Why Does Suspect Keep Talking in Holloway Case?

(March 3) -- Investigators aren't paying much attention to a newly released confession by Joran van der Sloot, a longtime suspect in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway. But what would motivate him to talk to the media -- and to feed the press such contradictory accounts?

"Joran is a spoiled, arrogant, cocky fellow who is confident the law will never touch him because it hasn't," criminal profiler Pat Brown told AOL News. "He likes the power he has to enthrall people with his tale and manipulate them into believing what he says is true, especially because it isn't the truth."

Holloway, 18, from Mountain Brook, Ala., disappeared May 30, 2005, while on a trip to Aruba to celebrate her high school graduation. Her body has never been found. The case received international media attention and inspired a made-for-TV movie aired by Lifetime in 2009.

Holloway's classmates said they last saw her leaving Carlos 'n Charlie's nightclub with van der Sloot, then a 17-year-old Dutch honors student living in Aruba, and his two friends, Surinamese brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe. All three young men would be arrested in the case but all three were released without charge.

From the onset of the case, van der Sloot's stories have varied significantly.

During a June 9, 2005, interview with police in Aruba, van der Sloot said Holloway left the nightclub with him and the Kalpoes. He said they went for a car ride but then dropped the tourist off at her hotel, a Holiday Inn. He said he last saw her stumbling toward the lobby.

Roughly five days later, van der Sloot gave another statement to police. In this one, he said he and Holloway had gone to a beach not far from the Holiday Inn, where they made out. He said Holloway insisted on being left on the beach when he decided to catch a ride home with Deepak Kalpoe.

He said he had lied in his previous statement because Deepak Kalpoe had told him it would "be better if we would say that the three of us dropped off the girl at the Holiday Inn hotel." He said he decided to tell the truth after speaking with his father, prominent lawyer Paulus van der Sloot.

Despite her family's efforts to keep the investigation going, the case eventually went cold. Then, in February 2006, a Dutch television station aired a hidden-camera confession that van der Sloot had made to Aruban businessman Patrick van der Eem. In it, van der Sloot claimed Holloway had died of a drug overdose on the beach, and that he and a friend had dumped her body at sea.

"He went out to sea and then he threw her out, like an old rag," van der Sloot said.

Following the broadcast of that confession, van der Sloot called the Dutch television program "Pauw & Witteman." He acknowledged making the comments, but said they were lies.

"That is what he wanted to hear, so I told him what he wanted to hear," van der Sloot said in reference to van der Eem.

Prosecutors later decided that the confession did not constitute legal evidence because the statements were a mixture of "lies and fantasy."

Van der Eem was reportedly paid about $35,000 by the program that broadcast the alleged confession.

Two years later, van der Sloot and reporter Zvezdana Vukojevic published a book, "The Case of Natalee Holloway." In it, van der Sloot gives his perspective on Holloway's disappearance and apologizes for his initial untruths, but maintains his innocence.

What, if anything, van der Sloot made from sales of the book remains unclear.

In November 2008, van der Sloot gave an hourlong interview to Fox News host Greta Van Susteren, during which he allegedly told her he had sold Holloway for $10,000 to a man he met in a casino. After the interview, van der Sloot called Fox and said he had been lying.

When Van Susteren discussed the interview during a Nov. 25, 2008, episode of "On the Record," she played a recorded conversation between van der Sloot and his father regarding allegations that the younger man was involved in human trafficking.

During the program, van der Sloot's attorney, Joe Tacopina, questioned Van Susteren about paying the young man for the recording, which he had made with his father. Van Susteren said she did not "buy" the recording, but acknowledged that Fox did "license" it.

"That's what the media does. You license photos, you license recordings, you license tape," she said.

Van Susteren did not comment on how much van der Sloot had been paid for licensing the tape, but some sources claim it was upward of $10,000.

Yet another statement van der Sloot made to the media was made public last week. This one was filmed in August 2009, but German news agency RTL said it had not aired the interview because it doubted its veracity. Nevertheless, the Dutch newspaper Telegraaf said it had viewed a recording of the interview.

According to the paper, van der Sloot named an accomplice and said the pair had taken Holloway to a friend's house, where they drank and used drugs. Holloway then allegedly climbed onto the rim of a balcony and began dancing.

"They both had just taken some coke," van der Sloot said, according to the Dutch newspaper. "I think she was pretty drunk, so she was just kind of dancing a striptease."

Van der Sloot said he walked over to Holloway and grabbed her by the hips, Telegraaf reported, at which point she "fell" from the balcony and was killed. He said he hid Holloway's body in a swamp because he was afraid of being prosecuted, the report said.

According to ABC News, the justice department in Aruba dismissed the most recent details, calling them "entirely unbelievable."

Several sources have told Alabama's NBC13 that van der Sloot was paid for the RTL interview. NBC13's Linda White confirmed this to AOL News, but said that her sources "did not know how much" he was paid.

Jasper Teijsse, a senior corporate adviser for RTL, told AOL News his news agency did not make any payments to van der Sloot. However, he did say that money was exchanged between RTL and the producer.

"RTL paid a production fee to the producer of a number of interviews, including a lie-detector test with van der Sloot," Teijsse said.

The question has since been directed to the producer, Jaap Amesz, but he has yet to respond.

It's difficult to trace whether van der Sloot is making much of a profit on these interviews. But Brown, founder of the Pat Brown Criminal Profiling Agency, said that the young Dutch man may be a "psychopathic personality" who is looking for attention. She has two possible explanations for why his stories are so changeable.

"One is that it isn't the truth, so there is not one exact replay of what happened for him to relive. Instead, he has to make up a new video of the event each time," she said.

"Secondly, he is the director of this 'film,' and he wants his audience to be engaged, and so he cuts what he realizes is not working or loses the interest of the person or he just suddenly gets a 'good idea' that he thinks will make a better story," Brown said.

"Psychopaths often do not think out the consequences of their actions or understand how others view their actions; he does what amuses him and makes him feel good."

Unless Holloway's body is found, it is highly unlikely anyone will ever be charged in her disappearance. And her family will never know exactly what happened.

"Because there was no body, no physical evidence, [Aruban authorities] do not feel they can win with just a half-baked story," Brown said.