Joran van der Sloot's confession in Natalee Holloway case provides long-sought answers, mother says
The chief suspect in the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway has admitted to killing her
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Beth Holloway was after one thing for 18 years: answers about what happened to her missing daughter.
She got them Wednesday when Joran van der Sloot, long considered the chief suspect in her daughter’s 2005 disappearance in Aruba, admitted in submitted court filings to bludgeoning Natalee Holloway to death on a beach and dragging her body out to sea.
Van der Sloot, 36, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to federal charges of attempting to extort money from Beth Holloway in 2010 in exchange for information about the location of her daughter's body. The plea agreement included an unusual provision for van der Sloot to “provide all information and evidence” about what happened to Natalee Holloway and to let her family hear him in “real time” give his account to federal investigators.
Beth Holloway said in an interview with The Associated Press that the family made the decision to allow the plea agreement to “finally get the answers we've been searching for for all these years."
