Aruba, Natalee Holloway Investigation: Another Law Enforcement & Prosecutorial Screw Up, Is Anything Done Right in this Case?

Key Stone Cops now influence Rotterdam-Rijmond police.

Forget the so-called demands that Patrick Van der Eem made, the communication was botched up from the outset. Now Aruban and Dutch officials are just in CYA mode. So after they made the admitted screw up, they are now saying it was not possible. How convenient.

The question needs to be asked, did the case of missing Natalee Holloway ever have a chance to be properly investigated or solved? The initial stages of the Natalee Holloway missing persons investigation are well documented for their mistakes. The lack of any competent investigation or seriousness of the situation. Now after all this time we are presented with even more “Key Stone Cop” occurrences in this case. This time by the Dutch police.

The efforts of Patrick van der Eem fell on deaf ears when he went to Dutch police to become an under cover agent, “civil infiltrator.” Why? Because the conversation between Van der Eem and the Rotterdam-Rijmond police were never forwarded to any one. Not the ALE or even the Dutch prosecutors.

The minister indicated though that, as a result of the decision of the regional police Gelderland-Midden to pass the information from the conversation with Van der Eem to the corps of Rotterdam-Rijmond only and not to the Aruban authorities, ‘all special cases’ will from now on be brought up in the regular deliberation of the Public Prosecutor with the chief of police.  

The Dutch Public Prosecutor was also not informed of the conversation.  The minister realized in February that this was an assessment mistake.

Really? Not sharing information is a mistake? What was your first clue? The incompetence and obstacles that have been presented in the case of missing Natalee Holloway go beyond all reasonable bounds of normalcy. How many times can law enforcement and prosecutors continually screw up before it becomes obvious that it is not incompetence, but instead a consistent pattern of behavior of cover up and the want to just make a problem go away?

Infiltration was not possible due to demands of Van der Eem (Amigoe: 5/19/2008)

ORANJESTAD – The efforts of a civil infiltrator as well as an undercover agent was legally not possible due to ‘the conditions’ that Patrick van der Eem has set late last year for his cooperation, says the Dutch minister of Justice Ernst Hirsch Ballin as a result of questions of the Standing Parliament Committee Justice about the Dutch interference in the Holloway-case.

The minister indicated though that, as a result of the decision of the regional police Gelderland-Midden to pass the information from the conversation with Van der Eem to the corps of Rotterdam-Rijmond only and not to the Aruban authorities, ‘all special cases’ will from now on be brought up in the regular deliberation of the Public Prosecutor with the chief of police.  

The Dutch Public Prosecutor was also not informed of the conversation.  The minister realized in February that this was an assessment mistake.  He now assures the committee that the ‘bottleneck’ will also be brought under the attention on National level, among others in the meeting of the CIE-officials of justice.

The VVD wondered whether not giving the information could have led to improved insight of the police and justice of Aruba, before they decided to arrest Joran van der Sloot again for the second time.  Hirsch Ballin says that he has no say in this matter.  

From the minister’s answers it also appears that Van der Eem was not to be put in as civil infiltrator.  This is only possible if a criminal group of persons that supposedly derived or committed crimes with the participation of a civil infiltrator.  But this was not the case in the Holloway-case, says Hirsch Ballin.  Even putting in an undercover agent would have been against the Dutch law, due to the financial condition that Van der Eem demanded from the Dutch authorities in advance.