In a shocking turn of events, Joran van der Sloot has confessed to the murder of Natalee Holloway, a crime that has remained unsolved for nearly two decades.
Van der Sloot revealed the horrifying details of the teenager’s final moments during a recorded confession, which was part of a plea agreement in a federal case for extortion and fraud in Alabama.
What had Happened?
On the night of May 30, 2005, van der Sloot, then 17, and Holloway, 18, were on a beach in Aruba. Van der Sloot admitted that when Holloway rejected his sexual advances, he reacted violently. In a fit of rage, he smashed a cinder block over her head, causing her face to “collapse in.”
Van der Sloot then described how he dragged Holloway’s body into the ocean, leaving her there as he walked home. This confession fills in the gaps of what happened to Holloway after she was last seen leaving an island bar with van der Sloot earlier that day.
Despite this confession, van der Sloot is unlikely to be prosecuted for Holloway’s murder due to the statute of limitations for murder in Aruba being 12 years. Holloway was legally declared dead in 2012, but her body has never been found.
In addition to confessing to Holloway’s murder, van der Sloot also pleaded guilty to extorting $25,000 from Beth Holloway, Natalee’s mother, in 2010.
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He had falsely promised to provide answers about her daughter’s disappearance in exchange for the money. After taking the money, he emailed the family to say that his information was “worthless.“
Van der Sloot is currently serving a 28-year sentence in Peru for the 2010 murder of Stephany Flores Ramírez. He was temporarily surrendered to the U.S. to stand trial in Alabama before he returned to Peru to finish his sentence.
A federal judge in the U.S. has sentenced him to 20 years in prison for financial crimes, with the sentence to run concurrently with his Peruvian one.
Beth Holloway, Natalee’s mother, expressed relief at finally having answers to her daughter’s disappearance, saying that it felt “victorious” and that they had transitioned “from the victim to the victor.”