Just Now: Natalee Holloway Suspect Joran van der Sloot Arrives Back in US in FBI Custody
Joran van der Sloot has arrived back in the US from Peru today, his plane touching down in Birmingham, Alabama,
Ivy Griffith
Joran van der Sloot has arrived back in the US from Peru today, his plane touching down in Birmingham, Alabama, on Thursday afternoon.
Van der Sloot is the prime suspect in the disappearance of Alabama teen Holloway, but Holloway’s mother is the reason the Dutch national has returned.
Holloway was last seen with van der Sloot and two others 18 years ago in Aruba, but she disappeared without a trace. Van der Sloot and two brothers, Deepak and Satish Kalpoe, were arrested and released multiple times between 2005 and 2007. All three maintained their innocence and in 2007, the Aruban Public Prosecutor’s Office announced that no charges would be filed due to a lack of evidence.
CNN reports, “He was indicted in 2010 on US federal charges of extortion and wire fraud in connection with a plot to sell information about the whereabouts of Holloway’s remains in exchange for $250,000, according to an indictment filed in the Northern District of Alabama.
The missing 18-year-old’s mother, Beth Holloway, wired $15,000 to a bank account van der Sloot held in the Netherlands and through an attorney gave him another $10,000 in person, the indictment states. Once he had the initial $25,000, van der Sloot showed the attorney, John Kelly, where Natalee Holloway’s remains allegedly were hidden, but the information turned out to be false, the indictment states.
US Goverment G5 carrying Joran van der Sloot arrives in Birmingham, Alabama where he will face extortion charges #natalieholloway pic.twitter.com/SWODKJLTW6
— Janet Shamlian (@JanetShamlian) June 8, 2023
Holloway’s remains have never been found and in 2012, a judge in Alabama signed an order that declared her legally dead.”
Van der Sloot was imprisoned in Peru for the murder of a different woman, and FBI agents flew there on Wednesday. Van der Sloot was convicted in 2012 of murdering Stephany Flores (21) in his Lima hotel room. Van der Sloot was sentenced to 28 years in prison.
Peru had initially agreed to extradite van der Sloot to the US to face the extortion charges only after he served his murder sentence. However; last month, the country changed its mind and officials agreed to temporarily transfer him to face the US charges.
After he stands trial for the extortion, the plan is that van der Sloot would be returned to Peru.
On Wednesday with the arrival of US agents, a superior court in Lima, Peru, ordered that van der Sloot be transferred over to custody of the FBI agents.
Justice Minister Daniel Maurate said in a statement that Peru agreed to the “temporary relocation to the United States, because he is condemned here and he must serve his sentence here. But since the US needs him in order to face trial, and the authorities told us that if he didn’t get there sooner, the case against him could be dropped because the witnesses are elderly.”
Maurate’s statement continues, “With this resolution, the Judge has completed procedures for the transfer (passive extradition) of Joran Van Der Sloot, who will be prosecuted in the United States of America for the alleged crimes of extortion and fraud against Elizabeth Ann Holloway.”
Van der Sloot has long been the target of conspiracy theories and true crime addicts. But so far, he’s managed to dodged any accountability for what he may have contributed to Holloway’s heartbreaking disappearance.