The Dutch suspect in the 2005 disappearance of 18-year-old Natalee Holloway will be extradited to the United States from Peru, the Associated Press reported this week.
In 2005, Holloway, who was from Alabama, disappeared on the Dutch Caribbean Island of Aruba on her senior trip, which began on May 26, 2005. Holloway was scheduled to leave the island on May 30, 2005, but did not show up for her flight. On the last night of the trip, Holloway and friends went to a nightclub on the island. She then went with classmates to bars in the area and was last seen at 1:30 a.m. leaving in a car with three males, one of them being Joran van der Sloot, who lived on the island, according to the FBI.
Van der Sloot, who was 18 years old in 2005, was the last person to see Holloway before she vanished. Her disappearance remained unsolved, and she was declared legally dead by a judge in 2012.
CBS News noted that van der Sloot has been indicted in the United States on federal charges of extortion and wire fraud in a plot to sell information about Holloway’s remains in exchange for $250,000.
In 2012, van der Sloot was convicted of murdering Stephany Flores, a 21-year-old, in a hotel in Lima, Peru. Previously, he had fled to Chile and was arrested and extradited to Peru during the investigation for her murder, according to CNN. He is serving a 28-year prison sentence for her murder.
The Peruvian attorney general’s office said in a statement to CBS that van der Sloot will be temporarily handed to U.S. authorities for prosecution and will return to Peru “immediately following the proceedings.”
"We hope that this action will enable a process that will help to bring peace to Mrs. Holloway and to her family, who are grieving in the same way that the Flores family in Peru is grieving for the loss of their daughter, Stephany," Gustavo Meza-Cuadra, Peru's ambassador to the U.S., said in a statement.
In a statement, Beth Holloway, who is Natalee Holloway’s mother, said her daughter was “abducted and murdered” on her senior trip.
Some good news in the Natalee Holloway case! Joran Van Der Sloot will be extradited to the United States to face charges related to her disappearance. Here’s a statement from her mother Beth Holloway.
— Kendall Rae (@KendallRaeOnYT) May 11, 2023
As of now the changes he’s facing are related to an alleged attempt to extort… pic.twitter.com/G2O0QNkZBB
“[Natalee’s] perpetrator, Joran van der Sloot, has been extradited to Birmingham to answer for his crimes,” Beth Holloway said in the statement. “It has been a very long and painful journey, but the persistence of many is going to pay off. Together, we are finally getting justice for Natalee.”