Two years following the high-profile disappearance of Natalee Holloway, renowned psychiatrist and profiler Dr. Andrew G. Hodges announces the release of his book entitled Into the Deep – The Hidden Confession of Natalee’s Killer which tells the story of Natalee’s last night and provides a guide to what his corroborated research indicates is the Mountain Brook, Ala., teenager’s final resting place.
Hodges, a clinical psychiatrist coincidentally based in Natalee’s home town of Birmingham, has developed a forensic profiling technique known as “thoughtprint decoding” that allows criminal investigators to “read between the lines” of verbatim communication.
Hodges’ approach differs from other forensic profilers because he analyzes unconscious messages found in written and spoken communications rather than relying solely on the literal translation of such clues often considered key to investigations. Thoughtprint decoding spots “thought patterns,” and Hodges contends perpetrators of crimes are often compelled by their unconscious minds to tell the truth no matter what messages their conscious minds might convey.
At its core, Hodges’ research contends all people – using the unconscious “90 percent” of their brains – know right from wrong. Traditional forensic scientists, he says, are more likely to write off seemingly inexplicable criminal behavior as the actions of sociopaths rather than considering the unconscious – yet readily available – clues to the contrary. Such clues become clear to the trained eye.
Holloway disappeared May 30, 2005, during a graduation trip to Aruba, where she was last seen getting into a vehicle with Joran van der Sloot and brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe. The vehicle belonged to Deepak Kalpoe.
Using thoughtprint decoding, based primarily on an authenticated six-page e-mail communication between Deepak Kalpoe and an American acquaintance named Betty, Hodges has uncovered what he believes to be a step-by-step confession to Holloway’s murder as well as a map to her watery grave only about two miles off the Aruban coast. He also believes, “The extensive e-mail written within six days of the crime was triggered by an intense confrontation with Beth Twitty – referenced in the e-mail – who promised to make Deepak’s life a ‘living hell.’”
Hodges says his method is analogous to the more familiar right-brain method – meaning he reads communication for symbolic messages (think “images”) – as opposed to current profilers reading literal left-brain messages (think “just the facts”) when it comes to written documents or interviews, even though such profilers read crime scenes symbolically. In Hodges’ model the conscious mind speaks “left brain” and the unconscious mind speaks “right brain.”
Specific to the Holloway case, Hodges says Deepak Kalpoe’s e-mail “has all the earmarks of an unconscious confession detailing Natalee’s story,” promising in Deepak’s words “the truth,” “shocking truth,” “the news” and “The story,” not to mention repeated “lighthouse” imagery that Hodges interprets as Deepak Kalpoe’s intent “to shine great light on the case – again unconsciously.”
“All hidden confession letters are, in the end, a cohesive symbolic right-brain story,” Hodges notes.
In addition to the actual confession imagery that alerts the profiler, Hodges’ decoding identifies five other significant thoughtprint patterns, including:
repetitive crude double entendres which Hodges views as indicating that Holloway died a violent death in the midst of a brutal “gang rape;”
striking death imagery connected to Natalee: “my last day” (mentioned three times), “lost Natalee,” “fell asleep,” “fell down,” and “I quit;”
“choking” imagery he believes indicates she died from aspiration;
key ocean imagery, indicating that her body is on the ocean floor;
and vital container images suggesting she is still there, unmoved from where the perpetrators left her, in a large heavy container/crab cage (that went missing). Hodges believes Deepak’s written thoughts provide specific oceanographic clues as to where investigators should search next.
Hodges cites police interviews with the three primary suspects, which suggest the same group sexual assault profile. Importantly, Hodges also notes that Natalee’s father, Dave Holloway, with whom he has worked closely, has definite plans to resume the ocean search in the next month with the help of Texas Equusearch, using much more sophisticated equipment.
Steven A. Egger, PhD, an associate professor of criminology at the University of Houston, Clear Lake, says Hodges’ technique is “becoming the cutting edge of forensic science.”
“Dr. Hodges’ investigation of forensic documents in the Natalee Holloway case indicates that his ‘thoughtprint decoding method’ and ‘reading between the lines’ is, in fact, becoming a major contribution to law enforcement tools used by criminal investigators.” Egger observes.
Janice Windham, a Supervisory Special Agent retired from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, says Hodges “steps out of the box of conventional law enforcement forensic techniques” with the Holloway case, sharing a “remarkable method that reveals one’s truth – truth that is thought to be safely locked away.” “What a powerful tool,” Windham declares. “Law enforcement should wrap their arms around this.”
Key Issues
Two Cover up Stories of the Three Suspects
‘Hotel’ Story (3-on-1) vs ‘Beach’ Story (1-on-1)
As the timeline below (in Deepak’s June 4 email to Betty) demonstrates, Natalee died almost precisely at 2 a.m. on May 30, 2005 during a sexual assault by all three suspects. Immediately Deepak and the other two suspects were busy establishing alibis by utilizing internet communications, cell phones, and cell-phone text messages. The three young men attempted to establish “hard evidence” that seemed to show Deepak on his computer around 2:3o a.m., some thirty minutes after the time of Natalee’s death according to Deepak’s June 4 (2005) email to Betty.
Using their techno-toys, the three guys quickly concocted the “beach story” in which Joran went to the beach alone with Natalee—a “one-on-one” version—and left her there unharmed about 3 a.m.
However, by the time the Twittys showed up twenty-four hours later, strangely enough, the boys had adopted the far weaker “hotel story,” which portrayed a three-on-one situation in which they dropped Natalee off at the Holiday Inn at 2 a.m. Deepak attempted to manufacture a false eyewitness (his friend, Steve Croes), but when surveillance cameras proved no drop-off had ever occurred.
The hotel story quickly collapsed. Then they quickly resorted to the “beach story” which on the surface had stronger support.
What has been largely overlooked is that the three suspects clearly had the “beach story” in place before resorting to the “hotel story.” The crucial question: Why would they go with a weaker “hotel drop- off” story after first establishing a stronger “beach” story? There is one reason alone: the compulsion to confess. In actuality, the three-on-one hotel story revealed the real truth—a three-way sexual assault upon Natalee that resulted in her death. Natalee’s final moment involved “a three on one” story and not a “one on one” story.
Additionally the false hotel story showed three things: (1) the boys were liars; (2) they all were likely sexually involved with Natalee; and (3) they would readily resort to staging or establishing false alibis.
Tellingly, no witness ever emerged who saw any of the three suspects, or Natalee, anywhere near the beach on the night she disappeared, because it was a total fiction. Yet the beach story had significant advantages: (1) it took the focus off a three-on-one situation, moving it to a one-on-one; (2) it enabled the suspects—at least potentially—to blame one another. Deepak could claim Joran harmed Natalee, and vice versa. Indeed, some ten days after the fact the suspects’ hotel story had fallen apart, and the beach story now emerged even as both Joran and Deepak blamed the other for Natalee’s death, depicting a sexual assault gone bad.
Unfortunately, for the most part the media and the police have embraced the beach story, mainly because they don’t know how to read between the lines of Deepak’s June 4 email to his friend Betty, which tells the entire story of the crime scene-by-scene.
In addition, Deepak’s “hard computer evidence” establishing a secure timeline raises specific questions. Having thoroughly reviewed all relevant computer and cell phone records, police have thrown up their hands and admitted that the truth remains elusive. As Gerald Dompig put it in his Vanity Fair interview (published in January 2006), “Nobody knows what time he (Joran) got home. Nor is it clear how he got there.”
Other factors undermine the beach story cover-up. There’s no logical reason to believe that Natalee would resist returning to her hotel room after Joran left, and would instead choose to remain on the beach alone. Late at night, on a foreign island, away from all her friends, a girl who was always with somebody—it doesn’t fit at all.
Myth: Deepak not involved in Natalee’s death
Some claim Deepak now lacks a motive to continue lying and is telling the truth in the “beach story.” In reality Deepak has every reason to continue lying since, if guilty, he faces serious criminal charges. As noted above, Deepak (and Satish) and Joran both want to avoid the “3 on 1” story and stick with a “1 on 1” story.
Deepak is an admitted liar and repeatedly lied in police interviews. He has constantly backtracked and offered widely varying accounts of witnessing sexual activity with Natalee in his car’s backseat, noticing Natalee being drunk/impaired, and personally participating in sexual activity with Natalee. He has both praised Joran’s character and called his friend a rapist.
Myth: Deepak’s Emails Not Real
- Into the Deep documents the author’s extensive validation that the emails (there were 3) were authentic. Dr. Hodges has spoken with Betty, seen the original emails, seen previous email communication with Deepak, clearly established Betty’s ongoing relationship with Deepak, and had contact with family members and friends of Betty. Betty regularly visits Aruba and is a reputable business woman in Chicago.
- Wonder Woman (poster of emails) knows Betty and has continued to validate emails.
Deepak’s email matches his police interviews almost exactly but the email is a specific creation at a specific moment (five days after Natalee’s death) to tell the entire story uninterrupted–in a specific order. - In his email Deepak’s unconscious mind (deeper intelligence) tells a cohesive story. His deeper intelligence verifies itself with message markers in numerous ways—this forensic document could have been written only by him. Phony documents contain hidden confessions that they lack authenticity.
- People who deny that the emails are authentic simply reveal their vested interest as they resort to the only defense available: denial of reality.
- Additionally these folks will go to any length to deny the existence of the unconscious mind and the deeper intelligence where the real truth lies. (See Appendix A in book, “Two Types of Listeners.”)
Brief Timeline Summary (of Natalee’s death and cover-up)
1:15 a.m
Three suspects leave Carlos’n Chalie’s with Natalee in Deepak’s car
1:30 a.m
Three suspects begin brutal rape on shocked Natalee (on secluded road)
2:00 a.m.
Natalee dies suddenly and unexpectedly exactly 30 minutes later
2:10 a.m. (approximately)
Joran calls father Paulus who helps plan cover up which includes plan to bring body to Joran’s house.
2:15 a.m. (approximately)
Gardener sees three suspects stopped near Racquet Club. (Obviously suspects were already planning cover up attempting to appear as if only two boys and not three together.
2:30 a.m.
Boys quickly drive to Deepak’s house to establish alibi with Satish getting on computer and chatting appearing to be Deepak.
2:35 to 3:10 am
Deepak and Joran drive to his house staging phony cell phone calls/text messages to each other appearing to be apart with Joran heading toward his house alone. Likely they swung by friend/boat driver’s house where he snuck out to join Deepak and Joran. (Satish continues to chat intermittently on computer.)
3:10 a.m.
Joran, Deepak, and boat driver arrive at Joran’s house to meet with Paulus.
3:13 a.m.
Joran makes another phony cell phone call to Deepak, “Hey, swa (brother), I’m home.”
3:13 a.m. to 3:33 a.m.
Paulus talks to 3 boys for 15 minutes about plan to dump Natalee’s body in ocean. Boys then immediately head for ocean/sandbar.
3:25 a.m.
Deepak (really Satish) sends two email messages to Joran with no response.
3: 33 a.m. to 3: 56 a.m.
Paulus on computer appearing to be Joran: responding twice to Deepak (really Satish), checking soccer scores, and watching porn.
4:30 a.m.
Joran visits hotmail and likely back home from disposing of body in ocean. Shortly thereafter Deepak arrives home after dropping Joran off where Satish waits.
6:30 a.m.
Paulus is on his own computer researching the efects of drugs and alcohol together.
Understanding Timeline
- To understand this timeline it is important to see how Deepak reveals crucial times in a crossword type pattern–here a clue, there a clue. (Remember too this email is the hidden story of Natalee’s death and written five days afterwards so every communication/thoughtprint has to do with “after the fact.”)
- Pay attention to the particular event Deepak links to the specific time which provides clue. For example, “closing time” was definitely at 1 am. Closing time matches the music stopping, the dance being over, etc–the moment of death.
Since the three suspects left Carlos’ n’ Charlie’s at 1:15 am this means Natalee’s death was later — 1 am “closing time” for Natalee becomes 2 am properly decoded.) - Other time clues suggest the three suspects were alone with Natalee — “danced with her” for exactly 30 minutes before she died (they arrived at 12:30 am/”closing time” exactly 30 minutes later)
- Each assault lasted approximately 10 minutes (e.g. clue: “I got off my shift at 10”). Deepak was continually preoccupied with the time frame of “10 minutes.”
Only 3 All-Caps Messages in Email Tell Entire Story in Nutshell
a) “Natalee was VERY drunk”
b) “GIRL KIDNAPPED–ASK JORAN VANDER SLOOT”
c) “I would NEVER hurt anyone” (Deepak)
