http://www.aolnews.com/crime/articl...earance-is-linked-to-another-killing/19504567 (June 5) -- Eerie coincidences are coming to light as authorities compile their case against Joran van der Sloot, the longtime suspect in Natalee Holloway's disappearance, who's now expected to be charged soon in the killing of another young woman in Peru. The Alabama 18-year-old vanished five years ago on Memorial Day weekend while on a high school graduation trip to Aruba. That's exactly five years to the day before the slaying of 21-year-old Stephany Flores, who was found dead last weekend in a Lima hotel room registered to van der Sloot. "We are probably talking about a serial killer," Peru's interior minister, Octavio Salazar, told reporters, according to the New York Daily News. The 22-year-old Dutchman was captured in neighboring Chile and delivered to Peru yesterday to face possible charges. Authorities say security cameras spotted him and Flores walking together in a hotel and casino where a poker tournament was being held. Later the woman's body was found fully clothed but battered and bruised, with a broken neck, in van der Sloot's hotel room. Investigators also found a baseball bat in the room, and two law enforcement sources told CNN that it was the suspected murder weapon. Van der Sloot told Chilean police that he did not kill Flores but said "he met her, and at some point, they went to a casino," Chilean police spokesman Fernando Ovalle told The Associated Press. A journalist who happened to be there covering the Latin America Poker Tour wrote a blog for the San Francisco Chronicle describing the scene. Tournament officials told him van der Sloot wasn't playing in the poker tournament, but was instead a "railbird," a slang poker term referring to someone who stands elbow-to-elbow with other spectators. Van der Sloot was twice arrested and then released in Holloway's case. He's denied any involvement in her disappearance as well, and was never charged. But he's accused of trying to sell information about the case -- including perhaps the location of Holloway's body -- for $250,000. A warrant is out for his arrest in Alabama on charges of extortion and wire fraud. Van der Sloot's former attorney, Joseph Tacopina, told CNN it was too early to tell whether any of these cases are related. "I just think we need to take a step back before we get to the 'I told you so' stage, and let's see what the evidence is here," he said. Tacopina said he's no longer representing van der Sloot and that the young man no longer has a good relationship with his family. His mother is "shocked" by the latest allegations against her son, according to her lawyer, Bert de Rooij, who spoke to Dutch media. He said Anita van der Sloot spoke to her son by telephone on Thursday evening, and that Joran had "certainly not" admitted to murdering Flores.
