Crime
Natalee Holloway break: Email from Joran Van der Sloot says he rented boat and "took care of things"
Shortly after Holloway disappeared during a high school class graduation trip to the Caribbean island of Aruba, van der Sloot sent an email to someone named “David G,” alleging, “My dad got a boat two days later,” The Messenger reported Saturday
September 24, 2023 12:31pm
Updated: September 24, 2023 12:31pm
Joran van der Sloot, the prime suspect in the unsolved 2005 disappearance of Alabama high school grad Natalee Holloway, and his father purportedly rented a boat and “took care of things,” he wrote in a newly discovered email that was reportedly sent two days after the 18-year old vanished.
Shortly after Holloway disappeared during a high school class graduation trip to the Caribbean island of Aruba, van der Sloot sent an email to someone named “David G,” alleging, “My dad got a boat two days later,” The Messenger reported Saturday.
“We went for a ride and took care of things. That’s all I’m going to say,” the email purportedly reads.
Van der Sloot was extradited to the United States in June to face extortion and fraud charges tied to Holloway’s disappearance. The young, blonde beauty was last seen leaving an Aruba bar with the then 17-year old.
Van der Sloot, now 35 and the son of a local island judge, was quickly identified as a suspect in Holloway’s disappearance but was never charged with any crimes in connection with her death. The case swept national news in the U.S. where Americans became obsessed with finding the young Alabaman girl.
Van der Sloot has been serving time in a Peruvian prison for more than 10 years since pleading guilty to the May 2010 murder of another student, Stephany Flores, 21.
He was found guilty of strangling Flores at a Lima casino exactly five years after Holloway disappeared.
Since Holloway’s 2005 disappearance, Aruba officials have exhausted hundreds of leads and struggled to uncover the truth about the American girl’s disappearance, which caused a blow to island tourism.
Since the investigation began, the 35-year old suspect has confused investigators by continuously changing his stories and even eliciting false confessions, leaving police uncertain what to believe.
Van der Sloot’s has claimed he dumped Holloway’s body at sea on several occasions, a claim that resonated with investigators since they could never find her remains on land.
“It’s always seemed most likely that she was taken out on a boat,” one Aruba investigator told the Messenger on the condition of anonymity.
“But the key is figuring out who would have taken him out there to do it. He and his father didn’t have a boat of their own.”
While police hunting the killer have never been able to confirm van der Sloot’s confessions about throwing Holloway overboard at sea, van der Sloot also told Dutch journalists Patrick van der Eem and Peter De Vries in 2008 that Holloway died after having a seizure while the two were engaged in sexual relations.
He then told the reporters, who were wearing undercover cameras and recording devices, that after Holloway died, he called a friend named Daury who helped him transport her onto a boat to throw her corpse overboard.
Since then however, police have considered the story is just one more tall tale among many that van der has told, part of a collection of many false confessions and lies in what appear to be a constant attempt to confuse law enforcement and garner attention from the media.
In May 2010, van der Sloot told Beth Holloway’s lawyer, the girl’s mother’s counsel, he would lead the family to the site of her remains for a quarter million dollars.
After receiving a $25,000 deposit on the transaction, he backed out of his commitment, according to an indictment filed by the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama.
That failed promise however, gave U.S. prosecutors an opportunity to charge the young man and finally extradite him to the states.
In an email sent from the same account as the recent discovery, van der Sloot told someone he had made up the entire story.
The suspect Aruban is now facing charges from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for allegedly lying to Beth Holloway’s legal team in an attempt to extort money from her family.
Under the terms of a 2001 treaty between the U.S. and Peru, temporarily extradition is permissible so a suspect can face trial in the other country, and Van der Sloot will remain in the U.S. until the end of the American criminal proceedings, including any possible appeal.
A resolution published in Peru’s federal register indicates that the time van der Sloot serves in the U.S. “will be extended until the conclusion of the criminal proceedings,” including the appeal process, if there in one.
The resolution also says the U.S. agreed to return van der Sloot into Peruvian custody after proceedings were completed.
Holloway was declared legally dead in January 2012 although her disappearance has never been formerly resolved.