In a surprising twist to a prolonged legal tangle, Joran van der Sloot, a prime suspect in the unresolved disappearance of Natalee Holloway, an Alabama teenager, back in 2005, is poised to admit his guilt at a federal hearing set for Wednesday. This unexpected turn was confirmed by the legal representative of Holloway’s family. What remains unclear, however, is the specific charge tied to the extortion case he will confess to, and subsequently, the sentence he is due to face.
The name of van der Sloot has been inextricably linked to the puzzling vanishing of Holloway, an 18-year-old, one of the last individuals to have seen her before she mysteriously disappeared. In a surprising indictment in 2010, van der Sloot was brought up on charges that involved extortion and wire fraud, tied to a plan to extort $250,000 in return for providing information about Holloway’s remains. This indictment was filed in the Northern District of Alabama.
Information from the family lawyer, John Q. Kelly, suggests that van der Sloot is prepared to offer a guilty plea in relation to the case. As a requirement of the plea agreement, van der Sloot will provide a detailed account of Holloway’s death and how her body was disposed of. Kelly noted that following van der Sloot’s testimony, there would be no further investigative efforts in digging up Holloway’s remains.
In the wake of the court hearing, Beth Holloway, Natalee’s mother, is expected to give a press briefing, detailing what van der Sloot confided to the FBI. This is expected to shed some light on the confusing and tragic case.
The past then caught up with van der Sloot who was extradited to the US in June from a Peruvian prison where he was serving a 28-year jail sentence for the murder of Stephany Flores, 21, in 2010. The extradition agreement between the US and Peru stipulates that van der Sloot will conclude the Flores case sentence in Peru, before being shipped back to the US to carry out whatever sentence he gets for the charges in the US.
It’s alleged that Holloway’s mother wired $15,000 to van der Sloot’s Dutch bank account and delivered an additional $10,000 in person, all through an attorney. Once van der Sloot received the initial $25,000, he directed the lawyer, Kelly, to where Natalee Holloway’s remains were reportedly concealed. However, he later conceded by email that the information was worthless, according to the indictment.
The last sighting of the teenager was 18 years ago, when she was seen leaving an Aruban nightclub with van der Sloot and two other men. Although the Aruban police arrested and released van der Sloot, and the Kalpoe brothers, Deepak and Satish, numerous times between 2005 and 2007 in relation to Holloway’s disappearance, all maintained their innocence with the backing of their lawyers. Due to insufficient evidence, the Aruban Public Prosecutor’s Office dropped the cases in December 2007. Five years later, a judge in Alabama legally declared Holloway dead.
