MATT LAUER, co-host:
But we begin this half-hour with that development in the
Natalee Holloway
case. Is
Joran van der Sloot
ready to show
police
where the missing
Alabama
teen is buried?
NBC
's
Michelle Kosinski
is in
Lima
,
Peru
, with the latest on this.
Michelle
, good morning to you.
MICHELLE KOSINSKI reporting:
Good morning,
Matt.
Yesterday,
police
went over the details of the case with us, now saying they believe
Joran van der Sloot
targeted his victim here for robbery, and then suddenly, almost as an afterthought, revealing this, that he's telling them he knows where the remains of
Natalee Holloway
are and he's willing to tell authorities in
Aruba
. A crowd gathered for a glimpse of the young man who has horrified
Lima
while
Joran van der Sloot
was barely squeezed from the jail under heavy security through a crush of press. Taken to court, but not yet charged. Authorities seem to be leaning toward the most serious accusation, premeditated
aggravated murder
, carrying the strongest sentence here, up to 35 years in prison. Van der
Sloot
in his confession told investigators he met business student
Stephany Flores
at this casino, here they are together on surveillance video on the last evening of
Stephany
's life. They played poker, talking and laughing, leaving in her car for his hotel in the
early morning
hours. Van der
Sloot
claims inside his room
Stephany
found out on his computer that he was the suspect in
Natalee Holloway
's disappearance, that they argued, she hit him, and he, in a rage, grabbed her by the neck and beat her, so severely her neck was broken. Now, though,
police
tell a much different story, that
Van der Sloot
selected, targeted
Stephany
because she seemed to have a lot of cash, that the motive for murder was
money
, that he attacked
Stephany
in that
hotel room
to rob her. When she resisted, he choked her.
Mr. CESAR GUARDIA VASQUEZ (Peruvian National Police):
He noted that she was still breathing, there were signs of life and with his shirt he covered her face to asphyxiate her.
KOSINSKI:
Police
reveal he took all of her cash and credit cards, ditched her car, headed for the airport, then changed his mind, took a cab to the border. He was caught in
Chile
. And now investigators in
Peru
say
Joran van der Sloot
has told them he holds the key to finally finding
Natalee Holloway
, that he knows where her remains are and will tell authorities in
Aruba
. There's talk here that
Van der Sloot
's attorney may try to seek a lesser
charge:
Homicide under extreme emotional distress with a sentence of three to five years. But a respected newspaper claiming to quote from the
police
psychological evaluation says
Joran van der Sloot
is classified as an anti-social psychopath, cold and calculating, who premeditates everything, usually acts with great cruelty, reacts with much violence, and lies too much. Over the years, he's told wildly differing stories about what happened to
Natalee Holloway
, most recently only weeks before
Peru
. As part of an undercover sting, the
FBI
says he told a lawyer for
Natalee
's mother that
Natalee
fell and hit her head on a rock, offered to tell where he claimed he and his father had buried her, all in exchange for a quarter of a million dollars. Her mother supplied $25,000 up front for
information
that investigators found was also a lie.
Police
say the story about what he's telling happened here has gaps in it, and because he's told so many stories in the past about
Natalee Holloway
, more than once for
money
, there's this question over whether he will finally tell the truth this time or if he's just trying to improve his situation when he seems to have few options,
Matt.
LAUER:
All right.
Michelle Kosinski
in
Peru
for us this morning.
Michelle
, thank you.
MATT LAUER, co-host:
John Q. Kelly
is the attorney for
Natalee Holloway
's mother. He met with
Joran van der Sloot
in
Aruba
last month as part of that
sting operation
.
John
, good to see you. Good morning.
Mr. JOHN Q. KELLY (Holloway Family Attorney):
Good to see you,
Matt.
LAUER:
Before I get to what happened between you and
Joran van der Sloot
, your reaction to this news overnight that he seems to be now willing to tell
police
where
Natalee Holloway
's body is located.
Mr. KELLY:
Well, I'm sure he's trying to find a way to get out of the corner he's boxed into right now. But it's no secret that he holds the key to where
Natalee
is and what happened to her. We've always known that.
LAUER:
You've been involved in this story for several years now and it was on
March 30th
of this year that he reached out to you in an e-mail, basically offering a deal, he would give you
information
for
money
. What was your reaction to that initial e-mail?
Mr. KELLY:
Skepticism, caution, assuming everything he was going to tell me was false but had to, you know, understandably think that it might be true also. So approach it very carefully and keep communicating.
LAUER:
You actually approached it from two angles, didn't you? Because on the one hand, if he's going to give you
information
in exchange for
money
that leads to finding
Natalee Holloway
, that's a good thing, at least for her family.
Mr. KELLY:
Sure.
LAUER:
On the other hand
, maybe this exchange of
money
and
information
could nail him on extortion charges.
Mr. KELLY:
Well, that's it. It was a win-win situation, he was either going to pay the
money
and the
information
turned out to be true and
Beth
would get closure, she'd bring
Natalee
home. Assuming it was false, it would be extortion and wire fraud, and once, you know, falsehoods were proven. So
either way
he was going to be boxed in as it had.
LAUER:
So through a series of e-mails, you guys start to proceed further with this deal. It eventually leads to a first meeting in
Aruba
. Did you bring any
money
with you to that meeting?
Mr. KELLY:
No
money
, no recording devices, no one knew I was there. It was
Easter Sunday
.
LAUER:
Only
Natalee
's mom, right?
Mr. KELLY:
Natalee
's mom and my family.
LAUER:
Right.
Mr. KELLY:
It was
Easter Sunday
, it was one on one in a
hotel room
with he and I for a couple hours.
LAUER:
Tell me about the meeting.
Mr. KELLY:
Just he thought I was bringing the 25,000.
And I
engaged him in a long series of conversations, tried to get as much
information
as I could. And then told him at the very end when he was pushing the issue that I didn't have
money
with me at that time.
LAUER:
Did he get angry about that?
Mr. KELLY:
Very angry, very agitated, very upset, you know, left almost immediately with me walking with him actually.
LAUER:
Do you mind if I share something you told me in a meeting yesterday? This is a
big guy
.
Mr. KELLY:
Oh.
LAUER:
This is a physically intimidating guy. And when you -- he got angry over the fact you didn't have
money
, it was nerve-racking for you.
Mr. KELLY:
Oh, he's a
big guy
, he's 6'4", 225, you know, well built. And he's sort of a threatening individual when he gets angry, there's no question. And had he a shaved head at the time.
LAUER:
The communication between the two of you continues. Now a second meeting is set up, this one for
May 10th
, also in
Aruba
, but this time the circumstances were very different.
Mr. KELLY:
Mm-hmm.
LAUER:
This thing was right out of a movie, there were cameras and
audio recording
devices, the
FBI
was involved. Tell me about that one.
Mr. KELLY:
It was, you know, hatched weeks before.
The FBI
-- actually, you know, Governor
Riley
of
Alabama
, I had reached out to him, he got law enforcement involved in through a series of -- it was actually like a month and a half, psychological cat and mouse with
Joran
and
I. But
this was set up for
May 10th
, you know, the day after
Mother's Day
.
The FBI
was involved, the
US
Attorneys
Office
.
LAUER:
They trained you in some ways, made sure you would be able to handle your end of this on camera and in the recording.
Mr. KELLY:
Yeah. There were a lot of instructions given, a lot of things I had to follow through on in terms of, you know, speaking, acting, placement, you know, follow-through procedures, safeguards, things like that, sure.
LAUER:
You did have
money
with you during that meeting, correct?
Mr. KELLY:
When I met with
Van der Sloot
the second time, I had 10 grand cash.
LAUER:
OK. And actually, as part of the meeting, agreed then to wire an additional 15,000 into his account. So now we're up to 25,000 of the 250,000, which would be the actual agreement.
Mr. KELLY:
That's correct. The first 25,000 was to be up front for what happened to
Natalee
and where she was.
LAUER:
And so once you paid him that
money
, he then gave you some
information
as to her whereabouts. Was he supposed to lead you to where her body was located?
Mr. KELLY:
That was -- that was -- that was part of the agreement we had. And, you know, after spending a lot of time in the
hotel room
-- as a matter of fact,
Matt
, just an aside, right before he showed up in the
hotel room
, all the power went out in the hotel, on the island, there was a power outage.
LAUER:
So you're thinking this meeting's in jeopardy.
Mr. KELLY:
I was thinking I was in jeopardy, the meeting's in jeopardy, everything's in jeopardy at that point. But that being said, we went through with it, then we took a couple of car rides. He took me to the location where he said
Natalee
was buried and located at that time and...
LAUER:
He said her body was buried in the foundation of a house.
Mr. KELLY:
Yes.
LAUER:
Is that correct? He showed you the actual house?
Mr. KELLY:
I took pictures of him in front of the house pointing to the location and it's memorialized very well.
LAUER:
OK. At that moment, why wasn't he arrested?
Mr. KELLY:
That wasn't my call, you know, I was -- I was just there to execute, the
FBI
was there, they were terrific guys who were efficient, they were, you know, disciplined, they did their job, they were terrific to deal with. My...
LAUER:
Because if the
information
's correct, he's guilty of murder. If the
information
is incorrect, he's at least guilty of extortion at that moment.
Mr. KELLY:
I would think so, yeah.
LAUER:
OK. It turns out, though, the house he had taken you to, saying she was buried in the foundation, hadn't even been built five years ago when
Natalee Holloway
disappeared. So this was a scam.
Mr. KELLY:
Exactly.
LAUER:
And did he tell that you in an e-mail eventually?
Mr. KELLY:
Eventually did. About a week later he indicated that it was all
a hoax, which was sort of his MO all along with everybody:
Get the
money
and then say it's a hoax and, you know, avoid criminal prosecution.
LAUER:
Are you clear that now here
money
has changed hands, it's turned out to be a hoax. Do you know -- have any idea, and this maybe is not in your, you know, sphere here, but why he was allowed to leave
Aruba
?
Mr. KELLY:
Don't know. I mean, my job was done
May 11th
and, you know, where decisions were made, I don't think it was the
FBI
field agents that were making decisions, there were higher-ups in
Aruba
or the US or someone would have had to make that call. Whether they did or didn't or why not, I don't know.
LAUER:
OK. So he has $25,000 of
Beth
's
money
at that point and he goes off to
South America
. And you've heard the comments now.
Mr. KELLY:
Sure.
LAUER:
Did he travel to
South America
with the
money
you got for him and did he then go on and commit this murder? When you talked to
Natalee
's mother about this and what eventually happened, especially with the murder of this
young girl
in
Peru
, what was her reaction?
Mr. KELLY:
Well, she -- I mean, she's obviously devastated. It's a -- it's a second nightmare for her. You know, she's been, you know, totally committed, totally, you know, determined to always find out what happened to her daughter and bring her home. And, you know, we don't have that answer yet. Another
young girl
is dead and another family is living the nightmare she went through, too. So needless to say, she's distraught right now just for the other family and the situation.
LAUER:
So you're someone who spent time face to face with
Joran van der Sloot
; what's your impression of him? Is he a -- is he a psychopath? What is he?
Mr. KELLY:
He is. He is. You know, I spent a couple hours the first time, I spent over four hours the second time with him and, you know, he's just -- you can look right into his eyes and see he's cold as ice and pathological.
LAUER:
Well,
John Q.
Kelly. We appreciate you sharing your story with us,
John
. I appreciate it very much.
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