Natalee Holloway’s mother Beth spoke about what happened to her daughter in a statement to law enforcement before her daughter’s killer Joran van der Sloot was sentenced in a separate trial. She gave the graphic account of what happened the night that Joran killed Natalee in a statement to police, according to her lawyer John Q. Kelly. The attorney shared the details of the night Natalee was killed in a statement to People.
As part of a plea deal, Joran, now 36, confessed to Beth, 63, that he had killed Natalee in May 2005. She was 18. Beth said that Joran had made sexual advances on Natalee in a bar in Aruba, but she declined. As he was angered by her denial, Joran smashed her head with a cinder block. He then threw her body into the ocean.
Joran had been a suspect in Natalee’s disappearance for nearly the entire investigation, but he had never been charged. The U.S. federal judge revealed that he had confessed to her murder in the trial, per CNN. “I have considered your confession to the brutal murder of Natalee Holloway,” he said.
In her victim impact statement, Beth spoke about how the murder hurt the family, and that she wanted to see her daughter’s killer face justice. “For 19 years you denied killing Natalee Holloway. Your lies have caused indiscernible pain,” she said. “I am hopeful that some small semblance of justice may finally be realized, even though no act of justice will heal the pain we’ve endured.”
Joran was found guilty of the 2010 murder of Stephany Tatiana Flores Ramíre. He was convicted in 2012 and sentenced to 28 years in prison. He’s expected to fly back to Peru to complete his sentence now that the U.S. trial has ended.
The charges in his current case were for convincing the Holloway family investigator to wire him $15,000 for him to tell them where Natalee’s remains were, but he lied. He used the money to flee to Peru. He was also charged with attempting to extort Beth for $250,000. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the crimes.
