Joran van der Sloot — once again

Many Americans — and others around the world — recall a heartbreaking story from 2005 when Natalee Holloway, a pretty high school senior from a community outside Birmingham, Ala., disappeared while she was on a high school graduation trip to the Caribbean island of Aruba.

There were many theories about what took place after she encountered a local young man named Joran van der Sloot.

The FBI, scores of Dutch soldiers on the island (which is part of the Netherlands), numerous aircraft, many volunteer searchers and even divers scanning the ocean floor found no trace of Natalee.

There were several suspects in her disappearance, including Van der Sloot, but the case remains unsolved.

Now — six years later — Van der Sloot is in the news again.

He is suspected of involvement in the 2010 death of a 21-year-old Peruvian woman, Stephany Flores, with whom he was involved. She reportedly died of violence after she learned of Natalee’s case by looking at Van der Sloot’s laptop. Van der Sloot plans to plead guilty but to claim temporary insanity.

Thus a tragic story of 2005 has been brought into the news in 2011 — by another tragic story.