Dutch Poker Pro On The Run Over Suspected Second Murder
June 3, 2010 7:12 amYoung Dutch poker pro Joran van der Sloot would appear to be on the run in South America, after the body of 21 year-old Stephany Flores was discovered in a Peruvian hotel shortly after being spotted with Sloot.
The murder took place on May 30th 2010, and in a possible case of history repeating itself, Joran van der Sloot was the prime suspect in another young woman’s disappearance, Natalee Ann Holloway, exactly five years earlier to the day in 2005.
Holloway went missing on the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba, and although no body was ever discovered, Sloot was arrested twice on suspicion of her murder. Police were unable to find sufficient evidence to charge him at the time and he was subsequently released.
Fast forward to 2010, and video evidence from a Lima casino early Sunday morning shows Joran van der Sloot with Stephany Flores just prior to her murder and, as Criminal police chief Gen. Cesar Guardia explains:
“We have an interview with a worker at the hotel who says she saw this foreigner with the victim enter his room.”
Apparently, the young poker pro had travelled from Aruba, Colombia, and onto Argentina, as he took part in the Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT). Joran van der Sloot then arrived in Lima to join the LAPT Lima poker event, which was due to start on June 2, when the incident occurred.
“He’s a poker player,” said assistant editor of Bon Dia Aruba, Harold Faro. “He goes to a lot of poker tournaments, and in Peru they had a big poker tournament.”
Sloot, who plays online at Party Poker under the name AANOTILTKK, won around $13,000 at their $300K Guaranteed tournament, last year and is said to have been a successful enough player to maintain a lavish lifestyle.
The day after Stephany Flores’ body was discovered, Sloot apparently fled to Chile by land and now has an international arrest warrant out on him.