The U.S attorney’s decision to broker a plea agreement with Joran van der Sloot on charges of extortion and wire fraud proved instrumental in securing his confession for the 2005 murder of Natalee Holloway in Aruba. While the possibility of prosecuting him for the killing of the Alabama teen remains uncertain, the concession has provided pivotal closure for the deceased’s family.
Van der Sloot, 36, publicly acknowledged his guilt a short while after pleading guilty in a federal court on Wednesday. His admission came as part of a nefarious scheme to extort and defraud the Holloway family, trading knowledge on the final resting place of her remains for an alleged $250,000.
“The difficult years of doubt are behind us. Joran van der Sloot’s status has shifted from suspect to killer in the murder of my daughter,” stated Beth Holloway on Wednesday.
However, whether van der Sloot, a Dutch citizen, will face prosecution for the murder remains to be seen. The 12-year statute of limitations for homicide in Aruba has passed. The U.S, which does not impose a statute of limitations for such crimes, lacks jurisdiction over the investigation in the Caribbean nation.
A representative for the Aruba Public Prosecutor’s Office suggested to CNN on Thursday that further legal action against van der Sloot, post-confession, could be on the horizon. The possibility hinges on the contents of official court and investigative documents requested from the U.S Department of Justice by Aruban authorities, which will determine the path forward.
The American plea bargain required van der Sloot to disclose all information he possessed about Holloway’s vanishing, a process known as a proffer or the concession of crime knowledge by a defendant.
“It appears that the confession may have been part of the plea arrangement, aimed at resolving uncertainties for the victim’s family,” commented Ben Grunwald, a Professor at Duke University’s School of Law.
The resulting plea agreement decreed that van der Sloot would serve his 20-year sentence for extortion and wire fraud concurrently with his existing 28-year sentence in Peru for the 2010 murder of Stephany Flores. In June, Peruvian officials released him temporarily to his extortion and wire fraud trial in the U.S.
As part of customary plea bargaining procedures, defendants receive a quid pro quo for admitting guilt. Grunwald supposes that in the case of van der Sloot, receiving a concurrent sentence, instead of a consecutive one, was his reward for confession.
Convictions against van der Sloot for cocaine trafficking in 2021, leading to an additional 18 years in Peru are also accounted for. However, with Peruvian laws capping the prison term at 35 years, van der Sloot’s release is due in 2045, making a return to the U.S for serving the federal charges unlikely. He would likely be deported to his home nation of the Netherlands upon his release.
Holloway’s disappearance during a high school graduation visit to Aruba in May 2005 triggered the manhunt for van der Sloot. After numerous arrests and releases, the cases against van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers, Deepak and Satish, for Holloway’s disappearance were dropped in 2007 due to insufficient evidence.
Sixteen years later, a confession documents van der Sloot admitting to assaulting Holloway after being kneed in the groin by her, leading to her demise and her subsequent disposal in the ocean.
Holloway was declared legally dead in 2012, her remains never found. His confession to the crimes was acknowledged and lauded by prosecutors as instrumental in granting closure to the Holloway family, a sentiment that was shared during his recent plea deal sentence hearing in the U.S District Court.
While prosecutors may have considered sparing Holloway’s family from reliving her death in court during a trial, the plea deal may have also been borne out of the magnitude of evidence against van der Sloot. It could have posed a looming threat of a severe prison sentence if he chose to contest the extortion and fraud charges, speculated Hermann Walz, an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Reflecting on the court’s decision, Walz noted, “The concession provides much-needed knowledge and closure for the Holloway family. That is the aspect that often matters the most to the victims’ families. Now, they have it.”
