Cable programs, desperate for another missing person or cop killing husband, broke in with news alerts last week as word came from Holland that a tape was being released that purported to show Joran van der Sloot confessing to killing Alabaman Natalee Holloway while she vacationed in Aruba in 2005. So compelling was the tape that Beth Twitty jumped on a plane to travel to Holland to see it.

When she returned to the United States she took to the talk show circuit and began telling the tale of watching pieces of the tape where van der Sloot talks openly, while smoking pot, about how her daughter died in Aruba in 2005.

It could be that the tape is true and Joran is guilty of disposing of a body because nothing in the tape remotely comes close to the cloak and dagger style of death that Twitty has been touting over the years as the way her daughter met her unfortunate fate.  Van der Sloot does not mention passing Holloway any drugs nor does he participate in the disposal of her body (he called his body disposal friend for that) – so with all of the scrutiny of the tape why is Joran still free?

Quite simply it is because Twitty trained the world that van der Sloot was a liar and pariah who could not be trusted.  So, when parts of the taped ‘confession’ began falling apart we (and investigators) did as we’ve been trained: we did not believe him.

The conundrum for Beth Twitty is now that America has bought into her “Joran drugged then killed Natalee and threw her into the ocean” scenario – when the tape fell apart so too did the confession.  For anyone else in the world this tape would be pay dirt, but for Twitty the tape is the beginning of the end for the re-re-re-re-arrest dream for Joran van der Sloot.  Even if the re-re-re-re-arrest happens all an attorney need do is play all of the countless appearances where Beth Twitty spins her tale and then tells us all to discount all that comes out of the mouth of van der Sloot.

Twitty, and only Twitty, can be blamed for the situation where a confession is insufficient to convict a person of any crime since he cannot be believed.  Twitty pushed a scenario so forcefully that her daughter was drugged and murdered by van der Sloot that anything as simple as an accidental death followed by a terribly callous disposal is too simple to believe.

But, no matter how the world media cuts up the tape at most van der Sloot comes across as an uncaring cad who called a friend after Holloway died after having suffered some kind of seizure.

There is no way to verify the story because the person, who was named in the tape, was located and he was not in Aruba at the time of the disappearance.  You have to question, though, would someone really remain quiet about disposing of a body that captivated the world for more than two years?  It is hard enough to find a designated driver when you are in college – can you imagine a designated body disposer?

It is just an odd story that doesn’t add up.  Even so –Twitty would have had hope in punishing those responsible for her daughters death, but the tape doesn’t show van der Sloot admitting anything illegal except the disposal of a body and that, I’m told from an Aruba attorney, is little more than the equivalent of a misdemeanor.  Driving drunk in Alabama gets you more time in prison than getting rid of a body so even if Joran is telling the truth about what happened – he didn’t kill her and he didn’t do anything that wrong.  Disgusting yes, but hardly illegal.

Over the last few days I have received hundreds of emails asking me if I owe the Twitty’s an apology for the things I said and written about Beth Twitty and her kin-folk over the years.  The answer is a very short no.  Nothing ever said about Twitty was untrue or not supported by facts.  Is van der Sloot the model of what I’d want one of my nephews or brothers to be?  Never.  But his being a cad does not make him a murderer.

Beth Twitty did not just accuse Joran of disposing of a body – she accused him, quite specifically, of slipping Natalee Holloway drugs while in a club then killing her.  There has never been a time when Twitty changed that scenario because her daughter could not have been drinking or doing drugs because she just didn’t “do that.”

Joran’s tape is salacious and it made for good television, but because it is van der Sloot something, anything, has to be verified before any legal action is taken against him and there simply is nothing new in the tape – other than a ‘confession’ under the influence of pot that says nothing happened. Joran’s story, if anything, exonerates him of murder.  All he did, if we can believe him now, is call a friend to get rid of a body.  A horrible thing, but not murder.

The sad thing here is that Beth Twitty is partly to blame for people being skeptical of the ‘confession’ of van der Sloot.  Perhaps had she not been so forceful in desiring to paint a teenager a killer people would believe him today.  Twitty said everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie and to discount that two year training program today would be silly unless something in the tape can be verified.  As of this writing nothing has.

Steve Yuhas is a radio talk show host on AM 600 KOGO in southern California and may be reached atsteve@steveyuhas.com or www.steveyuhas.com