Bracketed by crimes: Van der Sloot’s last 5 years

LIMA, Peru -- For all of his garrulous charm, Joran van der Sloot didn’t do himself any favors in his online interactions, where his generation tends to reveal a lot about itself. “If I would have to describe myself as an animal it would be a snake,” he wrote on his YouTube page. Perhaps wistfully wishing the past undone, he continued: “however, I want to be a lion and one day I will be a lion.” At age 22, Van der Sloot is now a caged animal. He sits in a bleak Peruvian prison, where he fears his fellow inmates. He shares a cellblock with a reputed Colombian murderer-for-hire.