Exclusive: Joran van der Sloot's Mom: 'He Is Not a Murderer'
June 18, 2010— -- Joran van der Sloot's mother still believes her son is innocent, insisting in an email obtained exclusively by ABC News that "he is not a murderer."
Anita van der Sloot hasn't spoken publicly since her son's arrest in Peru, until now.
"I am not giving interviews to any American media station because I don't trust them. Stay safe and pray for Joran. He is not the monster they like the world to see. he is traumatized, depressed an has an addiction. He is not a murderer. It stinks and feels like a big trap set up for him."
Anita van der Sloot's email, apparently typed out quickly, was sent to close confidant and ex-girlfriend of Joran's, Melody Granadillo.
ABC News' Chris Cuomo sat down exclusively to talk to Granadillo about the man she knew in an interview that airs tonight on 20/20.
Granadillo, 23, met van der Sloot when she was 16 and their teenage love affair blossomed.
"It was real," Granadillo told Cuomo. "We liked looking into each other's eyes."
Watch the exclusive interview on "20/20" Friday at 10 p.m. ET
In a diary that she and van der Sloot kept together, Melody has saved poetry and emails he sent to her. In one entitled "Unforgotten..Unforgettable Love," van der Sloot wrote, "I don't quite remember the time or how you did your hair. I don't recall what was on my mind or who else was there. Filled with the tenderness and sincerity of a first love....Our noses rubbed before our lips touched. I remember never wanting anyone so much... It was the moment when I fell in love with you." Granadillo licensed a selection of materials she has kept for years to ABC News.
Granadillo told Cuomo that the young Dutch boy who told her her eyes were prettier than the stars was now a changed man.
"I know that he has a gambling problem, so I thought maybe that was taking over," said Granadillo.
Despite their break-up, Granadillo never lost contact with van der Sloot, staying in touch through the disappearance of Alabama teen Natalee Holloway and up until his now-infamous trip to Peru.
Granadillo talks to Cuomo about the Holloway's disappearance and her contact with van der Sloot during his trip to Peru where he met and allegedly killed 21-year-old Stephany Flores.
On the day that van der Sloot was arrested for the murder of Flores, Granadillo says she received a text message from van der Sloot asking him for money to buy a ticket back to Aruba. In the text message van der Sloot reportedly wrote, "I have some cash with me still so I am fine just lost the bank card and the ticket back today is 520 I would have liked to be able to be back today but cant do anything about it so much bad luck sometimes."
