UPDATED: Dutch reports: Joran van der Sloot admits to dumping Holloway's body

Updated at 5:52 a.m., Feb. 23, 2010

BNONews, a Dutch wire service, reports that Joran van der Sloot has confessed to dumping Natalee Holloway's body in an Aruban marsh. CBS 42 was looking into the story early Tuesday morning. Van der Sloot has long been a suspect in the May 2005 disappearance of Holloway, a Mountain Brook High School student who was on her senior trip.



According to the report (in English), van der Sloot said in an interview with RTL Television, a German television station, that he dumped Holloway's body in a swamp in Aruba. A second interview is scheduled for this week in Frankfurt, Germany, according to this report (in English) from DutchNews.nl.

UPDATE: MSNBC's story describes De Telegraaf, the Dutch newspaper that originally reported RTL's interview with van der Sloot, as a "Dutch tabloid newspaper," and says RTL Television has not aired the interview due to concerns about van der Sloot's truthfulness.

The BNONews report suggests that van der Sloot's most recent confession is similar to another he made two years ago, in which he said he disposed of Holloway's body in the sea, not in a marsh. Prosecutors were not able to use that confession, part of a 2008 undercover story by independent crime reporter Peter R. de Vries, as evidence. This, from the Wikipedia article on Natalee Holloway, might explain why:

The broadcast aired February 3, 2008. The broadcast included excerpts from footage recorded from hidden cameras and microphones in the vehicle of Patrick van der Eem, a Dutch businessman and ex-con,^[110] who gained Van der Sloot's confidence. Van der Sloot was seen smoking marijuana^[111] and stating that he was with Holloway when she began convulsively shaking, then became unresponsive. Van der Sloot stated that he attempted to revive her, without success. He said that he called a friend, who told Van der Sloot to go home and who disposed of the body.^[112] An individual reputed to be this friend, identified in the broadcast as Daury, has subsequently denied Van der Sloot's account, indicating that he was then in Rotterdam at school.^[113]

The Aruban prosecutor's office attempted to obtain an arrest warrant for Van der Sloot based on the tapes; however, a judge denied the request.^[114] The prosecutor appealed the denial, but the appeal failed on February 14, 2008.^[115] The appeals court held that the statements on the tape were inconsistent with evidence in the case and were insufficient to hold Van der Sloot.^[116]

On February 8, 2008, Van der Sloot met with Aruban investigators in the Netherlands. Van der Sloot denied that what he said on the tape was true, stating that he was under the influence of marijuana at the time. Van der Sloot indicated that he still maintains that he left Holloway behind on the beach.^[110]

There's more in the Wikipedia article about the Feb. 2008 confession, and additional information on it from FOX News here: Hidden Camera Footage Shows Holloway Suspect Confess to Dumping Body at Sea

Van der Sloot has apparently been confessing to many things in recent years. In a Nov. 2008 interview on the FOX News show "On the Record with Greta van Susteren," van der Sloot said he was offered $10,000 by a man he met in an Aruba casino if he could provide the man with a "blond girl." Van der Sloot said he took Holloway to a beach, where he met a stranger who gave him slightly less than $10,000. The stranger then left in a boat with Holloway. According to van Susteren, van der Sloot later said he was lying in the Nov. 2008 interview.

Julia Renfro, an editor at "Aruba Today," appeared on the van Susteren's show following the death, on Feb. 10, of van der Sloot's father, Paulus van der Sloot. Renfro reported that the investigation into Holloway's death is ongoing, and Joran van der Sloot is still a suspect.

SOMEWHAT QUESTIONABLE TRANSLATIONS OF DUTCH SITES:

De Vries has responded to the new developments in the Holloway case on his website. Check out a somewhat questionable Google Translate version of de Vries' post here.

Here's a somewhat questionable Google Translate translation of the story cited by BNONews from De Telegraaf, a Dutch morning newspaper from Amsterdam: Joran confesses again

UPDATE: Aruba prosecutor Peter Blanken says the odds of finding Holloway's body in the marsh van der Sloot allegedly left her in are not good, according to another story and another shaky translation from De Telegraaf.

UPDATE: MSNBC's story describes De Telegraaf as a "Dutch tabloid newspaper," says RTL Television has not aired the interview due to concerns about van der Sloot's truthfulness.