The parents of Natalee Holloway, the Alabama teen who went missing during a high school graduation class trip in Aruba last May, have sued a youth who was questioned in connection with her disappearance.
The lawsuit, filed late Thursday in Manhattan's state Supreme Court, seeks unspecified money damages against Joran van der Sloot, 18, and his father. Both were served with a summons while in New York, Holloway family lawyer Scott Balber said.
Holloway, 18, of Mountain Brook, Ala., was last seen May 30 leaving a bar with Surinamese brothers Deepak Kalpoe, 21, and Satish Kalpoe, 18, and van der Sloot, a Dutch national. The honors student was hours from ending her graduation trip.
The lawsuit was filed by Elizabeth Ann Twitty of Alabama and Dave Edward Holloway of Mississippi, the missing teen's mother and father.
Van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers were arrested June 9, 2005, on suspicion of involvement in Holloway's disappearance. Van der Sloot admitted he was with the teen but denied any wrongdoing. All were released, and nobody has been charged.
‘The predator’
Referring to van der Sloot as "the predator," the lawsuit says that on at least three occasions young Aruban women have complained they were the victims of "date rape" by him and his accomplices.
Van der Sloot left Aruba, where his father still lives, and currently lives in Arnhem, the Netherlands, court papers say.
The lawsuit says the father, Paulus van der Sloot, was an enabler of his son's "violent and anti-social lifestyle." Court papers say that on the night of May 29, 2005, he went with his underage son to a casino to play poker. It was at that casino that the younger van der Sloot met Holloway, the lawsuit says.
The court papers present a partly speculative version of what happened after the young people left the casino and went to a bar called Carlos 'n' Charlies in the early hours of May 30, 2005.
At about 1:30 a.m., court papers say, an intoxicated Holloway left with van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers. Several of Holloway's friends saw her in the car with the youths and asked her to get out, court papers say, but she did not.
‘Torment, terror and debasement’
"The next hours of Natalee's young life were marked by torment, terror and debasement," court papers say, describing an imagined sexual assault. "Natalee has not been seen or heard from since entering Deepak's car with Joran."
Balber would not say where he believes the van der Sloots are staying in New York. He said he believed that as of Thursday, when they were served, they had not retained a lawyer.
Balber explained that if a defendant is served with a summons for a lawsuit in the state and neither party lives in the county where the summons is served, then the plaintiff gets to decide the county in which the lawsuit is filed.
