After years of toying with authorities, as well as extorting the mother of his victim, Joran van der Sloot has confessed to murdering American teenager Natalee Holloway in 2005. The (now) 36-year-old Dutch man has long been connected to her murder, but due to lack of evidence has evaded arrest in the case.
As part of a plea agreement, Van der Sloot agreed to provide a “full, complete, accurate and truthful” account of how he murdered Holloway, in exchange for a 20-year sentence for extorting the victim’s family. In his chilling confession, Van der Sloot said he kicked the then 18-year-old Holloway in the face, causing her to lose consciousness, and then proceeded to bludgeon her with a cinder block because she refused his sexual advances.
“Uh, when she knees me in the crotch, uh, I get up, uh, on the beach and I kick her extremely hard in the face,’’ a transcript of his confession states. “Uhm, yeah, she’s laying down unconscious, possibly even dead, but definitely unconscious.”
After bludgeoning the teenager with a cinder block he found, Van der Sloot (who was also 18-years-old at the time), dragged her body into the ocean.
“I walk up to about my knees into the ocean and I push her into the – into the sea. Uhm, and uhm, yeah, after that I – I get out. I- I walk home,” the transcript read.
“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. “I am no longer that person I was back then."
The murder took place in Aruba, after Van der Sloot met Holloway at a bar in downtown Oranjestad. Holloway, who was celebrating her high school graduation trip with classmates, was last seen leaving the bar at 1 a.m. local time with Van der Sloot and two other men. Aruba is a Caribbean island nation and a former Dutch colony where Van der Sloot was living at the time.
“Today marks the end of 18 years of wondering what happened to Natalee Holloway,” Prim Escalona, the interim United States attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, told reporters after the hearing.
“You have brutally murdered, in separate instances years apart, two young women who refused your sexual advances,” Judge Manasco said.
Van der Sloot’s sentence for the murder of Flores will expire in 2045, but if he is released from prison sooner, he will have to serve the remainder of his 20-year sentence in the US.
“I paid my daughter’s killer money. That’s shocking. I don’t think anyone can really wrap their mind around what that means,” Beth Holloway, Natalee's mother, said.
After brutally murdering Holloway, Van der Sloot exploited grief-stricken Beth by extorting her for $250,000. He claimed to have knowledge of Natalee’s remains, and proceeded to give the mother incorrect information regarding her daughter’s remains.
“As far as I am concerned it’s over. It’s over,” she said. “I’m satisfied knowing that he did it, he did it alone and he disposed of her alone.” Adding that the confession “means we’ve finally reached the end of our never-ending nightmare.”
“I have no doubt she would have made all her dreams come true. She really would have,” Beth Holloway said of her daughter.