A Dutch man extradited to the United States, the main suspect in the 2005 murder of a young American woman on the Caribbean island of Aruba, has admitted to killing her and disappearing her body, we learned from reliable sources on Wednesday.
• Also read: Disappearance of a woman in Aruba: Suspect extradited to the USA
Joran van der Sloot, 36, was extradited in June from Peru, where he was serving a 28-year prison sentence for the 2010 murder of a young woman.
In the United States, Elizabeth Ann Holloway, mother of Natalee Holloway, who was 18 at the time of her disappearance in 2005 while vacationing on the Dutch island of Aruba, was charged with racketeering and fraud. He pleaded guilty to those counts Wednesday in federal court in Birmingham, Ala., Southeast.
He was sentenced to 20 years in prison “in exchange for his commitment to providing complete and accurate information about the disappearance of Natalee Holloway,” the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.
As part of the deal, he admitted killing the girl, whose body was never found, said the mother and federal prosecutor Prim Escalona.
“Today marks the end of 18 years of questions about what happened to Natalee Holloway,” the prosecutor told reporters after the hearing.
“I’m glad to know he made it. He acted alone and disposed of the body alone,” said Elizabeth Ann Holloway.
Joran van der Sloot admitted trying to extort $250,000 from the girl’s mother in 2010 in exchange for information about the whereabouts of her body and the circumstances of her death. But after receiving $25,100, he only provided information he later described as “worthless.”
Under the extradition agreement, he must be sent back to Peru to serve the remainder of his sentence until 2038 for the murder of Stephany Flores, a 21-year-old Peruvian woman he met at a casino.