Nearly two decades after Natalie Holloway disappeared Aruba, Joran van der Sloot He finally confessed to killing her, revealing that he had kicked her in the face when she rejected his sexual advances, then beat her to death with a cinder block.
Van der Sloot, who was the prime suspect in Holloway’s disappearance and death in 2005, appeared in the film Birmingham, Alabama He appeared in court on Wednesday where he pleaded guilty to trying to blackmail her mother for $250,000 In exchange for information about the location of her body.
Holloway was declared dead in 2012, but her body was never found. we District Judge Anna Manasco said it was clear her remains would never be recovered.
Van der Sloot received a 20-year prison sentence on each of the two convictions on the racketeering charges. These sentences will run concurrently with each other and also concurrently with his 28-year prison sentence in Peru for the murder of Stephanie Flores in 2010. He will now return to Peru to serve the rest of his time.
“After 18 years, Natalie’s case has been solved,” Beth Holloway said with a smile shortly after the hearing ended. “It’s over. Joran van der Sloot is no longer a suspect in my daughter’s murder. He is the killer.”
The Dutch national from Aruba has not been charged in Holloway’s death. But just before he was sentenced, Holloway’s mother made a statement revealing that he had confessed to the murder during a performance, held as part of a plea deal, in which he admitted to beating her to death and then disposing of her body in the ocean. And he did it alone.
“She changed the course of our lives and turned them upside down,” Beth Holloway said in court, standing a few feet away from Van der Sloot. “You’re a murderer. You finally admitted that you actually killed her.”
A transcript of the show was later released which revealed how Van der Sloot carried out the brutal killing on the night of 30 May 2005.
He explained how they were walking along the beach in Aruba when he put her on the sand and they started kissing. When he started “feeling it,” he said Holloway told him no, but he kept going.
“She said no, but I insisted. I can still feel her riding me in the crotch,” according to the text. “I got up on the beach and kicked her hard in the face.”
Van der Sloot then said, according to the transcript, that he saw that she was “unconscious, possibly dead, but definitely unconscious.”
He said: “I saw a huge mass of ash and smashed her entire head.” “They smashed her face. It’s dark but I see her face smashed.”
Van der Sloot explains that he didn’t know what to do and that he was scared so he dragged her body into the ocean, pushed her into the water and went home.
“I ended her dreams, her potential, her potential when I beat her to death in 2005,” Holloway said after pleading guilty. “You didn’t get what you wanted from Natalie, your sexual satisfaction, so you brutally killed her… You’re the person no one wants to be on Aruba, the black mark on the island.”
Van der Sloot wore an orange jumpsuit as he stood to address the court.
“I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to the Holloway family, to apologize to my family,” he said, adding that he was now a Christian. “I’m no longer the person I was at that time.”
Attorney John Q. Kelly, who represented Holloway’s mother during the alleged extortion attempt, said the plea deal was contingent on Van der Sloot providing details about what happened to Holloway. Her parents were able to listen to the confession he told prosecutors before the hearing.
Before sentencing, Judge Manasco said she considered Van der Sloot’s admission to killing Holloway part of the decision.
“You brutally murdered, in two separate incidents years apart, two young women who rejected your sexual advances,” the judge said.
Speaking about his blackmail of Beth Holloway, Judge Manasco added: “You knew the information you were selling was an absolute lie.”
The judge said the pain caused by Holloway’s death was compounded by the fact that “her family have not found and will not find her remains.”
The Holloway case has captured public attention for nearly two decades, resulting in widespread news coverage, books, films and podcasts. A heavy media presence gathered outside the federal courthouse about three hours before the hearing on Wednesday.
Holloway was 18 when she disappeared during a high school graduation trip with her classmates to Aruba. She was last seen leaving a bar with Van der Sloot, a student at an international school.
The mysterious disappearance sparked years of true crime news coverage, podcasts, books and movies. Van der Sloot was identified as the main suspect and taken into custody for questioning but no charges were filed in the case.
Holloway’s family has long sought answers about her disappearance. But these answers have proven elusive, with Van der Sloot providing a variety of conflicting descriptions over the years about what happened.
Federal investigators in the Alabama case said Van der Sloot gave a false location of Holloway’s body during a 2010 FBI recording that captured the extortion attempt.
Prosecutors in the Alabama case said Van der Sloot contacted Kelly in 2010 and demanded $250,000 from Beth Holloway to reveal the location of her daughter’s remains.
Prosecutors said Van der Sloot agreed to accept $25,000 to uncover the site, and asked for the other $225,000 once the remains were recovered.
Van der Sloot said Holloway was buried in gravel under the house’s foundation, but later admitted that was not true, FBI agent William K. wrote. Bryan in a 2010 sworn statement given in the case.
Van der Sloot moved from Aruba to Peru before he was arrested in the racketeering case.
He was extradited from Peru to Alabama in June in a racketeering case. The American authorities agreed to return him to custody in Peru after the end of his case.
If his prison term in Peru ends early, Van der Sloot will serve out the rest of his time for a racketeering conviction in the United States. However, since the statute of limitations for murder in Aruba is 12 years, he will not be charged with Natalie’s murder, even though he admitted to killing her.
Her family said the confession was justice for them.
“This admission means we have finally come to the end of this never-ending nightmare,” Beth Holloway said.
