Two taxi driver brothers are telling their tale of helping Joran van der Sloot escape Peru to Chile after he brutally killed the daughter of a prominent Peruvian businessman, ABC News reported.
Van der Sloot, best known as the prime suspect in the disappearance of Alabama teen Natalee Holloway from Aruba in 2005, is serving 28 years for the death of Stephany Flores at Peru’s Challapalca prison in the mountainous south near the Bolivian border.
Flores, daughter of businessman and sometime politician Ricardo Flores, was found dead with a broken neck in a hotel room registered in van der Sloot’s name in Lima on June 2, 2010, but investigators determined that she died on May 30 — five years to the day after Holloway’s disappearance during a high school graduation trip.
By the time Flores’ body was found, van der Sloot was in Chile, taken to the border by Williams and Oswaldo Aparcana, ABC’s “20/20” is reporting, along with an exclusive interview with the brothers.
“He would always ask, ‘Where are we? How long do we have?’” said Oswaldo Aparcana. “Because he was in a hurry, he didn’t want us to stop.”
First, it was just Williams Aparcana who ran across van der Sloot at about 9 p.m. on May 30 in the town of Ica, about 190 miles south of Lima, where he’d made his way after Flores’ death. He said he wanted to go to Nazca, another 90 miles south.
“He says to me, ‘I’ll pay for the whole car. Can you take me?’” Williams Aparcana told “20/20.”
Aparcana said he told van der Sloot he’d do it for $100, which the Dutch van der Sloot paid at the end of the two-hour drive. Thirty minutes later, though, van der Sloot returned to Aparacana’s cab and said the friends he’d hoped to meet had left and he now needed to go to Tacna, 10 hours away near the Chilean border.
Williams Aparcana discussed the idea with Oswaldo, and the pair decided to accept the job for $500 and use Oswaldo’s minivan for the trip. Van der Sloot couldn’t come up with the cash to pay and promised to send them the money, even leaving a few of his belongings as collateral. Van der Sloot made it into Chile and as far as Curacavi before a tip led investigators to him. He was arrested on June 3 and eventually pleaded guilty to Flores’ murder.
When he finishes his sentence, he is to be extradited to the United States, where he has been indicted on wire fraud and extortion charges for allegedly demanding $250,000 from Beth Holloway, Natalee’s mother, in return for telling her about her daughter’s death.
Holloway’s remains have not been found. She disappeared after visiting Carlos’n Charlie’s, a nightclub. Jessica Caiola, a classmate who was with Holloway that night, has said that after they left the club, she stopped to purchase some street food, and when she turned around, she saw Holloway, 18, leaving in a white car, CrimeOnline previously reported.
Van der Sloot has long been the prime suspect in the case, but he has not been charged.
Read more about the Natalee Holloway case from CrimeOnline.
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[Featured image: Joran van der Sloot and Stephany Flores enter his hotel room on May 30, 2010/AP Photo,Lima Police Handout]
