Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of assault and murder. Reader discretion is advised.
Joran van der Sloot, the man who confessed to Natalee Holloway’s murder, is now serving a sentence in Peru for a different murder, per The U.S. Sun. Holloway was on a high school graduation trip to Aruba when she mysteriously disappeared in 2005. She was never found again. Authorities had arrested Sloot in connection with the teen’s disappearance multiple times. However, they released him due to a lack of sufficient evidence.
According to CNN, Sloot’s confession came nearly two decades later, in October 2023, as part of a plea deal. The 36-year-old Dutchman was accused of attempting to sell information about the location of Holloway’s remains to her mother, Beth Holloway. He had asked the victim’s family for $250,000 in exchange for the information.
The outlet reported that Sloot received 20 years in prison for financial crimes. The confessed murderer will serve this sentence simultaneously with his ongoing prison term in Peru. The latter prison sentence stemmed from the murder of a Peruvian woman, Stephany Flores Ramírez. Sloot was 22 years old when he murdered her in 2010. He eventually admitted to beating, choking, and smothering Ramírez to death.
NBC News Studio’s latest documentary, Pathological: The Lies of Joran Van Der Sloot, revisits the crimes of the convicted murderer. The documentary features an exclusive interview with a close friend of Natalee Holloway alongside experts, eyewitnesses, and family members.
What did Joran van der Sloot confess about Natalee Holloway’s murder?
According to The U.S. Sun, in 2023, Joran van der Sloot confessed to killing Natalee Holloway. However, he could not be tried for the murder in the US because the crime happened in Aruba. The statute of limitation for the crime had also passed. Instead, prosecutors extradited Sloot to the US to try him on extortion and fraud. The charges stemmed from his attempt to extort $250,000 from the victim’s mother, Beth Holloway.
Sloot accepted a plea deal, and in exchange for a 20-year prison sentence, he confessed to Holloway’s murder. He admitted to murdering the 18-year-old in Aruba after she rejected his sexual advances, reported People Magazine. In the recorded confession, he claimed that “we lay down together – in the sand and, uh, we start kissing each other.”
The outlet reported that Joran van der Sloot then said that he tried to escalate the sexual encounter, but “she [Natalee Holloway] tells me ‘no.’ She tells me she doesn’t want me to — to feel her up. Uh, I insist. I keep feeling her up either way.” Sloot proceeded to force his way on Holloway when she kneed him in the crotch after failing to push him off.
Following this, the killer said that he kicked Holloway “extremely hard” in the face. This knocked her “unconscious, possibly even uh, even dead, but definitely unconscious.” He then took a huge cinder block to attack her. He recounted, “I take this and uh, yeah, I– I– I smash her head in with it completely. Uh, yeah, her face basically, you know, uh collapses in.”
Sloot then stated that afterward, he grabbed the victim’s body and “half pull and half walk with her into the ocean.” Then, he pushed “her off into– into the– into the– into the sea” and walked back home. He committed the crime on May 30, 2005.
Where is Joran van der Sloot now?
Previously, Joran van der Sloot had admitted to admitted to beating, choking, and smothering Stephany Flores Ramírez in Peru. He had received a 28-year sentence for the business student’s death. CNN reported that Sloot was also convicted in 2021 of trafficking cocaine into his Peruvian prison. He then received an additional 18 years, per a sentencing memorandum.
However, court documents stated, “Because Peruvian law prohibits prison sentences from exceeding a total of 35 years (unless given a life sentence), the Defendant is currently scheduled for release from prison in Peru on or about June 10, 2045 (35 years after his original arrest in Peru).”
The outlet stated that Peruvian authorities granted the killer temporary release in June to Alabama in the US. He returned to Peru in October 2023, where his federal sentence is running concurrently. However, if the confessed killer gets early release, he will return to the US to finish the remainder of his sentence.
According to The New York Post, Joran van der Sloot is currently serving time at the notorious Ancon 1 prison north of Lima.
Pathological: The Lies of Joran Van Der Sloot premiered on Peacock on February 27, 2024.
