The suspect in Natalee Holloway’s disappearance, Joran van der Sloot, has pleaded guilty to extortion and admitted to killing the Alabama teenager. Van der Sloot is scheduled to be sentenced on November 15, 2023.
Van der Sloot, who was 17 when Holloway went missing on the island nation of Aruba, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to extorting Holloway’s mother in exchange for fake information about the teen’s death.
While pleading guilty to extortion and wire fraud, van der Sloot also reportedly confessed to killing Holloway.
“You have finally admitted that, in fact, you murdered her,” Beth Holloway, Natalee’s mother, said in court, according to the outlet.
“You terminated her dreams, her potential, her possibilities, when you bludgeoned her to death in 2005,” Beth added. “You didn’t get what you wanted from Natalee, your sexual satisfaction, so you brutally killed her….You are the one in Aruba no one wants to be, the black mark on the island.”
Van der Sloot responded when Judge Anna Manasco asked him if he wanted to plead guilty, saying, “yes ma’am” when she asked if he knew he could be charged with perjury for lying.
The judge said at the hearing that she considered rejecting the plea agreement so that van der Sloot could face trial where, if convicted, she could sentence him to a term that would run consecutively, rather than concurrently, with the sentence he is still serving in Peru for the 2010 murder of 21-year-old Stephany Flores. Manasco decided to accept the agreement in order to get van der Sloot’s confession.
“I would like to take this chance to apologize to the Holloway family, to apologize to my own family, to say I hope the statement I provided brings some kind of closure to everyone involved,” van der Sloot said in court, according to AL.com.
Van der Sloot extorted money from Holloway’s mother by offering to tell her where her daughter’s body was. The information he provided turned out to be false.
BREAKING REPORT: Joran Van Der Sloot ADMITS to Killing Natalee Holloway..
Convicted murderer Joran van der Sloot has confessed to the killing of Natalee Holloway, the Alabama teenager who went missing in Aruba in 2005, according to statements made by a judge on Wednesday.
This… pic.twitter.com/CdVS4vNhJZ
— Chuck Callesto (@ChuckCallesto) October 18, 2023
