? If that is the centerpiece of the operational plan, what was the point of the operation?

Here are my Key Unanswered Questions for the events leading up to the May 10 Operation in Aruba:

How did the federal planning for this operation move from Joran could be charged with wire fraud to “no arrest is anticipated” and the FBI agents would be unarmed?

On what basis did the FBI behavioralist conclude that Joran “may be intending on truthfully identifying the location of Natalee’s remains” after the litany of lies and his prior track record of extorting money?

Why did the FBI develop and support a significant sting operation in Aruba that was a textbook case for extortion and wire fraud charges, and included a $100 wire, $10,000 cash/ $15,000 wire transfer payout to the target, with cash provided by a private US citizen, delivered by a private attorney acting as the Confidential Human Source for the FBI, with no intention of making an arrest and no intention of recovering the money?

Why did the FBI not tell Beth Holloway, who was providing the funds, and tell her attorney, John Q. Kelly, acting as a CHS for the FBI, that they had no plans to make an arrest? And make it clear that they were just handing Joran the money ?

Why did the FBI interpret the federal extortion and wire fraud laws inconsistently with the plain words of the federal statute? Why were they willing to allow the act of extortion to go forward if somehow Joran told the truth about the location of Natalee’s remains? Whether he told the truth or lied, it was still extortion.

Why did the US Attorney’s office not expedite charges? What was the purpose of having the complaint and affidavit ready before the agents went to Aruba if they had no intention of arresting him and charging him immediately?

****

MAY 10, 2010, The Textbook-Perfect Sting:

On May 10, 2010, as planned, John Q. Kelly met with Joran van der Sloot in a wired room inside the Marriott hotel in Aruba. FBI agents were watching the video feed live from the next hotel room and taping it. Kelly had brought a small suitcase with $10,000 cash in marked bills and Joran spread it out on the bed and counted it in full view of FBI cameras and agents. The other $15,000 would be wired (wire count) the next day from Beth Holloway’s bank account. In the hotel room, Joran confessed to killing Natalee, saying that he had thrown Natalee, she had hit her head on a rock, there was a large amount of blood, and he knew she was dead. He then dragged her body into the bushes. Then, he went home and told his father, who hid the body again and eventually moved it.

Kelly and Joran in the hotel room with the cash on the coffee table. From the sting footage.

Next, Joran led Kelly, in a wired rental car, to a house in a development adjacent to the Island’s tennis club. He claimed that his father had placed Natalee’s remains in the home’s foundation. Kelly then drove Joran back to the Marriott, where Joran departed, with the cash, after being picked up by his mother. Aruban police ran surveillance on the operation and Joran the entire time, the FBI had a live video feed, and absolutely nothing happened. Once Joran left the hotel, the Aruban police’s surveillance ended, although the Aruban authorities had a wiretap on Joran’s cell phone. The FBI excitedly told John Q. Kelly that they had all they needed. Kelly thought the next step was to arrest Joran. But that is not what happened.

Joran in the rental car with Kelly.

So, now Joran had, from the mother of the girl he murdered, $10,000 in cash and $15,000 on the way to his account via wire. He had already been explicit in communicating multiple times that he was planning on leaving the country once he had the money, the FBI had engaged with Aruban authorities and had received permission to operate in Aruba, but had made no plans for any arrest after the commission of the crime of extortion — let alone act on Joran’s unexpected confession to accidental murder and concealing a body during the sting.

What follows is drawn again from the full FOIA-ed FBI file. I have combined John Q. Kelly’s exchanges and the FBI’s exchanges into one timeline, with some occasional notes from me. Again, the facts speak for themselves, and the source is the FBI itself.

MAY 11: With the crimes completed, John Q. Kelly is on a morning flight out of Aruba. Kelly told me at the time that the FBI seemed anxious to put him on a flight and get him to leave Aruba.

Meanwhile, the FBI begins its “logical investigation” by exploring the building locations that Joran has pointed out. They completely ignore the murder investigation. They do not “tip” the Aruban authorities.

Also, on this day, the FBI would learn that there was no foundation or structure located at the site where Joran claimed Natalee’s body was at the time of her disappearance. The FBI agent who drafted the email also reported that “contact made with USAO [US Attorney’s Office] regarding the drafting of a complaint should JVS leave the country.” Beth Holloway’s $15,000 also reaches Joran’s bank account. Joran has everything he needs. There is no reason for him to remain in Aruba. There is a big reason for him to leave the island: he has secured the money.

Joran emails John Q. Kelly, “I will let you know tomorrow what I am going to do and how.” Also states that he “called the bank.”

There is major evidence that Joran left Aruba on the night of May 11-12.

MAY 12: An FBI Special Agent flew in a helicopter and took ground and aerial photographs of various locations in Aruba related to Natalee’s disappearance.

Joran continues to stall Kelly, emailing to say that he has an appointment with his lawyer “tomorrow” and that he intends to turn himself in to the police (now that he has ‘confessed’ to Kelly.) Joran emails Kelly: “I will turn myself in on Friday.” Also states, “the money came in yesterday [meaning May 11] already. Take care I will email you after my appointment.”

Kelly, anxious to learn what is going on for himself and his client, and when the arrest will be, starts calling the FBI from his New York office every single day. He gets no answers.

MAY 13: Aruban police report to the FBI that Joran has left the country. Joran’s cell phone goes dark and is not pinging for the Aruban authorities. The FBI does not tell Kelly that Joran is gone.

At 10:02 PM: Joran emails Kelly to say, “it will now be Monday….My lawyer has to call and make an appointment, etc. etc. so I think that things will start to happen as soon as the weekend is over.” But of course, Joran emails this after he has left Aruba.

It will later be revealed that Joran had a ticket on an Avianca flight from Aruba to Bogota, Colombia and on to Lima, Peru – however, there is no conclusive evidence that he left from the Aruban airport, and he was likely spirited off the island by boat — Aruba is only fifteen miles north of Venezuela.

This same day, the lead FBI agent returns to Birmingham to be able to “brief” the other FBI personnel and the US Attorney on Friday, May 14.

MAY 14: Early in the morning, Joran checks into a hotel in Lima, Peru.

The Birmingham FBI sends the following notice to its Bangkok, Bridgetown, Brussels, Criminal Investigative, New York, International Operations, Santiago, CIRG [Critical Incident Response Group] divisions. Here is an extensive quote from the notice:

“…for which JVS [Joran van der Sloot] was to identify the location of Natalee’s remains….The operation captured JVS telling Kelly that he, JVS, had thrown Natalee, and she had hit her head on a rock while on the beach near the Marriott and the fisherman’s huts. JVS told Kelly that there was a large amount of blood and that he knew she was dead. JVS dragged her body into the bushes there on the beach and ran home.

“On 5/13/2010, Aruban Police reported that JVS had left Aruba for Lima, Peru, based on an Aruban TIII intercept of JVS’s cell phone, which was later confirmed. It is believed JVS’s final destination is Thailand, where he has spent time in the past.” Adding, “Aruban police had previously reported that JVS had reservations on a flight to the Netherlands on 5/21/2010.”

It also included this statement as background: “JVS took Kelly to a site at the Aruba Racquet Club and pointed out the location (xxxxxxxx) where a single family residence now stands. Preliminary examination of Aruban building documents has determined that the site pointed out to Kelly by JVS did not have any construction at the time of Natalee’s disappearance, but the site immediately adjacent to the indicated site did have construction beginning May 26, 2005. Technical coverage by Miami TTA’s captured significant incriminating evidence.”

The notice further requests and states: “Birmingham is pursuing wire fraud and possible charges in this matter. However, investigation at the indicated site of the remains must determine that no remains are concealed within the foundation structure, as indicated by JVS to Kelly, prior to a complaint or indictment.

GRETA BREAKS IT DOWN: This is simply not true. Whether there were or were not human remains under the home - and there were not, because Joran lied - was irrelevant to making a phone call to a Federal Magistrate in Alabama for a criminal complaint and the seeking of an Interpol Red Notice.

Birmingham is respectfully requesting that Legat Santiago contact appropriate local authorities to determine JVS’s flight information and advise Bangkok of the results. Detention of JVS is not requested at this time.

In addition to Santiago, Chile, the notice requests that the Bangkok office “contact appropriate local authorities to determine JVS’s flight information and local address. Detention of JVS is not requested at this time, however, secondary search of JVS by Thai Customs officials, should he enter the country, is requested.”

GRETA BREAKS IT DOWN: Once again, and bizarrely, in both Chile and in Thailand, the FBI was not seeking to arrest or detain Joran, who had just extorted money from the mother of the girl he murdered.

The notice continues, “Aruban Police will complete their assessment of the indicated site to determine the possibility that remains could have been secreted at the time. Upon a reasonable determination that Natalee’s remains could have been secreted as described at the time, the Aruban Police will bring in the Dutch NFI to conduct foundation drilling operations utilizing cadaver dogs to determine if remains could be present. If the dogs get a positive alert, then full excavation and recovery efforts will begin.

“Miami ERT will be requested to assist.”

GRETA BREAKS IT DOWN: The FBI seems to be operating based on the worst legal guidance ever received from a US Attorney’s office and with shocking indifference to a taped confession they heard in real time from a killer. To recap all the serious mistakes: First, how could they not immediately communicate with Aruban authorities and request Joran’s arrest for manslaughter once he confessed — why did that statement not prompt an immediate call the US Attorney in Birmingam, while the agents were still recording Joran at the Marriott? Why was that confession not front and center in this FBI memo? They now have - on tape - Joran admitting that he killed Natalee. Plus, if they had arrested him, they would have had him in custody and could have interrogated him - instead he fled the island.

Second, on the fraud charges, Joran’s information about Natalee’s remains did not have to be untruthful for the FBI to arrest and the US Attorney to charge him with extortion and wire fraud. The federal statute clearly does not allow extortion and accompanying wire fraud, if the information is truthful. Joran had committed multiple crimes — and the FBI also made no effort to recover the money given to him. They did not even take action to stop the wire transfer, giving him an extra $15,000. There was also no indication that Joran would return to Thailand, where he was already being investigated for sex trafficking. How and why did the FBI focus on Thailand?

MAY 15: Joran emails Kelly that he will tell his mother “today or tomorrow.” No one tells Kelly that Joran has in fact left Aruba.

MAY 17: One week after the sting, Joran emails Kelly, “After talking to my lawyer I will not be turning myself in. I did not tell the truth so the information you have is worthless check it out all you want but it is not true….I think you are a nice man and a man of your word and I am most definitely not.” Kelly alerts the FBI.

GRETA BREAKS IT DOWN: What is the FBI’s response to Kelly’s information that Joran said it was all a lie what he told Kelly about the location? To send a memo capturing this information and then asking for FBI agents to interview the owners of the properties Joran has identified at the Aruban tennis club. Even when Joran says that he is lying, the FBI won’t believe him.

The memo adds at the end that the US Attorney’s Office in Northern Alabama “has advised it will pusue wire fraud and extortion charges against JVS” - which of course it could have done days earlier. The memo also asks to track down a Dutch number to which Joran — or someone using his phone — made a 20-minute phone call on May 13, adding that an interview of the owner of the Dutch phone number “is not requested at this time.”

GRETA BREAKS IT DOWN: At this point, Joran has fled to Peru, he has confessed to killing Natalee, but stated that he lied about her remains, exactly as he did after my 2008 interview in Thailand. He has taken $25,000 in cash from Beth Holloway. Yet it isn’t until now the US Attorney is advising that her office “will pursue” charges against him? And they aren’t interested in interviewing the person who he supposedly called in the Netherlands as he was fleeing Aruba? As a trained attorney, I find it mind-blowing. The FBI also has not told John Q. Kelly that Joran has left Aruba, even though Kelly is calling them every day to request updates on his arrest. And at every step along the way, with every day that passes, the unanswered questions remain.

MAY 18: The Lead Special Agent, who had returned to Birmingham, sends a memo to report travel on May 19 to “continue investigative activities with Aruban police.”

MAY 19: A one-paragraph summary for an FBI 302 Form was dictated by another Special Agent involved: “On Monday, May 10, 2010, an Operation’s Plan was completed regarding a meeting between a Birmingham Confidential Human Source [CHS] and Joran Van der Sloot at the Aruba Marriott Resort and Stellaris Casino, LG Smith Boulevard 101, Palm Beach, Aruba, 297-586-9000. The meeting was to take place in room 443. The Command Post was in room 441. During the meeting, Sloot was to be paid $10,000.00 U.S. Currency, sign a contract, later receive a wire transfer of $15,000.00 and take the CHS to the location of the remains of NATALIE [sic] HOLLOWAY. The Operation’s Plan was approved by Legat XXXXX.

A five-page FB-302 (an FBI reporting document) containing a full narrative of the sting was dictated by the three lead FBI agents. It was transcribed on MAY 25. The date of the investigation on 302 IS LISTED AS 5/11/2010, the day after the sting.

The Special Agent in charge returns to Aruba. He emails Birmingham to say,

“Finally came into the digital age on my own! Arrived Aruba this afternoon and met with Dolf Richardson, lead investigator at the APF sub-station. Dolf had been expecting me, but had a cadre of uniformed officers in his office upon arrival. We will meet with Aruban prosecutors and the investigative team tomorrow. I will prepare a case status update for presentation.

Something I intend to discuss with AUSA Whisonant is the possibility of filing a complaint should subject return to Aruba prior to indictment. This would save alot of fugitive work and allow our Aruban partners the opportunity to effect the arrest - good for everyone involved.

I am comfortable with the factual basis supporting a complaint at this point. CID will be rotating SSA’s this weekend, which Legat has opposed.”

GRETA BREAKS IT DOWN - He is comfortable on May 19 with a “factual basis” for a criminal complaint? Nothing material has changed since May 11. The only difference is that the FBI let Joran get away and go to Peru with Beth Holloway’s money.

The following agent exchange was recorded by email, after the Lead Special Agent Bryan Returned to Aruba:

“FYI, let the games begin.” What games? Joran has taken the money and slipped them and no arrest has been made!

And the reply is: “I think I am going to need a beer.” :)

Also on May 19, eight days after the sting, the owners of the house in Aruba where Natalee’s remains were supposedly buried were interviewed by FBI agents at their home. (Two separate Aruban homeowners, one in MA and one NJ were both interviewed by FBI agents.) They said that they put down a deposit on May 17, 2005, for the lot. A second payment was made on June 29, 2005, and construction did not start until after that date. No foundation was on the property until after June 29, 2005. Natalee was murdered May 30, 2005. [Importantly, by the time of these interviews, Joran has already stated in an email to Kelly that he has lied about the location of Natalee’s remains.]

The Behavioral Analyst also sends a two-page email to the Lead FBI Special Agent. In it, she states:

“The BAU acknowledges that in particular circumstances, law enforcement (LE) must be concerned about having a CHS [Confidential Human Source- Kelly] engage too heavily with a subject, as this could negatively impact the investigation. Some of these circumstances include a concern that the subject may become suspicious of the CHS’s motives (i.e. the CHS is working on behalf of LE) and refuse to follow through wịth whatever criminal act has been agreed upon. Iri this investigation, the BAU does not believe these concerns are applicable for the following reasons:

1 Joran has already implicated himself (to some degree) and identified the burial location (whether or not he is being truthful).

2 Joran has already been paid $25,000.

3 Joran’s understanding is that, at some point, the CHS has to contact the police to report the “tip”

A major concern in any investigation is the subject’s suspicion that the CHS will contact

LE or is working on their behalf. In this case, this understanding should already be established. In Joran’s mind, the next move is for him to get paid an additional $225,000.

So, even if Joran did become suspicious for some reason about why the CHS is calling him, and ultimately refuses to have any conversation with the CHs, the BAU does not see how this will negatively impact this case.

3. Wire fraud charge. Per our conversation, Joran told the CHS that he is confident that Natalee is at the location Joran identified. The BAU made one suggestion regarding a potential prosecutorial concern in proving Joran’s intent to defraud. The BAU understands that, thus far, Joran claimed that his father identified this location to him, after Natalee was buried (by someone other than Joran). Therefore, Joran could claim that he was honest in his report of this location, based on what his father told him.

Obviously, this information cannot be corroborated with the father [Paulus died 3 months earlier on February 10, 2010]

It is the BAU’s opinion that any conversation between LE (CHS) and Joran concerning this incident should be sought in furtherance of a criminal case. Based on the above, the BAU is suggesting that thẹ CHS be utilized now, while the dynamics are consistent (no, leaks to the media, remains have not been found/verified): The goal is an attempt to have Joran discuss this incident and gather as much evidence as possible, before the caşe unfolds and the CHS potentially loses his utility. Further inconsistencies, deception, etc. should all be helpful toward this goal.

The BAU recognizes that the above thoughts are being provided without having reviewed the recorded conversation/meeting between Joran and the CHS. Again, the suggested themes for the CHS’s call to Joran were included in my previous e-mail attachment.

Call whenever you have time. Safe travels.”

GRETA BREAKS IT DOWN: This is all shocking. Joran has already confessed to killing Natalee. He has stated that he lied. There is no evidence that any construction was underway at the time of Natalee’s death. And the Behavioral Analyst is stating that she is making these recommendations without ever having reviewed the tape of the sting operation and what was said between Joran and Kelly where Joran confessed to killing Natalee. “Implicated himself (to some degree)” — he confessed!

Finally, with their confessed killer in Peru with $25,000 from Natalee’s mother, with clear evidence that he had lied, with no charges and no arrest warrant and no international alert, the agents are talking about having drinks, and in the email words of the lead agent in charge of the operation, “Let the games begin.”

MAY 20: Aruba provides the FBI with a copy of an Avianca Air Ticket for Joran to Lima, Peru (not logged until May 25), although there is significant evidence that Joran did not use the first leg of the ticket and left Aruba by boat.

Kelly writes to the Special Agent in charge, “No word from my friend in days—should I reach out to him, or sit tight?”

The Special Agent replies to Kelly: “I hope you got my earlier response; please sit tight for now. My Blackberry has been acting up. Could you, please, send a copy of your case file via FedX, to me at XXXXXX, Birmingham, Al. 35203. If needed, I’ll get Beth’s concurrence. Still moving ahead, will return next and handle your expense reimbursement. Again, thanks for all the help. A lot of people are making sure we have success.”

GRETA BREAKS IT DOWN: The Special Agent still does not reveal that Joran had left the country, or that they have lost contact with Joran.

MAY 21: Update from FBI on intercepted phone calls from Aruban authorities: “calls and text messages reveal JVS constantly lying to his mother about his whereabouts and what he is doing.”

Kelly replies to the FBI special agent, “I don’t have any ‘case file’ other than what I’ve given to you or forwarded to you. The Indians (Bdth and I) [sic] are getting very restless – double talk aside, what’s up?” Kelly was flabbergasted by the request for a copy of his case file. He had long before given the FBI all his materials, including all of his communications with Joran, so that the sting could be set up.

The Special Agent answers, “My Blackberry lost voice comms yesterday, so I’m on my computer. Still putting the case together and collecting evidence here. Double talk? What double talk? Will telcall as soon as I get my phone up and running again.” [The Special Agent has been back in Aruba since May 19. There are multiple phones in the hotel, his colleagues have Blackberries, he clearly does not want to speak to Kelly.]

GRETA BREAKS IT DOWN: “Still putting the case together”? There is nothing further to ‘put together” other than to load the video in a VRC in a courtroom and press play for the jury! As for losing voice comms on his Blackberry, there was a telephone in every single hotel room the FBI was staying in and of course he could have borrowed another agent’s phone if it is even true that his Blackberry was having problems.

MAY 25: Kelly writes the Special Agent and formally requests “I think it would be in everyone’s best interest for us to communicate - you, I, AUSA and all engaged parties in conference form, whether it be email, text or phone. It is very difficult for me to get the jist [sic] of what to say, and how to say it, without having knowledge of what you are trying to achieve.”

“The whole plan went flawlessly, preparation and execution, and the only person probably more confused than I am right now that nothing has happened is Joran.”

GRETA BREAKS IT DOWN: You can see Kelly’s frustration. The sting was fifteen days earlier, and Kelly did do his part flawlessly. Yet there is still no arrest.

Internal FBI response: From: Keeler, Harold S.

Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 201012:12 PM

To: Bryan, William K.

Cc: Drew, John J. Jr.

Subject: RE:

Am curious what Kelly or JVDS “think” should have happened though? If it is a scam, like JVDS said, what recourse does Kelly have? He would not go to the police with a bunch of BS. And what does Kelly expect to have happened, since we don’t believe we know where Natalee is all we can do is work toward an indictment.

GRETA BREAKS IT DOWN: “Work toward an indictment”? Again, they could have had a criminal complaint ready from the moment Joran accepted the cash in the hotel room and had detained him (with the agreement of Aruba, which presumably they had or should have had before they even traveled to Aruba.) They also could have initiated an arrest for manslaughter from Joran’s confession of the killing to John Q. Kelly during the operation.

And if this were merely to give Joran money for information (and not an arrest and prosecution) Kelly did not need the FBI. He could have done that alone. He didn’t need the FBI to do that. Moreover, a confession to a killing is not “a bunch of BS.”

As you will see below, beginning on May 27, the FBI is trying to craft a plan to lure Joran out of Peru and to arrest him. Why they didn’t do that seventeen days earlier?

MAY 27: Lead FBI Special Agent Bryan emails: “BH met with AUSA Whisonant to discuss case developments and the applicability of a lure operation. AUSA Whisonant, after speaking with Judy Friedman, DOJ OIO, advised routing JVS through Bogota would expedite extradition efforts. BH will begin planning OPERATION BAIT BOY, to lure JVS from Peru to Aruba, and arresting him at the Bogota connection on Avianca. BH CHS will continue email traffic in response to JVS’s request for the purchase of a plane ticket so he could return and make things right. CHS, after confirming timing, will purchase a non-refundable and non-changeable return flight for JVS to Aruba, utilizing Avianca, which JVS used when leaving Aruba. AUSA advised case will be presented to FGJ [FEDERAL GRAND JURY] 6/28/2010, although a complaint can be utilized should the timing and opportunity for beneficial travel present itself. Arrest window, to eliminate the necessity of a preliminary examination, is 6/11-27/2010. After that time, JVS will be under indictment.”

GRETA BREAKS IT DOWN: Having allowed Joran to leave the country, with no new evidence, the FBI is now exploring an elaborate and complicated plan to try to lure him back to Aruba and arrest him in Bogota.

MAY 30: Joran, in Lima Peru, entices Stephany Flores to leave a Lima casino with him and returns to his hotel. Van der Sloot later stated that he attacked Flores after she found details and emails on his laptop relating to his involvement in the Natalee Holloway case.

JUNE 2: Stephany Flores’s body is discovered in the Lima hotel room. Flores died of blunt force trauma to the head and suffered a cranial fracture. Her neck is also reportedly broken. Joran then stole her money and credit cards, left the hotel room, and fled to Chile. Flores is the daughter of a prominent race car driver and Peruvian politician.

Lead FBI Special Agent Bryan, not knowing Joran murdered again, drafts a request for “CID approval to conduct lure operation to facilitate the arrest of the captioned subject; and to set leads for receiving offices.” The request is never sent.

“The request notes that Joran fled to Lima, Peru (Bogota connection) aboard an Avianca flight on May 13, 2010. Van der Sloot told the CHS [Confidential Human Source Kelly] on several occasions via email that he intended to turn himself in. On 5/17/2010, van der Sloot sent the CHS another email in which he states that he did not provide truthful information.

“Birmingham has discussed extradition issues with the USAO, NDA, and has determined extradition from Aruba may prove problematic…consensus is an arrest in Bogota is the best possible scenario.” The request was to lure van der Sloot back to Aruba using Avianca Air and arrest him during the stopover in Bogota.

The Special Agent cites an email as in support of his plan: “Latest substantive e-mail between Birmingham CHS [Confidential Human Source Kelly] and captioned subject on May 24, 2010, 2:35 pm, as follows: “Yeah I got your last email but I thought you said not to contact you that’s why I didn’t. I will and want to make things right. If you fly me back to Aruba, I will go through with our plan. I just saw a chance to back out by bailing and not tell the complete truth again that’s all. I feel the pain also. I am sorry.”

But there is another private email chain (other than Kelly and Joran) circulating once the news breaks of Stephany Flores’s murder in Peru. It is dated June 2, 2010.

“FYI, this could cause the Dir to ask some questions.”

The Director of the FBI at this time was Robert S. Mueller III.

Now the agents involved are concerned they need lawyers. That afternoon, Rob Haley, the Birmingham ASAC, sends his email to the Criminal Investigative Division:

“But today have my line agents concerned they need to “cover their six” asking if they need to call the Agents Association lawyer for counsel and advise. I promised them I would ask.....have either of you heard any talk at HQ about someone wanting to look at administrative sanctions or anything like that re this matter?”

And Lead FBI Agent Bryan requests information on how to obtain an Interpol Red Notice from FBI Office of International Operations – he did not know how to do it.

JUNE 3: Joran is apprehended in Chile and immediately sent back to Peru.

FBI Special Agent William K. Bryan, 4 days after Stephany Flores is murdered and 24 days after the completed sting in Aruba, swears out a two-count criminal complaint against Joran in Federal Court before a chief U.S. Magistrate Judge.

US Attorney Joyce Vance announces the two charges against Joran van der Sloot, and emphasizes that these charges are “unrelated to the ongoing murder investigation in Peru.”

The US Attorney releases the following press release:

U.S. Attorney’s Office June 03, 2010

• Northern District of Alabama

BIRMINGHAM—Federal prosecutors in Birmingham have filed a criminal complaint against JORAN VAN DER SLOOT, a citizen of the Netherlands, on wire fraud and extortion charges in connection with his soliciting money in May on promises he would reveal the location of Natalee Holloway’s remains in Aruba and circumstances of her death, U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance and FBI Special Agent in Charge Patrick Maley announced today.

“We are committed to protecting citizens from unscrupulous individuals who attempt to financially exploit a person’s deepest fears and greatest loss,” Vance said.

The wire fraud and extortion charges are unrelated to the ongoing murder investigation in Peru, in which van der Sloot is an alleged person of interest.

Vance said her office filed the two-count criminal complaint today in U.S. District Court in Birmingham.

The complaint charges that van der Sloot, on May 10, extorted $15,000 from an individual as partial payment toward his promise to reveal the location of Natalee Holloway’s remains for $250,000. The maximum sentence on the extortion count is 20 years in prison.

The complaint also charges van der Sloot with wire fraud for causing the $15,000 to be transferred by wire from a Birmingham bank to a bank in the Netherlands in furtherance of his scheme to defraud. The maximum sentence for the wire fraud count is 30 years.

Vance thanked Aruban authorities for the assistance they provided in this investigation.

Members of the public are reminded that the criminal complaint contains only charges. A defendant is presumed not guilty.

GRETA BREAKS IT DOWN: In praising the work of the FBI, which fell short of arresting Joran, US Attorney Vance does not mention the failure to arrest Joran on May 10, thus opening the door for Joran to flee to Peru and kill again, the failure to swear out (even by phone) a criminal complaint on May 10, even though the crimes of wire fraud and extortion were completed and caught on tape, which would have been the basis for an Interpol Red Notice and would have stopped Joran at the entry into Peru - and of course then, Joran would never have met Stephany Flores. The press release mentions only two crimes, one extortion and one wire fraud (the $15,000 wire and not the $100 wire) even though there were three crimes. This same failure (omission) is repeated when the US Attorney later obtains an indictment, thus lowering the amount of time he might have been sentenced to prison by 1/3.

JUNE 4: One day after Joran van der Sloot was in custody in Chile, and the day he was transferred to Peru, US government sends an Interpol Red Notice for Joran van der Sloot “Fugitive Wanted for Prosecution.” Warning: This Person May Be Dangerous and Violent.

JUNE 8: In handwritten notes made during a June 8 telephone call, the agents wrote: “The [Aruban] Prime Minister would like FBI to explain why we let him go.”

GRETA BREAKS THIS DOWN: There is nothing in the FOIA documents to suggest that the FBI ever explained to the Aruban Prime Minister Mike Eman why Joran was not arrested. This was certainly never explained to the Americans, and it is doubtful that was explained to the family of Stephany Flores. It took me years to get all the FOIA releases, and even these documents, which purport to be the complete file do not answer that question.

JUNE 9: After I appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America and blasted the FBI for allowing Joran to slip away, the FBI and US Attorney issued a joint statement. The entire statement is riddled with falsehoods, misdirection, and misrepresentation. Even the notion that that this was a complex case. It was not. It was a simple case in a country that is an ally, and the crime was committed and completed in front of the FBI and videotaped.

***

Joint Press Release from Birmingham FBI office and US Attorney Joyce Vance:

Joint Statement by United States Attorney Joyce White Vance and FBI Special Agent in Charge Patrick Maley Regarding the Joran van der Sloot Investigation

In April of this year, the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s office in Birmingham, Alabama, initiated an investigation into allegations of criminal conduct by Joran van der Sloot related to the disappearance of Natalee Holloway in Aruba five years earlier. Prior to law enforcement’s involvement in the situation, Van der Sloot offered to provide information to an individual regarding the location of Natalee Holloway’s remains and the circumstances of her death in exchange for $250,000.00. The FBI-led investigation was conducted in conjunction with Aruban authorities.

The U.S. Attorney filed a criminal complaint charging van der Sloot with extortion and wire fraud on June 3, 2010.

Some news accounts have suggested that the FBI provided $25,000.00 in funds that were transmitted to van der Sloot. This is incorrect. The funds involved were private funds.

News accounts have also questioned why charges were not brought earlier, so that the tragic death of Stephany Flores could have been avoided. We offer our heartfelt sympathy to the Flores family. The Birmingham investigation was not related in any way to the murder in Peru.

Despite having been in motion for several weeks at the time of Miss Flores’ death, it was not sufficiently developed to bring charges prior to the time van der Sloot left Aruba. This is not due to any fault on the part of the FBI or the U.S. Attorney’s Office where agents and prosecutors were working as hard as possible A case based on events outside of the United States is a complex matter, and work was proceeding with all deliberate speed to prepare the evidence, the charges, and the necessary procedures to obtain custody of van der Sloot.

***

Additionally according to a CBS News report, “a senior FBI official tells CBS News that the Dutchman “had avoided arrest for five years. If we had nabbed him [for extortion], he would have clammed up. He is not afraid of anyone. It would have spooked him.”

GRETA BREAKS IT DOWN: This is not true. Joran had not avoided arrest for five years as there was no arrest warrant outstanding and his whereabouts were well known at all times. Everyone knew he went to Holland for school in September 2005, I traveled to Aruba in 2006 and interviewed him, I traveled to Thailand in 2008 to to interview him and many other journalists has interviewed him. As for “clamming up,” that was never Joran’s problem. He talked a lot. He even gave the FBI an interview lasting more than an hour in 2015. Joran’s problem, which the FBI failed to acknowledge, is that he talked a lot but it was always lies - which is why it was absurd to think he was telling the truth about Natalee’s remains on May 10, 2010. Kelly knew he was lying, I knew he was lying. (I was following up and talking with Kelly daily.) The only ones who did not was the FBI and their behavioralist.

“According to the official, the FBI felt that for the first time in five years they were on the brink of finding Natalee Holloway’s body. The FBI says it was receiving statements from van der Sloot about how and where he hid the body. Aruban officials, along with FBI agents, “were working this very intensely,” including looking at blueprints, making plans to dig and bring in cadaver dogs.

GRETA BREAKS IT DOWN: There was nothing to stop the FBI from arresting Joran on May 10, 2010 and if they wanted to look at blueprints, they could have done that while this dangerous man was in custody, rather than allowing him to kill again.

“We were not trying to build a white collar extortion case. We were trying to solve the crime,” the senior official told CBS News.

GRETA BREAKS IT DOWN: We know this is not true. There is nothing in the FBI’s internal communications about “trying to solve the case.” There is nothing to solve. Plus Joran confessed on tape. That “solved” the case. The FBI did not need a body to proceed. Instead, the FBI and the US Attorney are uncertain about how to proceed with wire fraud and extortion charges. The only reason the case was not closed is because the US Attorney and FBI had not closed it and had no operational plan for an arrest after the crime of extortion was complete — and a confession was made. Their entire operational plan basically ended when Joran was picked up from the Marriott parking lot after pointing at a random house near the tennis club.

From the FBI’s own records, we know that by May 17, Joran himself had said that he lied and even before that, by May 12, the FBI knew that neither of the houses that Joran pointed at had been under construction at the time. But if the FBI needed more proof about the houses, that was confirmed by their interviews of homeowners, which were concluded by May 19.

The FBI’s only belated “plan” was to try to use John Q. Kelly to lure Joran back to Aruba - after Joran had slipped out of Aruba - and arrest him in Bogota, Colombia. But they never thought to warn Peruvian authorities through any channels or put out an Interpol alert to stop Joran.

Their entire case had nothing additional after May 11, when the wire transfer was complete and after Joran’s confession.

And the FBI never told either John Q. Kelly or Beth Holloway of their plans not to arrest Joran after the wire fraud and extortion and get their agreement, even though it was Beth’s money and Kelly was putting himself at risk acting as a Confidential Human Source.

JUNE 30: An Alabama grand jury formally indicted Joran for one count of wire fraud and one count of extortion, exactly what they had on May 11 with a prison sentence exposure of 40 years. And because of the $100 transfer in April, they could have had two counts of wire fraud, increasing any prison sentence to 60 years. The US Attorney’s office didn’t seek a three count indictment, only a two count one.

Here are my Key Unanswered Questions for the events after the Sting:

Why did Joyce Vance, the Birmingham US Attorney, claim there wasn’t sufficient evidence for an arrest warrant before June, when the crime was committed and completed on May 10 in a hotel room in Aruba, and certainly on May 11, when the $15,000 wire transfer arrived in Joran’s bank account? Not to mention that Joran confessed to killing Natalee and hiding her body in that hotel room. It was all captured on videotape, and no substantive new evidence was developed after that sting operation, and in an email on May 7, Vance asked for the complaint/affidavit, noting “extortion is complete, so we can file the complaint.” Even FBI Special Agent Bryan admitted the crime was complete when on May 11, he also emailed that the Assistant US Attorney stated “crime is completed”:

Why were an Interpol Red Notice (June 4) and US charges (June 3) against Joran not initiated until after Stephany Flores’s murder was discovered (June 2)? Nothing changed between May 11 and June 3 and June 4 so they could have initiated charges (criminal complaint) and obtained the Interpol Red Notice on May 11.

How could the Lead FBI Agent, operating in Aruba, not know how to put out an Interpol Red Notice?

Why was Joran allowed to leave Aruba on or before May 13 with all the cash, with no international warnings, and travel to Lima, Peru, where he murdered again?

Why on May 19 did the FBI Behavioral Analyst write to the Lead FBI Agent regarding whether Joran could be prosecuted for wire fraud? Why did she state that Joran had “implicated himself (to some degree)” if she had not seen the sting tape? And when she had already been told that the crime was completed, what was her operational role?

Why did the Lead FBI agent ask to return to Aruba on May 19, after Joran had left the island days earlier, and the investigation on the island was complete? What did he do there?

Why, when the FBI knew for more than a week that Joran was in Lima, Peru, was no effort made to alert authorities there?

Why did the FBI mislead John Q. Kelly about Joran and where he was?

Why did the FBI have no plan to and make no effort to recover the money provided by Beth Holloway?

Why did the FBI never work out any arrest scenario with Aruban authorities? How could the FBI have put John Q. Kelly through the pressure of a sting, and secured $25,000 from Beth Holloway without a plan to arrest, once the crime was complete? Was the FBI plan always to let him walk off with her money?

CONCLUSION: What unfolded between May 10, 2010, and May 30/June 2 is a significant miscarriage of justice by the FBI and the Birmingham US Attorney’s office. For almost sixteen years after the failed sting, the FBI lied to Natalee’s family, to her mother’s attorney, and to the legal system and the press.

The 2026 FOIA release of internal FBI communications also demonstrated a complete lack of understanding of US criminal law by the FBI agents and the USAO, a lack of any plan for what to do once Joran confessed and got the money, no way to arrest or recover the money, as well as later attempts to mislead their own confidential human source, and Beth’s attorney, John Q. Kelly, about the real situation, and efforts to protect themselves after Stephany Flores’s murder. The FBI and the US Attorney ran an operation without a purpose and at complete odds with most elements of US Federal criminal law.

The agents wrote “no arrest planned” on their sting operational plan regarding Joran. They allowed him to be given $25K in cash, but inexplicably never asked the Arubans for permission or assistance to arrest once the extortion had taken place — or the killing confession. That was quite a “tip.” The FBI agents also knew he had left Aruba for Lima three days after the sting, but made no attempt to alert any authorities in Peru.

This failed sting still needs answers. I have five responses:

*The FBI needs to conduct a fully transparent investigation of this operation, with lessons learned.

*Congress should strongly consider hearings.

*Appropriate personnel sanctions if warranted by the conclusions of the investigation.

*Repayment to Beth Holloway Twitty of $25,000 plus interest, adjusted for inflation, for misuse of her private funds.

*Operational safeguards, operational objectives, and clear supervision guidelines put in place to ensure that this heartbreak, law enforcement aiding in the completion of another crime, and complete waste of resources never happens again.

POST SCRIPT:

In 2016, three FBI agents, including two who had been involved in the 2010 “sting,” went to Peru to interview Joran in prison. He told them that he made up the entire story about Natalee’s remains being buried in a house on Aruba. He remembered that there had been construction that year, thought the story would work, and he just wanted the cash. So in the end, Joran made a fool of the FBI.

As I will share in the coming months, in 2010, Joran’s mother, Anita van der Sloot, had a better, more thought out plan for her son on Aruba than the Birmingham FBI and US Attorney for Northern Alabama ever did...

FINAL NOTE OF THANKS

I want to thank former Attorney General Pam Bondi. Without her, I would never have gotten these FOIA documents. My request had languished for years and would have continued to languish for years, but AG Bondi, knowing the story, and with a commitment to transparency and justice, and a good heart, directed the FBI to comply with my lawful FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request.

The FBI agents involved in this disgraceful 2010 sting and the then US Attorney who supervised this disgraceful 2010 sting sure didn’t want me to see the FOIA documents, and now you know why. I pursued this investigation for years since it never made sense to me. I knew something was just not right, and the FBI’s own documents prove it.

I don’t want the behavior of a few to suggest this is my view of the entire FBI or all the US Attorneys across the country. Over the years, and even now, I have worked with so many Special Agents and US Attorneys, and I deeply admire them for their work in keeping us safe.

I am pained by what Stephany Flores suffered and what her family suffered. I remember sitting in their home in June 2010, a short time after she was murdered by Joran van der Sloot, and listening to Stephany’s father sob. I have gone over and over in my head hundreds of times - if only the FBI had arrested Joran when the crime they witnessed and taped was complete, May 11, then May 30, 2005 would not have been Stephany’s last day on earth. I hope this information about how Joran ended up in Peru on May 30 will somehow help them. Getting answers doesn’t change things but it can help.

One final note, I found out I would be getting these documents (finally!) when a high ranking member of the FBI called me in February 2026 to tell me to come pick up the thumb drive with all the FOIA documents. After identifying himself, and some cordial conversation, he said: “I don’t know how to tell you this….…but the FBI went to Aruba to give Joran van der Sloot $25,000 so he could kill again.” I was shocked by his bluntness. He went on to say that he hated to tell me, but there was never any plan to arrest Joran after he got the money. I then asked, “Then what was the point? He said, “We have no idea. We can’t explain it. This is horrible.”

- Dr. Craig Basman examines an Italian study finding microplastics in nearly 84% of 61 heart attack patients, while stressing that the research shows an association rather than definitive causation.

- Microplastics may trigger inflammation inside blood vessels, potentially increasing the risk of plaque rupture, heart attacks and strokes.

- No validated blood test currently measures a person’s microplastic burden or determines what concentration becomes dangerous.

- Anthony Fauci’s released diary entries appear to contradict his public denial that he recommended lockdowns, documenting conversations about closing schools, restaurants and bars.

- Admiral Brett Giroir says Fauci’s upcoming Senate testimony should focus on COVID’s origins, gain-of-function research, school closures and whether dangerous work in Wuhan is concealed from the public.

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- Senator John Fetterman dismisses Zoran Mamdani’s threat to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu as legally meaningless political pandering, arguing that a New York City mayor has no authority to enforce an ICC warrant. 

- Fetterman supports continued pressure on Iran, backs President Trump’s military response and warns that Tehran remains a destabilizing force across the Middle East. 

- Fetterman says the Democratic Party is becoming increasingly anti-Israel and challenges lawmakers to confront the footage documenting Hamas’ October 7 atrocities. 

- Senator Rand Paul reveals that Christopher Wray’s FBI allegedly blocks Customs and Border Protection from questioning Wuhan researcher Peter Daszak and continues resisting congressional subpoenas. 

- Paul argues that U.S.-funded gain-of-function research in China creates catastrophic risks, accuses scientists of hiding behind semantics and condemns Anthony Fauci’s belief that the scientific knowledge justifies the danger of a pandemic.

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- Eric Schubert explains how he contacts Pennsylvania State Police at age 18 and offers to investigate the unsolved 1964 abduction, sexual assault and murder of a young girl walking to school in Hazleton.

- Schubert analyzes preserved crime-scene DNA, builds roughly 50 to 60 family trees and connects several distant genetic matches to the Forte family.

- The investigation narrows to bartender James Paul Forte after Schubert discovers Forte later brutally assaults another woman near the same stripping pits.

- DNA from relatives and a preserved hairbrush eliminates Forte’s brother, leading a judge to approve the exhumation that conclusively identifies Forte as the killer.

- Schubert’s breakthrough gives the victim’s family long-awaited answers and shocks Forte’s surviving friends and relatives nearly six decades after the crime.

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- Dick DeGuerin explains how the defense separates the fatal shooting from Robert Durst’s later decision to dismember and dispose of Morris Black’s body, persuading jurors to focus solely on whether the death occurs during a struggle over a gun. 

- Durst’s bizarre mistakes, including dumping body parts in shallow water, leaving identifying trash in the bags and returning for a pair of glasses, allow investigators to trace and arrest him. 

- The conversation revisits Durst’s conviction for Susan Berman’s murder, the disappearance of his wife and DeGuerin’s criticism of a California trial interrupted for 14 months during COVID. 

- - DeGuerin argues that constitutional protections, evidentiary rules and committed defense lawyers serve as the essential equalizer against the government’s vast prosecutorial resources. 

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- James Carville describes the Democratic Party as completely “out of power” and says it will remain without a clear leader until voters select the 2028 presidential nominee. 

- Carville predicts the 2026 midterms could deliver Democrats anything from a strong year to a “monster year,” pointing to Republican retirements, Donald Trump’s approval numbers, intense Democratic opposition and rising Black voter turnout. 

- He places primary responsibility for the 2024 election loss on Joe Biden for staying in the race too long and calls Kamala Harris’s failure to separate herself from Biden the worst answer of her campaign. 

- Looking toward 2028, Carville highlights Mark Kelly, Andy Beshear, Josh Shapiro, J.B. Pritzker, Mitch Landrieu, Rahm Emanuel and Raphael Warnock, while dismissing AOC’s path and sharing stories from his early political career and his first encounters with Bill Clinton.

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- Dr. Phil McGraw argues that the government has withheld and actively dismissed credible UFO evidence for nearly 80 years, fueling public distrust and unnecessary anxiety.

- Dr. Phil points to military cameras, radar data, extreme speeds and impossible turns as evidence of technology neither the United States nor its adversaries can currently explain. 

- Senator John Thune remembers Lindsey Graham as a close friend, trusted adviser and relentless advocate for Ukraine, freedom and American leadership abroad. 

- Thune reflects on Graham’s humble upbringing, the sacrifice of raising his younger sister after their parents died, his sharp humor and the deeply personal legacy his sister now carries forward. 

This episode of "The Record with Greta Van Susteren" originally aired on July 13, 2026.

Got a comment or question? Send it to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠EmailGreta@newsmax.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and it may be used or answered on an upcoming episode.

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Today’s podcast is sponsored by :

PARAMOUNT PLUS - Don’t Miss ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠"The Agency."⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ All episodes now streaming on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Paramount Plus⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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- PJ Kaminer explains how he and his brother launched Culture Club, a frozen Greek yogurt shop in Nashville, starting from an empty retail shell and building the concept from the ground up.

-  A major focus is why they chose premium frozen Greek yogurt instead of ice cream or a full restaurant model, aiming for something that feels indulgent, healthier, and more distinctive in the market. 

- The conversation gets into the real startup grind, from expensive Italian machines and custom recipes to lease risk, staffing issues, inventory mistakes, and the challenge of opening to stronger demand than expected. 

- Kaminer says social media was a major driver of early traffic, with Instagram, TikTok, and an influencer launch event helping create immediate buzz and long lines without traditional paid advertising.

-  The episode closes with expansion plans, as PJ reveals a second Nashville location is already opening and frames the business as a family-built brand with room to scale.

Today’s podcast is sponsored by :

PARAMOUNT PLUS - Don’t Miss ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠"The Agency."⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ All episodes now streaming on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Paramount Plus⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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- Mark Geragos revisits the biggest courtroom battles of his career, moving through Susan McDougal, O.J. Simpson, Michael Jackson, and Scott Peterson with blunt, insider detail. 

- The episode also digs into the legal spectacle era, with vivid stories about Johnny Cochran, Robert Kardashian, celebrity defendants, and the surreal moments that only happen inside America’s biggest trials. 

- Geragos makes his most forceful claim on Scott Peterson, arguing not just that reasonable doubt existed, but that Peterson is innocent and that the evidence never proved he committed the murders.

- Greta and Mark close on how the profession is changing, warning that AI, overbilling, and client confusion are reshaping legal practice in ways that even veteran lawyers did not see coming. 

Today’s podcast is sponsored by :

PARAMOUNT PLUS - Don’t Miss ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠"The Agency."⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ All episodes now streaming on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Paramount Plus⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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- Joseph Perrulli reveals that he was romantically involved with Nicole Brown Simpson after her separation from O.J. Simpson, adding a previously little-known chapter to one of the most infamous murder cases in America.

- The episode traces how Perrulli first met Nicole through Kris Jenner, how their relationship deepened, and why he says he was immediately struck by her sadness, vulnerability, and later her transformation after leaving O.J.

- Perrulli  describes unsettling encounters with O.J. Simpson, including one final face-to-face meeting that left him convinced Nicole would never truly be free of him.

- A major focus of the conversation is a long-lost briefcase filled with photos, notes, letters, and memories from Perrulli's time with Nicole, which later became the foundation for his memoir, The Forgotten Briefcase.

- The interview ultimately reframes Nicole Brown Simpson not just as a victim in the O.J. Simpson murder case, but as a complex, spiritual, and deeply human woman whose personal story was overshadowed by the trial and media circus.

Today’s podcast is sponsored by :

PARAMOUNT PLUS - Don’t Miss ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠"The Agency."⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ All episodes now streaming on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Paramount Plus⁠⁠⁠⁠

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