Death of Stephany Flores
On May 30, 2010, the fifth anniversary of Holloway's disappearance, Stephany Tatiana Flores Ramírez, 21, died at the Hotel Tac Sac in the Miraflores District of Lima, Peru.[17] Her beaten body was discovered three days later in Room 309,[18] which had been booked in Van der Sloot's name.[19] According to Peruvian investigators, she suffered blunt force trauma to her head, breaking her neck. A baseball bat, identified as a murder weapon, was recovered in the room.[18] A hotel guest and an employee have come forward to claim they saw Van der Sloot and the victim entering his hotel room together and the police have video of the two together the night before at the Atlantic City Casino in Lima.[20][21] Van der Sloot had entered Peru via Colombia on May 14, 2010 to attend the Latin American Poker Tour.[22][23]
Flores Ramírez was the daughter of Ricardo Flores, a former president of the Peruvian Automobile Club and winner of the "Caminos del Inca" rally in 1991. He is a well-known prominent businessman who ran for vice president in 2001 and for president five years later on fringe tickets.[24] Flores said that police found date rape drugs in his daughter's car about 50 blocks from the hotel where she died.[25]
Peruvian officials named Van der Sloot as the prime suspect in the murder investigation.[24] Interpol issued an international arrest warrant for Van der Sloot, believing that he had fled the country to Chile and was traveling to Argentina.[26] Van der Sloot was sighted entering Chile via the Chacalluta border crossing, north of Arica, on May 31, 2010.[27] He was arrested near Curacaví by the Investigations Police of Chile on June 3, 2010 while traveling in a rented taxi on Highway 68 from the coastal city of Viña del Mar to the capital Santiago.[28][29][30][31] He was subsequently transported by Chilean military aircraft back to Arica and handed over to Peruvian authorities at the Chacalluta border crossing on June 4, 2010.[32][33]
