Natalee Holloway Suspect ‘Took Care of Things’ After Disappearance

Posted on: September 26, 2023, 08:58h. 

Last updated on: September 26, 2023, 02:38h.

Philip Conneller @casinoorgphilc Read More
Expertise: Gaming Business, Regulation, Tribal Gaming.

Dutch national Joran van der Sloot, the one-time poker player and the prime suspect in the disappearance of American Natalee Holloway, once made a startling “confession” to a friend, new court filings show.

Joran van der Sloot, Natalee Holloway
Natalee Holloway, left, and Joran van der Sloot, the former poker player who has long been suspected of involvement in her disappearance. (Image: E! Online)

Two days after Holloway went missing on the island of Aruba in May 2005, van der Sloot and his father got hold of a boat.

We went for a ride and took care of things. That’s all I’m going to say,” he wrote in an email to someone called “David G” in 2010.

Holloway, of Mountain Brook, Ala., was 18 when she disappeared on a senior class trip to Aruba, and van der Sloot, also 18 then, was the last person to see her alive.

Stephany Flores Murder

On May 30, 2010, five years to the day after Holloway’s disappearance, van der Sloot bludgeoned Peruvian national Stephany Flores to death after meeting her at a card table at the Atlantic City Casino in Lima.

The Dutchman has never been charged in the Holloway case, and a body has never been found. Holloway was declared dead by a U.S. judge in January 2012.

Also, in January 2012, a Peruvian judge sentenced van der Sloot to 28 years in prison for the Flores murder. He was extradited to the U.S. in May 2023 to answer federal extortion charges. Prosecutors in Birmingham, Ala. allege van der Sloot contacted Holloway’s mother, Beth Holloway, and offered to reveal the whereabouts of her daughter’s body in return for an advance of $25K against a total of $250K.

The advance was paid, but van der Sloot provided false information. He claimed the body was buried in the foundations of a house in Aruba, which authorities discovered did not exist at the time of her disappearance.

The email to “David G.” which was first reported by The Messenger, was uncovered by federal prosecutors in Alabama.

Prior ‘Confessions’

Van der Sloot has appeared to admit to involvement in Holloway’s disappearance on two occasions to different undercover journalists. However, some details were contradictory, and these admissions are deemed inadmissible as evidence.

On one occasion, he said Holloway’s body had been loaded onto a boat and dumped at sea. In another, he claimed it was buried on a construction site.

Van der Sloot and his father, who died recently, did not own a boat, and investigators have been unable to discover who might have loaned them one.

The Dutchman has pleaded not guilty to the extortion charges. His trial is scheduled to start in November.