Suspect admits he killed Holloway
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The chief suspect in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway has admitted he beat the young Alabama woman to death on a beach in Aruba after she refused his advances, then dumped her body into the sea. New details in the killing emerged Wednesday as Joran van der Sloot pleaded guilty to extorting Holloway’s mother, resolving a case that has captivated the public’s attention for nearly 20 years.
Although he isn’t charged in Holloway’s death, van der Sloot’s attempt to squeeze a quarter million dollars from the slain teen’s mom gave investigators a crucial link to the 2005 killing. And after finally seeing him in a US courtroom, the family said they’re moving on from years of doubt and uncertainty.
“As far as I’m concerned, it’s over,” Beth Holloway, Natalee’s mother, told reporters outside the federal courthouse in Alabama. “Joran van der Sloot is no longer the suspect in my daughter’s murder. He is the killer.”
Natalee Holloway went missing during a high school graduation trip with classmates. She was last seen on May 30, 2005, leaving a bar with van der Sloot, a Dutch citizen and student at an international school on the Caribbean island where he grew up. He was questioned in the disappearance but never prosecuted. A judge declared Holloway dead, but her body was never found.
Now 36, he has pleaded guilty to one count each of extortion and wire fraud in exchange for a 20-year sentence. That prison term will run concurrently with a 28-year sentence he’s serving in Peru for killing Stephany Flores in 2010.
US Judge Anna Manasco said the details of his confession factored into her sentencing decision.
“You have brutally murdered — in separate instances years apart — two young women who refused your sexual advances,” she said.
Shackled and wearing an orange jail uniform, van der Sloot told the crowded courtroom he hopes his confession provides closure.
“I would like the chance to apologize to the Holloway family, my own family,” he said, later adding, “I am no longer the person I was back then.”
Mark White, an attorney for Natalee’s father Dave Holloway, believes van der Sloot cannot be prosecuted in Aruba — even with his confession — because the statute of limitations has expired.
However, the Aruba public prosecutor’s office said it was not immediately clear whether van der Sloot could face murder charges on the island. The investigation into Holloway’s disappearance is still open and authorities “will follow up on any serious leads,” said Ann Angela, a prosecutor’s office spokesperson.
Manasco, the US judge, said the plea deal required van der Sloot to provide all the information he knew about Natalie Holloway’s disappearance, allow her parents to hear in “real time” his discussion with law enforcement, and take a polygraph test.