Holloway Murderer Confesses

Joran van der Sloot confessed to the 2005 murder of Natalee Holloway as part of a plea deal yesterday, which resolves a nearly two-decade saga. Van der Sloot was sentenced to 20 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to extortion and wire fraud and will serve it concurrently with a separate 28-year sentence he received in Peru.

Holloway disappeared in May 2005 while traveling with high school classmates to the south Caribbean island of Aruba (see timeline). Van der Sloot, a Dutch national, admitted earlier this month to bludgeoning Holloway with a brick after she refused his sexual advances, saying he then submerged her body in the ocean.

In 2010, a US jury indicted van der Sloot for attempting to extort $25K from Holloway’s mother by promising to disclose the location of her body, demanding an additional $225K after its discovery. He was extradited to the US from Peru in June to face trial.