LIMA, Peru – The lone suspect in the disappearance of U.S. teen Natalee Holloway was paraded — moist-eyed and looking stunned — before reporters on Saturday as Peruvians denounced him and detectives began interrogating him about the murder of a Lima student.
Joran van der Sloot arrived at criminal police headquarters in a brown Interpol SUV and was escorted across an auditorium of shouting, shutter-snapping journalists three times.
Wearing a green bulletproof vest, his hands handcuffed behind him, the husky 22-year-old stared straight ahead and didn’t respond to reporters’ questions or make eye contact.
Outside, seven Indian shamans in brightly colored ponchos repeatedly stabbed a cloth doll representing van der Sloot in a “spiritual punishment” ritual. “We’re punishing him so that all the forces of evil are purged,” one shouted.
