Birmingham, Al (WIAT)  Just when you thought the entire Natalee Holloway-Joran van der Sloot saga couldn't get any more bizarre, it takes a turn toward the surreal.

Overnight reports in Dutch media say that Natalee Holloway's mother, Beth Holloway, was arrested for sneaking a camera into Joran van der Sloot's Peruvian prison.  She was there in the company of Dutch crime reporter Peter de Vries, famous for several hidden camera "confessions" in which van der Sloot admitted a variety of stories about the fate of Natalee five years ago on a graduation trip to Aruba.

There appears little doubt from a variety of international sources that DeVries and Beth Holloway where, indeed, in van der Sloot's prison cell and that they were, indeed, thrown out after the discovery of a hidden camera.  

There are, however, conflicting reports about whether Beth Holloway is in custody although, apparently, she was detained for a short time after discovery of the camera.

CBS42 reached the American embassy in Lima but officials there were not certain whether Beth Holloway was or was not in custody.

The English language version of the website for Radio Netherlands Worldwide says "TV journalist Peter R. de Vries and Ms Twitty were briefly allowed to see Van der Sloot in the Castro prison in Lima, but were thrown out when guards discovered that Ms Twitty was filming with a hidden camera.

Quoting Peru's TV station 24 Horas, Dutch daily De Telegraaf says that Van der Sloot hardly spoke to the two visitors, referring them to his lawyer."

That's consistent with what van der Sloot's Peruvian lawyer Max Altez told NBC News.

 "Altez told NBC News that the visit was intended "to create a TV special which would include her, the Flores family, and an interview with Joran van der Sloot."
According to Altez, the Dutch media "snuck Beth Holloway-Twitty into Castro Castro without identifying who she was and put her face-to-face with Van der Sloot."

She told Van der Sloot that she had "no hate in her soul" for him, Altez told NBC News, at which point the Dutchman handed her Altez's business card, claiming that he could not speak to her without his lawyer present.
Prison officials then removed Holloway-Twitty, de Vries and the rest of the Dutch news team from the jail."

CNN Justice reports a similar story:  "Altez told NBC News that the visit was intended "to create a TV special which would include her, the Flores family, and an interview with Joran van der Sloot."

According to Altez, the Dutch media "snuck Beth Holloway-Twitty into Castro Castro without identifying who she was and put her face-to-face with Van der Sloot."
She told Van der Sloot that she had "no hate in her soul" for him, Altez told NBC News, at which point the Dutchman handed her Altez's business card, claiming that he could not speak to her without his lawyer present.

Prison officials then removed Holloway-Twitty, de Vries and the rest of the Dutch news team from the jail."

Early Friday morning, the receptionist at the Sheraton hotel in Lima, Peru, told CNN that Holloway was in her room, where she checked in by herself.
A woman in the room answered the phone in English, then immediately hung up.

Earlier reports in Dutch media, including de Telegraaf, said Holloway herself had been arrested.

 Jose Camarena, lawyer for the Flores family, confirmed that a Dutch production company had approached the Flores family to do a story with Ricardo Flores Sr., father of Stephany, and Beth Holloway
Ricardo Flores Sr. declined to participate, but said his son Enrique met with Holloway-Twitty on camera.
Camarena said that Beth Holloway "is being paid by the Dutch media to participate in a soap-opera-like special."

Beth Holloway's lawyer, John Kelly, told NBC News his client may have decided to go to the prison after Van der Sloot's most recent jailhouse interview to a Dutch TV reporter.

"I think what triggered it was that he said in this interview that she had been pestering him," Kelly added. "The message was, 'If you thought you'd been pestered before, you ain't seen nothing yet.' I just think she wanted him to know she wasn't going away."
Kelly said Holloway's visit had nothing to do with the extortion case against Van der Sloot in the U.S. Federal prosecutors charged him in earlier this year for allegedly extorting money in exchange for information about Holloway.

"This had nothing to do with the case. It was a mother trying to bring her daughter home," he said.

Asked if it was a good idea for Holloway to have this meeting, Kelly said: "I can give her legal advice. She's a mother without a daughter. I know she didn't tell me ahead of time because I would have asked her to exercise a little more caution."