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Oct 18, 2023 · Natalee Holloway, 18, was on a high school graduation trip to Aruba when she disappeared in May 2005. She was last seen leaving a bar with van der Sloot, who was then 17. He is facing charges of ...
- 1 min
- Sean O'Driscoll
Skeletal Remains Found in Natalee Holloway Case Confirmed as of 'Caucasian' Descent But Gender Still Unknown. Natalee Holloway went missing on a school graduation trip in 2005
- 4 min
- Overview
- "She was killed just by standing her ground"
- "You are a killer"
Beth Holloway sought one thing for 18 years: answers about what happened to her missing daughter.
She got them Wednesday when Joran van der Sloot, long considered the chief suspect in her daughter's 2005 disappearance in Aruba, admitted in submitted court filings to bludgeoning Natalee Holloway to death on a beach and dragging her body out to sea.
"The never-ending nightmare is over," Beth Holloway told CBS News correspondent Janet Shamlian. "And to me that's better than closure."
Van der Sloot, 36, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to federal charges of attempting to extort money from Beth Holloway in 2010 in exchange for information about the location of her daughter's body. The plea agreement included an unusual provision for van der Sloot to "provide all information and evidence" about what happened to Natalee Holloway and to let her family hear him in "real time" give his account to federal investigators.
Beth Holloway said in an interview with The Associated Press that the family made the decision to allow the plea agreement to "finally get the answers we've been searching for for all these years."
Natalee Holloway, 18, went missing during a high school graduation trip to Aruba with classmates. She was last seen 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.
Under the terms of the plea agreement, Natalee Holloway's parents listened and watched several weeks ago as van der Sloot, under questioning from his own attorney, described what happened on the beach. Prosecutors filed excerpts of the conversation with the court.
He said Natalee Holloway was physically fighting his sexual advances and that he kicked her "extremely hard" in the face while she was still lying down. Van der Sloot said the teen was already unconscious, or even dead, when he picked up a nearby cinderblock and brought it down on her face.
"I smash her head in with it completely," van der Sloot said, according to an Oct. 3 transcript of the meeting.
He then said he dragged her body until he was knee-deep in the waves and pushed her out to sea.
"It's just blistering to your soul, and it hurts so deeply," Beth Holloway said of hearing the details. "But you know that you're there in a functionality role because this is the moment where I've been searching for for 18 years. Even as hard as it is to hear, it still not as torturous as the not knowing. It was time for me to know."
Beth Holloway said she recognized her feisty daughter in van der Sloot's description of her kneeing him between the legs when he refused to stop his sexual advances.
At the hearing Wednesday, Beth Holloway again stood in front of van der Sloot.
"You are a killer," she told him. "I want you to remember that every time that jail door slams."
Shackled and wearing an orange jail uniform, van der Sloot told the crowded courtroom he hopes his statement provides some closure.
"I would like the chance to apologize to the Holloway family, to my own family," he said, later adding, "I am no longer the person I was back then."
Mark White, an attorney for Dave Holloway, said he understands from law enforcement authorities that van der Sloot cannot be prosecuted in Aruba - even with his confession - because the statute of limitations has expired. 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 Natalee Holloway's disappearance is still open, and authorities "will follow up on any serious leads," said Ann Angela, a prosecutor's office spokesperson.
Peru agreed to temporarily extradite van der Sloot to the U.S. to face proceedings on the extortion charge. He is expected to be returned to Peru in the coming days after the settlement of the U.S. criminal case.
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Oct 18, 2023 · Van der Sloot, the chief suspect in Natalee Holloway's 2005 disappearance in Aruba admitted he killed her and disposed of her remains, and pleaded guilty that he tried to extort money from the ...
- Melanie Peeples
Oct 18, 2023 · Holloway’s body has never been found. In 2012, a judge signed an order declaring her legally dead. Five years after Holloway’s death, van der Sloot killed a Peruvian woman, 21-year-old ...
Oct 19, 2023 · Updated 5:00 PM PDT, October 18, 2023. BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — 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 ...
Oct 24, 2023 · Van der Sloot confessed to killing Holloway as part of a plea agreement in the extortion and fraud case. During his proffer, the Dutch national detailed how he killed Holloway, who was 18 at time ...
