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Stephany Flores Ramirez

According to Peruvian law enforcement authorities, Joran van der Sloot, the prime suspect in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway five years ago, has confessed to the murder of Stephany Flores Ramirez, a student at business college and the daughter of a prominent Peruvian industrialist/impresario, race car driver, and one-time political candidate.

Van der Sloot has apparently told police that he murdered Stephany because she accessed his laptop and therein discovered material relating to the Natalee Holloway case. They argued, he said; she grew frightened and tried to escape. He grabbed her by the neck, hit her, and killed her. (A leaked police report states that Joran punched Stephany in the face ten times and then hit her in the back of the head with a tennis racquet five times.) "The girl intruded into my private life," he explained. "She didn't have the right."

It's hard to know where to start commenting on this dreadful matter. But let's begin with Joran's comment that Stephany "didn't have the right" to intrude in his private life.

What was it Joran claimed to have said to Patrick van der Eem when Natalee Holloway died on that beach in Aruba? Ah, yes. "Why does this shit always happen to me?"

Everything is always about Joran, isn't it? Whatever happens only happens in relation to him. And the consequences of his actions are never his fault or responsibility. He's the victim, you see. This is pathological narcissism to the highest degree. It's also the way criminals think.

What, exactly, did Joran have on his laptop that was so incriminating that he'd kill someone who viewed it? A confession to the murder of Natalee Holloway? A file of documents implicating other people in a cover-up of that crime? It must have been something big. Big enough to make him beat to death the young woman who viewed it.

But maybe not. Maybe it was just the fact that Stephany dared to open his laptop without his permission that drove him to kill her. In the dark and ugly mind of Joran van der Sloot, that would be reason enough.
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