Mom: Van der Sloot 'Sick in His Head'

Joran Van der Sloot fled to Peru two days before he was to be committed to a mental institution, says mom Anita Van der Sloot, breaking her silence for the first time since her son was charged in the murder of a Peruvian woman he met there. "My son is sick in his head," she tells a Dutch newspaper, according to the AP.

Van der Sloot still believes that her son is innocent in Natalee Holloway's disappearance, but traces his mental decline to the resulting media scrutiny. Days before Stephany Flores' death, he called, saying he was "being followed. He had been arrested together with a girl and robbed. He was not making sense," she says, concluding: "If he killed Stephany, he'll have to pay the price. I won't visit him in his cell, I cannot embrace him."
(More Joran Van der Sloot stories.)