What did Joran van der Sloot say in his confession to killing Natalee Holloway?
Van der Sloot finally admitted killing Natalee Holloway in 2023, 18 years after she vanished in ArubaJoran van der Sloot finally confessed to killing Natalee Holloway in 2023, and his account is back in the spotlight after Netflix’s new documentary series, Taken: Natalee Holloway, revisited the case.
For 18 years, he denied any involvement in the 18-year-old’s disappearance in Aruba in 2005, before admitting he killed her in October 2023 as part of a plea deal in the US.
Warning: this article contains details of violence that some readers may find distressing.
What did Joran van der Sloot say in his confession?
Van der Sloot, now 39, gave his account to prosecutors while connected to a lie detector, as part of an agreement over extortion and wire fraud charges in Alabama.
According to a transcript obtained by ABC News, he said he had asked his friends to drop him and Natalee off away from her hotel so they could walk back along the beach, hoping he “might still get a chance to be with her”.
He said they kissed on the beach, but when Natalee told him to stop and he carried on, she kneed him. He admitted he then kicked her in the face and struck her with a cinder block.
Van der Sloot said he then carried Natalee into the sea and let her go. Her body has never been found.
In court, he told the judge: “I would like to say that I’m no longer that person I was back then.”
Why do some doubt Joran van der Sloot’s confession?
Van der Sloot changed his story about what happened to Natalee dozens of times over the years. In 2010, he tried to sell her family false information about where her body was, which led to the extortion charges he finally admitted in 2023.
In the Netflix series, retired FBI agent Michael Leverock, who carried out van der Sloot’s polygraph test, says he had doubts about his account. However, he notes that strong offshore winds in the area would have carried a body out to sea.
What did Natalee’s family say about the confession?
Natalee’s mother, Beth Holloway, confronted van der Sloot in court. “Joran, for 18 years you denied killing my daughter Natalee,” she told him, according to a court transcript obtained by Oxygen.
In the documentary, she describes hearing the confession: “Hard to hear, horrible to hear, but had to hear it. The not knowing is the most torturous part.”
Natalee’s father, Dave Holloway, said his daughter had “defended herself against his unwanted sexual advances”, describing van der Sloot as “evil personified”, NewsNation reported.
Why hasn’t Joran van der Sloot been charged over Natalee’s death?
Although he confessed, van der Sloot was sentenced in the US only for extortion and wire fraud, receiving 20 years to be served at the same time as his sentence in Peru for the 2010 murder of Stephany Flores Ramírez.
Because Natalee was killed in Aruba, US courts have no jurisdiction over her death, and Aruba’s 12-year time limit for prosecuting homicide has long passed. Aruban prosecutors have said the case remains an open investigation.
Beth has said she is working with Dutch lawyers on a murder complaint against van der Sloot, who is a Dutch citizen.
Where is van der Sloot now?
Van der Sloot remains in prison in Peru. Because Peruvian law caps prison sentences at 35 years, he is due to be released in 2045, when he is expected to be deported to the Netherlands.
All three episodes of Taken: Natalee Holloway are streaming now on Netflix.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI technology to synthesise source reporting and structured data. It has been reviewed, edited, and fact-checked by our human editorial team before publication.
