Two teenage boys Arrested in Murder & Burning of Amber LeAnn Hess
Two teenage boys who attended Coolidge High School have been arrested in the murder of Amber LeAnn Hess. Amber LeAnn Hess’ body was recently found burned in the desert. The two teenage boys will be booked on first degree murder charges. What was the motive why these two boys would commit such a hideous act of violence?
Two teenage boys, including one who was described as a one-time close friend of the victim, were arrested Wednesday in the killing of a Queen Creek girl whose burned body was found in the desert, authorities said.
The 16-year-olds made statements that led detectives to believe they took part in the killing of Amber LeAnn Hess, 17, whose body was found Monday near Florence, Pinal County Sheriff Chris Vasquez said. Her body has been positively identified using dental records.
From all indications in that there was an attempt to cover up the crime by taking her body and her car, one would have suspected that Amber knew her killers. As it turns out they were both acquaintances, one of the boys having been a past very good friend.
Candy Hess said one of those arrested was one of her daughter’s best friends, who spent hours in their home playing video games and would call constantly.
“He was like a brother to her, which makes this even more confusing to us,” Candy Hess said.
Candy Hess said her daughter had a falling-out with the boy, who had called the girl a disrespectful name. The mother emphasized the boy wasn’t her daughter’s boyfriend.
From all accounts the attack was brutal and Amber LeAnn put up quite a fight. What would possess two people to act in such a heinous way and brutally murder Amber LeAnne Hess? The two will most likely be charged as adults. One seriously has to wonder what evil lurks in some people’s hearts.
“Basically they just didn’t like her and for whatever reason were planning to kill her,” Vasquez said. “They went to her home and through a combination of beating, stabbing and choking, killed her.”
The teens will be booked on first-degree murder charges, and other charges are likely, Vasquez said. They likely will be charged as adults, and had a court appearance set for Wednesday afternoon in juvenile court in Pinal County.
“From what I’m told this girl fought for her life in that home, and she didn’t die easy – it was very brutal,” Vasquez said in an interview from Salt Lake City, where he is attending a law enforcement convention. “If they had been adults I would be screaming for the death penalty in this case.” (FOX News)
Was Natalee Holloway Set Up?
By Pat Hurley
July 5, 2005
One thing that investigators do when they reach an impasse in a case is they go back to the beginning and retrace the facts as they know them. In the case of missing Natalee Holloway let’s do that one more time from the FACTS we know to be true.
Fact: Joran Van der Sloot was a frequent gambler in the casinos in Aruba. He was a playboy and well-connected to several of the people in those casinos. We know this because he was underage and was allowed to drink and gamble.
Fact: Joran Van der Sloot was hanging around the students from Mountain Brook all week long.
Fact: Joran Van der Sloot intially approached Natalee at a black jack table, not the other way around.
Fact: He was polite and when told she had lost a good deal of money gambling during the week, he played for her and won some of it back, earning her approval.
Fact: Natalee left him at the casino and went to Carlos and Charlie’s for the final part of the evening showing little interest in him romantically.
Fact: Joran Van der Sloot showed up at Carlos and Charlie’s and reconnected with Natalee there. They were seen dancing and leaving the club together.
Fact: Natalee got into a car driven by one of the Kalpoe brothers just a few feet away from her friends who were finding their way back to the hotel.
Fact: Natalee was never seen again.
These are all facts that have been documented by interviews with the friends of both Joran Van der Sloot and Natalee Holloway. Beyond these facts, we know nothing else to be true. It is conjecture. But, these facts, if taken logically, could lead to a very strong conjecture….
Was Natalee Holloway set up from the beginning to be taken off the island against her will?
Here is the conjecture part based on some reasonable assumptions of the facts.
Joran Van der Sloot likes to gamble. If you know anything about gambling, you know that most gamblers lose. If a gambler borrows a significant amount of money that he or she cannot pay back legally then they have to come up with a way to resolve it illegally. Owing someone money makes us do things we would not normally do. Owing someone who is dangerous a great deal of money would make us seriously consider doing something we would NEVER do. If Joran Van der Sloot owed a debt to someone and could not pay them back with his own money, he could have been told to pay with something or someone else. If this was the case, he would have to find a marker. Someone who fit the requirements of repayment. He would have to figure out a way to get that marker into the hands of the people he owed. Go back over the facts we know to be true. Remember, this is conjecture based on the facts. But, this scenario is one of the few that fits all the details including the amazing way that Natalee Holloway is nowhere to be found…
Joran spends time with the Mountain Brook kids and sizes up Natalee Holloway as the perfect mark. He waits until the last night and finds her playing cards. He makes friends with her by helping her out, thus winning her trust. He then calls the Kalpoe brothers and arranges for them to be his transportation for the rest of the evening. He finds her again at Carlos and Charlie’s. He knows she will be there because she told him at the black jack table she would be. He dances with her and puts something in her drink shortly before she leaves the bar. We are not certain WHY she got into the car with him. She is either not in control of her faculties or is inebriated enough to be responding to him at this point. He tells her that he wants to, “show her the island” and she is either out of it or is thinking, “This guy is fun! I am having a good time. No harm in that!” She walks out with him and instead of telling her friends anything, she allows him to guide her into the car which has just pulled up. She jumps into the back seat and off they go. They wheel around the lighthouse and head to a deserted part of the island away from all the lights and people.. At that point, Joran Van der Sloot gets Natalee out of the car (or they carry her unconsciously) and takes her to the shoreline where several individuals are waiting. They force her into a boat and the debt is paid. Joran has done his part. He gets back into the car, tells the Kalpoe brothers to take him home or to the Marriott Hotel beach area. At some point, he either tells his dad or calls him from the beach. He tells his dad about Natalee “overdosing” on drugs or alcohol and that he asked some friends of his to get rid of her. He doesn’t tell him about the debt. But, he is really scared that he might get into trouble. His father assures him, “No body, no CASE! and is upset that Natalee has died but it was not the fault of his son.” (He may not know anymore than that since it is also documented that Joran lies to his parents constantly) The Kalpoe brothers are not going to talk because they are afraid for their own lives and five weeks later…No Natalee. Why not? She is not on the island. Who knows what the others did to her after she was dropped off. The debt was paid in full.
Conjecture is all we have. It may be all that we ever have. Joran is the only person being interrogated so all he has to do is keep quiet. There is no one else that really knows any of the other details except for him. The Kalpoe brothers may know that Natalee was put into a boat, but they could never prove it and if they talk they could die. The father doesn’t want to know anything because he wants to be a judge and protect his son. The mother is clueless.
It is one of the few ways that Natalee Holloway could have disappeared so effectively. Like Caren Janssen, the Attorney General says, “There is NO evidence that a murder or even a crime has been committed.” Of course not.
The actions of Joran Van der Sloot stalking Natalee in advance make me lean towards this grisly ending. This appears to have been planned earlier in the week. If he was desperate for money or feared for his own life, he would do just about anything to settle it in his favor. He may not be a murderer. He may be an accomplice to a kidnapping, instead. Either way, he is a sleaze bag who is clamming up because he doesn’t want his own future compromised. That is why he will never talk. Never.
A lot of things fit with this scenario:
—no real evidence of cell phone activity, email or text messaging went on which would have indicated a panic once the murder was committed. Instead, Joran kept everything to himself. The advance plan kept any communication after the fact to a minimum
—the father is nervous about what happened to Natalee but really doesn’t know much more beyond that.
—it explains why a responsible girl like Natalee did not respond initially to Joran and may have only left with him out of gratitude and a chance for some harmless fun or she was drugged.
—it explains why the Kalpoe brothers didn’t break down under interrogation and why now they may leave the country out of fear. Otherwise, why leave?
—it fits Joran hanging around the group and not really engaging any of the girls all week until deciding on Natalee the last night she was there.
—it fits Joran’s gambling habit.
—it explains why the body was never found and how the strategy to dispose of her was not done in a few hours but well-planned over several days.
—it explains why a calculating, intelligent girl like Natalee did not make an impulsive and irresponsible decision to get into a car with three virtual strangers while her friends were standing all around her.
—it explains the comment, “Don’t worry boys, no body, no CASE!”
—it allows for the possibility that Joran Van der Sloot is not a psychopathic killer, but a coward who uses other people when it suits him. The greater the problem, the more desperate his solution.
The prevailing thinking is that he killed her alone on the beach and called his dad to help him dispose of her body. I understand that view. Either way, since the FBI was not allowed to have any control here, the absence of a lie detector, no crime scene and no physical evidence or apparent motive…Joran Van der Sloot is looking pretty safe from a legal standpoint right now.
And, this case may be not be over. Joran van der sloot write a book full of crap lies they all 4 are guilty
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About the author: Pat Hurley has spoken to over six million high school and middle school students in 47 states. He has had six books published for young people and their leaders and has produced 45 educational videos in schools on topics such as self-respect for teenagers, making good choices, peer pressure, academic excellence and realizing potential.
Comment by horan van der sloot | June 28, 2007
It really does LeAnn no justice to insert or supercede her article with an old rehash of of a post dated in 2005. As mentioned Conjecture is all we have., it really does not help the case of NH, to conjecture anything other then what has been put on the table. Remember all the ‘eye witnesses’ that came and went? Or how about real comments of some MBS students that were favorable or that they contradict for example on then when Joran met NH? Or how about if Big Hootie was so sure that JvdS is guilty why print a poster urging small Hootie to call as if there was some kind of big dissagreement prior? Or how about the Kalpoe/Dr Phil tape that was bogus? I do not claim to know what happened but giving in on conjecture would not win my vote in a Jury.
Comment by compananzi | June 29, 2007