Birmingham, Al (CBS42) Will almost six years of mystery about Natalee Holloway's fate be solved when FBI agents inspect the hard drive of Joran van der Sloot's computer?
FBI agents are due to meet with Peruvian justice officials in Lima Monday and are expected to get a copy of the contents of Joran van der Sloot's laptop. That could be a key break in the almost six years of wondering about the fate of Natalee Holloway, a Mountain Brook teen who disappeared on a school trip to Aruba in 2005. She was seen leaving a club with Joran van der Sloot..and never seen again.
The computer in question is a key element in two international crime stories...Natalee's disappearance and the murder of 21 year old college student Stephany Flores. Flores corpse was found in van der Sloot's Lima, Peru hotel room exactly five years after Natalee's disappearance in Aruba. Peruvian officials and even van der Sloot's attorney say he killed Flores in a rage after she found material relating to Natalee on his laptop.
That happened shortly after FBI officials say van der Sloot committed wire fraud and extortion by promising the Holloway family information about Natalee's fate but never coming across with real information.
It's possible there might be evidence pertaining to the fraud case on the laptop as well as information about Natalee's last hours.
The Birmingham FBI office would not confirm that local agents are making the trip to Lima.
Van der Sloot's Peruvian defense attorney Max Altez is expected to be at the meeting with FBI agents as will a representative of Stephany Flore's family.
Altez is seeking a 3-5 year sentence in Flores death claiming what amounts to temporary insanity. Peruvian justice officials and the Flores family have called her death a particularly violent crime and are asking for 30 years.
A Birmingham justice department spokesperson says the local feds are keeping a close eye on the process unfolding in Peru. Van der Sloot also faces possible extradition to Alabama to face the wire fraud and extortion charges.
