Aruba investigators have cast doubt on the truth of Natalie Holloway’s killer’s chilling confession, saying there are some details that “don’t add up.”
Prosecutors said Joran Van der Sloot’s admission about killing the high school senior in 2005 contained contradictions that didn’t “make sense.”
Van der Sloot, 36, confessed as part of a plea deal in which he pleaded guilty to racketeering and wire fraud after attempting to extort money from Holloway’s parents in exchange for information about her remains.
The Dutch national told how he beat 18-year-old Holloway to death with a concrete block and threw her body into the sea after she rejected his sexual advances.
But now prosecutors have poked holes in his report, pointing out that the geographic location of the Aruba beach where the murder took place would normally mean her body would have washed up again.
Investigators into Natalee Holloway’s disappearance in Aruba have questioned the confession of her killer, Joran Van der Sloot
Joran van der Sloot eventually confessed to killing Natalee Holloway in 2005 after they met in a bar in Aruba as part of a plea deal to wire fraud and extortion after he tried to extort $250,000 from her family for information about their whereabouts
“It is true that there is a reef that normally prevents things from being washed into the sea,” the investigator told the Messenger.
“It’s about 30 meters offshore.” You have to walk past it to make sure nothing washes back onto the beach. But he says he didn’t do that.’
Van der Sloot described with sickening indifference how he plunged into Holloway’s face before wading up to her knees and pushing her body out into the sea.
Despite an extensive search the day after Holloway’s disappearance, police did not find the murder weapon or any remains.
“We didn’t see any blockage,” the investigator added. “No blood and nothing to make us think she died like that there.”
Van der Sloot, who admitted to being treated for “sociopathic tendencies,” was required to reveal everything he knew about the murder as part of the plea deal.
The US authorities also subjected him to a lie detector test, which he passed “with flying colors”.
But his statement contradicts a statement he made to a friend via email in 2010, in which he claimed his father rented a boat two days after the murder to “take care of things.” suggesting that the body was hidden before being dumped further out to sea.
Investigators questioned the killer’s account of how he beat Holloway to death and dumped her body into the sea, saying the murder weapon was never found and they would have expected the body to wash up
Van der Sloot confessed to the murder while serving another 28-year sentence for the brutal murder of another student, 21-year-old Stephany Flores Ramirez, whom he attacked in Peru five years after Holloway’s murder
Beth Holloway said Van der Sloot’s confession meant the family had “finally reached the end of this never-ending nightmare.”
His confession ended years of torment for the Holloway family, who have been searching for answers since their disappearance on May 30, 2005.
A judge declared her dead, but her body was never found.
The teen’s mother, Beth Holloway, described the great relief the family felt after Van der Sloot was sentenced in an Alabama court to 20 years in prison for his racketeering crimes.
“This confession means we have finally reached the end of this never-ending nightmare,” she said outside the courthouse.
The killer became trapped after attempting to extort $250,000 from Holloway’s mother, Beth Holloway, in exchange for information about her remains.
Van der Sloot was extradited for the hearing from Peru, where he is already serving a 28-year prison sentence for the 2010 murder of 21-year-old student Stephy Flores.
The Lima student’s murder occurred five years exactly after Holloway’s murder.
Van der Sloot will serve his second sentence in the same prison where he is currently being held, but technically he does no time for the murder.
Despite doubts about the veracity of his confession, the murder in Aruba has now exceeded the statute of limitations, meaning Van der Sloot can be charged again.
“There are some things that don’t make sense,” the investigator said, “it just doesn’t add up.”
“There’s nothing left to do, but I’ll still wonder.”
Van der Sloot’s full confession
She asked to go back to her hotel, but I just wanted to be dropped off a little further away from her hotel so we could go back and maybe I could still get a chance to be with her.
That’s what I hoped for.
Deepak drops me off at another location, a little to the right of the Marriott Hotel, known as The Fisherman’s Huts. This place isn’t far away, you know, the closest hotel is the Marriott, and the next hotel after that is another Marriott, which is a timeshare. And then it’s the Holiday Inn. We walk along the beach.
Deepak and Satish leave. They return to their homeland, assuming that they are returning to their homeland. They get in their car and drive off. I’m actually with Natalee, walking along the beach. I find a place before we get to the Marriott Hotel where I lay her down, we lie down on the sand together and start kissing. I make her kiss me again and we start kissing.
I start feeling her up again and she says no. She tells me she doesn’t want me to touch her. I insist. I continue to feel them one way or another. In the end she kneed me in the crotch. As she kneed me in the crotch, I stood up and kicked her extremely hard in the face.
She lies there unconscious, possibly even dead, but definitely unconscious. And I see a huge concrete block lying on the beach right next to her.
I take that and completely smash her head in with it. Her face practically collapsed. Even though it’s dark, I can see that her face has collapsed.
After that I don’t know for sure, I’m scared. I do not know what to do. I decide to throw them into the sea. So I grab her and half pull with her, half run with her into the sea. I push her away. I go into the sea up to my knees and push her into the sea. Then I get out. I walk home.