Portrait of a Monster: Joran Van Der Sloot, a Murder in Peru, and the Natalee Holloway Mystery by Lisa Pulitzer, Cole Thompson Page B

beaches along the high-rise strip, as well as other parts of the island.
    Dressed in either white or baby-blue shirts and dark-colored shorts or slacks, team members wore baseball caps with the word “Police” written on them in large white lettering. Members of the Visibility Team, which included both police officers and private security guards, were hard to miss as they cruised the Palm Beach area atop blue four-wheel all-terrain dune buggies, walkie-talkies in hand. The Noord Police Station’s district commander was the Visibility Team’s supervisor.
    In spite of the team’s exaggerated visibility, Lilly still described frustration at the procedure for reporting a missing person. No one seemed to know the chain of command. Finally, by accident, Lilly encountered Eric Williams, on vacation himself in Aruba, and now seated beside him. Williams said he was an agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and offered Lilly his assistance.
    Beth was relieved to hear he was from a U.S. federal agency, and promptly shared everything she had learned from Natalee’s friends. Williams made a few calls to police on the island and was told that on Aruba, just as in the United States, an adult must be missing for twenty-four hours before an official report can be filed. Natalee was eighteen and an adult in the eyes of the law.
    It had been twenty-two hours since Natalee’s friends had last seen her hanging out the window of a car in the company of three young men, yelling the word “Aruba” back to her puzzled classmates standing outside of Carlos’n Charlie’s. Beth was beside herself. Time was of the essence.
    Marching to the reception desk, the distraught mother approached the night manager, Brenda, with questions about her missing daughter and a possible companion. Did she know a hotel guest named Joran?
    Brenda knew instantly who she was talking about. The young man was a regular at the hotel casino upstairs, and he liked to pick up young female tourists, especially blondes. Furthermore, he wasn’t a hotel guest; he was an islander and lived year-round on Aruba.
    “He is a tall, good-looking boy,” Brenda volunteered. “Like a Dutch Marine.”
    Beth’s apprehension was turning to fear. Nothing she had heard about this stranger appeared to be the truth.

 
     
    FIVE
     
    MAY 2005
ARUBA
     
    Anita van der Sloot was worried about her seventeen-year-old son. Often, she felt like she was dealing with two different people with completely separate personalities. The transformation had been gradual but was now impossible to ignore.
    At home, Joran had become difficult. The lies and inappropriate behavior had begun years before, but his mother hoped he would outgrow it as he matured. But puberty had brought on a new set of challenges that Anita could never have anticipated.
    Almost overnight, Joran shot up physically, and became increasingly argumentative and aggressive. His younger brothers were fearful of him. Anita suspected her introverted husband was, as well, but he did his best to keep his distance. Paulus was not one for confrontation and tended to retreat to his work and let his wife handle the discipline.
    However, the power shift in the Van der Sloots’ household was undeniable. With any reproach or criticism, Joran became so brooding and irritated that the family shrank away from him, terrorized by a young man they couldn’t comprehend.
    A year earlier, when Joran brought home a new girlfriend, Melody Granadillo, his mother had been ecstatic. She was a dark-skinned beauty with curly black hair and a long, delicate neck. They had met at a birthday party in October 2003 and for a spell, Joran seemed truly happy. It was a typical teenage courtship. The two went to movies and concerts on the beach.
    Anita loved seeing her eldest son so infatuated. He had been giddy with excitement the day he told her about taking his new girlfriend to the Japanese steakhouse Benihana’s for her birthday.
    “I gave