LIMA, (Reuters) – A Dutch citizen who was arrested twice over the disappearance of an American student in Aruba in 2005 is the prime suspect in a new homicide investigation in Peru, police said yesterday.
Joran Van der Sloot was questioned after student Natalee Holloway went missing during a high school graduation trip in the Dutch Caribbean island five years ago, a case that attracted heavy media attention in the United States. He was not charged due to insufficient evidence.
Now he is wanted in Peru in connection with the murder of 21-year-old Stephany Flores, a Peruvian woman found dead on the floor of a hotel room in Lima on Monday.
“Homicide personnel are convinced, due to the incriminating evidence we’ve found, that this Dutch citizen is the person responsible for killing Stephany Flores,” said Cesar Guardia, head of the Peruvian police crimes unit.
Her father, Ricardo Flores, is a well-known Peruvian businessman and when his daughter disappeared over the weekend he told reporters he feared she had been kidnapped.
“My daughter was stabbed. I think there was some kind of fight. The autopsy will determine that,” Ricardo Flores told reporters.
Guardia told local radio Van der Sloot, who is in his early 20s, had left Peru headed for neighbouring Chile. “We have information that he’s in Chile (and) we’ll make use of international treaties to catch him,” he said.
