LIVE AND DIRECT has learned that authorities are about to re-question the three main suspects in the case of missing Alabama student Natalee Holloway.
COSBY: Joining me now on the phone is a special adviser to the Aruban government, Steve Cohen. Steve, when could this happen?
STEVE COHEN, SPECIAL ADVISER TO ARUBAN GOVERNMENT: Well, I think the sequence of events is fairly simple. Joran will be arriving back in Aruba in the next 24 to 48 hours. It is expected that he will be re-questioned somewhere in the next 10-day period. I doubt that they will bring him back for questioning immediately, but it will be in that period. And also, it is expected the Kalpoes will also be brought in for questioning.
I do want to make the distinction for you and your audience between questioning and rearrest. This is a questioning procedure that Chief Dompig is going to go through with them because as they‘ve analyzed the timeline, they‘ve found some other discrepancies and they want to review these discrepancies with the three suspects.
COSBY: Hey, Steve, what are those discrepancies exactly?
COHEN: Well, I think it‘s mostly timeline discrepancies, Rita. As you look at their testimony and their interrogations of where they were at different times between 1:30-something in the morning and between 3:30 in the morning, these are very important two or three-hour blocks that the investigators want to review in detail. I can‘t go much further than that because, obviously, we don‘t want to give away the nature of the interrogation. By the way, the attorneys of these boys are aware that questioning was likely to occur within the next few week periods. So this is not a surprise to anyone.
COSBY: ...Joran Van Der Sloot apparently just returned to the island...he met with his parents at the airport and left without speaking to reporters... So that‘s good that he will be at least available for that re-questioning...This is Chief Gerold Dompig, the police chief there in Aruba. This is what he said to me last month when we talked about the boys.
GEROLD DOMPIG, ARUBAN DEPUTY POLICE CHIEF: I still believe that these boys have been lying. They‘re still lying. And everybody knows that by now.
COSBY: That, of course, was the police chief talking to me last month here on the show. You know, Steve, as we hear that, is this a voluntary questioning or involuntary?
COHEN: Well, they can be compelled to come back because they continue to be suspects. Remember that when Joran was allowed to go begin school, that basically, the suspect characteristic had not been waived, nor has it been with the Kalpoes, so...
COSBY: I guess what I‘m asking you is, Can they lie under oath? That was a distinction you and I talked about the other day.
COHEN: Yes, I think it‘s important to clarify all this, is that if they‘re under oath and they lie, that could be felonious. If they‘re involved in an interrogation and they lie, if the result of that lie leads to something that‘s a felony, obviously, that could be prosecuted. But it‘s not like the United States. If you lie to a federal agent, that‘s a felony, like Martha Stewart did to an FBI agent.
COSBY: Will they be under oath, Steven, in this new series of questioning?
COHEN: Well, the interrogation is not really an under-oath procedure to the way it would be in our court if you were under oath in front of a judge. It does not have the same sense of urgency and the same weight as it would. However, they have specific questions to ask them along the timeline, and as Dompig said, he‘s certain that there‘s discrepancies in what they said and he wants to see if he can clear them up. That‘s not to say that even if they‘re not cleared up and they are—if they were still lying, that that‘s going to lead to a felony count.
COSBY: Right. Steve, if you could stick with us because I want to bring in—this is the new attorney for the Holloway family, John Q. Kelly. John, of course, represented a lot of high-profile clients, including the family of Nicole Brown Simpson in the civil case against O.J. Simpson...and also, we have with us on the phone, Natalee‘s father, Dave Holloway.
COSBY: John, let me get your reaction to this breaking news that now the suspects, as we just heard from Steve, probably in the next 10 days, will be re-questioned.
JOHN Q. KELLY, ATTORNEY FOR NATALEE HOLLOWAY‘S FAMILY: That‘s terrific. It shows some progress. But once again, I wish the family or myself would not hear it through the media and be the last ones to know, that we‘d be kept in the loop by the media and the journalists and the Strategic Communications Task Force and be privy to some of this information.
COSBY: Let me get Dave Holloway. Dave, your reaction to the news that the three suspects are going to be re-questioned in the next 10 days?
DAVE HOLLOWAY: Well, that is good news they‘re going to be re-questioned. Of course, the question I have now is, are they going to watch and see if they all get together and get all their stories straight now? You know, it‘s good to see that they give them all advance notice and tell them exactly what they need to know and what they need to be questioned on.
COSBY: Yes, Steve, how can you guarantee that they‘re not going to sort of try to combine their stories, like they did that very first night, when they got caught in that first lie?
HOLLOWAY: Well, there‘s not any guarantees. I mean, they already have notice now, so, you know...
COHEN: I don‘t think there are guarantees of any of it. And as I said, this isn‘t something that just came up. I mean, the attorneys knew for some time the likelihood that these boys would be brought back for questioning. I think it‘s a little silly to expect that the attorneys wouldn‘t have briefed them anyway. And again, of course, the attorneys will be with them for any interrogations. They cannot speak during interrogation, but they can take breaks and inform their clients.
COSBY: Is that something that John Q. Kelly could play a role in, you know, so we can get the family representative involved, Steve?
COHEN: No, I don‘t—unfortunately, I don‘t think. And I know that John, of course, is after very good purposes for the family. I just think that this is part of the process that is a closed process by the inspectors involved in the interrogation. I do think, though, that we‘re at a point now where it‘s very important that Mr. Kelly and the Holloways be able to reinsert themselves into communication with either Karin Janssen or Chief Dompig on a confidential basis, so that they can, in fact, know what‘s going on.
I think we‘re all hoping that we can sort of put away to the acrimony of the last months and just get down to all of us putting our energy on both sides of this issue because I think we‘re all on the same side (Yeah, whatever...you are a great PR spokesperson by making that ridiculous comment), and to try to get as much faith and power together to solve this case.
COSBY: John, are you concerned that this is questioning is not under oath, so they could technically lie again under Aruban law? What concerns you the most, John?
KELLY: Well, the suspects are not going to be under oath, and there‘s no repercussions for lying once again. And certainly, the element of surprise has been lost, too. But you know, as Steve pointed out, I‘m sure they‘ve themselves and the attorneys have known this day was going to come at some point, and I just hope that law enforcement rises to the occasion down there and finds a way to get the answers the family so desperately needs.
COSBY: And Dave what concerns you the most? And what question, if you had them in front of you, what would you ask?
HOLLOWAY: Well, you know, I know the timeline is important. And certainly, I would ask them about any other people that may be involved, such as the father. You know, he‘s no longer a suspect, and I‘m wondering if he could be interviewed as a witness now.
COSBY: Real quick, Steve. You got a two-second answer. Will the father come in, Paulus Van Der Sloot?
COHEN: He could be brought in—he could definitely be brought in either voluntarily or he could be brought in again as a suspect, if that is the case...
COSBY: Is that in the plan?
COHEN: No, I don‘t believe that is in the plan.
COSBY: So what should authorities look for when they re-question these three boys now with this new news, especially now that we know that Joran is back in Aruba?
Is it possible to tell whether or not someone‘s lying just by the sound of their voice? Well, a piece of technology is putting that idea to the test. One voice analyst listened to an interview from suspect Joran Van Der Sloot that aired on American television, and he has big-time doubts about Joran‘s story.
Joining me now is layered voice analyst Richard Parton. He‘s the president of a company simply called V. Richard, how does this technology work?
PARTON: We work off the frequencies of the voice. From frequencies, we can tell the psychological parameters of the speaker, his willingness to talk, his concentration levels, how much he‘s thinking, if he‘s thinking from his memory or his imagination. We can see his emotional states. We can tell how many things he‘s deciding to hide from us. At this point right here, he thought of about two different items he decided to withhold from us and tell us. You can also see his deception rate.
COSBY: I‘m going to get to you analyze it. This is when Joran talked about the night that Natalee disappeared. He also addresses that allegation that the three suspects raped her. Here‘s what he had to say:
JORAN VAN DER SLOOT: Well, yes, I kissed with her, but neither me, Deepak or Satish ever had sex with her, and no one ever—ever said otherwise.
COSBY: Richard, what did you take from that?
PARTON: Well, when he said, “Yes, I kissed with her,” those were inaccurate statements, you know, which would indicate that there was something a little bit more involved with the kissing. But we were very fortunate because he also mentioned Deepak and Satish‘s name also, and that they didn‘t do anything, and that in itself came in as an inaccuracy. So we know for a fact now...
COSBY: That‘s by the vibrations?
PARTON: From the frequency. We look at about 120 different parameters of the voice‘s frequency, and what we come up with is what we call the DNA of thought. So we are very precise.
COSBY: This is about the night that Joran met her and about his feelings about Natalee. That is what he had to say before:
VAN DER SLOOT: I didn‘t have any feelings for her because I didn‘t know her at all. I just—the feelings I had for her were because she was attractive. I thought she was very outgoing. She came to me. She was the one that talked to me. She asked for me to dance with her, which I didn‘t even do. (I find that hard to believe since all his websites show pictures of him with a multitude of girls...he even labels a picture between two girls and Freddy as "3 some")
COSBY: And what did you carry away from that, Richard?
PARTON: Number one, she didn‘t approach him. The most that she did was come into his field of vision. He was accurate when he said he didn‘t have any feelings for her. From this and other statements that he offered on that meeting with Natalee, the nearest thing we can find that can describe his feelings for her was akin to prey. He did not see her as a person. He did not see her as particularly—she was attractive, but not in an emotional sense but more in a—in a physical qualifying sense.
COSBY: And Richard, how do you know that this maybe just is an innocent boy who‘s nervous and that he comes across that way in the sound waves and the frequencies?
PARTON: The technology that we have analyzes the person from the situation, the ambient stress that they‘re in at that moment. Basically, you can be defusing a nuclear bomb, and we could calibrate you in that stress situation and tell if you‘re lying about touching the red wire or the black white. So the Ambient stress at the moment is irrelevant to us.
