Global Courant 2023-05-13 21:33:34
Joran van der Sloot, the 36-year-old Dutch murderer and prime suspect in the 2005 disappearance and presumed murder of Alabama student Natalee Holloway, will be extradited from Peru to face trial in the US.
Years after 18-year-old Holloway disappeared in Aruba, Van der Sloot murdered a 21-year-old Peruvian woman named Stephany Flores.
He was indicted on racketeering and fraud charges through a federal court in Alabama in 2010 after allegedly attempting to extort money from Holloway’s family in exchange for the location of her remains.
Peruvian officials announced late Wednesday that they would temporarily transfer custody to the US
NATALEE HOLLOWAY SUSPECTS JORAN VAN DER SLOT TO BE SUPPLIED TO US, SAYS BETH HOLLOWAY
Joran van der Sloot is the prime suspect in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway in 2005. 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’s a timeline of events:
May 2005: School trip and disappearance
Holloway, an 18-year-old boy from Mountain Brook, Alabama, a suburb of Birmingham, flew to Aruba with a large group of friends before they graduated from high school.
On May 30, some friends went to a nightclub and met Van der Sloot, also 18 at the time. He and Holloway were seen leaving the bar together.
Dutch Joran van der Sloot walks into the courtroom during the reading of his sentence at Lurigancho Prison in Lima on January 13, 2012. Van der Sloot was sentenced to 28 years in prison by a Peruvian court for the murder of 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 him. (REUTERS/Pilar Olivares)
Holloway didn’t make her flight home.
The Dutchman and two of his friends, brothers Satish and Deepak Kalpoe, were early suspects.
The police arrested Van der Sloot, but eventually released him due to lack of evidence. Police re-examined the suspects in 2007 after discovering “new facts”, but eventually released them.
Holloway’s remains have never been found.
2010: Murder of Stephany Flores and US indictment
Stephany Flores, 21, was a business student from a wealthy Peruvian family who crossed paths with Van der Sloot on May 30, 2010 — the day five years after Holloway’s disappearance. She ended up dead 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 beat her to death in his hotel room the next morning.
In June 2010, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama announced an indictment of racketeering and wire fraud charges against Van der Sloot for allegedly attempting to sell information about her body’s whereabouts to her family.
EXCLUSIVE: JORAN VAN DER SLOT REJECTS NEW WITNESS: ‘HE PLAYS WITH (FAMILY) PAIN’
Beth Holloway fights back tears as she participates in the launch of the Natalie Holloway Resource Center on June 8, 2010 in Washington, DC. Founded by Holloway and the National Museum of Crime & Punishment, the non-profit information center was established to help families of missing persons. Natalee, the daughter of Beth Holloway, is the Alabama teenager who disappeared five years ago in Aruba. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
He wanted $250,000 – $25,000 in advance and the rest after the positive identification of her remains, court documents claim.
After receiving $10,000, according to prosecutors, he led family attorney John Q. Kelly to a site where he claimed Holloway’s remains were buried.
According to the indictment, he lied. The body was not there and has still not been found.
Read the 2010 indictment (mobile users go here)
2012: Guilty plea in Peru and Holloway declared dead
In January, Van der Sloot pleaded guilty to Flores’ murder and was sentenced to 28 years in prison.
Peruvian authorities announced this week that they would temporarily release him to face charges in the US
Edward Alvarez, attorney for Stephany Flores’ family, speaks during an audience at the prosecutor’s office in Lima on September 12, 2011. During the audience, Alvarez discussed the charges against Joran van der Sloot, a Dutch man associated with the disappearance of American 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)
The same week in January, a judge also granted Holloway’s father’s request that she be declared legally dead.
Dave Holloway wanted to stop paying her health insurance and free up money from her college savings account to use for her younger brother.
July 4, 2014: Van der Sloot gets married
In a ceremony at his prison in Peru, Van der Sloot married Leidy Figueroa, who was then 24 years old and seven months pregnant.
He told her he wanted to marry her again once his sentence was over, The Associated Press reported at the time.
May 10, 2023: Extradition process begins
Holloway’s mother, Beth Holloway, announced the extradition in a statement, and Peruvian officials later confirmed they had agreed to temporarily take him into US custody to face trial.
“Almost exactly eighteen years later, her perpetrator, Joran van der Sloot, was extradited to Birmingham to answer for his crimes,” she said.
Gustavo Meza-Cuadra, Peru’s ambassador to the US, said he hopes “this action will enable a process that will help bring peace to Ms. Holloway and her family, who are grieving in the same way as the Flores family in Peru. mourn the loss of their daughter.”
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On Friday, May 12, Van der Sloot’s attorney, Maximo Altez, told Fox News Digital that he would challenge the extradition if his client wanted to, but had not yet been able to speak to him.
Part of Van der Sloot’s family, he said, believes the extradition could lead to an improvement in his circumstances.
“Challapalca Prison is the worst prison in the world,” Altez said of the maximum security prison where his client was held. “Joran is in hell. He would go to a hell that is more comfortable.”
Holloway would have turned 36 today.
Louis Casiano of Fox News and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Michael Ruiz is a reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to [email protected] and on Twitter: @mikerreports
