Natalee Holloway’s mother confronted suspect Van der Sloot in Peruvian jail

Holloway’s mom confronted Van der Sloot in jail

LIMA, Peru — The mother of Natalee Holloway entered a maximum-security Lima prison — apparently without registering as a visitor — and confronted the Dutchman who remains the lead suspect in her daughter’s 2005 disappearance in Aruba.

Beth Twitty entered Castro Castro prison Wednesday with a Dutch television news crew to talk with Joran van der Sloot, “but he refused, so there was no interview,” said Van der Sloot’s attorney, Maximo Altez.

Van der Sloot is charged with killing a woman in Peru on May 30, five years to the day that Holloway, then 18, disappeared while on a high school graduation trip to the Caribbean island of Aruba.

Twitty’s lawyer, John Q. Kelly, said on NBC’s “Today Show” Friday that she entered the jail “without violating any laws or breaking any regulations.”

He said Twitty didn’t expect to get answers about Holloway’s disappearance, but wanted Van der Sloot, 22, to know that “she hasn’t gone away, she’s determined to get answers and, you know, she wants to bring Natalee home.”

Kelly did not respond to a phone message left at his office by The Associated Press. Attempts to reach Twitty were also unavailing. Her cell phone voice mailbox was full.

In Peru, a spokesman for the national penal authority said Twitty’s name did not appear in the visitor registry of Castro Castro.

The website of a Dutch journalist who has long hounded Van der Sloot over the Holloway disappearance, Peter de Vries, said he was in Lima with Twitty preparing a documentary for Dutch television.

“Nothing, nothing at all, was done by Peter, Beth and the crew that was in conflict with previously made agreements and rules in Peru or the Castro Castro prison,” the website said. The AP was unable to reach De Vries for elaboration.

Peruvian immigration records obtained by the AP show that Twitty arrived in Peru on Sept. 11 and departed early Friday, bound for Panama.

Van der Sloot is awaiting trial in the bludgeoning death of Stephany Flores, a 21-year-old business student whose body was found in his Lima hotel room. He was arrested in Chile several days later and police say he confessed to killing her.

Van der Sloot later said the confession was forced and his attorney has filed a motion seeking to rule it inadmissible.

While in Lima, Twitty visited with members of the Flores family, said Enrique Flores, a brother of Stephany. “The meeting was very short, nearly a half hour, and went unreported in the Peruvian media,” he told the AP.

Van der Sloot has said in various interviews that he is a pathological liar.

He has told several people he was involved in Holloway’s disappearance, only to later retract the confession.

U.S. law enforcement officials say he extorted $10,000 from Twitty after offering to lead Kelly to Holloway’s body in Aruba, then used the money to fly to Lima.