in Birmingham, Alabama. Beth Holloway has finally learned what happened to her daughter Natalie in Aruba in 2005, after a long search.
In federal court in Birmingham on Wednesday, Joran van der Sloot, the now 36-year-old man long thought to be responsible for Natalie Holloway’s death, entered a guilty plea to counts of fraud and extortion. Van der Sloot promised to reveal to Beth Holloway the circumstances surrounding her daughter’s death and the location of her body as part of the plea deal.
When visiting a Dutch Caribbean island for her high school graduation, Natalie vanished. The last person I saw with the 18-year-old was van der Sloot. Despite the fact that he was a suspect from the start, Aruba officials were never able to establish a case.
But when Van der Sloot was already incarcerated in Peru for the death of Stephanie Flores, a college student, in his hotel room in Lima, federal prosecutors in Alabama accused him of wire fraud and extortion in 2010.
According to the accusation, Van der Sloot sought to pay Beth Holloway $250,000 in return for information and specifics about Natalie’s death.
According to a statement by US Attorney Prime Escalona, “Today, the United States holds Joran van der Sloot accountable for a conspiracy to abuse a mother seeking information about her missing daughter.”
This was not the kind of guilty plea Beth Holloway preferred to see. She told reporters outside the court,”” “I can tell you for sure that, as far as I’m concerned, Natalie’s case has been concluded after 18 years. It’s done. It’s done. My daughter’s murder no longer has Joran van der Sloot as a suspect. He is a murderer.
Holloway promised to provide more specifics later on regarding what Van der Sloot did the night he killed his daughter. Yet he claimed in court that he battered her and dumped her corpse in the water after she rejected his advances. She stated, “You are a murderer, and I want you to remember every time there is a sound of the cell door shutting,” to Van der Sloot.
