An Alabama teen named Natalee Holloway went missing in 2005 in Aruba. The main suspect, Joran van der Sloot, has now admitted to ki*lling her, a US federal judge said Wednesday.
This is what Judge Anna Manasco said after reading van der Sloot’s offer: “I have considered your confession to the brutal murder of Natalee Holloway.”
As an example, the judge said, “You have brutally murdered two beautiful women who refused your sexual advances years apart.” This was in reference to a separate ki*lling in Peru in 2010.
Holloway went missing in 2005, and Van der Sloot was the main suspect. On Wednesday, he pleaded guilty to charges of extortion and wire fraud related to the Alabama teen’s body.
He was charged with trying to get $250,000 from Holloway’s family by telling them where her body was found.
The body of Holloway has never been found. The law says she is dead because an Alabama judge signed an order in 2012 saying so.
In connection with Holloway’s death, Van der Sloot had been arrested more than once. After that, the Aruban government freed him because there wasn’t enough direct evidence.
But Holloway’s mother slammed van der Sloot in court on Wednesday after seeing his offer, which she said included an admission that he ki*lled the teen.
“For 19 years, you said you didn’t k*ill Natalee Holloway. The pain your lies have caused can’t be seen. In a very emotional victim impact statement, Beth Holloway said, “You have finally admitted that you kil*led her.”
“Remember that you are a k*iller.”
For ki*lling Stephany Flores in 2010, Van der Sloot is in p*rison in Peru for 28 years. In June, Peruvian officials let him go to the US temporarily so that he could face charges of extortion and wire fraud.
Long-awaited details might soon be revealed
Holloway hasn’t been seen or heard from since she disappeared in Aruba almost 20 years ago. Soon, van der Sloot may give long-awaited details about how she died.
As part of a plea deal, van der Sloot had to say how Holloway died and how her body was disposed of, John Q. Kelly, an attorney for the Holloway family, told NBC’s “Today” show before the guilty pleas on Wednesday.
Kelly said on “Today” that there would be no more police work or searching for Natalee’s body.
Natalee’s mother, Beth Holloway, will talk about what van der Sloot told the FBI at a news conference after the hearing.
CNN has asked Kelly for more information and has also asked the US Justice Department and the public police in Aruba for their thoughts.
18 years of mystery and misery
Holloway was in the Caribbean nation on a high school graduation trip when she vanished in 2005.
The 18-year-old was last seen leaving a nightclub with van der Sloot and two other men, brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe.
In 2005, the three men were arrested but later freed because there wasn’t enough proof.
In 2007, they were arrested again and charged with “involvement in the voluntary manslaughter of Natalee Holloway or causing serious bodily harm to Natalee Holloway, resulting in her death.” At the time, Dutch prosecutors said that they were guilty of both counts.
But a few weeks later, an Aruban judge freed van der Sloot because there wasn’t enough proof that Holloway died because of a violent crime or that van der Sloot was involved in one. The brothers Kalpoe were also set free.
Why van der Sloot was charged in the US
The US government doesn’t have control over the criminal investigation in Aruba, but van der Sloot was charged by a federal grand jury in Alabama with trying to sell Holloway’s family information about her body in exchange for $250,000.
The charge against van der Sloot says that his plan happened between March and May 2010. In June 2010, he was charged with wire fraud and extortion.
Van der Sloot ki*lled 21-year-old Stephany Flores in his Peru hotel room on May 30, 2010, in the weeks before he was charged with extortion.
Van der Sloot admitted to k*illing Flores and was given a pri*son sentence of 28 years in Peru.
But in June, van der Sloot was temporarily sent to the US to face charges of fraud and extortion because of a deal between Peru and the US.
Van der Sloot will go back to Peru to finish his time for kil*ling Flores. After that, he will go back to the US to begin his pri*son sentence for wire fraud and extortion.
