The case of who killed 18-year-old Natalee Holloway during her 2005 vacation in Aruba has finally been solved, with convicted murderer Joran Van der Sloot confessing to the slaying on Wednesday.
According to the Alabama judge who accepted Van der Sloot’s guilty plea in an extortion and wire fraud case that targeted the victim’s family, the 36-year-old Dutch national also confessed to killing the missing teen and agreed to cooperate with law enforcement, reports Fox News reported Wednesday.
Natalee Holloway’s mother, Beth Holloway, speaks at the opening of the Natalee Holloway Resource Center at the National Museum of Crime & Punishment in Washington on June 8, 2010. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Holloway originally went missing while on a senior trip with high school classmates to the Caribbean island of Aruba, and was legally declared dead in 2012 despite her body never being found. Van der Sloot, the longtime key suspect in the case, was caught in a 2010 sting operation extorting money from the Holloways under the guise of telling them where Natalee’s remains were stashed.
In 2012, Van der Sloot was also convicted of the unrelated murder of 21-year-old Stephany Flores in Peru, almost exactly five years after Holloway’s disappearance. As USA Today reported at the time, Van der Sloot was sentenced to 28 years in prison for killing Flores in January 2012, and an additional 18 years were added to his sentence for trafficking cocaine while in prison in January 2023.
On June 8 of this year, Van der Sloot was extradited to the United States to face trial for the extortion and wire fraud charges, where he made his confession about Holloway’s murder.
According to Fox News, U.S. federal Judge Anna Manasco said in the courtroom that the confession was recorded, and Holloway’s mother will be allowed to listen to it.
Joran van der Sloot arrives to the courtroom for his sentence at San Pedro prison in Lima, Peru, on January 13, 2012. (AP Photo/Karel Navarro)
“Van der Sloot apologized to Holloway’s family in court and agreed to assist law enforcement and her relatives about her disappearance and submit to a polygraph test,” the outlet reported.
“I am no longer the person that I was,” the convicted murderer told the court.
“You have brutally murdered, in separate incidents, years apart, two young women who refused your sexual advances,” Manasco retorted, adding that his extorting $25,000 from Holloway’s family was “heinous” because the killer knew the information he was selling was a lie.
According to a 2010 CNN report, Van der Sloot tried to convince his victim’s family that her remains were hidden in his family home in Aruba, which the FBI found to be false because the home was not built yet at the time of Holloway’s disappearance.
In an intense victim statement in court, Natalee’s mother, Beth Holloway, tore into Van der Sloot.
“You look like hell,” she said, addressing her daughter’s killer.
“You are a killer and I want you to remember that every time that jail door slams,” Beth, who teared up while speaking, said. According to the grieving mother, she had lost her job, teaching license, and tenure while desperately searching for answers over the years.
“I implore this court to give you the maximum sentence possible and make financial restitution,” she said.
“I incurred killer fees. I paid my daughter’s killer,” Beth added, lamenting the fact that she was extorted.
Natalee Holloway would have turned 37 on her birthday this Saturday.
“After 18 years, Natalee’s case has been solved,” Beth said to the press outside the courthouse following the hearing. “Joran van der Sloot is the killer.”
Van der Sloot was handed a 20-year prison sentence, with credit for time already served in U.S. custody since June. His sentence will run concurrently with the ones he is still facing in Peru, making his new expected release date to be June 9, 2043. As part of the deal, the judge said federal prosecutors have agreed not to use the confession of Holloway’s murder for any other purposes.
“It’s a great day for justice,” Beth Holloway’s lawyer, John Q. Kelly, said.
Holloway’s exact cause of death still remains unknown.
