Natalee Holloway suspect set to plead guilty and reveal details about death
The chief suspect in Natalee Holloway’s 2005 disappearance is expected to plead guilty on Wednesday and reveal details about her death to resolve a federal case accusing him of trying to extort money from the missing teen’s mother.
A federal judge set a plea and sentencing hearing for Joran van der Sloot in Birmingham, Alabama. He had previously entered a plea of not guilty in the case.
An attorney for Holloway’s family, John Q Kelly, confirmed to CNN that Van der Sloot’s intention was to reverse his not guilty plea as part of a deal with prosecutors.
Kelly told NBC’s Today that one of the deal’s conditions requires Van der Sloot to reveal how Holloway died and how her body had been disposed of.
“There won’t be any further investigation or search … for Natalee’s remains,” Kelly said on Today.
Van der Sloot was extradited to Alabama from Peru, where he is serving a 28-year sentence after confessing to killing a Peruvian woman in 2010.
Holloway went missing during a high-school graduation trip with classmates to the Caribbean island of Aruba, a constituent country of he Netherlands. The Alabama teen was last seen leaving a bar with Van der Sloot, a student at an international school on the island. The mysterious disappearance sparked years of news coverage and countless true-crime podcasts. Van der Sloot was identified as a main suspect and was detained for questioning but no charges were filed in the case.
A judge declared Holloway dead but her body has never been found.
US prosecutors say that in 2010, Van der Sloot sought money from Beth Holloway to disclose the location of her daughter’s body. A grand jury indicted Van der Sloot, a Dutch national, that year.