Van der Sloot Retracts Murder Confession

Joran van der Sloot said he was tricked into confessing that he had murdered 21-year-old Peruvian lesbian Stefany Flores Ramirez, according to a Dutch newspaper.

Van der Sloot, 22, said he was "very scared and confused during the interrogations and wanted to get away," Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf reported, according to CNN. "In my blind panic I signed everything, but never knew what was written on them."

In 2005 van der Sloot was arrested twice in connection with the case of missing Alabama teen Natalee Holloway, who disappeared in Aruba. He was never charged.

His mother, Anita van der Sloot, who said her son was mentally unwell, told the Dutch newspaper that he went to Peru to avoid being placed in the high security section of a psychiatric hospital.

Flores reportedly met van der Sloot during a poker tournament. Police allege that he may have killed her in an attempt to steal the money she won from gambling. His confession, however, paints a different picture.

"After I responded with hitting her, I feared that she would go to the police and they would detain me for what was an impulsive act," he said, according to CNN. "I think I wanted to kill her because I wasn't thinking."