By DON GENTILE
Dutch teenager Joran van der
Sloot confessed to his father
that he dumped Natalee
Holloway's body in shark-infested
waters after she accidentally
hit her head and drowned in a drug-induced
stupor on an Aruban beach.
This stunning new theory from inside
the police investigation of the
missing teen emerged as her grief-stricken
relatives came to terms with
the fact that Natalee was not going to
be found alive — or possibly not found
at all — because the man-eating
sharks may have left nothing behind.
"Her family has come to believe that
she's not with us anymore. That's just
realistic," said Natalee's step-uncle
Steve Parten, a Florida minister.
Natalee, from Birmingham, Ala.,
was last seen around 1 am on May 30
leaving Carlos 'n Charlies, a local
nightclub, with 17-year-old Joran
and his buddies Satish Kalpoe, 18,
and his brother Deepak, 21.
It was the last night of Natalee's
high school graduation trip with her
classmates.
For the first time, police are investigating
information from several
sources that a panic-stricken Joran
confessed to his father Paulus that
Natalee died accidentally and that he
fed her body to the sharks.
Two of those sources are Jim Dooley,
a South Carolina job recruiter
for the health care industry, and his
wife, Bella.
In an exclusive interview, the Dooleys
said they contacted the FBI after
learning of Joran's confession to his
dad during a shopping trip to a clothing
store in Charlotte, N.C. The date
was June 11, just a few days after Aruba
police had arrested Joran and the
Kalpoe brothers as "persons of interest"
in the case.
Dooley said the clerk at the clothing
store told him that she and her husband
are very good friends with
Joran's dad, Paulus van der Sloot, and
his wife, Anita. Her own son had attended
school with Joran on the
island and was a close pal.
The clerk told Dooley: "Joran told
his father that he and Natalee had all
been drinking and taking drugs at
the nightclub. The father specifically
mentioned they took Ecstasy. Joran
told his father that when they left the
club, they went to a beach on the island.
Natalee was very ill and threw
up several times.
"Then she fell and hit her head on
something. Joran checked her and
realized she was dead.
"Joran and others discussed an appropriate
place to dump Natalee's body, a specific place where someone
would disappear forever... a spot on
the island where the waters are
shark-infested."
Arubans know the shark-feeding
spot very well and directed a National
Enquirer reporter to its location
on the rugged north coast of the island,
where the ocean pounds the
rocks and few people live.
The water there is deep and
murky and sits beneath a high cliff,
far away from the beautiful beaches
and posh hotel casinos on the island's
southern side.
A meatpacking plant once
occupied the site. Workers
there would discard meat
cuttings into the ocean.
The sharks would quickly gather
and go into a feeding frenzy. To this
day, dead animals are dumped into
the waters at the shark site for the
sake of tourism.
The clerk continued: "Paulus van
der Sloot is very worried. This was
an accidental death but his son is
likely to end up going to jail because
it looks like he was covering up a
murder.
"But Paulus admitted telling his
son that if a body wasn't found, there
could be a chance he'd get out of jail."
According to another source close
to the case, Robert Werner, headmaster
of the International School of
Aruba, where Joran attended classes,
also said that Paulus van der Sloot
admitted to him his son confessed
that Natalee died accidentally in a
fall on a beach.
The source revealed: "Paulus told
the headmaster that Joran and Natalee
had been taking drugs and
decided to go for a swim. As they
played in and around the water, Natalee
fell, hit her head on a rock and
drowned. In a drug and alcohol-induced
panic, Joran felt he had no
other choice but to dispose of Natalee's
body in the sea."
Paulus van der Sloot was arrested
himself on June 23, a week
after the Dooleys reported their
conversation with the clerk to the
FBI. He was later released but he
could be rearrested, said Aruban
authorities. He did admit talking
to his son about Natalee's disappearance,
saying he advised him
in general terms that without a
body there may be no way to prove
a crime was committed.
The Kalpoe brothers were also released.
But they, too, could be
rearrested, Aruban authorities said.
At the time of going to press, Joran
remained behind bars. His family
maintains his innocence.
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