Five Years Later

Five years ago, when Natalee Holloway disappeared during a class trip on the island of Aruba, a teenager named Joran van der Sloot was the prime suspect but, for whatever reason, the authorities could never amass enough evidence to hold him.

Now van der Sloot has been arrested in Chile in connection to the death of a 21 year old Peruvian girl in Lima. In addition to the murder charges, police in Chile say he stole $5,000 in gambling winnings from the murdered girl and, just for good measure, the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama has charged van der Sloot with extortion and wire fraud. The charges claim that the Dutchman promised information on Natalee Holloway's whereabouts in exchange for $250,000.

This is the kind of thing that makes you want to howl at the moon in frustration. It sure looks like this character is a really bad guy and should be locked up for everyone’s protection. Life confined to a Peruvian prison cell sounds about right. The frustration part comes in when you just know the Aruban police and FBI investigating Holloway’s disappearance knew this guy did it but they just couldn’t nail him.

I’ll bet there were a couple of really drunk police officers in Aruba last night. I don’t blame them for tying one on but it’s not their fault. We live and die by the rule of law. Unfortunately, sometimes that means a bad guy gets away and an innocent girl dies needlessly.

I have to be honest though, that really sucks. Tell me again that there’s an Omni benevolent and just God ruling the universe? Was a little evidence five years ago too much to provide? Better yet, was a smack on the head of van der Sloot while Holloway was still ok too much to ask for?

Men are fallible and imperfect so their laws are fallible and imperfect. Sometimes bad guys get away and sometimes good guys get punished unjustly. What's God's excuse?