Natalee Holloway, suspect Joran van der Sloot: timeline of the death of an Alabama teenager
Joran van der Sloot, the 36-year-old Dutch murderer and prime suspect in 2005 Disappeared and alleged murder Alabama-born college student Natalee Holloway is extradited from Peru to face trial in the United States
Years after 18-year-old Holloway disappeared in Aruba, van der Sloot murdered a 21-year-old Peruvian woman named Stephany Flores.
He was charged in 2010 in federal court in Alabama with racketeering and wire fraud after allegedly attempting to extort cash from Holloway’s family in exchange for the whereabouts of their remains.
Peruvian officials announced late Wednesday that they would temporarily transfer custody to the United States
NATALEE HOLLOWAY SUSPECTS OF EXHIBITING JORAN VAN DER SLOOT TO US, SAYS BETH HOLLOWAY
Joran van der Sloot is the prime suspect in the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway. He is serving a prison sentence in Peru for the 2010 murder of a 21-year-old woman named Stephany Flores. (Getty Images, AP)
Here is a timeline of events:
May 2005: School trip and disappearance
Holloway, an 18-year-old from Mountain Brook, Alabamaa suburb of Birmingham, flew to Aruba with a large group of friends before graduating from high school.
On May 30, some friends went to a nightclub and met van der Sloot, who was also 18 at the time. He and Holloway were seen leaving the bar together.
Dutch citizen Joran van der Sloot enters the courtroom during the reading of his sentence at Lurigancho prison in Lima January 13, 2012. Van der Sloot was sentenced to 28 years in prison by a Peruvian court for killing Stephany Flores in Lima in 2010 , exactly five years after 18-year-old Alabama native Natalee Holloway disappeared on the island of Aruba after spending time with her. (REUTERS/Pilar Olivares)
Holloway didn’t manage to fly home.
The Dutch national and two of his friends, brothers Satish and Deepak Kalpoe, were the first suspects.
Police arrested van der Sloot but eventually released him for lack of evidence. After the police unearthed “new facts” in 2007, they re-examined the suspects, but came to a conclusion to release them once more.
Holloway’s remains have never been found.
2010: Stephany Flores murder and US indictment
Stephany Flores, 21, was an economics student from a wealthy Peruvian family who crossed paths with van der Sloot on May 30, 2010, exactly five years to the day after Holloway’s disappearance. She died for it.
Van der Sloot later claimed that he killed her in a fit of rage after she learned of his connection to Holloway’s disappearance. They had previously met at her father’s casino in Lima and he had beaten her to death in his hotel room the next morning.
In June 2010, the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Alabama announced racketeering and wire fraud charges against van der Sloot for allegedly attempting to sell information about the whereabouts of her body to her family.
EXCLUSIVE: JORAN VAN DER SLOOT INCLUDES NEW WITNESS: “HE’S IN THE PLAY.” [FAMILY’S] PAIN
Beth Holloway fights back tears as she attends the grand opening of the Natalie Holloway Resource Center June 8, 2010 in Washington, DC. Founded by Holloway and the National Museum of Crime & Punishment, the nonprofit resource center aims to help families of missing people. Beth Holloway’s daughter Natalee is the Alabama teenager who disappeared in Aruba five years ago. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
He wanted $250,000 to $25,000 as an upfront payment and the rest after positively identifying her remains, court documents said.
After receiving $10,000, according to prosecutors, he led family attorney John Q. Kelly to a location where he claimed Holloway’s remains were buried.
According to the indictment, he lied. The body wasn’t there and still hasn’t been found.
Read the 2010 indictment (Mobile users go Here)
2012: Guilty pleaded in Peru and Holloway left for dead
In January, van der Sloot pleaded guilty Flores’ murder and received a 28-year sentence.
Peruvian authorities announced this week that they would be releasing him temporarily to face charges in the United States
Edward Alvarez, lawyer for Stephany Flores’ family, speaks during an audience at the Prosecutor’s Office headquarters in Lima September 12, 2011. Alvarez during the audience discussed the charges against Joran van der Sloot, a Dutchman linked to the disappearance of the American woman Natalee Holloway in Aruba in 2005 and who pleaded guilty to the 2010 murder of 21-year-old Stephany Flores in Peru. (REUTERS/Pilar Olivares)
That same week in January, a judge also granted Holloway’s father’s motion to have her pronounced dead.
Dave Holloway wanted to stop paying her health insurance and release funds from her college savings account for her younger brother.
July 4, 2014: Van der Sloot ties the knot
In a ceremony at his prison in Peru, van der Sloot married 24-year-old Leidy Figueroa, who was seven months pregnant.
He told her he wanted to remarry her after his sentence ended, The Associated Press reported at the time.
May 10, 2023: Extradition proceedings begin
Holloway’s mother, Beth Holloway, announced the extradition in a statement, and Peruvian officials later confirmed they had approved his transfer in US custody temporarily brought to justice.
“Almost exactly eighteen years later, her perpetrator, Joran van der Sloot, was extradited to Birmingham to stand trial for his crimes,” she said.
Gustavo Meza-Cuadra, Peru’s Ambassador to the United States, said he hopes “this action will enable a process that will help bring peace to Mrs. Holloway and her family, who are grieving as much as the Flores family in Peru are grieving loss of her daughter.
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Van der Sloot’s defense attorney Maximo Altez told The Associated Press on Wednesday he plans to fight extradition.
Holloway would be 36 years old today.
Fox News’ Louis Casiano and The Associated Press contributed to this report.