Natalee Holloway, Joran Van der Sloot.Photo:AP; AP/Peter Dejong
AP; AP/Peter Dejong
Nearly two decades afterNatalee Holloway’sdisappearance, the man long-connected to the high schooler’sunsolved caseis expected to go in front of an American court and plead guilty —to extortion, a lawyer for Natalee’s mother tells PEOPLE.
Joran van der Sloot– now 36 and serving a28-year murder sentencein Peru after confessing to the killing of another student,Stephany Flores Ramírez– wasextradited to Alabamain June to faceone count of extortion and one count of wire fraudin connection with Natalee’s case.
Natalee and Beth Holloway.Courtesy of Beth Twitty
Courtesy of Beth Twitty
John Q. Kelly, a lawyer for Beth, tells PEOPLE that van der Sloot is expected to plead guilty in the case and that as part of the plea agreement federal prosecutors struck, van der Sloot agreed to disclose details of Natalee’s death — perhaps finally providing Beth with the answers she has sought since losing her only daughter. (Boththe APandThe New York Timesreport the expected plea deal.)
Beth Holloway.Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
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 violence.
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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. He would then return to the United States to serve time for his extortion conviction.
source: people.com
