Nancy Grace returns to Aruba in search for Natalee Holloway
Fox Nation host Nancy Grace joins 'America's Newsroom' to discuss her trip to Aruba and the search for answers on the mysterious 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway.
Joran van der Sloot, the 36-year-old Dutch killer and primary suspect in the 2005 disappearance and suspected murder of Alabama student Natalee Holloway, will be extradited from Peru to face justice in the U.S.
Years after the 18-year-old Holloway vanished in Aruba, van der Sloot murdered a 21-year-old Peruvian woman named Stephany Flores.
He was indicted on charges of extortion and wire fraud in a federal court in Alabama in 2010 after allegedly trying to squeeze cash out of Holloway’s family in exchange for the location of her remains.
Peru officials announced late Wednesday that they would temporarily transfer custody to the U.S.
NATALEE HOLLOWAY SUSPECT JORAN VAN DER SLOOT TO BE EXTRADITED TO US, BETH HOLLOWAY SAYS
Joran van der Sloot is the prime suspect in the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway. He is serving a prison sentence in Peru for murdering a 21-year-old woman named Stephany Flores in 2010. (Getty Images, AP)
Here’s a timeline of events:
May 2005: School trip and disappearance
Holloway, an 18-year-old from Mountain Brook, Alabama, a suburb of Birmingham, flew to Aruba with a large group of friends ahead of their high school graduation.
On May 30, some friends went out to a nightclub and met van der Sloot, also 18 at the time. He and Holloway were seen leaving the bar together.
Dutch citizen Joran van der Sloot walks inside the courtroom during the reading of his verdict, in the Lurigancho prison in Lima Jan. 13, 2012. Van der Sloot was sentenced to 28 years in prison by a Peruvian court for killing Stephany Flores in Lima in 2010, exactly five years after 18-year-old Alabama native Natalee Holloway disappeared on the island of Aruba after spending time with him. (REUTERS/Pilar Olivares )
Holloway failed to make her flight home.
The Dutch national and two of his friends, brothers Satish and Deepak Kalpoe, were early suspects.
Police arrested van der Sloot but eventually released him due to a lack of evidence. Police eyed the suspects again in 2007 after uncovering "new facts" but wound up releasing them once more.
Holloway’s remains were never found.
2010: Murder of Stephany Flores and U.S. indictment
Stephany Flores, 21, was a business student from a wealthy Peruvian family who crossed paths with van der Sloot on May 30, 2010 – five years to the day after Holloway's disappearance. She wound up dead for it.
Van der Sloot later claimed he killed her in a fit of anger after she learned about his connection to Holloway's disappearance. They had met earlier in her father's casino in Lima, and he beat her to death in his hotel room the following morning.
In June 2010, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Alabama announced an indictment on extortion and wire fraud charges against van der Sloot for allegedly trying to sell information about the whereabouts of her body to her family.
EXCLUSIVE: JORAN VAN DER SLOOT DISMISSES NEW WITNESS: ‘HE IS PLAYING WITH [FAMILY’S] PAIN
Beth Holloway fights back tears as she participates in the launch of the Natalie Holloway Resource Center on June 8, 2010 in Washington, D.C. The nonprofit resource center was founded by Holloway and the National Museum of Crime & Punishment and was created to assist families of missing persons. Beth Holloway's daughter Natalee is the Alabama teen who disappeared five years ago in Aruba. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
He wanted $250,000 – $25,000 up front and the rest upon the positive identification of her remains, court documents allege.
After receiving $10,000, according to prosecutors, he led the family's lawyer John Q. Kelly to a site he claimed Holloway's remains were buried.
He lied, according to the indictment. The body was not there and still has not been found.
Read the 2010 indictment (Mobile users go here)
2012: Guilty plea in Peru and Holloway declared dead
In January, van der Sloot pleaded guilty to Flores’ murder and received a 28-year prison sentence.
Peru authorities this week announced they would temporarily release him from custody to face charges in the U.S.
Edward Alvarez, lawyer of Stephany Flores' family, speaks during an audience at the prosecutor's headquarters in Lima Sept. 12, 2011. Alvarez reviewed during the audience the charges against Joran van der Sloot, a Dutch man linked to the disappearance of U.S. Natalee Holloway in Aruba in 2005 and who pleaded guilty in the murder of 21-year-old Stephany Flores in Peru in 2010. (REUTERS/Pilar Olivares)
In the same week of January, a judge also granted Holloway's father's request to declare her legally dead.
Dave Holloway wanted to halt payments on her health insurance and free up funds from her college savings account to use for her younger brother.
July 4, 2014: Van der Sloot ties the knot
In a ceremony held inside his prison in Peru, van der Sloot married Leidy Figueroa, who was 24 years old and seven months pregnant at the time.
He told her he wanted to marry her all over again once his sentence was up, The Associated Press reported at the time.
May 10, 2023: Extradition process begins
Holloway's mother, Beth Holloway, announced the extradition in a statement, and Peru officials later confirmed they had agreed to transfer him to U.S. custody temporarily to face justice.
"Almost exactly eighteen years later, her perpetrator, Joran van der Sloot, has been extradited to Birmingham to answer for his crimes," she said.
Gustavo Meza-Cuadra, Peru's ambassador to the U.S., said he hopes "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."
On Friday, May 12, van der Sloot’s defense lawyer Maximo Altez told Fox News Digital that he would fight extradition if his client wants him to, but he hadn't been able to speak with him yet.
Some of van der Sloot’s family, he said, believes the extradition may lead to an upgrade in his circumstances.
"The Challapalca prison is the worst prison in the world", Altez said of the maximum security prison where his client was being held. "Joran is in hell. He would go to a hell that is more comfortable."
May 25, 2023: Transfer from Challapalca
Van der Sloot is one step closer to U.S. extradition as Peruvian authorities move him from the remote, mountaintop Challapalca prison to another facility in Lima, closer to the airport from where he is expected to fly to American soil.
He is expected to undergo a series of medical evaluations, including a COVID-19 test, prior to his transfer to U.S. custody.
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Holloway would be 36 years old today.
Fox News' Adam Sabes, Louis Casiano and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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