Confession After 18 Years: Natalee Holloway’s Killer Speaks

(HorizonPost.com) – Joran van der Sloot, the convicted murderer long suspected in the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway, pleaded guilty last week to extortion in connection to the 18-year-old college student’s disappearance and, as part of his plea, provided details of her murder, ABC News reported.

Van der Sloot, 36, who was convicted in 2012 and sentenced to 28 years in a Peru prison for the murder of Stephany Flores Ramirez in 2010, was extradited to the United States in June to face federal extortion charges.

As part of his plea deal in the case, van der Sloot agreed to provide a written statement on Holloway’s death to her mother Beth Holloway.

In the written transcript from his proffer meeting with prosecutors in early October, van der Sloot revealed that he murdered Natalee on an Aruba beach after she spurned his advances, striking her in the face with a cinderblock and dumping her in the ocean.

According to his account, after Natalee rebuffed his advances, she kicked van der Sloot in the crotch, prompting him to kick her in the face, knocking her unconscious. He then found a cinderblock on the beach and beat her to death.

Van der Sloot then carried Natalee’s body into the ocean and dumped her in the water.

Speaking in court, Natalee’s mother Beth Holloway expressed her frustration that her daughter’s killer will never be tried and convicted for her death. She asked the court to give van der Sloot the “maximum sentence possible.”

Van der Sloot offered an apology to both the Holloway family and his own and said he hoped knowing the details of her death would bring “some kind of closure.” The convicted murderer told the court that he had changed, claiming that he had given his “heart to Jesus.”

In accepting van der Sloot’s plea, the judge said while he murdered two women who refused his sexual advances, van der Sloot’s written confession could not be used against him.

Van der Sloot was sentenced to 20 years, to run concurrently with his sentence from Peru. The judge also ordered van der Sloot to pay restitution to Beth Holloway.

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