Shivangi Sinha
In May 2005, when Natalee Holloway went missing during her vacation in Aruba, her friends immediately informed her family. Several witness accounts reported that she had allegedly last been seen with a local man named Joran van der Sloot. Still, he was never convicted in connection with Natalee’s disappearance. In 2010, he was arrested for the murder of a Peruvian student, Stephany Flores Ramírez, while the charges against him in the US also began gaining traction. Netflix’s ‘Taken: Natalee Holloway’ details the case and the pursuit of justice that lasted for many years.
Joran van der Sloot Was Identified as the Last Person to be Seen With Natalee Holloway
Joran Andreas Petrus van der Sloot was born on August 6, 1987, to Paulus van der Sloot and Anita van der Sloot-Hugen in Arnhem, Netherlands. When he was three years old, his family relocated to Aruba, where he grew up. His father worked as a lawyer, while his mother was an art teacher, providing him with a largely comfortable childhood. Joran attended the International School of Aruba, where he was an honors student and had a promising future ahead of him. He also developed an interest in sports, playing football and competing in school soccer. In fact, he even participated in doubles tennis with his father at the Moët & Chandon Anniversary Cup in 2005.
Alongside this, there was another side to Joran’s childhood. In a later interview, his mother said that he would often lie and allegedly sneak out to visit casinos and bars in Aruba. On the night of May 29, 2005, Natalee Holloway, an 18-year-old American high school student who was vacationing with her friends, was seen spending time with 17-year-old Joran at Carlos’n Charlie’s bar in downtown Oranjestad. Around 1 am on May 30, when the bar closed, her friends said in the episode that they allegedly saw her get into a car with Joran and two other men before driving away. Natalee was never seen or heard from again.
The search for Natalee began almost immediately the following morning/ Her mother, Beth Holloway, soon made her way to Aruba. Joran was arrested on June 9, 2005, and later that month, his father, Paulus, was also taken into custody for questioning in connection with the case. It was not until September 3, 2005, that Joran was released due to a lack of evidence against him. Just two days later, on September 5, he returned to the Netherlands to study at HAN University of Applied Sciences. However, speculation surrounding his involvement and Natalee’s family’s accusations against him kept his name in the public eye. In late September 2005, he gave an interview to A Current Affair, during which he claimed that he had allegedly left Natalee alone at the beach at her request and knew nothing more about what had happened to her.
Joran van der Sloot Was Arrested After Another Killing in Peru
In February 2006, Natalee Holloway’s parents filed a civil lawsuit against Joran van der Sloot, alleging personal injury, although the case was later dismissed. In April 2007, he published a Dutch book titled ‘De zaak Natalee Holloway: mijn eigen verhaal over haar verdwijning op Aruba’ (‘The Case of Natalee Holloway: My Own Story About Her Disappearance in Aruba’), written with reporter Zvezdana Vukojevic. In November that year, Joran was called back to Aruba and arrested on suspicion of involvement in manslaughter and causing serious bodily harm resulting in Natalee’s death, after a search warrant had been executed at his parents’ house. However, he was released for the second time in early December.
Over the following years, Joran continued to make media appearances, creating considerable controversy as he offered differing accounts of Natalee’s disappearance and subsequently retracted several of his statements. In August 2009, Joran was spotted in Macau participating in the Asia Pacific Poker Tour. He also ran a YouTube channel on which he described himself as a professional poker player. Following his father’s death in early 2010, Joran moved back to Aruba from Thailand, where he reportedly owned a restaurant. In March 2010, he contacted Beth Holloway’s attorney and demanded $250,000 in exchange for revealing the location of Natalee’s remains. The matter was reported to the authorities, and the FBI, along with Aruban officials, decided to conduct a sting operation during the exchange.
Joran falsely claimed that Natalee’s remains were buried beneath the foundation of a house. However, investigators discovered that the information was fabricated, and he was subsequently charged with extortion and wire fraud. In May 2010, he traveled to Peru from Colombia, claiming that he had a poker game to attend. When the remains of 21-year-old Stephany Flores Ramírez were discovered at the Hotel Tac in Lima on June 2, 2010, the investigation soon led to him. Stephany had been seen entering a hotel room with Joran, while surveillance footage showed him leaving alone. Shortly afterward, he was arrested near Curacaví, Chile, and sent back to Peru. During police questioning, Joran confessed that he had struck Stephany after finding her using his laptop. He later attempted to retract his confession, claiming that authorities had allegedly forced him to make it. However, the judge accepted his confession as evidence during the trial.
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Joran van der Sloot is Serving His Sentence in Peru Today
In January 2012, Joran van der Sloot pleaded guilty to qualified murder and simple robbery. He was sentenced to 28 years in prison and ordered to pay $75,000 in compensation to the Flores family. In July 2014, he married Leidy Figueroa, whom he had met when she was selling goods inside the prison. The couple welcomed a daughter in September 2014. However, his time behind bars brought further legal troubles. In February 2021, he was convicted of drug trafficking, resulting in an additional 18 years being added to his sentence. Under Peruvian law, the maximum prison term was capped at 35 years, making him eligible for release in 2045. He also began a relationship with Eva Pacohuanaco while behind bars and, by 2023, had reportedly divorced Leidy.
The US authorities eventually succeeded in extraditing Joran in June 2023. Since Natalee’s remains had never been found and there was insufficient evidence to charge him directly with her murder, he faced one count of extortion and one count of wire fraud in connection with his dealings with Beth Holloway. He initially pleaded not guilty to both charges. However, as part of a plea agreement, Joran submitted a proffer letter in October 2023. A proffer letter is a written account in which a defendant provides information about a case to prosecutors as part of plea negotiations. In his statement, Joran admitted that he had struck Natalee in the head with a cinder block while they were on the beach and subsequently disposed of her remains in the ocean. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison for extortion, with the sentence to run concurrently with his existing Peruvian sentence. He has not been charged with Natalee Holloway’s killing.
In November 2023, Joran returned to Peru to continue serving his sentence behind bars. According to news reports, in December 2025, he was reportedly found hanging from a strip of blanket inside his cell at Challapalca Prison. He was subsequently treated and reported to be in stable condition. In an interview with a Peruvian news channel, he said that he no longer wanted to live, as he had no access to his family. In August 2026, he petitioned to be transferred to another Peruvian prison, claiming that fellow inmates had allegedly threatened to kill him and his family. Joran remains incarcerated at Challapalca Prison in Peru and is scheduled for release in 2045.
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