Joran van der Sloot, long suspected in the unresolved 2005 case of missing Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway, is expected to plead guilty to a list of federal charges. The accusations against him include both extortion and fraud stemming from the teen’s grieving mother. The precise charges for which he will offer a guilty plea are yet unknown, as is the potential sentence that may hang over him.
Van der Sloot etches a suspicious figure, being one of the final individuals seen in the company of the 18-year-old Holloway before her mysterious disappearance. He found himself in the crosshairs of the law in 2010 following an indictment on federal charges of extortion and wire fraud. This indictment, issued in Alabama’s Northern District, related to a dubious plot to exchange information regarding Holloway’s final resting place for $250,000.
John Q. Kelly, the Holloway family’s legal counsel, has confirmed to international media that the accused, Van der Sloot, plans to admit guilt in connection with the case. As part of the plea negotiations, it is anticipated that he will disclose the details surrounding Holloway’s death, including the disposal of her bodily remains.
Once these details are revealed, no further investigations into Holloway’s fate or search for her remains will be conducted, according to Kelly. In a forthcoming press conference, Beth Holloway, Natalee’s mother, will reveal what information Van der Sloot confessed to FBI authorities.
After spending time in a Peruvian prison, serving a 28-year sentence for the unrelated murder of Stephany Flores, Van der Sloot was transferred to the United States in June. His criminal commitments bind him to return to Peru to finalize serving his time for the Flores case, before facing the verdict of his US charges.
According to court records, Holloway’s mother relinquished $15,000 via wire transfer to a bank account held in Van der Sloot’s name in the Netherlands and provided him with an additional $10,000 in person through an attorney. Upon receiving the funds, he led Kelly to what he claimed to be the location of Natalee Holloway’s remains but later confessed that the information was “worthless.”
The enduring mystery harks back to 18 years ago when the teenager was last seen leaving a nightclub in Aruba. Soon after her disappearance, Aruba police apprehended and freed Van der Sloot and brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe several times in 2005 and 2007. The trio’s attorneys insisted on their guiltlessness during the entire investigation period. However, the Aruban Public Prosecutor’s Office dismissed the charges against them citing inadequate evidence in 2007. In 2012, Holloway was legally declared dead by an Alabama judge.
