Eighteen years have passed since the disappearance of 18-year-old Natalee Holloway during her high school graduation trip to Aruba. Now, the man who has long been suspected in her case has finally confessed to his involvement. Joran van der Sloot appeared in an Alabama court on Wednesday, pleading guilty to extortion and wire fraud. He had been charged with demanding $250,000 from Beth Holloway, Natalee’s mother, in exchange for information regarding the location of her daughter’s remains. The plea deal required van der Sloot to disclose details about Natalee’s death and the disposal of her body, with the threat of perjury charges if he lied.
In court, van der Sloot expressed his remorse, stating, “I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to the Holloway family, to apologize to my own family, to say I hope the statement I provided brings some kind of closure to everyone involved.” He also mentioned that he is now a Christian and has changed as a person. Beth Holloway, in her victim impact statement, confronted van der Sloot directly, saying, “You have finally admitted that, in fact, you murdered her. You terminated her dreams, her potential, her possibilities, when you bludgeoned her to death in 2005. You didn’t get what you wanted from Natalee, your sexual satisfaction, so you brutally killed her. … You are the one in Aruba no one wants to be, the black mark on the island.”
Beth Holloway also revealed that after killing her daughter, van der Sloot returned home and watched pornography. The hearing took place in Birmingham, Alabama, just a few miles from the suburb where Natalee Holloway lived. She went missing while on a graduation trip to Aruba with classmates from Mountain Brook High School. The last time she was seen was leaving a bar with van der Sloot. In 2010, van der Sloot agreed to be paid $25,000 for revealing the location of Natalee’s remains, with the condition that the remaining $225,000 would be paid once the remains were recovered. “I paid my daughter’s killer money. That’s shocking. I don’t think anyone can really wrap their mind around what that means,” Beth Holloway shared. She added, “By the way, you look like hell, Joran. I do not see how you’re gonna make it.”
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According to FBI Agent William K. Bryan’s sworn statement from 2010, van der Sloot initially claimed that Holloway had been buried in the gravel beneath a home’s foundation. However, he later confessed that this was a lie. The 36-year-old Dutch national is currently serving a 28-year sentence in Peru for the murder of another woman. He has now been sentenced to 20 years for the extortion and wire fraud charges, and will serve these sentences concurrently with his sentence in Peru. If he is released early in Peru, he will be extradited to the US to finish serving his remaining time. (Read more Natalee Holloway stories.)
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