Former FBI Assistant Director Tom Fuentes discusses developments in the charges against Joran van der Sloot in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway. Van der Sloot, the prime suspect in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, is expected to take a plea deal after being charged in an extortion plot involving the Holloway family.
Natalee Holloway, an 18-year-old student from Mountain Brook High School, went missing during a senior trip to Aruba in May 2005. She was last seen leaving a bar with van der Sloot, but her body was never found. In January 2012, a judge legally declared Natalee Holloway dead.
Van der Sloot is now facing charges of extortion and wire fraud in the U.S. for allegedly attempting to sell information about the location of Natalee Holloway’s body to her mother, Beth Holloway. The plea deal is conditioned on van der Sloot revealing details about how Natalee Holloway died and what happened to her body.
According to Beth Holloway’s lawyer, John Q. Kelly, the search for Natalee Holloway’s body is over. A plea and sentencing hearing is scheduled for van der Sloot in a Birmingham, Alabama, federal courtroom. Federal prosecutors claim that van der Sloot tried to extort $250,000 from the Holloway family, with $25,000 upfront for the information and the rest to be paid once Natalee Holloway’s body was positively identified.
However, van der Sloot lied to Beth Holloway about the location of her daughter’s remains, according to U.S. prosecutors. The alleged extortion scheme took place between March 29, 2010, and May 17, 2010. Van der Sloot pleaded not guilty to the charges after a June hearing when he was temporarily transferred from Peru to the United States.
After the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, van der Sloot traveled to Peru where he met and killed Stephany Flores, 21, in a fit of anger after she discovered his connection to Natalee’s disappearance. He was sentenced to 28 years in prison for Flores’ murder, and more time was added due to his involvement in a drug smuggling scandal while behind bars.
Once van der Sloot’s federal case concludes, he will return to Peru to serve the remainder of his sentence for Flores’ murder. If convicted in the U.S. case, he will then be transferred to an American prison.
Beth Holloway is expected to give a statement following the plea and sentencing hearing. The developments in the case bring some closure to the Holloway family who have been seeking answers for Natalee’s disappearance for over a decade.
