Five years to the day Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway disappeared in Aruba, the prime suspect emerged at the center of a grisly murder in Lima, Peru.
Peruvian Criminal Police Chief Gen. Cesar Guardia told reporters Wednesday that they've launched an international manhunt for Joran van der Sloot, 22, in the Sunday slaying of 21-year-old Stephany Flores in a Lima hotel.
Van der Sloot was captured on video leaving a casino in the Miraflores district of Lima early Sunday with the young woman, Guardia said. Workers also saw him check into his hotel with Flores, Guardia added.
Van der Sloot checked out Sunday, four hours after he arrived with Flores, and fled overland to Chile on Monday, Guardia said.
According to the Peruvian newspaper El Comercio, Flores' body was found stabbed and wrapped in a blanket in a hotel room registered under van der Sloot's name.
Peruvian police have asked Chilean authorities to be on the lookout for van der Sloot. Interpol has issued an international arrest warrant for him.
The killing occurred exactly five years after the disappearance in Aruba of Holloway. That case sparked an international search for the Alabama teen -- who is presumed dead -- and has been tabloid and television fodder ever since.
"I was surprised and shocked when I heard the news," Aruba's chief prosecutor, Peter Blanken told The Miami Herald.
Blanken, who is leading the Holloway investigation, said it was too soon to tell how the latest developments would affect the case.
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