Manhunt Underway in Chile For van der Sloot: UPDATE: Caught

Peruvian officials are getting assistance from Chilean law enforcement in hunting down Joran van der Sloot in connection with the murder of a 21-year-old woman, Stephany Flores, in a Lima hotel room.

Flores' body was found clothed, face down on the hotel room floor Wednesday, abrasions on her face and body, and signs of trauma, Peruvian Police Gen. Cesar Guardia said. An autopsy is in progress.

Van der Sloot was in Lima for a poker tournament, police said, and appears with Flores in a video at a casino. A hotel employee spotted the pair around 5 a.m.

"We have an interview with a worker at the hotel who says she saw this foreigner with the victim enter his room," said Guardia.

The police say van der Sloot fled the hotel, alone, four hours later.

Chilean authorities believe he is still in their country and are searching hotels in the tiny towns of its northern provinces.

This murder took place five years to the day following the infamous murder of Natalee Holloway in Aruba. No one was ever charged in that murder, and her body was never recovered. Here, there is considerable forensic evidence and the body is in the hands of the medical examiner.

To clarify something I wrote yesterday, this report spells out where Flores was found:

In Lima, police Gen. Cesar Guardia said at a news conference that the slain woman was found Wednesday in a room at a hotel where van der Sloot had been staying and that she had been seen with the suspect early Sunday, when she was killed.

UPDATE:
Van der Sloot was apprehended by Chilean police in Santiago, Chile:

The suspect, Joran van der Sloot, was escorted by three police officers as he was taken from a dark vehicle into a police office in downtown Santiago, Chile. He made no comment as he entered, walking calmly and without handcuffs as journalists shouted his name. It was not immediately clear where he was picked up.

In Lima, police Gen. Cesar Guardia said the slain woman was found Wednesday in a room at a hotel where van der Sloot had been staying and that she had been seen with the suspect early Sunday, when she was killed.

The killing happened exactly five years after the May 30, 2005, disappearance of Holloway during a high school trip in Aruba, a Dutch Caribbean island where van der Sloot's late father was a prominent judge.

Prosecutors said van der Sloot is still their main suspect in the case even though he was never charged.

Guardia said the 22-year-old Dutchman was in Peru for a poker tournament and appears with the dead woman in a video taken at a Lima casino early Sunday. The two were later seen entering the hotel by one of its employees about 5 a.m. and the Dutchman departed alone about four hours later, he said.

"We have an interview with a worker at the hotel who says she saw this foreigner with the victim enter his room,'' said Guardia.

UPDATE:
The hits keep on coming. Van der Sloot is now being charged in Alabama for trying to extort $250,000 in return for revealing the location of Natalee Holloway.

Are you kidding me?