Van der Sloot finally confesses to killing Natalee Holloway
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA — More than eighteen years after her disappearance, Joran van der Sloot confessed to an American judge that he killed 18-year old Natalee Holloway on May 30, 2005 on a beach in Aruba. The confession is part of a plea deal.
In 2010, Van der Sloot extorted money from Holloway’s mother Beth in exchange for information about what happened to her daughter. His information was bogus and on June 10, 2010, he was indicted on charges of extortion and wire fraud.
His confession to the extortion and to the murder gave Van der Sloot a reduced sentence of 20 years for the extortion and wire fraud charges.
The FBI subjected Van der Sloot to a lie detector test and is of the opinion that his confession is genuine.
Van der Sloot will serve the American sentence together with the 28-year sentence he is currently serving in Peru for the murder of 21-year old Stephany Flores Ramirez. In 2021 he was sentenced to another 18 years for drug trafficking in prison. However, the maximum prison term outside a life sentence, is 35 years in Peru. His tentative release date in June 10, 2045, 35 years after his arrest for the Flores murder..
In his confession, Van der Sloot states that Natalee Holloway refused to have sex with him on a beach in Aruba. She kneed him in his crotch to defend herself. Van der Sloot, 17 at the time, got raving mad, kicked the Alabama teenager in her head and bashed her head in with a cinder block. He threw her boby into the ocean. Her remains have never been found.
Dave Holloway and Beth Twitty, Natalee’s parents, were desperate for information about what had happened to their daughter. Between March and June 2010, Van der Sloot exploited this weakness by demanding $250,000 in exchange for that information. The family paid him $25,000 but the information they received turned out to be one big lie.
In June 2010, American authorities indicted Van der Sloot on charges of extortion and wire fraud. On May 30, 2010, exactly five years after he killed Natalee Holloway, Van der Sloot killed 21-year old Peruvian student Stephany Flores Martinez in his hotel room in Miaflores.
On June 8 he confessed to this murder and on January 11, 2012, he was sentenced to 28 years. In 2014 Van der Sloot married in prison with Leidy Figueroa Uceda and in 2021 he was sentenced to 18 years for drug trafficking in his prison.
In the Alabama court, Van der Sloot offered his apologies to the Holloway family and to his own family. “I am not the person I was then,” he said. “I have given my life to Jesus Christ.”
In a phone interview with John van den Heuvel, a crime reporter for the Dutch daily De Telegraaf, Van der Sloot is quoted as saying: “After my release when in am 57 years old I want to help other people who have a gambling addiction. Or people who have mental issues. My life has been ruined because of my gambling addiction and possibly other issues.”
American courts have no jurisdiction over the Holloway-murder since this happened in Aruba. Theoretically, the authorities in Aruba could still prosecute Van der Sloot for it after his release from prison in Peru. But in that case, prosecutors will have to prove murder – killing with premeditation. The killing has however more the characteristics of manslaughter and for that crime the right to prosecute has expired, according to a report on CNN.
