Joran van der Sloot Suspect in Stephany Flores Ramirez Murder in Peru
Joran van der Sloot, the Dutch man once considered a suspect in the disappearance of Alabama teen Natalee Holloway, is being sought in connection with the murder of a woman in Peru, Peruvian police officials said Wednesday.
Authorities in neighboring Chile are on a manhunt for van der Sloot, who fled there, Chile Interpol Deputy Prefect Eugenio Buines Arevalo told CNN.
Police are searching for van der Sloot in border region accommodations and also customs and border checkpoints. Van der Sloot will be extradited to Peru if captured, according to Chilean authorities.
At a news conference in Lima, Cesar Guardia Vasquez, of the criminal investigations unit, said there is “incriminating evidence” linking van der Sloot to the killing of 21-year-old Stephany Flores Ramirez. Her lifeless body was discovered face down in his hotel room – with multiple stab wounds.
The hotel room where Flores was found was registered in van der Sloot’s name, he said.
A hotel employee and a guest saw the pair enter the hotel room together at 5 a.m. on Saturday and police have video of van der Sloot and Flores together the previous evening at the Atlantic City Casino in Lima, he said.
Immigration officials say van der Sloot fled to Chile on Monday.
“We have all the evidence to show that the killer is this man,” the victim’s father, businessman and race-car driver Ricardo Flores told CNN en Español.
But van der Sloot’s attorney, Joseph Tacopina, told CNN it was too early to make any conclusions.
The murder of Flores occurred exactly five years, to the day, after the first crime was committed in Aruba.
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