Nearly two decades afterNatalee Holloway’sdisappearance, the man long-connected to the high schooler’sunsolved casewent in front of a court in her home state of Alabama and pleaded guilty –to extortionandwire fraud, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.
Joran van der Sloot– now 36, and who is in the midst of serving a28-year murder sentencein Peru after confessing to the killing of another student,Stephany Flores Ramírez– wasextradited to Alabamain June, where he faced one count of extortion and one count of wire fraud in connection to Natalee’s case.
AP; Raul Henriquez/AFP via Getty
This morning, in a federal courtroom in Birmingham, van der Sloot pleaded guilty to both charges, admitting to extorting money fromBeth Holloway, Natalee’s grieving mother who has traveled multiple times to Arubatrying to find out what really happenedto her only daughter who was celebrating her 2005 graduation when she went missing.
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Beth Holloway.Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
Joran van der Sloot.Peruvian Mug Shot
Natalee was last seen leaving a bar with van der Sloot during a high school graduation trip to Aruba on May 30, 2005. Van der Sloot, then 17, was arrested several times in connection to the 18-year-old’s disappearance but never charged. Natalee waslegally declared deadin 2012, but her body was never found.
Then, exactlyfive years to the dayof Natalee’s disappearance, van der Sloot would later admit to beating, choking and smothering 21-year-old Stephany to death in his hotel room in Lima. Hereportedly told investigatorsthat Stephany had seen an online message accusing him of Natalee’s disappearance, leading to the violent struggle.
Peru granted the “temporary surrender” of van der Sloot to stand trial in Alabama before returning to Peru to finish his sentence,U.S. federal prosecutors said in a statement this summer. Van der Sloot’s sentence in the U.S. will run concurrently to his sentence in Peru, but if he is released from prison in Peru early, he would then serve the remainder of his 20-year sentence in the U.S.,AL.com reports.
Van der Sloot will be in prison until 2043, WBRC reports. He also must pay Beth Holloway $250,100 in restitution. He also must pay Beth Holloway $250,100 in restitution.
Attorneys for van der Sloot did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
source: people.com
